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diff --git a/old/6706-h.htm.2021-01-27 b/old/6706-h.htm.2021-01-27 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..accbe6a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/6706-h.htm.2021-01-27 @@ -0,0 +1,15032 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Emancipation of Massachusetts the Dream and The Reality, by Brooks + Adams + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + .side { float: right; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; margin-left: 0.8em; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Emancipation of Massachusetts, by Brooks Adams + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Emancipation of Massachusetts + +Author: Brooks Adams + + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6706] +This file was first posted on January 17, 2003 +Last Updated: October 28, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS *** + + + + +Text file produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS<br /><br /> THE DREAM AND THE REALITY + </h1> + <h2> + By Brooks Adams + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION. + </h2> + <p> + I am under the deepest obligations to the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain and Mr. + Charles Deane. + </p> + <p> + The generosity of my friend Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing in putting at my + disposal the unpublished results of his researches among the Zuñis is in + keeping with the originality and power of his mind. Without his aid my + attempt would have been impossible. I have also to thank Prof. Henry C. + Chapman, J. A. Gordon, M. D., Prof. William James, and Alpheus Hyatt, + Esq., for the kindness with which they assisted me. I feel that any merit + this volume may possess is due to these gentlemen; its faults are all my + own. + </p> + <p> + BROOKS ADAMS. + </p> + <p> + QUINCY, <i>September</i> 17, 1886. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> <b>PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> <b>THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER I. — THE COMMONWEALTH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER II. — THE ANTINOMIANS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER III. — THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER IV. — THE ANABAPTISTS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER V. — THE QUAKERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER VI. — THE SCIRE FACIAS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER VII. — THE WITCHCRAFT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER VIII. — BRATTLE CHURCH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER IX. — HARVARD COLLEGE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER X. — THE LAWYERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XI. — THE REVOLUTION. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <p> + I wrote this little volume more than thirty years ago, since when I have + hardly opened it. Therefore I now read it almost as if it were written by + another man, and I find to my relief that, on the whole, I think rather + better of it than I did when I published it. Indeed, as a criticism of + what were then the accepted views of Massachusetts history, as expounded + by her most authoritative historians, I see nothing in it to retract or + even to modify. I do, however, somewhat regret the rather acrimonious tone + which I occasionally adopted when speaking of the more conservative + section of the clergy. Not that I think that the Mathers, for example, and + their like, did not deserve all, or, indeed, more than all I ever said or + thought of them, but because I conceive that equally effective strictures + might have been conveyed in urbaner language; and, as I age, I shrink from + anything akin to invective, even in what amounts to controversy. + </p> + <p> + Therefore I have now nothing to alter in the <i>Emancipation of + Massachusetts</i>, viewed as history, though I might soften its asperities + somewhat, here and there; but when I come to consider it as philosophy, I + am startled to observe the gap which separates the present epoch from my + early middle life. + </p> + <p> + The last generation was strongly Darwinian in the sense that it accepted, + almost as a tenet of religious faith, the theory that human civilization + is a progressive evolution, moving on the whole steadily toward + perfection, from a lower to a higher intellectual plane, and, as a + necessary part of its progress, developing a higher degree of mental + vigor. I need hardly observe that all belief in democracy as a final + solution of social ills, all confidence in education as a means to + attaining to universal justice, and all hope of approximating to the rule + of moral right in the administration of law, was held to hinge on this + great fundamental dogma, which, it followed, it was almost impious to + deny, or even to doubt. Thus, on the first page of my book, I observe, as + if it were axiomatic, that, at a given moment, toward the opening of the + sixteenth century, “Europe burst from her mediæval torpor into the + splendor of the Renaissance,” and further on I assume, as an equally + self-evident axiom, that freedom of thought was the one great permanent + advance which western civilization made by all the agony and bloodshed of + the Reformation. Apart altogether from the fact that I should doubt + whether, in the year 1919, any intelligent and educated man would be + inclined to maintain that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were, as + contrasted with the nineteenth, ages of intellectual torpor, what startles + me in these paragraphs is the self-satisfied assumption of the finality of + my conclusions. I posit, as a fact not to be controverted, that our + universe is an expression of an universal law, which the nineteenth + century had discovered and could formulate. + </p> + <p> + During the past thirty years I have given this subject my best attention, + and now I am so far from assenting to this proposition that my mind tends + in the opposite direction. Each day I live I am less able to withstand the + suspicion that the universe, far from being an expression of law + originating in a single primary cause, is a chaos which admits of reaching + no equilibrium, and with which man is doomed eternally and hopelessly to + contend. For human society, to deserve the name of civilization, must be + an embodiment of order, or must at least tend toward a social equilibrium. + I take, as an illustration of my meaning, the development of the domestic + relations of our race. + </p> + <p> + I assume it to be generally admitted, that possibly man’s first and + probably his greatest advance toward order—and, therefore, toward + civilization—was the creation of the family as the social nucleus. + As Napoleon said, when the lawyers were drafting his Civil Code, “Make the + family responsible to its head, and the head to me, and I will keep order + in France.” And yet although our dependence on the family system has been + recognized in every age and in every land, there has been no restraint on + personal liberty which has been more resented, by both men and women + alike, than has been this bond which, when perfect, constrains one man and + one woman to live a joint life until death shall them part, for the + propagation, care, and defence of their children. + </p> + <p> + The result is that no civilization has, as yet, ever succeeded, and none + promises in the immediate future to succeed, in enforcing this primary + obligation, and we are thus led to consider the cause, inherent in our + complex nature, which makes it impossible for us to establish an + equilibrium between mind and matter. A difficulty which never has been + even partially overcome, which wrecked the Roman Empire and the Christian + Church, which has wrecked all systems of law, and which has never been + more lucidly defined than by Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, + “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. + For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but + what I hate, that do I.... Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin + that dwelleth in me.... For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil + which I would not, that I do.... For I delight in the law of God after the + inward man: ... But I see another law in my members, warring against the + law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is + in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the + body of this death?” [Footnote: Romans vii, 14-24.] + </p> + <p> + And so it has been since a time transcending the limits of imagination. + Here in a half-a-dozen sentences Saint Paul exposes the ceaseless conflict + between mind and matter, whose union, though seemingly the essence of + life, creates a condition which we cannot comprehend and to which we could + not hope to conform, even if we could comprehend it. In short, which + indicates chaos as being the probable core of an universe from which we + must evolve order, if ever we are to cope with violence, fraud, crime, + war, and general brutality. Wheresoever we turn the prospect is the same. + If we gaze upon the heavens we discern immeasurable spaces sprinkled with + globules of matter, to which our earth seems to be more or less akin, but + all plunging, apparently, both furiously and aimlessly, from out of an + infinite past to an equally immeasurable future. + </p> + <p> + Whence this material mass comes, or what its wild flight portends, we + neither know nor could we, probably, comprehend even were its secret + divulged to us by a superior intelligence, always conceding that there be + such an intelligence, or any secret to disclose. These latter speculations + lie, however, beyond the scope of my present purpose. It suffices if + science permits me to postulate (a concession by science which I much + doubt if it could make) that matter, as we know it, has the semblance of + being what we call a substance, charged with a something which we define + as energy, but which at all events simulates a vital principle resembling + heat, seeking to escape into space, where it cools. Thus the stars, having + blazed until their vital principle is absorbed in space, sink into + relative torpor, or, as the astronomers say, die. The trees and plants + diffuse their energy in the infinite, and, at length, when nothing but a + shell remains, rot. Lastly, our fleshly bodies, when the union between + mind and matter is dissolved, crumble into dust. When the involuntary + partnership between mind and matter ceases through death, it is possible, + or at least conceivable, that the impalpable soul, admitting that such a + thing exists, may survive in some medium where it may be free from + material shackles, but, while life endures, the flesh has wants which must + be gratified, and which, therefore, take precedence of the yearnings of + the soul, just as Saint Paul points out was the case with himself; and + herein lies the inexorable conflict between the moral law and the law of + competition which favors the strong, and from whence comes all the + abominations of selfishness, of violence, of cruelty and crime. + </p> + <p> + Approached thus, perhaps no historical fragment is more suggestive than + the exodus of the Jews from Egypt under Moses, who was the first great + optimist, nor one which is seldomer read with an eye to the contrast which + it discloses between Moses the law-giver, the idealist, the religious + prophet, and the visionary; and Moses the political adventurer and the + keen and unscrupulous man of the world. And yet it is here at the point at + which mind and matter clashed, that Moses merits most attention. For Moses + and the Mosaic civilization broke down at this point, which is, indeed, + the chasm which has engulfed every progressive civilization since the dawn + of time. And the value of the story as an illustration of scientific + history is its familiarity, for no Christian child lives who has not been + brought up on it. + </p> + <p> + We have all forgotten when we first learned how the Jews came to migrate + to Egypt during the years of the famine, when Joseph had become the + minister of Pharaoh through his acuteness in reading dreams. Also how, + after their settlement in the land of Goshen,—which is the Egyptian + province lying at the end of the ancient caravan road, which Abraham + travelled, leading from Palestine to the banks of the Nile, and which had + been the trade route, or path of least resistance, between Asia and + Africa, probably for ages before the earliest of human traditions,—they + prospered exceedingly. But at length they fell into a species of bondage + which lasted several centuries, during which they multiplied so rapidly + that they finally raised in the Egyptian government a fear of their + domination. Nor, considering subsequent events, was this apprehension + unreasonable. At all events the Egyptian government is represented, as a + measure of self-protection, as proposing to kill male Jewish babies in + order to reduce the Jewish military strength; and it was precisely at this + juncture that Moses was born, Moses, indeed, escaped the fate which + menaced him, but only by a narrow chance, and he was nourished by his + mother in an atmosphere of hate which tinged his whole life, causing him + always to feel to the Egyptians as the slave feels to his master. After + birth the mother hid the child as long as possible, but when she could + conceal the infant no longer she platted a basket of reeds, smeared it + with pitch, and set it adrift in the Nile, where it was likely to be + found, leaving her eldest daughter, named Miriam, to watch over it. + Presently Pharaoh’s daughter came, as was her habit, to the river to + bathe, as Moses’s mother expected that she would, and there she noticed + the “ark” floating among the bulrushes. She had it brought her, and, + noticing Miriam, she caused the girl to engage her mother, whom Miriam + pointed out to her, as a nurse. Taking pity on the baby the kind-hearted + princess adopted it and brought it up as she would had it been her own, + and, as the child grew, she came to love the boy, and had him educated + with care, and this education must be kept in mind since the future of + Moses as a man turned upon it. For Moses was most peculiarly a creation of + his age and of his environment; if, indeed, he may not be considered as an + incarnation of Jewish thought gradually shaped during many centuries of + priestly development. + </p> + <p> + According to tradition, Moses from childhood was of great personal beauty, + so much so that passers by would turn to look at him, and this early + promise was fulfilled as he grew to be a man. Tall and dignified, with + long, shaggy hair and beard, of a reddish hue tinged with gray, he is + described as “wise as beautiful.” Educated by his foster-mother as a + priest at Heliopolis, he was taught the whole range of Chaldean and + Assyrian literature, as well as the Egyptian, and thus became acquainted + with all the traditions of oriental magic: which, just at that period, was + in its fullest development. Consequently, Moses must have been familiar + with the ancient doctrines of Zoroaster. + </p> + <p> + Men who stood thus, and had such an education, were called Wise Men, Magi, + or Magicians, and had great influence, not so much as priests of a God, as + enchanters who dealt with the supernatural as a profession. Daniel, for + example, belonged to this class. He was one of three captive Jews whom + Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, gave in charge to the master of his + eunuchs, to whom he should teach the learning and the tongue of the + Chaldeans. Daniel, very shortly, by his natural ability, brought himself + and his comrades into favor with the chief eunuch, who finally presented + them to Nebuchadnezzar, who conversed with them and found them “ten times + better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” + </p> + <p> + The end of it was, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream which he + forgot when he awoke and he summoned “the magicians, and the astrologers, + and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams,” + but they could not unless he told it them. This vexed the king, who + declared that unless they should tell him his dream with the + interpretation thereof, they should be cut in pieces. So the decree went + forth that all “the wise men” of Babylon should be slain, and they sought + Daniel and his fellows to slay them. Therefore, it appears that together + with its privileges and advantages the profession of magic was dangerous + in those ages. Daniel, on this occasion, according to the tradition, + succeeded in revealing and interpreting the dream; and, in return, + Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel a great man, chief governor of the province of + Babylon. + </p> + <p> + Precisely a similar tale is told of Joseph, who, having been sold by his + brethren to Midianitish merchantmen with camels, bearing spices and balm, + journeying along the ancient caravan road toward Egypt, was in turn sold + by them to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. + </p> + <p> + And Joseph rose in Potiphar’s service, and after many alternations of + fortune was brought before Pharaoh, as Daniel had been before + Nebuchadnezzar, and because he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream acceptably, he + was made “ruler over all the land of Egypt” and so ultimately became the + ancestor whom Moses most venerated and whose bones he took with him when + he set out upon the exodus. + </p> + <p> + It is true also that Josephus has preserved an idle tale that Moses was + given command of an Egyptian army with which he made a successful campaign + against the Ethiopians, but it is unworthy of credit and may be neglected. + His bringing up was indeed the reverse of military. So much so that + probably far the most important part of his education lay in acquiring + those arts which conduce to the deception of others, such deceptions as + jugglers have always practised in snake-charming and the like, or in + gaining control of another’s senses by processes akin to hypnotism;—processes + which have been used by the priestly class and their familiars from the + dawn of time. In especial there was one miracle performed by the Magi, on + which not only they, but Moses himself, appear to have set great store, + and on which Moses seemed always inclined to fall back, when hard pressed + to assert his authority. They pretended to make fire descend onto their + altars by means of magical ceremonies. [Footnote: Lenormant, <i>Chaldean + Magic</i>, 226.] Nevertheless, amidst all these ancient eastern + civilizations, the strongest hold which the priests or sorcerers held + over, and the greatest influence which they exercised upon, others, lay in + their relations to disease, for there they were supposed to be potent. For + example, in Chaldea, diseases were held to be the work of demons, to be + feared in proportion as they were powerful and malignant, and to be + restrained by incantations and exorcisms. Among these demons the one, + perhaps most dreaded, was called Namtar, the genius of the plague. Moses + was, of course, thoroughly familiar with all these branches of learning, + for the relations of Egypt were then and for many centuries had been, + intimate with Mesopotamia. Whatever aspect the philosophy may have, which + Moses taught after middle life touching the theory of the religion in + which he believed, Moses had from early childhood been nurtured in these + Mesopotamian beliefs and traditions, and to them—or, at least, + toward them—he always tended to revert in moments of stress. Without + bearing this fundamental premise in mind, Moses in active life can hardly + be understood, for it was on this foundation that his theories of cause + and effect were based. + </p> + <p> + As M. Lenormant has justly and truly observed, go back as far as we will + in Egyptian religion, we find there, as a foundation, or first cause, the + idea of a divine unity,—a single God, who had no beginning and was + to have no end of days,—the primary cause of all. [Footnote: <i>Chaldean + Magic</i>, 79.] It is true that this idea of unity was early obscured by + confounding the energy with its manifestations. Consequently a polytheism + was engendered which embraced all nature. Gods and demons struggled for + control and in turn were struggled with. In Egypt, in Media, in Chaldea, + in Persia, there were wise men, sorcerers, and magicians who sought to put + this science into practice, and among this fellowship Moses must always + rank foremost. Before, however, entering upon the consideration of Moses, + as a necromancer, as a scientist, as a statesman, as a priest, or as a + commander, we should first glance at the authorities which tell his + history. + </p> + <p> + Scholars are now pretty well agreed that Moses and Aaron were men who + actually lived and worked probably about the time attributed to them by + tradition. That is to say, under the reign of Ramses II, of the Nineteenth + Egyptian dynasty who reigned, as it is computed, from 1348 to 1281 B.C., + and under whom the exodus occurred. Nevertheless, no very direct or + conclusive evidence having as yet been discovered touching these events + among Egyptian documents, we are obliged, in the main, to draw our + information from the Hebrew record, which, for the most part, is contained + in the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible. + </p> + <p> + Possibly no historical documents have ever been subjected to a severer or + more minute criticism than have these books during the last two centuries. + It is safe to say that no important passage and perhaps no paragraph has + escaped the most searching and patient analysis by the acutest and most + highly trained of minds; but as yet, so far as the science of history is + concerned, the results have been disappointing. The order in which events + occurred may have been successfully questioned and the sequence of the + story rearranged hypothetically; but, in general, it has to be admitted + that the weight of all the evidence obtained from the monuments of + contemporary peoples has been to confirm the reliability of the Biblical + narrative. For example, no one longer doubts that Joseph was actually a + Hebrew, who rose, through merit, to the highest offices of state under an + Egyptian monarch, and who conceived and successfully carried into + execution a comprehensive agrarian policy which had the effect of + transferring the landed estates of the great feudal aristocracy to the + crown, and of completely changing Egyptian tenures. Nor does any one + question, at this day, the reality of the power which the Biblical writers + ascribed to the Empire of the Hittites. Under such conditions the course + of the commentator is clear. He should treat the Jewish record as + reliable, except where it frankly accepts the miracle as a demonstrated + fact, and even then regard the miracle as an important and most suggestive + part of the great Jewish epic, which always has had, and always must have, + a capital influence on human thought. + </p> + <p> + The Pentateuch has, indeed, been demonstrated to be a compilation of + several chronicles arranged by different writers at different times, and + blended into a unity under different degrees of pressure, but now, as the + book stands, it is as authentic a record as could be wished of the + workings of the Mosaic mind and of the minds of those of his followers who + supported him in his pilgrimage, and who made so much of his task + possible, as he in fact accomplished. + </p> + <p> + Moses, himself, but for the irascibility of his temper, might have lived + and died, contented and unknown, within the shadow of the Egyptian court. + The princess who befriended him as a baby would probably have been true to + him to the end, in which case he would have lived wealthy, contented, and + happy and would have died overfed and unknown. Destiny, however, had + planned it otherwise. + </p> + <p> + The Hebrews were harshly treated after the death of Joseph, and fell into + a quasi-bondage in which they were forced to labor, and this species of + tyranny irritated Moses, who seems to have been brought up under his + mother’s influence. At all events, one day Moses chanced to see an + Egyptian beating a Jew, which must have been a common enough sight, but a + sight which revolted him. Whereupon Moses, thinking himself alone, slew + the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. Moses, however, was not alone. + A day or so later he again happened to see two men fighting, whereupon he + again interfered, enjoining the one who was in the wrong to desist. + Whereupon the man whom he checked turned fiercely on him and said, “Who + made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou + killedst the Egyptian?” + </p> + <p> + When Moses perceived by this act of treachery on the part of a countryman, + whom he had befriended, that nothing remained to him but flight, he + started in the direction of southern Arabia, toward what was called the + Land of Midian, and which, at the moment, seems to have lain beyond the + limits of the Egyptian administrative system, although it had once been + one of its most prized metallurgical regions. Just at that time it was + occupied by a race called the Kenites, who were more or less closely + related to the Amalekites, who were Bedouins and who relied for their + living upon their flocks, as the Israelites had done in the time of + Abraham. Although Arabia Patrea was then, in the main, a stony waste, as + it is now, it was not quite a desert. It was crossed by trade routes in + many directions along which merchants travelled to Egypt, as is described + in the story of Joseph, whose brethren seized him in Dothan, and as they + sat by the side of the pit in which they had thrown him, they saw a + company of Ishmaelites who came from Gilead and who journeyed straight + down from Damascus to Gilead and from thence to Hebron, along the old + caravan road, toward Egypt, with camels bearing spices and myrrh, as had + been their custom since long beyond human tradition, and which had been + the road along which Abraham had travelled before them, and which was + still watered by his wells. This was the famous track from Beersheba to + Hebron, where Hagar was abandoned with her baby Ishmael, and if the + experiences of Hagar do not prove that the wilderness of Shur was + altogether impracticable for women and children it does at least show that + for a mixed multitude without trustworthy guides or reliable sources of + supply, the country was not one to be lightly attempted. + </p> + <p> + It was into a region similar to this, only somewhat further to the south, + that Moses penetrated after his homicide, travelling alone and as an + unknown adventurer, dressed like an Egyptian, and having nothing of the + nomad about him in his looks. As Moses approached Sinai, the country grew + wilder and more lonely, and Moses one day sat himself down, by the side of + a well whither shepherds were wont to drive their flocks to water. For + shepherds came there, and also shepherdesses; among others were the seven + daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, who came to water their + father’s flocks. But the shepherds drove them away and took the water for + themselves. Whereupon Moses defended the girls and drew water for them and + watered their flocks. This naturally pleased the young women, and they + took Moses home with them to their father’s tent, as Bedouins still would + do. And when they came to their father, he asked how it chanced that they + came home so early that day. “And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out + of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and + watered the flock.” And Jethro said, “Where is he? Why is it that ye have + left the man? Call him that he may eat bread.” + </p> + <p> + “And Moses was content to dwell with” Jethro, who made him his chief + shepherd and gave him Zipporah, his daughter. And she bore him a son. + Seemingly, time passed rapidly and happily in this peaceful, pastoral + life, which, according to the tradition preserved by Saint Stephen, lasted + forty years, but be the time long or short, it is clear that Moses loved + and respected Jethro and was in return valued by him. Nor could anything + have been more natural, for Moses was a man who made a deep impression at + first sight—an impression which time strengthened. Intellectually he + must have been at least as notable as in personal appearance, for his + education at Heliopolis set him apart from men whom Jethro would have been + apt to meet in his nomad life. But if Moses had strong attractions for + Jethro, Jethro drew Moses toward himself at least as strongly in the + position in which Moses then stood. Jethro, though a child of the desert, + was the chief of a tribe or at least of a family, a man used to command, + and to administer the nomad law; for Jethro was the head of the Kenites, + who were akin to the Amalekites, with whom the Israelites were destined to + wage mortal war. And for Moses this was a most important connection, for + Moses after his exile never permitted his relations with his own people in + Egypt to lapse. The possibility of a Jewish revolt, of which his own + banishment was a precursor, was constantly in his mind. To Moses a Jewish + exodus from Egypt was always imminent. For centuries it had been a dream + of the Jews. Indeed it was an article of faith with them. Joseph, as he + sank in death, had called his descendants about him and made them solemnly + swear to “carry his bones hence.” And to that end Joseph had caused his + body to be embalmed and put in a coffin that all might be ready when the + day came. Moses knew the tradition and felt himself bound by the oath and + waited in Midian with confidence until the moment of performance should + come. Presently it did come. Very probably before he either expected or + could have wished it, and actually, as almost his first act of leadership, + Moses did carry the bones of Joseph with him when he crossed the Red Sea. + Moses held the tradition to be a certainty. He never conceived it to be a + matter of possible doubt, nor probably was it so. There was in no one’s + mind a question touching Joseph’s promise nor about his expectation of its + fulfilment. What Moses did is related in Exodus XIII, 19: “And Moses took + the bones of Joseph with him; for he had straitly sworn the children of + Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones + away hence with you.” + </p> + <p> + In fine, Moses, in the solitude of the Arabian wilderness, in his + wanderings as the shepherd of Jethro, came to believe that his destiny was + linked with that of his countrymen in a revolution which was certain to + occur before they could accomplish the promise of Joseph and escape from + Egypt under the guidance of the god who had befriended and protected him. + Moreover, Moses was by no means exclusively a religious enthusiast. He was + also a scientific man, after the ideas of that age. Moses had a high + degree of education and he was familiar with the Egyptian and Chaldean + theory of a great and omnipotent prime motor, who had had no beginning and + should have no end. He was also aware that this theory was obscured by the + intrusion into men’s minds of a multitude of lesser causes, in the shape + of gods and demons, who mixed themselves in earthly affairs and on whose + sympathy or malevolence the weal or woe of human life hinged. Pondering + deeply on these things as he roamed, he persuaded himself that he had + solved the riddle of the universe, by identifying the great first cause of + all with the deity who had been known to his ancestors, whose normal home + was in the promised land of Canaan, and who, beside being all-powerful, + was also a moral being whose service must tend toward the welfare of + mankind. For Moses was by temperament a moralist in whom such abominations + as those practised in the worship of Moloch created horror. He knew that + the god of Abraham would tolerate no such wickedness as this, because of + the fate of Sodom on much less provocation, and he believed that were he + to lead the Israelites, as he might lead them, he could propitiate such a + deity, could he but by an initial success induce his congregation to obey + the commands of a god strong enough to reward them for leading a life + which should be acceptable to him. All depended, therefore, should the + opportunity of leadership come to him, on his being able, in the first + place, to satisfy himself that the god who presented himself to him was + verily the god of Abraham, who burned Sodom, and not some demon, whose + object was to vex mankind: and, in the second place, assuming that he + himself were convinced of the identity of the god, that he could convince + his countrymen of the fact, and also of the absolute necessity of + obedience to the moral law which he should declare, since without absolute + obedience, they would certainly merit, and probably suffer, such a fate as + befell the inhabitants of Sodom, under the very eyes of Abraham, and in + spite of his prayers for mercy. + </p> + <p> + There was one other apprehension which may have troubled, and probably did + trouble, Moses. The god of the primitive man, and certainly of the + Bedouin, is usually a local deity whose power and whose activity is + limited to some particular region, as, for instance, a mountain or a + plain. Thus the god of Abraham might have inhabited and absolutely ruled + the plain of Mamre and been impotent elsewhere. But this, had Moses for a + moment harbored such a notion, would have been dispelled when he thought + of Joseph. Joseph, when his brethren threw him into the pit, must have + been under the guardianship of the god of his fathers, and when he was + drawn out, and sold in the ordinary course of the slave-trade, he was + bought by Potiphar, the captain of the guard. “And the Lord was with + Joseph and he was a prosperous man.” Thenceforward, Joseph had a wonderful + career. He received in a dream a revelation of what the weather was to be + for seven years to come. And by this dream he was able to formulate a + policy for establishing public graineries like those which were maintained + in Babylon, and by means of these graineries, ably administered, the crown + was enabled to acquire the estates of the great feudatories, and thus the + whole social system of Egypt was changed. And Joseph, from being a poor + waif, cast away by his brethren in the wilderness, became the foremost man + in Egypt and the means of settling his compatriots in the province of + Gotham, where they still lived when Moses fled from Egypt. Such facts had + made a profound impression upon the mind of Moses, who very reasonably + looked upon Joseph as one of the most wonderful men who had ever lived, + and one who could not have succeeded as he succeeded, without the divine + interposition. But if the god who did these things could work such + miracles in Egypt, his power was not confined by local boundaries, and his + power could be trusted in the desert as safely as it could be on the plain + of Mamre or elsewhere. The burning of Sodom was a miracle equally in point + to prove the stern morality of the god. And that also, was a fact, as + incontestable, to the mind of Moses, as was the rising of the sun upon the + morning of each day. He knew, as we know of the battle of Great Meadows, + that one day his ancestor Abraham, when sitting in the door of his tent + toward noon, “in the plain of Mamre,” at a spot not far from Hebron and + perfectly familiar to every traveller along the old caravan road hither, + on looking up observed three men standing before him, one of whom he + recognized as the “Lord.” Then it dawned on Abraham that the “Lord” had + not come without a purpose, but had dropped in for dinner, and Abraham ran + to meet them, “and bowed himself toward the ground.” And he said, “Let a + little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the + tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; + after that you shall pass on.” “And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht + a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to + dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, + and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did + eat.” Meanwhile, Abraham asked no questions, but waited until the object + of the visit should be disclosed. In due time he succeeded in his purpose. + “And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in + the tent. And he [the Lord] said, ... Sarah thy wife shall have a son.... + Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age.” At this time + Abraham was about one hundred years old, according to the tradition, and + Sarah was proportionately amused, and “laughed within herself.” This mirth + vexed “the Lord,” who did not treat his words as a joke, but asked, “Is + anything too hard for the Lord?” Then Sarah took refuge in a lie, and + denied that she had laughed. But the lie helped her not at all, for the + Lord insisted, “Nay, but thou didst laugh.” And this incident broke up the + party. The men rose and “looked toward Sodom”: and Abraham strolled with + them, to show them the way. And then the “Lord” debated with himself + whether to make a confidant of Abraham touching his resolution to destroy + Sodom utterly. And finally he decided that he would, “because the cry of + Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous.” + Whereupon Abraham intervened, and an argument ensued, and at length God + admitted that he had been too hasty and promised to think the matter over. + And finally, when “the Lord” had reduced the number of righteous for whom + the city should be saved to ten, Abraham allowed him to go “his way ... + and Abraham returned to his place.” + </p> + <p> + In the evening of the same day two angels came to Sodom, who met Lot at + the gate, and Lot took them to his house and made them a feast and they + did eat. Then it happened that the mob surrounded Lot’s house and demanded + that the strangers should be delivered up to them. But Lot successfully + defended them. And in the morning the angels warned Lot to escape, but Lot + hesitated, though finally he did escape to Zoar. + </p> + <p> + “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from + the Lord out of heaven.” + </p> + <p> + “And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood + before the Lord: + </p> + <p> + “And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the + plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke + of a furnace.” + </p> + <p> + We must always remember, in trying to reconstruct the past, that these + traditions were not matters of possible doubt to Moses, or indeed to any + Israelite. They were as well established facts to them as would be the + record of volcanic eruptions now. Therefore it would not have astonished + Moses more that the Lord should meet him on the slope of Horeb, than that + the Lord should have met his ancestor Abraham on the plain of Mamre. + Moses’ doubts and perplexities lay in another direction. Moses did not + question, as did his great ancestress, that his god could do all he + promised, if he had the will. His anxiety lay in his doubt as to God’s + steadiness of purpose supposing he promised; and this doubt was increased + by his lack of confidence in his own countrymen. The god of Abraham was a + requiring deity with a high moral standard, and the Hebrews were at least + in part somewhat akin to a horde of semi-barbarous nomads, much more + likely to fall into offences resembling those of Sodom than to render + obedience to a code which would strictly conform to the requirements which + alone would ensure Moses support, supposing he accepted a task which, + after all, without divine aid, might prove to be impossible to perform. + </p> + <p> + When the proposition which Moses seems, more or less confidently, to have + expected to be made to him by the Lord, came, it came very suddenly and + very emphatically. “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, + the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, + and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. + </p> + <p> + “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the + midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, + and the bush was not consumed.” + </p> + <p> + And Moses, not, apparently, very much excited, said, “I will now turn + aside, and see this great sight.” But God called unto him out of the midst + of the bush, and said, “Moses, Moses.” And he said, “Here am I.” Then the + voice commanded him to put off his shoes from off his feet, for the place + he stood on was holy ground. + </p> + <p> + “Moreover,” said the voice, “I am the God of thy father, the God of + Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face; + for he was afraid to look upon God. + </p> + <p> + And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people ... and + have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their + sorrows. + </p> + <p> + “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and + to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a + land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and + the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites.... + </p> + <p> + “Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest + bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” + </p> + <p> + And Moses said unto God, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and + that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?...” And + Moses said unto God, “Behold, when I am come unto the children of Israel, + and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; + and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” + </p> + <p> + And God said unto Moses, “<i>I am That I Am</i>;” and he said, “Thus shalt + thou say unto the children of Israel, <i>I Am</i> hath sent me unto you.” + </p> + <p> + “And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children + of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of + Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name + forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” + </p> + <p> + Then the denizen of the bush renewed his instructions and his promises, + assuring Moses that he would bring him and his following out of the land + of affliction of Egypt and into the land of the Canaanites, and the + Hittites, and the Amorites, and others, unto a land flowing with milk and + honey. In a word to Palestine. And he insisted to Moses that he should + gain an entrance to Pharaoh, and that he should tell him that “the Lord + God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, + three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord + our God.” + </p> + <p> + Also God did not pretend to Moses that the King of Egypt would forthwith + let them go; whereupon he would work his wonders in Egypt and after that + Pharaoh would let them go. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, he promised, as an inducement to their avarice, that they should + not go empty away, for that the Lord God would give the Hebrews favor in + the sight of the Egyptians, “so that every woman should borrow of her + neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, + jewels of gold, and raiment,” and that they should spoil the Egyptians. + But all this time God did not disclose his name; so Moses tried another + way about. If he would not tell his name he might at least enable Moses to + work some wonder which should bring conviction to those who saw it, even + if the god remained nameless. For Moses appreciated the difficulty of the + mission suggested to him. How was he, a stranger in Egypt, to gain the + confidence of that mixed and helpless multitude, whom he was trying to + persuade to trust to his guidance in so apparently desperate an enterprise + as crossing a broad and waterless waste, in the face of a well-armed and + vigorous foe. Moses apprehended that there was but one way in which he + could by possibility succeed. He might prevail by convincing the + Israelites that he was commissioned by the one deity whom they knew, who + was likely to have both the will and the power to aid them, and that was + the god who had visited Abraham on the plain of Mamre, who had destroyed + Sodom for its iniquity, and who had helped Joseph to become the ruler of + Egypt. Joseph above all was the man who had made to his descendants that + solemn promise on whose faith Moses was, at that very moment, basing his + hopes of deliverance; for Joseph had assured the Israelites in the most + solemn manner that the god who had aided him would surely visit them, and + that they should carry his bones away with them to the land he promised. + That land was the land to which Moses wished to guide them. Now Moses was + fully determined to attempt no such project as this unless the being who + spoke from the bush would first prove to him, Moses, that he was the god + he purported to be, and should beside give Moses credentials which should + be convincing, by which Moses could prove to the Jews in Egypt that he was + no impostor himself, nor had he been deceived by a demon. Therefore Moses + went on objecting as strongly as at first: + </p> + <p> + “And Moses answered and said, But behold they will not believe me, nor + hearken to my voice; for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto + thee.” + </p> + <p> + Then the being in the bush proceeded to submit his method of proof, which + was of a truth feeble, and which Moses rejected as feeble. A form of proof + which never fully convinced him, and which, in his judgment could not be + expected to convince others, especially men so educated and intelligent as + the Egyptians. For the Lord had nothing better to suggest than the ancient + trick of the snake-charmer, and even the possessor of the voice seems + implicitly to have admitted that this could hardly be advanced as a + convincing miracle. So the Lord proposed two other tests: the first was + that Moses should have his hand smitten with leprous sores and restored + immediately by hiding it from sight in “his bosom.” And in the event that + this test left his audience still sceptical, he was to dip Nile water out + of the river, and turn it into blood on land. + </p> + <p> + Moses at all these three proposals remained cold as before. And with good + reason, for Moses had been educated as a priest in Egypt, and he knew that + Egyptian “wise men” could do as well, and even better, if it came to a + magical competition before Pharaoh. And Moses had evidently no relish for + a contest in the presence of his countrymen as to the relative quality of + his magic. Therefore, he objected once more on another ground: “I am not + eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: + but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” This continued hesitancy + put the Lord out of patience; who retorted sharply, “Who hath made man’s + mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have + not I the Lord? + </p> + <p> + “Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou + shalt say.” + </p> + <p> + Then Moses made his last effort. “0 my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the + hand of him whom thou wilt send.” Which was another way of saying, Send + whom you please, but leave me to tend Jethro’s flock in Midian. + </p> + <p> + “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses; and he said, Is not + Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, + behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be + glad in his heart. + </p> + <p> + “And he shall be, ... to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him + instead of God.” + </p> + <p> + Then Moses, not seeming to care very much what Aaron might think about the + matter, went to Jethro, and related what had happened to him on the + mountain, and asked for leave to go home to Egypt, and see how matters + stood there. And Jethro listened, and seems to have thought the experiment + worth trying, for he answered, “Go in peace.” + </p> + <p> + “And the Lord said unto Moses,”—but where is not stated, probably in + Midian,—“Go, return into Egypt,” which you may do safely, for all + the men are dead which sought thy life. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he + returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.” + </p> + <p> + It was after this, apparently, that Aaron travelled to meet Moses in + Midian, and Moses told Aaron what had occurred, and performed his tests, + and, seemingly, convinced him; for then Moses and Aaron went together into + Egypt and called the elders of the children of Israel together, “and did + the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed: and ... + bowed their heads and worshipped.” Meanwhile God had not, as yet, revealed + his name. But as presently matters came to a crisis between Moses and + Pharaoh, he did so. He said to Moses, “I am the Lord: + </p> + <p> + “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God + Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.... + </p> + <p> + “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord.... And I will + bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to + Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I + am the Lord. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not + unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.... + </p> + <p> + “And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold the children of Israel + have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me?” And from this + form of complaint against his countrymen until his death Moses never + ceased. + </p> + <p> + Certain modern critics have persuaded themselves to reject this whole + Biblical narrative as the product of a later age and of a maturer + civilization, contending that it would be childish to attribute the + reasoning of the Pentateuch to primitive Bedouins like the patriarchs or + like the Jews who followed Moses into the desert. Setting aside at once + the philological discussion as to whether the language of the Pentateuch + could have been used by Moses, and admitting for the sake of argument that + Moses did not either himself write, or dictate to another, any part of the + documents in question, it would seem that the application of a little + common sense would show pretty conclusively that Moses throughout his + whole administrative life acted upon a single scientific theory of the + application of a supreme energy to the affairs of life, and upon the + belief that he had discovered what that energy was and understood how to + control it. + </p> + <p> + His syllogism amounted to this: + </p> + <p> + Facts, which are admitted by all Hebrews, prove that the single dominant + power in the world is the being who revealed himself to our ancestors, and + who, in particular, guided Joseph into Egypt, protected him there, and + raised him to an eminence never before or since reached by a Jew. It can + also be proved, by incontrovertible facts, that this being is a moral + being, who can be placated by obedience and by attaining to a certain + moral standard in life, and by no other means. That this standard has been + disclosed to me, I can prove to you by sundry miraculous signs. Therefore, + be obedient and obey the law which I shall promulgate “that ye may prosper + in all that ye do.” + </p> + <p> + Indeed, the philosophy of Moses was of the sternly practical kind, + resembling that of Benjamin Franklin. He did not promise his people, as + did the Egyptians, felicity in a future life. He confined himself to + prosperity in this world. And to succeed in his end he set an attainable + standard. A standard no higher, certainly than that accepted by the + Egyptians, as it is set forth in the 125th chapter of the Book of the + Dead, a standard to which the soul of any dead man had to attain before he + could be admitted into Paradise. Nor did Moses, as Dr. Budde among others + assumes, have to deal with a tribe of fierce and barbarous Bedouins, like + the Amalekites, to whom indeed the Hebrews were antagonistic and with whom + they waged incessant war. + </p> + <p> + The Jews, for the most part, differed widely from such barbarians. They + had become sedentary at the time of the exodus, whatever they may have + been when Abraham migrated from Babylon. They were accustomed in Egypt to + living in houses, they cultivated and cooked the cereals, and they fed on + vegetables and bread. They did not live on flesh and milk as do the + Bedouins; and, indeed, the chief difficulty Moses encountered in the + exodus was the ignorance of his followers of the habits of desert life, + and their dislike of desert fare. They were forever pining for the + delights of civilization. “Would to God we had died by the hand of the + Lord in the land of Egypt, when we eat by the flesh-pots, and when we did + eat bread to the full! for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, + to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” [Footnote: Ex. XVI, 3.] + </p> + <p> + “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, + and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick.” These + were the wants of sedentary and of civilized folk, not of barbarous nomads + who are content with goat’s flesh and milk. And so it was with their + morality and their conceptions of law. Moses was, indeed, a highly + civilized and highly educated man. No one would probably pretend that + Moses represented the average Jew of the exodus, but Moses understood his + audience reasonably well, and would not have risked the success of his + whole experiment by preaching to them a doctrine which was altogether + beyond their understanding. If he told them that the favor of God could + only be gained by obeying the laws he taught, it was because he thought + such an appeal would be effective with a majority of them. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Budde, who is a good example of the modern hypercritical school, takes + very nearly the opposite ground. His theory is that Moses was in search of + a war god, and that he discovered such a god, in the god of the Bedouin + tribe of the Kenites whose acquaintance he first made when dwelling with + his father-in-law Jethro at Sinai. The morality of such a god he insists + coincided with the morality which Moses may have at times countenanced, + but which was quite foreign to the spirit of the decalogue. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless this is, in a degree, true. The religion of the pure Bedouin was + very often crude and shocking, not to say disgusting. But to argue thus is + to ignore the fact that all Bedouins did not, in the age of Moses, stand + on the same intellectual or moral level, and it is also to ignore the gap + that separated Moses and his congregation intellectually and morally from + such Bedouins as the Amalekites. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Budde, in his <i>Religion of Israel to the Exile</i>, insists that the + Kenite god, Jehovah, demanded “The sacred ban by which conquered cities + with all their living beings were devoted to destruction, the slaughter of + human beings at sacred spots, animal sacrifices at which the entire + animal, wholly or half raw, was devoured, without leaving a remnant, + between sunset and sunrise,—these phenomena and many others of the + same kind harmonise but ill with an aspiring ethical religion.” + </p> + <p> + He also goes on to say: “We are further referred to the legislation of + Moses, ... comprising civil and criminal, ceremonial and ecclesiastical, + moral and social law in varying compass. This legislation, however, cannot + have come from Moses.... Such legislation can only have arisen after + Israel had lived a long time in the new home.” + </p> + <p> + To take these arguments in order,—for they must be so dealt with to + develop any reasonable theory of the Mosaic philosophy,—Moses, + doubtless, was a ruthless conqueror, as his dealings with Sihon and Og + sufficiently prove. “So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, + the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was + left to him remaining.... + </p> + <p> + “And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, + utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.” [Footnote: + Deut. III, 3-6.] + </p> + <p> + There is nothing extraordinary, or essentially barbarous, in this attitude + of Moses. The same theory of duty or convenience has been held in every + age and in every land, by men of the ecclesiastical temperament, at the + very moment at which the extremest doctrines of charity, mercy, and love + were practised by their contemporaries, or even preached by themselves. + For example: + </p> + <p> + At the beginning of the thirteenth century the two great convents of Cluny + and Citeau, together, formed the heart of monasticism, and Cluny and + Citeau were two of the richest and most powerful corporations in the + world, while the south of France had become, by reason of the eastern + trade, the wealthiest and most intelligent district in Europe. It suffices + to say here that, just about this time, the people of Languedoc had made + up their minds, because of the failure of the Crusades, the cost of such + magnificent establishments was not justified by their results, and + accordingly Count Raymond of Toulouse, in sympathy with his subjects, did + seriously contemplate secularization. To the abbots of these great + convents, it was clear that if this movement spread across the Rhone into + Burgundy, the Church would face losses which they could not contemplate + with equanimity. At this period one Arnold was Abbot of Citeau, + universally recognized as perhaps the ablest and certainly one of the most + unscrupulous men in Europe. Hence the crusade against the Albigenses which + Simon de Montfort commanded and Arnold conducted. Arnold’s first exploit + was the sack of the undefended town of Béziers, where he slaughtered + twenty thousand men, women, and children, without distinction of religious + belief. When asked whether the orthodox might not at least be spared, he + replied, “Kill them all; God knows his own.” + </p> + <p> + This sack of Béziers occurred in 1209. Exactly contemporaneously Saint + Francis of Assisi was organizing his order whose purpose was to realize + Christ’s kingdom upon earth, by the renunciation of worldly wealth and by + the practice of poverty, humility, and obedience. Soon after, Arnold was + created Archbishop of Narbonne and became probably the greatest and + richest prelate in France, or in the world. This was in 1225. In 1226 the + first friars settled in England. They multiplied rapidly because of their + rigorous discipline. Soon there were to be found among them some of the + most eminent men in England. Their chief house stood in London in a spot + called Stinking Lane, near the Shambles in Newgate, and there, amidst + poverty, hunger, cold, and filth, these men passed their lives in nursing + horrible lepers, so loathsome that they were rejected by all but + themselves, while Arnold lived in magnificence in his palace, upon the + spoil of those whom he had immolated to his greed. + </p> + <p> + In the case of Moses the contrast between precept and practice in the race + for wealth and fortune was not nearly so violent. Moses, it is true, + according to Leviticus, declared it to be the will of the Lord that the + Israelites should love their neighbors as themselves, [Footnote: Lev. XIX, + 18.] while on the other hand in Deuteronomy he insisted that obedience was + the chief end of life, and that if the Israelites were to thoroughly obey + the Lord’s behests, they were to “consume all the people which the Lord + thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: + neither” should thou serve their gods, “for the Lord thy God is a jealous + God.” [Footnote: Deut. VII, 16.] And the penalty for slackness was “lest + the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee + from off the face of the earth.” [Footnote: Deut. VI, 15.] There is, + nevertheless, this much to be said in favor of the morality of Moses as + contrasted with that of thirteenth-century orthodox Christians like + Arnold; Moses led a crusade against a foreign and hostile people, while + Arnold slaughtered the Albigenses, who were his own flock, sheep to whom + he was the shepherd, communicants in his own church, and worshippers of + the God whom he served. What concerns us, however, is that the same + stimulant animated Moses and Arnold alike. The stimulant, pure and simple, + of greed. On these points Moses was as outspokenly, one may say as + brutally, frank as was Arnold. In the desert Moses commanded his followers + to exterminate the inhabitants of the kingdom of Bashan in order that they + might appropriate their possessions, which he enumerated, and Moses had no + other argument to urge but the profitableness of it by which to secure + obedience to his moral law. + </p> + <p> + Arnold stood on precisely the same platform. He did not accuse Count + Raymond of heresy or any other crime, nor did Pope Innocent III consider + Raymond as morally guilty of a criminal offence, or worthy of punishment. + Indeed, the pope would have protected the Count had it been possible, and + summoned him before the Fourth Lateran Council for that purpose. But + Arnold told his audience that were Raymond allowed to escape there would + be an end of the Catholic faith in France. Or, in other words, monastic + property would be secularized. Perhaps he was right. At all events, this + argument prevailed, and Raymond and his family and people were sacrificed. + </p> + <p> + Moses promised his congregation that, if they would spare nothing they + should enjoy abundance of good things, without working for them. He was + much more pitiless than such a man as King David thought it necessary to + be, but Moses was not a soldier like David. He could not promise to win + victories himself, he could but promise what he had in hand, and that was + the spoil of those they massacred. Moses never had but one appeal to make + for obedience, one incentive to offer to obey. In this he was perfectly + honest and perfectly logical. His congregation and he, finding Egypt + untenable, were engaged in a common land speculation to improve their + condition; a speculation in which Moses believed, but which could only be + brought to a successful end by obtaining control of the dominant energy of + the world. This energy, he held, could be handled by no one but himself, + and then only in case those who acted with him were absolutely obedient to + his commands, which, taken together, were equivalent to a magical exorcism + or spell. Then only could they hope that the Lord of Abraham and Isaac + would give them “great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And + houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, + which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst + not.” [Footnote: Deut. VI, 10, 11.] + </p> + <p> + Very obviously, if the theory which Moses propounded were sound the assets + which he offered as an inducement for docility could be obtained, at so + cheap a rate, in no other way. All Moses’ moral teaching amounted, + therefore, to this—“It pays to be obedient and good.” No argument + could have been better adapted to Babylonish society, and it seems to have + answered nearly as well with the Israelites, which proves that they stood + on nearly the same intellectual plane. The chief difficulty with which + Moses had to contend was that his countrymen did not thoroughly believe in + him, nor in the efficacy of his motor. They always were tempted to try + experiments with other motors which were operated by other prophets and by + other peoples who were, apparently, as prosperous as they, or even more + so. His trouble was not that his followers were nomads unprepared for a + sedentary life or a moral law like his, or unable to appreciate the value + of the property of a people further advanced in civilization than they + were. The Amalekites would have responded to no such system of bribery as + Moses offered the Israelites, who did respond with intelligence, if not + always with enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + The same is true of the Mosaic legislation which Dr. Budde curtly + dismisses as impossible to have come from Moses, [Footnote: <i>Religion of + Israel to the Exile</i>, 31.] as presupposing a knowledge of a settled + agricultural life, which “Israel did not reach until after Moses’ death.” + </p> + <p> + All this is an assumption of fact unsupported by evidence; but quite the + contrary, as we can see by an examination of the law in question. Whatever + may have been the date of the establishment of the cities of refuge, I + suppose that it will not be seriously denied that the law of the covenant + as laid down in Exodus XX, 1, Numbers XXXV, 6, is at least as old as the + age of Moses, in principle, if not in words; and this legal principle is + quite inconsistent with, if not directly antagonistic to, all the + prejudices and regulations, moral, religious, or civil, of a pure nomadic + society, since it presupposes a social condition which, if adopted, would + be fatal to a nomad society. + </p> + <p> + The true nomad knows no criminal law save the law of the blood feud, which + is the law of revenge, and which prevailed among the Hebrews much earlier. + In the early Saxon law it was expressed by the apothegm “<i>Factum + reputabitur pro volunte</i>.” The act implies the intent. That is to say, + the tribe is an enlarged family who, since they have no collective system + of sovereignty which gives them common protection by an organized police, + and courts with power to enforce process, have no option but to protect + each other. Therefore, it is incumbent on each member of the tribe or + family to avenge an injury to any other member, whether the injury be + accidental or otherwise; and to be himself the judge of what amounts to an + injury. Such a condition prevailed among the Hebrews at a very early + period; “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them: ... at the + hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth + man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” [Footnote: Gen. IX, 1, 5, + 6.] These customs and the type of thought which sustain them are very + tenacious and change slowly. Moses could not have altered the nomadic + customs of thought and of blood revenge, had he tried, more than could + Canute. It would have been impossible. The advent of a civilized + conception of the law is the work of centuries as the history of England + proves. + </p> + <p> + We know not how long ago it was that the law of the blood feud was fully + recognized in England, but it had already been shaken at the conquest, and + its death-blow was given it by the Church, which had begun to tire of the + responsibility entailed by the trial by ordeal or miracle, and the obloquy + which it involved, at a relatively early date. For the purposes of the + Church and the uses of confession it was more convenient to regard crime + or tort, as did the Romans; as a mental condition, dependent altogether + upon the state of the mind or “animus.” Malice in the eye of the Church + was the virus which poisoned the otherwise innocent act, and made the + thought alone punishable. Indeed, this conception is one which has not yet + been completely established even in the modern law. The first signs of + such a revolution in jurisprudence only began to appear in England some + seven centuries ago. As Mr. Maitland has observed in his <i>History of + English Law</i>, [Footnote: Vol. II, 476.] “We receive a shock of surprise + when we meet with a maxim which has troubled our modern lawyers, namely, + <i>Reum nonfacit nisi mens rea</i>, in the middle of the <i>Leges Henrici</i>.” + That is to say somewhere about the year 1118 A.D. This maxim was taken + bodily out of a sermon of Saint Augustine, which accounts for it, but at + that time the Church had another process to suggest by which she asserted + her authority. She threw the responsibility for detecting guilt, in cases + of doubt, upon God. By the ordeal, if a homicide, for example, were + committed, and the accused denied his guilt, he was summoned to appear, + and then, after a solemn reference to God by the ecclesiastics in charge, + he was caused either to carry a red-hot iron bar a certain distance or to + plunge his arms in boiling water. If he were found, after a certain length + of time, during which his arms were bandaged, to have been injured, he was + held to have been guilty. If he had escaped unhurt he was innocent. + Gradually, however, the ordeal began to fall into ridicule. William Rufus + gibed at it, for of fifty men sent to the ordeal of iron, under the sacred + charge of the clerks, all escaped, which certainly, as Mr. Maitland + intimates, looks as if the officiating ecclesiastics had an interest in + the result. [Footnote: <i>History of English Law</i>, II, 599, note 2.] At + length, by the Lateran Council of 1215, the Church put an end to the + institution, but long afterward it found its upholders. For example, the + <i>Mirror</i>, written in the reign of Edward I (circa 1285) complained, + “It is an abuse that proofs and compurgations be not by the miracle of God + where other proof faileth.” Nor was the principle that “attempts” to + commit indictable offences are crimes, established as law, until at least + the time of the Star Chamber, before its abolition in the seventeenth + century. Though doubtless it is the law to-day. [Footnote: Stephen, <i>Digest + of the Criminal Law</i>, 192.] And this, although the means used may have + been impossible. Moreover, the doctrine is still in process of + enlargement. + </p> + <p> + Very convincing conclusions may be drawn from these facts. The subject is + obscure and difficult, but if the inception of the process of breaking + down the right of enforcing the blood feud be fixed provisionally toward + the middle of the tenth century,—and this date is early enough,—the + movement of thought cannot be said to have attained anything like ultimate + results before at least the year 1321 when a case is cited wherein a man + was held guilty because he had attempted to kill his master, and the “<i>volunias + in isto casu reputabitur pro facto</i>.” + </p> + <p> + Measuring by this standard five hundred years is a short enough period to + estimate the time necessary for a community to pass from the stage when + the blood feud is recognized as unquestioned law, to the status involved + in the administration of the cities of refuge, for in these cities not + only the mental condition is provided for as a legitimate defence, but the + defence of negligence is made admissible in a secular court. + </p> + <p> + “These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and + for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them; that every one that + killeth any person unawares may flee thither.... + </p> + <p> + “If he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait that he die; + </p> + <p> + “Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him + shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood + shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. + </p> + <p> + “But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him + anything without laying of wait, + </p> + <p> + “Or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it + upon him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm: + </p> + <p> + “Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of + blood according to these judgments: + </p> + <p> + “And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the + revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of + his refuge, whither he was fled.”... [Footnote: Numbers XXXV, 15, 20-25.] + </p> + <p> + Here we have a defendant in a case of homicide setting up the defence that + the killing happened through an accident, but an accident not caused by + criminal negligence, and this defence is to be tried by the congregation, + which is tantamount to trial by jury. It is not left to God, under the + oversight of the Church; and this is precisely our own system at the + present day. We now come to the inferences to be drawn from these facts. + Supposing that the Israelites when they migrated to Egypt, in the time of + Joseph, were in the condition of pure nomads among whom the blood feud was + fully recognized as law, an interval of four or five hundred years, such + as they are supposed to have passed in Goshen would bring them to the + exodus. Now, assuming that the Israelites during those four centuries, + when they lived among civilized neighbors and under civilized law, made an + intellectual movement corresponding in velocity to the movement the + English made after the conquest, they would have been, about the time when + the cities of refuge were created, in the position described in Numbers, + which is what we should expect assuming the Biblical tradition to be true. + </p> + <p> + To us the important question is not whether a certain piece of the + supposed Mosaic legislation actually went into effect during the life of + Moses, for that is relatively immaterial, but whether the Biblical + narrative is, on the whole, worthy of credence, and this correlation of + dates gives the strongest possible evidence in its favor. Very possibly, + perhaps it may even be said certainly, the order in which events occurred + may have been transposed, but, taken as a whole, it is impossible to + resist the inference that the Bible story is excellent history and that, + due allowance being made for the prejudice of the various scribes who + wrote the Pentateuch in favor of the miraculous, where Moses was + concerned, the Biblical record is good and trustworthy history, and frank + at that;—much superior to quantities of modern documents which we + accept without question. + </p> + <p> + Of all the achievements of Moses’ life none equals the exodus itself, + either in brilliancy or success. How it was possible for Moses, with the + assistance he had at command, to marshal and move a column of a million or + a million and a half of men, women, and children, without discipline or + cohesion, and encumbered with their baggage, beside their cattle, is an + insoluble mystery. “And the children of Israel did according to the word + of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels + of gold, and raiment: ... And they spoiled the Egyptians. And the children + of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on + foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also + with them; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle.” They started from + Ramses and Succoth. + </p> + <p> + The position of Ramses has been identified; that of Succoth is more + questionable. Ramses and Pithom were fortified places, built by the + Israelites for Ramses II, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but apparently + Succoth was the last halting-place before coming to the difficult ground + which was overflowed by the sea. + </p> + <p> + The crossing was made at night, but it is hard to understand how, even + under the most favorable conditions of weather, such a vast and confused + multitude of women and children could have made the march in darkness with + an active enemy pursuing, without loss of life or material. Indeed, even + at that day the movement seemed to the actors so unparalleled that it + always passed for a miracle, and its perfect success gave Moses more + reputation with the Israelites and more practical influence over them than + anything else he ever did, or indeed than all his other works together. + “And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and + the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses.” + </p> + <p> + “And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron; and all the women went + after her with timbrels and with dances.” Now Miriam was in general none + too loyal a follower of her younger brother, but that day, or rather + night, she did proclaim Moses as a conqueror; which was a great concession + from her, and meant much. And Moses exulted openly, as he had good cause + to do, and gave vent to his exultation in a song which tradition has ever + since attributed to him, and has asserted to have been sung by him and his + congregation as they stood by the shore of the sea and watched the corpses + of the Egyptians lying in the sand. And, if ever man had, Moses then had, + cause for exultation, for he had seemingly proved by the test of war, + which is the ultimate test to which a man can subject such a theory as + his, that he had indeed discovered the motor which he sought, and, more + important still, that he knew how to handle it. Therefore, he was master + of supreme energy and held his right to command by the title of conquest. + This was the culminating moment of his life; he never again reached such + exaltation. From this moment his slow and gradual decline began. + </p> + <p> + And, indeed, great as had been the momentary success of Moses, his + position was one of extreme difficulty, and probably he so understood it, + otherwise there would be no way to account for his choosing the long, + difficult, and perilous journey by Sinai, instead of approaching the + “Promised Land” directly by way of Kadesh-Barnea, which was, in any event, + to be his ultimate objective. It may well have been because Moses felt + himself unable alone to cope with the difficulties confronting him that he + decided at any cost to seek Jethro in Midian, who seems to have been the + only able, honest, and experienced man within reach. Joshua, indeed, might + be held to be an exception to this generalization, but Joshua, though a + good soldier, was a man of somewhat narrow understanding, and quite unfit + to grapple with questions involving jurisprudence and financial + topography. + </p> + <p> + And at this juncture Moses must have felt his own deficiencies keenly. As + a captain he made no pretence to efficiency. The Amalekites were, as he + well knew, at this moment lying in wait for him, and forthwith he + recognized that he had no alternative but to retire into the background + himself and surrender the active command of the army to Joshua, a fatal + concession had Joshua been ambitious or unscrupulous. And this was but the + beginning. Before he could occupy Palestine he had to encounter and + overcome numbers of equally formidable foes, a defeat by any one of whom + might well be fatal. A man like Jethro, therefore, would be invaluable in + guiding the caravan to spots favorable for action, from whence retreat to + a place of safety would be open in case of a check. A reverse which + happened on a later occasion gave Moses a shock he never forgot. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, though Moses lived many years with Jethro, as his chief + servant, he never seems to have travelled extensively in Arabia, and to + have been ignorant of the chief trade routes along which wells were dug, + and of the oases where pasture was to be found; so that Moses was nearly + worthless as a guide, and this was a species of knowledge in which Jethro, + according to Moses’ own statement, excelled. Meanwhile, the lives of all + his followers depended on such knowledge. And Moses, when he reached + Sinai, left no stone unturned to overcome Jethro’s reluctance to join him + and to instruct him on the march north. + </p> + <p> + More important and pressing than all, Moses was ignorant of how, + practically, to administer the law which he taught. His only idea was to + do all in person, but this, with so large a following, was impossible. And + here also his hope lay in Jethro. For when he got to Sinai, and Jethro + remonstrated with him upon his methods, pointing out that they were + impracticable, all Moses had to say in reply was that he sat all day to + hear disputes and “I judge between one and another; and I do make them + know the statutes of God, and his laws.” Further than this he had nothing + to propose. It was Jethro who explained to him a constructive policy. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, upon this analysis, it appears that in all those executive + departments in which Moses, by stress of the responsibilities which he had + assumed, was called upon, imperatively, to act, there was but one, that of + the magician or wise man, in which, by temperament and training, he was + fitted to excel, and the functions of this profession drove him into to + intolerably irksome and distressing position, yet a position from which + throughout his life he found it impossible to escape. No one who + attentively weighs the evidence can, I apprehend, escape the conviction + that Moses was at bottom an honest man who would have conformed to the + moral law he laid down in the name of the Lord had it been possible for + him to do so. Among these precepts none ranked higher than a regard for + truth and honesty. “Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie + one to another.” [Footnote: Leviticus XIX, 11.] And this text is but one + example of a general drift of thought. + </p> + <p> + Whether these particular words of Leviticus, or any similar phrases, were + ever used by Moses is immaterial. No one can doubt that, in substance, + they contained the gist of his moral doctrine and that he enforced the + moral duty which they convey to the best of his power. And here the burden + lay, which crushed this man, from which he never thenceforward could, even + for an instant, free himself, and which Saint Paul avers to be the + heaviest burden man can bear. Moses, to fulfil what he conceived to be his + destiny and which at least certainly was his ambition, was condemned to + lead a life of deceit and to utter no word during his long subsequent + march which was not positively or inferentially a lie. And the bitterest + of his trials must have been the agony of anxiety in which he must have + lived lest some error in judgment on his part, some slackness in measuring + the exact credulity of his audience, should cause his exposure and lead to + his being cast out of the camp as an impostor and hunted to death as a + false prophet: a fate which more than once nearly overtook him. Indeed, as + he aged and his nerves lost their elasticity under the tension, he became + obsessed with the fixed idea that God had renounced him and that some + horror would overtake him should he attempt to cross the Jordan and enter + the “Promised Land.” Defeated at Hormah, he dared not face another such + check and, therefore, dawdled away his time in the wilderness until + further dawdling became impossible. Then followed his mental collapse + which is told in Deuteronomy, together with his suicide on Mount Nebo. And + thus he died because he could not gratify at once his lust for power and + his instinct to live an honest man. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. + </h2> + <p> + The interval during which Moses led the exodus falls, naturally, into + three parts of unequal length. The first consists of the months which + elapsed between the departure from Ramses and the arrival at Sinai. The + second comprises the halt at Sinai, while the third contains the story of + the rest of his life, ending with Mount Nebo. + </p> + <p> + His trials began forthwith. The march was hardly a week old before the + column was in quasi-revolt because he had known so little of the country, + that he had led the caravan three days through a waterless wilderness + where they feared to perish from thirst. And matters grew steadily worse. + At Rephidim, “And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore + is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our + children and our cattle with thirst?” Not impossibly Moses may still, at + this stage of his experiences, have believed in himself, in the God he + pretended to serve, and in his mission. At least he made a feint of so + doing. Indeed, he had to. Not to have done so would have caused his + instant downfall. He always had to do so, in every emergency of his life. + A few days later he was at his wits’ end. He cried unto the Lord, “What + shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me.” In short, + long before the congregation reached Sinai, and indeed before Moses had + fought his first battle with Amalek, the people had come to disbelieve in + Moses and also to question whether there was such a god as he pretended. + </p> + <p> + “And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the + chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, + saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?” + </p> + <p> + “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.” [Footnote: Exodus + xvii, 7, 8.] + </p> + <p> + Under such conditions it was vital to Moses to show resolution and + courage; but it was here that Moses, on the contrary, flinched; as he + usually did flinch when it came to war, for Moses was no soldier. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out, fight with + Amalek: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God + in mine hand.” + </p> + <p> + And Moses actually had the assurance to do as he proposed, nor did he even + have the endurance to stand. He made Aaron and Hur fetch a stone on which + he should sit and then hold up his hands for him, pretending the while + that when Moses held up his hands the Hebrews prevailed and when he + lowered them Amalek prevailed. Notwithstanding, Joshua won a victory. But + it may readily be believed that this performance of his functions as a + captain, did little to strengthen the credit of Moses among the fighting + men. Nor evidently was Moses satisfied with the figure that he cut, nor + was he confident that Joshua approved of him, for the Lord directed Moses + to make excuses, promising to do better the next time, by assuring Joshua + that “I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” + This was the best apology Moses could make for his weakness. However, the + time had now come when Moses was to realize his plan of meeting Jethro. + </p> + <p> + “And Jethro ... came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the + wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: ... And Moses went out + to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they + asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh + and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come + upon them by the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.... + </p> + <p> + “And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the + hand of the Egyptians.... Now I know that the Lord is greater than all + gods.... And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with + Moses’ father-in-law before God.” + </p> + <p> + It is from all this very plain that Jethro had a controlling influence + over Moses, and was the proximate cause of much that followed. For the + next morning Moses, as was his custom, “sat to judge the people: and the + people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.” And when Jethro + saw how Moses proceeded he remonstrated, “Why sittest thou thyself alone, + and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?” + </p> + <p> + And Moses replied: “Because the people come unto me to enquire of God.” + </p> + <p> + And Jethro protested, saying “The thing thou doest is not good. Thou wilt + surely wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee: for this + thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself + alone. + </p> + <p> + “Hearken, ... I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee; Be + thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto + God.” + </p> + <p> + Then it was that Moses perceived that he must have a divinely promulgated + code. Accordingly, Moses made his preparations for a great dramatic + effect, and it is hard to see how he could have made them better. For, + whatever failings he may have had in his other capacities as a leader, he + understood his part as a magician. + </p> + <p> + He told the people to be ready on the third day, for on the third day the + Lord would come down in the sight of all upon Mount Sinai. But, “Take heed + to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: + whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: + </p> + <p> + “There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot + through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet + soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.” + </p> + <p> + It must be admitted that Moses either had wonderful luck, or that he had + wonderful judgment in weather, for, as it happened in the passage of the + Red Sea, so it happened here. At the Red Sea he was aided by a gale of + wind which coincided with a low tide and made the passage practicable, and + at Sinai he had a thunder-storm. + </p> + <p> + “And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were + thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice + of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp + trembled.” Moses had undoubtedly sent some thoroughly trustworthy person, + probably Joshua, up the mountain to blow a ram’s horn and to light a + bonfire, and the effect seems to have been excellent. + </p> + <p> + “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended + upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, + and the whole mount quaked greatly. + </p> + <p> + “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and + louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. + </p> + <p> + “And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and the + Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.” And the + first thing that Moses did on behalf of the Lord was to “charge the + people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them + perish.” + </p> + <p> + And Moses replied to God’s enquiry, “The people cannot come up to Mount + Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount. + </p> + <p> + “And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, + thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break + through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. + </p> + <p> + “So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.” + </p> + <p> + Whether the decalogue, as we know it, was a code of law actually delivered + upon Sinai, which German critics very much dispute as being inconsistent + with the stage of civilization at which the Israelites had arrived, but + which is altogether kindred to the Babylonish law with which Moses was + familiar, is immaterial for the present purpose. What is essential is that + beside the decalogue itself there is a considerable body of law chiefly + concerned with the position of servants or slaves, the difference between + assaults or torts committed with or without malice, theft, trespass, and + the regulation of the <i>lex talionis</i>. There are beside a variety of + other matters touched upon all of which may be found in the 21st, 22d, and + 23d chapters of Exodus. + </p> + <p> + Up to this point in his show Moses had behaved with discretion and had + obtained a complete success. The next day he went on to demand an + acceptance of his code, which he prepared to submit in form. But as a + preliminary he made ready to take Aaron and his two sons, together with + seventy elders of the congregation up the mountain, to be especially + impressed with a sacrifice and a feast which he had it in his mind to + organize. In the first place, “Moses ... rose up early in the morning, and + builded an altar, ... and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the + Lord.... + </p> + <p> + “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the + people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be + obedient.” + </p> + <p> + Had Moses been content to end his ceremony here and to return to the camp + with his book of the covenant duly accepted as law, all might have been + well. But success seems to have intoxicated him, and he conceived an undue + contempt for the intelligence of his audience, being, apparently, + convinced that there were no limits to their credulity, and that he could + do with them as he pleased. + </p> + <p> + It was not enough for him that he should have them accept an ordinary book + admittedly written by himself. There was nothing overpoweringly impressive + in that. What he wanted was a stone tablet on which his code should be + engraved, as was the famous code of Hammurabi, which he probably knew + well, and this engraving must putatively be done by God himself, to give + it the proper solemnity. + </p> + <p> + To have such a code as this engraved either by himself or by any workman + he could take into the mountain with him, would be a work of time and + would entail his absence from the camp, and this was a very serious risk. + But he was over-confident and determined to run it, rather than be baulked + of his purpose, + </p> + <p> + “And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua; and Moses went up into the + mount of God. + </p> + <p> + “And he said unto the elders, Tarry you here for us, until we come again + unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: and if any man have + matters to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went into the midst of + the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty + days and forty nights.” + </p> + <p> + But Moses had made the capital mistake of undervaluing the intelligence of + his audience. They had, doubtless, been impressed when Moses, as a + showman, had presented his spectacle, for Moses had a commanding presence + and he had chosen a wonderful locality for his performance. But once he + was gone the effect of what he had done evaporated and they began to value + the exhibition for what it really was. As men of common sense, said they + to one another, why should we linger here, if Moses has played this trick + upon us? Why not go back to Egypt, where at least we can get something to + eat? So they decided to bribe Aaron, who was venal and would do anything + for money. + </p> + <p> + “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, + the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, + make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man + that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of + him.” + </p> + <p> + When Aaron heard this proposition he showed no objection to accept, + provided the people made it worth his while to risk the wrath of Moses; so + he answered forthwith, “Break off the golden earrings, which are in the + ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them + unto me.” + </p> + <p> + These were the ornaments of which the departing Israelites had spoiled the + Egyptians and they must have been of very considerable value. At all + events, Aaron took them and melted them and made them into the image of a + calf, such as he had been used to see in Egypt. The calf was probably made + of wood and laminated with gold. Sir G. Wilkinson thinks that the calf was + made to represent Mnevis, with whose worship the Israelites had been + familiar in Egypt. Then Aaron proclaimed a feast for the next day in honor + of this calf and said, “To-morrow is a feast to the Lord,” and they said, + “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of + Egypt.” + </p> + <p> + “And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and + brought peace offerings: and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and + rose up to play.” + </p> + <p> + It was not very long before Moses became suspicious that all was not right + in the camp, and he prepared to go down, taking the two tables of + testimony in his hands. These stone tablets were covered with writing on + both sides, which must have taken a long time to engrave considering that + Moses was on a bare mountainside with probably nobody to help but Joshua. + Of course all that made this weary expedition worth the doing was that, as + the Bible says, “the tables were” to pass for “the work of God, and the + writing was the writing of God.” Accordingly, it is not surprising that as + Moses “came nigh unto the camp,” and he “saw the calf, and the dancing”: + that his “anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and + brake them beneath the mount. + </p> + <p> + “And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and + ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children + of Israel drink of it. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast + brought so great a sin upon them? + </p> + <p> + “And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the + people, that they are set on mischief. + </p> + <p> + “For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for + this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot + not what is become of him. + </p> + <p> + “And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So + they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this + calf. + </p> + <p> + “And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them + naked unto their shame among their enemies:)” that is to say, the people + had come to the feast unarmed, and without the slightest fear or suspicion + of a possible attack; then Moses saw his opportunity and placed himself in + a gate of the camp, and said: “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come + unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. + </p> + <p> + “And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man + his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the + camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and + every man his neighbour. + </p> + <p> + “And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there + fell of the people that day about three thousand men.” + </p> + <p> + There are few acts in all recorded history, including the awful massacres + of the Albigenses by Simon de Montfort and the Abbot Arnold, more + indefensible than this wholesale murder by Moses of several thousand + people who had trusted him, and whom he had entrusted to the care of his + own brother, who participated in their crime, supposing that they had + committed any crime saving the crime of tiring of his dictatorship. + </p> + <p> + The effect of this massacre was to put Moses, for the rest of his life, in + the hands of the Levites with Aaron at their head, for only by having a + body of men stained with his own crimes and devoted to his fortunes could + Moses thenceforward hope to carry his adventure to a good end. Otherwise + he faced certain and ignominious failure. His preliminary task, therefore, + was to devise for the Levites a reward which would content them. His first + step in this direction was to go back to the mountain and seek a new + inspiration and a revelation more suited to the existing conditions than + the revelation conveyed before the golden calf incident. + </p> + <p> + Up to this time there is nothing in Jewish history to show that the + priesthood was developing into a privileged and hereditary caste. With the + consecration of Aaron as high priest the process began. Moses spent + another six weeks in seclusion on the mount. And as soon as he returned to + the camp he proclaimed how the people should build and furnish a sanctuary + in which the priesthood should perform its functions. These directions + were very elaborate and detailed, and part of the furnishings of the + sanctuary consisted in the splendid and costly garments for Aaron and his + sons “for glory and for beauty.” + </p> + <p> + “And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and + sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And + thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: And thou shalt + anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister + unto me in the priest’s office: for their anointing shall surely be an + everlasting priesthood, throughout their generations. + </p> + <p> + “Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he.” + </p> + <p> + It followed automatically that, with the creation of a great vested + interest centred in an hereditary caste of priests, the pecuniary burden + on the people was correspondingly increased and that thenceforward Moses + became nothing but the representative of that vested interest: as + reactionary and selfish as all such representatives must be. How selfish + and how reactionary may readily be estimated by glancing at Numbers XVIII, + where God’s directions are given to Aaron touching what he was to claim + for himself, and what the Levites were to take as their wages for service. + It was indeed liberal compensation. A good deal more than much of the + congregation thought such services worth. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, Aaron and the Levites with him for their service “of + the tabernacle” were to have “all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance.” + But this was a small part of their compensation. There were beside + perquisites, especially those connected with the sacrifices which the + people were constrained to make on the most trifling occasions; as, for + example, whenever they became <i>unclean</i>, through some accident, as by + touching a dead body: + </p> + <p> + “This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: + every oblation of their’s, every meat offering of their’s, and every sin + offering of their’s, and every trespass offering of their’s, which they + shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and thy sons. + </p> + <p> + “In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it; it + shall be holy unto thee. + </p> + <p> + “And this is thine.... All the best of the oil, and all the best of the + wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they shall offer + unto the Lord, them have I given thee; ... every one that is clean in + thine house shall eat of it. + </p> + <p> + “Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine.... + </p> + <p> + “All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel + offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters + with thee, by a statute forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before + the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.” + </p> + <p> + Also, on the taking of a census, such as occurred at Sinai, Aaron received + a most formidable perquisite. + </p> + <p> + The Levites were not to be numbered; but there was to be a complicated + system of redemption at the rate of “five shekels by the poll, after the + shekel of the sanctuary.” + </p> + <p> + “And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them + that were redeemed by the Levites: Of the first-born of the children of + Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and three score and + five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; And Moses gave the money + of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons.” + </p> + <p> + Assuming the shekel of those days to have weighed two hundred and + twenty-four grains of silver, its value in our currency would have been + about fifty-five cents, but its purchasing power, twelve hundred years + before Christ, would have been, at the very most moderate estimate, at + least ten for one, which would have amounted to between six and seven + thousand dollars in hard cash for no service whatever, which, considering + that the Israelites were a wandering nomadic horde in the wilderness, was, + it must be admitted, a pretty heavy charge for the pleasure of observing + the performances of Aaron and his sons, in their gorgeous garments. + </p> + <p> + Also, under any sedentary administration it followed that the high priest + must become the most considerable personage in the community, as well as + one of the richest. And thus as payment for the loyalty to himself of the + Levites during the massacre of the golden calf, Moses created a theocratic + aristocracy headed by Aaron and his sons, and comprising the whole tribe + of Levi, whose advancement in fortune could not fail to create discontent. + It did so: a discontent which culminated very shortly after in the + rebellion of Korah, which brought on a condition of things at Kadesh which + contributed to make the position of Moses intolerable. + </p> + <p> + Moses was one of those administrators who were particularly reprobated by + Saint Paul; Men who “do evil,” as in the slaughter of the feasters who set + up the golden calf, “that good may come,” and “whose damnation,” + therefore, “is just.” [Footnote: Romans III, 8.] + </p> + <p> + And Moses wrought thus through ambition, because, though personally + disinterested, he could not endure having his will thwarted. Aaron had + nearly the converse of such a temperament. Aaron appears to have had few + or no convictions; it mattered little to him whether he worshipped Jehovah + on Sinai or the golden calf at the foot of Sinai, provided he were paid at + his own price. And he took care to exact a liberal price. Also the + inference to be drawn from the way in which Moses behaved to him is that + Moses understood what manner of man he was. + </p> + <p> + Jethro stood higher in the estimation of Moses, and Moses did his best to + keep Jethro with him, but, apparently, Jethro had watched Moses closely + and was not satisfied with his conduct of the exodus. On the eve of + departure from Sinai, just as the Israelites were breaking camp, Moses + sought out Jethro and said to him; “We are journeying unto the place of + which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will do + thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. + </p> + <p> + “And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, + and to my kindred.” + </p> + <p> + Not discouraged, Moses kept on urging: “Leave us not, I pray thee; + forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou + mayest be to us instead of eyes. + </p> + <p> + “And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness + the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.” It has been + inferred from a passage in Judges, [Footnote: Judges I, 16.] that Moses + induced Jethro to reconsider his refusal and that he did accompany the + congregation in its march to Kadesh, but, on the whole, the text of the + Bible fails to bear out such inference, for there is no subsequent mention + of Jethro in the books which treat directly of the trials of the journey, + although there would seem to have been abundant occasion for Moses to have + called upon Jethro for aid had Jethro been present. In his apparent + absence the march began, under the leadership of the Lord and Moses, very + much missing Jethro. + </p> + <p> + They departed from the mount: “And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by + day,” when they left the camp “to search out a resting-place.” Certainly, + on this occasion, the Lord selected a poor spot for the purpose, quite + different from such an one as Jethro would have been expected to have + pointed out; for the children of Israel began complaining mightily, so + much so that it displeased the Lord who sent fire into the uttermost parts + of the camp, where it consumed them. + </p> + <p> + “And the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the + fire was quenched.” + </p> + <p> + This suggestion of a divine fire under the control of Moses opens an + interesting speculation. + </p> + <p> + The Magi, who were the priests of the Median religion, greatly developed + the practices of incantation and sorcery. Among these rites they + “pretended to have the power of making fire descend on to their altars by + means of magical ceremonies.” [Footnote: Lenormant, <i>Chaldean Magic</i>, + 226, 238.] Moses appears to have been very fond of this particular + miracle. It is mentioned as having been effective here at Taberah, and it + was the supposed weapon employed to suppress Korah’s rebellion. Moses was + indeed a powerful enchanter. His relations with all the priestcraft of + central Asia were intimate, and if the Magi had secrets which were likely + to be of use to him in maintaining his position among the Jews, the + inference is that he would certainly have used them to the utmost; as he + did the brazen serpent, the ram’s horns at Sinai, and the like. But in + spite of all his miracles Moses found his task too heavy, and he frankly + confessed that he wished himself dead. + </p> + <p> + “Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families... and the + anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? + ... that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? + </p> + <p> + “Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou + shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father + beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their + fathers? + </p> + <p> + “Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep + unto me saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. + </p> + <p> + “I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for + me. + </p> + <p> + “And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I + have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.” + </p> + <p> + Leaving aside for the moment all our childish preventions, and considering + this evidence in the cold light of history, it becomes tolerably evident + that Moses had now reached the turning-point in his career, the point + whither he had inexorably tended since the day on which he bid good-bye to + Jethro to visit Egypt and attempt to gain control of the exodus, and the + point to which all optimists must come who resolve to base a religious or + a political movement on the manipulation of the supernatural. However pure + and disinterested the motives of such persons may be at the outset, and + however thoroughly they may believe in themselves and in their mission, + sooner or later, to compass their purpose, they must resort to deception + and thus become impostors who flourish on the credulity of their dupes. + </p> + <p> + Moses, from the nature of the case, had to make such demands on the + credulity of his followers that even those who were bound to him by the + strongest ties of affection and self-interest were alienated, and those + without such commanding motives to submit to his claim to exact from them + absolute obedience, revolted, and demanded that he should be deposed. The + first serious trouble with which Moses had to contend came to a head at + Hazeroth, the second station after leaving Sinai. The supposed spot is + still used as a watering-place. There Miriam and Aaron attacked Moses + because they were jealous of his wife, whom they decried as an + “Ethiopian.” And they said, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? + hath he not spoken also by us?” Instantly, it became evident to Moses that + if this denial of his superior intimacy with God were to be permitted, his + supremacy must end. Accordingly the Lord came down “in the pillar of the + cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and + Miriam: and they both came forth.” And the Lord explained that he had no + objection to a prophet; if any one among the congregation had an ambition + to be a prophet he would communicate with him in a dream; but there must + always be a wide difference between such a man or woman and Moses with + whom he would “speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark + speeches.” And then God demanded irritably, “Wherefore, then, were ye not + afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” “Afterward the cloud,” + according to the Bible, departed and God with it. + </p> + <p> + Ever since the dawn of time the infliction of or the cure of disease has + been the stronghold of the necromancer, the wise man, the magician, the + saint, the prophet and the priest, and Moses was no exception to the rule, + only hitherto he had had no occasion to display his powers of this kind. + Nevertheless, among the Hebrews of the exodus, the field for this form of + miracle was large. Leprosy was very prevalent, so much so that in Egypt + the Jews were called a nation of lepers. And in the camp the regulations + touching them were strict and numerous. But the Jews were always a dirty + race. + </p> + <p> + In chapter XIII of Leviticus, elaborate directions are given as to how the + patient shall be brought before Aaron himself, or at least some other of + the priests, who was to examine the sore and, if it proved to be a + probable case of leprosy, the patient was to be excluded from the camp for + a week. At the end of that time the disease, if malignant, was supposed to + show signs of spreading, in which case there was no cure and the patient + was condemned to civil death. On the contrary, if no virulent symptoms + developed during the week, the patient was pronounced clean and returned + to ordinary life. + </p> + <p> + The miracle in the case of Miriam was this: When the cloud departed from + off the tabernacle, Miriam was found to be “leprous, white as snow,” just + as Moses’ hand was found to be white with leprosy after his conversation + with the Lord at the burning bush. Upon this Aaron, who had been as guilty + as Miriam, and was proportionately nervous, made a prayer to Moses: “Alas, + my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done + foolishly.... Let her not be as one dead. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech + thee.” + </p> + <p> + But the Lord replied: “If her father had but spit in her face, should she + not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, + and after that let her be received in again.” + </p> + <p> + This was the Mosaic system of discipline. And it was serious for all + parties concerned. Evidently it was very serious for Miriam, who had to + leave her tent and be exiled to some spot in the desert, where she had to + shift for herself. We all know the almost intolerable situation of those + unfortunates who, in the East, are excluded from social intercourse, and + sit without the gate, and are permitted to approach no one. But it was + also a serious infliction for the congregation, since Miriam was a + personage of consequence, and had to be waited for. That is to say, a + million or two of people had to delay their pilgrimage until Moses had + determined how much punishment Miriam deserved for her insubordination, + and this was a question which lay altogether within the discretion of + Moses. In that age there were at least seven varieties of eruptions which + could hardly, if at all, be distinguished, in their early stages, from + leprosy, and it was left to Moses to say whether or not Miriam had been + attacked by true leprosy or not. There was no one, apparently, to question + his judgment, for, since Jethro had left the camp, there was no one to + controvert the Mosaic opinion on matters such as these. Doubtless Moses + was content to give Aaron and Miriam a fright; but also Moses intended to + make them understand that they lay absolutely at his mercy. + </p> + <p> + After this outbreak of discontent had been thus summarily suppressed and + Miriam had been again received as “clean,” the caravan resumed its march + and entered into the wilderness of Paran, which adjoined Palestine, and + from whence an invasion of Canaan, if one were to be attempted, would be + organized. Accordingly Moses appointed a reconnaissance, who in the + language of the Bible are called “spies,” to examine the country, report + its condition, and decide whether an attack were feasible. + </p> + <p> + On this occasion Moses seems to have remembered the lesson he learned at + Sinai. He did not undertake to leave the camp himself for a long interval. + He sent the men whom he supposed he could best trust, among whom were + Joshua and Caleb. These men, who corresponded to what, in a modern army, + would be called the general-staff, were not sent to manufacture a report + which they might have reason to suppose would be pleasing to Moses, but to + state precisely what they saw and heard together with their conclusions + thereon, that they might aid their commander in an arduous campaign; and + this duty they seem, honestly enough, to have performed. But this was very + far from satisfying Moses, who wanted to make a strenuous offensive, and + yet sought some one else to take the responsibility therefor. + </p> + <p> + The spies were absent six weeks and when they returned were divided in + opinion. They all agreed that Canaan was a good land, and, in verity, + flowing with milk and honey. But the people, most of them thought, were + too strong to be successfully attacked. “The cities were walled and very + great,” and moreover “we saw the children of Anak there.” + </p> + <p> + “The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the + Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites + dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. + </p> + <p> + “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at + once, ... for we are well able to overcome it. + </p> + <p> + “But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against + the people; for they are stronger than we. + </p> + <p> + “And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched, + ... saying, ... all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. + </p> + <p> + “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, ... and we were in our own + sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight.” + </p> + <p> + Had Moses been gifted with military talent, or with any of the higher + instincts of the soldier, he would have arranged to have received this + report in private and would then have acted as he thought best. Above all + he would have avoided anything like a council of war by the whole + congregation, for a vast popular meeting of that kind was certain to + become unmanageable the moment a division appeared in their command, upon + a difficult question of policy. + </p> + <p> + Moses did just the opposite. He convened the people to hear the report of + the “spies.” And immediately the majority became dangerously depressed, + not to say mutinous. + </p> + <p> + “And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people + wept that night. + </p> + <p> + “And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: + and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in + the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness!... + </p> + <p> + “And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return + into Egypt. + </p> + <p> + “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the + congregation of the children of Israel.” + </p> + <p> + But Joshua, who was a soldier, when Moses thus somewhat ignominiously + collapsed, retained his presence of mind and his energy. He and Caleb + “rent their clothes,” and reiterated their advice. + </p> + <p> + “And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, + The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. + </p> + <p> + “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give + it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. + </p> + <p> + “Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the + land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them... + fear them not. + </p> + <p> + “But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.” + </p> + <p> + By this time Moses seems to have recovered some composure. Enough, at + least, to repeat certain violent threats of the “Lord.” + </p> + <p> + Nothing is so impressive in all this history as the difference between + Moses when called upon to take responsibility as a military commander, and + Moses when, not to mince matters, he acted as a quack. On the one hand, he + was all vacillation, timidity, and irritability. On the other, all + temerity and effrontery. + </p> + <p> + In this particular emergency, which touched his very life, Moses vented + his disappointment and vexation in a number of interviews which he + pretended to have had with the “Lord,” and which he retailed to the + congregation, just at the moment when they needed, as Joshua perceived, to + be steadied and encouraged. + </p> + <p> + “How long,” vociferated the Lord, when Moses had got back his power of + speech, “will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they + believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? + </p> + <p> + “I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make + of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” + </p> + <p> + But when Moses had cooled a little and came to reflect upon what he had + made the “Lord” say, he fell into his ordinary condition of hesitancy. + Supposing some great disaster should happen to the Jews at Kadesh, which + lay not so very far from the Egyptian border, the Egyptians would + certainly hear of it, and in that case the Egyptian army might pursue and + capture Moses. Such a contingency was not to be contemplated, and + accordingly Moses began to make reservations. It must be remembered that + all these ostensible conversations with the “Lord” went on in public; that + is to say, Moses proffered his advice to the Lord aloud, and then retailed + his version of the answer he received. + </p> + <p> + “Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which + have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, + </p> + <p> + “Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he + sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.... + </p> + <p> + “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the + greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt + even until now. + </p> + <p> + “And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.” + </p> + <p> + Had Moses left the matter there it would not have been so bad, but he + could not contain his vexation, because his staff had not divined his + wishes. Those men, though they had done their strict duty only, must be + punished, so he thought, to maintain his ascendancy. + </p> + <p> + Of the twelve “spies” whom Moses had sent into Canaan to report to him, + ten had incurred his bitter animosity because they failed to render him + such a report as would sustain him before the people in making the + campaign of invasion to which he felt himself pledged, and on the success + of which his reputation depended. Of these ten men, Moses, to judge by the + character of his demands upon the Lord, thought it incumbent on him to + make an example, in order to sustain his own credit. + </p> + <p> + To simply exclude these ten spies from Palestine, as he proposed to do + with the rest of the congregation, would hardly be enough, for the rest of + the Hebrews were, at most, passive, but these ten had wilfully ignored the + will of Moses, or, as he expressed it, of the Lord. Therefore it was the + Lord’s duty, as Moses saw it, to punish them. And this Moses proposed that + the Lord should do in a prompt and awful manner: the lesson being pointed + by the immunity of Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who had had the wit to + divine the will of Moses. Therefore, all ten of these men died of the + plague while the congregation lay encamped at Kadesh, though Joshua and + Caleb remained immune. + </p> + <p> + Moses, as the commanding general of an attacking army, took a course + diametrically opposed to that of Joshua, and calculated to be fatal to + victory. He vented his irritation in a series of diatribes which he + attributed to the “Lord,” and which discouraged and confused his men at + the moment when their morale was essential to success. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, the Lord, according to Moses, went on: + </p> + <p> + “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of + the Lord. + </p> + <p> + “Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I + did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, + and have not hearkened to my voice; + </p> + <p> + “Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, + neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: + </p> + <p> + “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath + followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went;...” + </p> + <p> + Having said all this, and, as far as might be, disorganized the army, + Moses surrendered suddenly his point. He made the “Lord” go on to command: + “Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red + Sea.” But, not even yet content, Moses assured them that this retreat + should profit them nothing. + </p> + <p> + “And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I + bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard + the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.” + And the Lord continued: + </p> + <p> + “Say unto them, As truly as I live, ... as ye have spoken in mine ears, so + will I do to you. + </p> + <p> + “Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered + of you, ... from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against + me. + </p> + <p> + “Doubtless ye shall not come into the land.... + </p> + <p> + “But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.... + </p> + <p> + “And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made + all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon + the land,— + </p> + <p> + “Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by + the plague before the Lord. + </p> + <p> + “But Joshua ... and Caleb, ... which were of the men that went to search + the land, lived still. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel and the + people mourned greatly.” + </p> + <p> + The congregation were now completely out of hand. They knew not what Moses + wanted to do, nor did they comprehend what Moses was attempting to make + the Lord threaten: except that he had in mind some dire mischief. + Accordingly, the people decided that the best thing for them was to go + forward as Joshua and Caleb proposed. So, early in the morning, they went + up into the top of the mountain, saying, “We be here, and will go up unto + the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned.” + </p> + <p> + But Moses was more dissatisfied than ever. “Wherefore now do you + transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper.” + Notwithstanding, “they presumed to go up unto the hilltop: nevertheless + the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the + camp. + </p> + <p> + “Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites, which dwelt in that + hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah”; which was + at a very considerable distance,—perhaps not less than thirty miles, + though the positions are not very well established. + </p> + <p> + This is the story as told by the priestly chronicler, who, of course, said + the best that could be said for Moses. But he makes a sorry tale of it. + According to him, Moses, having been disappointed with the report made by + his officers on the advisability of an immediate offensive, committed the + blunder of summoning the whole assembly of the people to listen to it, and + then, in the midst of the panic he had created, he lost his + self-possession and finally his temper. Whereupon his soldiers, not + knowing what to do or what he wanted, resolved to follow the advice of + Joshua and advance. + </p> + <p> + But this angered Moses more than ever, who committed the unpardonable + crime in the eyes of the soldier; he abandoned his men in the presence of + the enemy and by this desertion so weakened them that they sustained the + worst defeat the Israelites suffered during the whole of their wanderings + in the wilderness. Such a disaster brought on a crisis. The only wonder is + that it had been so long delayed. Moses had had since the exodus a + wonderful opportunity to test the truth of his theories. He had asserted + that the universe was the expression of a single and supreme mind, which + operated according to a fixed moral law. That he alone, of all men, + understood this mind, and could explain and administer its law, and that + this he could and would do were he to obtain absolute obedience to the + commands which he uttered. Were he only obeyed, he would win for his + followers victory in battle, and a wonderful land to which they should + march under his guidance, which was the Promised Land, and thereafter all + was to be well with them. + </p> + <p> + The disaster at Hormah had demonstrated that he was no general, and even + on that very day the people had proof before their eyes that he knew + nothing of the desert, and that the Lord knew no more than he, since there + was no water at Kadesh, and to ask the congregation to encamp in such a + spot was preposterous. Meanwhile Moses absorbed all the offices of honor + and profit for his family. Aaron and his descendants monopolized the + priesthood, and this was a bitter grievance to other equally ambitious + Levites. In short, the Mosaic leadership was vulnerable on every hand. + Attack on Moses was, therefore, inevitable, and it came from Korah, who + was leader of the opposition. + </p> + <p> + Korah was a cousin of Moses, and one of the ablest and most influential + men in the camp, to whom Dathan and Abiram and “two hundred and fifty” + princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, joined + themselves. “And they gathered themselves together against Moses and + against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all + the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: + wherefore then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” + </p> + <p> + Koran’s grievance was that he had been, although a Levite, excluded from + the priesthood in favor of the demands of Aaron and his sons. + </p> + <p> + “And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face.” + </p> + <p> + And yet something had to be done. Moses faced an extreme danger. His life + hung upon the issue. As between him and Korah he had to demonstrate which + was the better sorcerer or magician, and he could only do this by + challenging Korah to the test of the ordeal: the familiar test of the + second clause of the code of Hammurabi; “If the holy river makes that man + to be innocent, and has saved him, he who laid the spell upon him shall be + put to death. He who plunged into the holy river shall take to himself the + house of him who wove the spell upon him.” [Footnote: Code of Laws + promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon. Translated by C. H. W. Johns, + M.A., Section 2.] And so with Elijah, to whom Ahaziah sent a captain of + fifty to arrest him. And Elijah said to the captain of fifty, “If I be a + man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy + fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his + fifty.” [Footnote: 2 Kings I, 10.] + </p> + <p> + In a word, the ordeal was the common form of test by which the enchanter, + the sorcerer, or the magician always was expected to prove himself. Moses + already had tried the test by fire at least once, and probably oftener. So + now Moses reproached Korah because he was jealous of Aaron; “and what is + Aaron, that ye murmur against him?... This do; Take you censers, Korah, + and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before + the Lord to-morrow; and ... whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: + ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.” + </p> + <p> + But it was not only about the priesthood that Moses had trouble on his + hands. He had undertaken, with the help of the Lord, to lead the + Israelites through the wilderness. But at every step of the way his + incompetence became more manifest. Even there, at that very camp of + Kadesh, there was no water, and all the people clamored. And, therefore, + Dathan and Abiram taunted him with failure, and with his injustice to + those who served him. And Moses had no reply, except that he denied having + abused his power. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, + We will not come up: + </p> + <p> + “Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that + floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou + make thyself altogether a prince over us? + </p> + <p> + “Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and + honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out + the eyes of these men [probably alluding to the “spies”]? We will not come + up.” + </p> + <p> + This was evidently an exceedingly sore spot. Moses had boasted that, + because the “spies” had rendered to the congregation what they believed to + be a true report instead of such a report as he had expected, the “Lord” + had destroyed them by the plague. And it is pretty evident that the + congregation believed him. It could hardly have been by pure accident that + out of twelve men, the ten who had offended Moses should have died by the + plague, and the other two alone should have escaped. Moses assumed to have + the power of destroying whom he pleased by the pestilence through prayer + to the “Lord,” and he, indeed, probably had the power, in such a spot as + an ancient Jewish Nomad camp, not indeed by prayer, but by the very human + means of communicating so virulent a poison as the plague: means which he + very well understood. + </p> + <p> + Therefore it is not astonishing that this insinuation should have stung + Moses to the quick. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their + offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of + them.” + </p> + <p> + Then Moses turned to Korah, “Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, + thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow: + </p> + <p> + “And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye + before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers.” + </p> + <p> + And Korah, on the morrow, gathered all the congregation against them unto + the door of the tabernacle. And the “Lord” then as usual intervened and + advised Moses to “separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I + may consume them in a moment.” And Moses did so. That is to say, he made + an effort to divide the opposition, who, when united, he seems to have + appreciated, were too strong for him. + </p> + <p> + What happened next is not known. That Moses partially succeeded in his + attempt at division is admitted, for he persuaded Dathan and Abiram and + their following to “depart ... from the tents of these wicked men, and + touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” + </p> + <p> + Exactly what occurred after this is unknown. The chronicle, of course, + avers that “the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their + houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.” + But it could not have been this or anything like it, for the descendants + of Korah, many generations after, were still doing service in the Temple, + and at the time of the miracle the spectators were not intimidated by the + sight, although all “Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of + them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. + </p> + <p> + “And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and + fifty men that offered incense.” + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding all which, the congregation next day were as hostile and + as threatening as ever. + </p> + <p> + “On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured + against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the + Lord.... + </p> + <p> + “And they fell upon their faces.” + </p> + <p> + In this crisis of his fate, when it seemed that nothing could save Moses + from a conflict with the mass of his followers, who had renounced him, + Moses showed that audacity and fertility of resource, which had hitherto + enabled him, and was destined until his death to enable him, to maintain + his position, at least as a prophet, among the Jewish people. + </p> + <p> + The plague was always the most dreaded of visitations among the ancient + Jews: far more terrible than war. It was already working havoc in the + camp, as the death of the “spies” shows us. Moses always asserted his + ability to control it, and at this instant, when, apparently, he and Aaron + were lying on their faces before the angry people, he conceived the idea + that he would put his theurgetic powers to the proof. Suddenly he called + to Aaron to “take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and + put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an + atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague + is begun.” + </p> + <p> + “And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the + congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: ... and + made an atonement for the people. + </p> + <p> + “And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. + </p> + <p> + “Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven + hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah.” + </p> + <p> + Even this was not enough. The discontent continued, and Moses went on to + meet it by the miracle of Aaron’s rod. + </p> + <p> + Moses took a rod from each tribe, twelve rods in all and on Aaron’s rod he + wrote the name of Levi, and Moses laid them out in the tabernacle. And the + next day Moses examined the rods and showed the congregation how Aaron’s + rod had budded. And Moses declared that Aaron’s rod should be kept for a + token against the rebels: and that they must stop their murmurings “that + they die not.” + </p> + <p> + This manipulation of the plague by Moses, upon what seems to have been a + sudden inspiration, was a stroke of genius in the way of quackery. He was, + indeed, in this way almost portentous. It had a great and terrifying + effect upon the people, who were completely subdued by it. Against + corporeal enemies they might hope to prevail, but they were helpless + against the plague. And they all cried out with one accord, “Behold we + die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the + tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?” + </p> + <p> + As I have already pointed out, Moses was a very great theurgist, as many + saints and prophets have been. When in the actual presence of others he + evidently had the power of creating a belief in himself which approached + the miraculous, so far as disease was concerned. And he presumed on this + power and took correspondingly great risks. The case of the brazen serpent + is an example. The story is—and there is no reason to doubt its + substantial truth—that the Hebrews were attacked by venomous + serpents probably in the neighborhood of Mount Hor, where Aaron died, and + thereupon Moses set up a large brazen serpent on a pole, and declared that + whoever would look upon the serpent should live. Also, apparently, it did + produce an effect upon those who believed: which, of course, is not an + unprecedented phenomenon among faith healers. But what is interesting in + this historical anecdote is not that Moses performed certain faith cures + by the suggestion of a serpent, but that the Israelites themselves, when + out of the presence of Moses, recognized that he had perpetrated on them a + vulgar fraud. For example, King Hezekiah destroyed this relic, which had + been preserved in the Temple, calling it “Nehushtan,” “a brazen thing,” as + an expression of his contempt. And what is more remarkable still is that + although Hezekiah reigned four or five centuries after the exodus, yet + science had made no such advance in the interval as to justify this + contempt. Hezekiah seems to have been every whit as credulous as were the + pilgrims who looked on the brazen serpent and were healed. Hezekiah “was + sick unto death, and Isaiah came to see him, and told him to set his house + in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.... And Hezekiah wept sore.” + </p> + <p> + Then, like Moses, Isaiah had another revelation in which he was directed + to return to Hezekiah, and tell him that he was to live fifteen years + longer. And Isaiah told the attendants to take “a lump of figs.” “And they + took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.” + </p> + <p> + Afterward Hezekiah asked of Isaiah how he was to know that the Lord would + keep his word and give him fifteen additional years of life. Isaiah told + him that the shadow should go back ten degrees on the dial. And Isaiah + “cried unto the Lord,” and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward “by + which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.” [Footnote: 2 Kings xx, 11.] + And yet this man Hezekiah, who could believe in this marvellous cure of + Isaiah, repudiated with scorn the brazen serpent as an insult to + credulity. The contrast between Moses, who hesitated not to take all risks + in matters of disease with which he felt himself competent to cope, and + his timidity and hesitation in matters of war, is astounding. But it is a + common phenomenon with the worker of miracles and indicates the limit of + faith at which the saint or prophet has always betrayed the impostor. For + example: Saint Bernard, when he preached in 1146 the Second Crusade, made + miraculous cures by the thousand, so much so that there was danger of + being killed in the crowds which pressed upon him. And yet this same + saint, when chosen by the crusaders four years later, in 1150, to lead + them because of his power to constrain victory by the intervention of God, + wrote, after the crusaders’ defeat, in terror to the pope to protect him, + because he was unfit to take such responsibility. + </p> + <p> + But even with this reservation Moses could not gain the complete + confidence of the congregation and the insecurity of his position finally + broke him down. + </p> + <p> + At this same place of Kadesh, Miriam died, “and the people chode with + Moses because there was no water for the congregation.” [Footnote: Numbers + xx, 8.] Moses thereupon withdrew and, as usual, received a revelation. And + the Lord directed him to take his rod, “and speak ye unto the rock before + their eyes; and it shall give forth his water.” + </p> + <p> + And Moses gathered the congregation and said unto them, “Hear now, ye + rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” + </p> + <p> + “And he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly.” + </p> + <p> + But Moses felt that he had offended God, “Because ye believed me not, to + sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not + bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” + </p> + <p> + Moses had become an old man, and he felt himself unequal to the burden he + had assumed. He recognized that his theory of cause and effect had broken + down, and that the “Lord” whom at the outset he had firmly believed to be + an actual and efficient power to be dominated by him, either could not or + would not support him in emergency. In short, he had learned that he was + an adventurer who must trust to himself. Hence, after Hormah he was a + changed man. Nothing could induce him to lead the Jews across the Jordan + to attack the peoples on the west bank, and though the congregation made a + couple of campaigns against Sihon and Og, whose ruthlessness has always + been a stain on Moses, the probability is that Moses did not meddle much + with the active command. Had he done so, the author of Deuteronomy would + have given the story in more detail and Moses more credit. All that is + attributed to Moses is a division of the conquests made together with + Joshua, and a fruitless prayer to the Lord that he might be permitted to + cross the Jordan. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile life was ending for him. His elder sister Miriam died at Kadesh, + and Aaron died somewhat later at Mount Hor, which is supposed to lie about + as far to the east of Kadesh as Hormah is to the west, but there are + circumstances about the death of Aaron which point to Moses as having had + more to do with it than of having been a mere passive spectator thereof. + </p> + <p> + The whole congregation is represented as having “journeyed from Kadesh and + come unto Mount Hor ... by the coast of the land of Edom,” and there the + “Lord” spoke unto Moses and Aaron, and explained that Aaron was to be + “gathered unto his people, ... because ye rebelled ... at the water of + Meribah.” Therefore Moses was to “take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and + bring them up unto Mount Hor: and strip Aaron of his garments, and put + them upon Eleazar,” ... and that Aaron ... shall die there. + </p> + <p> + “And they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And + Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; + and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came + down from the mount.” [Footnote: Numbers xx, 22-28.] + </p> + <p> + Now it is incredible that all this happened as straightforwardly as the + chronicle would have us believe. Aaron was an old man and probably + failing, but his death was not imminent. On the contrary, he had strength + to climb Mount Hor with Moses, without aid, and there is no hint that he + suffered from any ailment likely to end his life suddenly. Moses took care + that he and Eleazar should be alone with Aaron so that there should be no + witness as to what occurred, and Moses alone knew what was expected. + </p> + <p> + Moses had time to take off the priestly garments, which were the insignia + of office and to put them on Eleazar, and then, when all was ready, Aaron + simply ceased to breathe at the precise moment when it was convenient for + Moses to have him die, for the policy of Moses evidently demanded that + Aaron should live no longer. Under the conditions of the march Moses was + evidently preparing for his own death, and for a complete change in the + administration of affairs. Appreciating that his leadership had broken + down and that the system he had created was collapsing, he had dawdled as + long on the east side of the Jordan as the patience of the congregation + would permit. An advance had become inevitable, but Moses recognized his + own inability to lead it. The command had to be delegated to a younger man + and that man was Joshua. Eleazar, on the other hand, was the only + available candidate for the high priesthood, and Moses took the + opportunity of making the investiture on Mount Hor. So Aaron passed away, + a sacrifice to the optimism of Moses. Next came the turn of Moses himself. + The whole story is told in Deuteronomy. Within, probably, something less + than a year after Aaron’s death the “Lord” made a like communication to + Moses. + </p> + <p> + “Get thee up ... unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is + over against Jericho; + </p> + <p> + “And die in the Mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy + people; as Aaron, thy brother died in Mount Hor; + </p> + <p> + “Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the + waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified + me not in the midst of the children of Israel. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, ... + And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, + according to the word of the Lord.... But no man knoweth of his sepulchre + unto this day. + </p> + <p> + “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was + not dim, nor his natural force abated.” + </p> + <p> + The facts, as preserved by Josephus, appear to have been these: Moses + ascended the mountain with only the elders, the high priest Eleazar, and + Joshua. At the top of the mountain he dismissed the elders, and then, as + he was embracing Joshua and Eleazar and still speaking, a cloud covered + him, and he disappeared in a ravine. In other words, he killed himself. + </p> + <p> + Such is the story of Moses, a fragment of history interesting enough in + itself, but especially material to us not only because of the development + of the thought dealt with in the following volumes, but of the inferences + which, at the present time, it permits us to draw touching our own + immediate future. + </p> + <p> + Moses was the first great optimist of whom any record remains, and one of + the greatest. He was the prototype of all those who have followed. He was + a visionary. All optimists must be visionaries. Moses based the social + system which he tried to organize, not on observed facts, but on <i>a + priori</i> theories evolved out of his own mind, and he met with the + failure that all men of that cast of mind must meet with when he sought to + realize his visions. His theory was that the universe about him was the + expression of an infinite mind which operated according to law. That this + mind, or consciousness, was intelligent and capable of communicating with + man. That it did, in fact, so communicate through him, as a medium, and + that other men had only to receive humbly and obey implicitly his + revelations to arrive at a condition nearly approaching, if not absolutely + reaching, perfection, while they should enjoy happiness and prosperity in + the land in which they should be permitted, by an infinite and + supernatural power and wisdom, to dwell. All this is not alien to the + attitude of scientific optimists at the present day, who anticipate + progressive perfection. + </p> + <p> + Let us consider, for a moment, whither these <i>a priori</i> theories led, + when put in practice upon human beings, including himself. And, in the + first place, it will probably be conceded that no optimist could have, or + ever hope to have, a fairer opportunity to try his experiment than had + Moses on that plastic Hebrew community which he undertook to lead through + Arabia. Also it must be admitted that Moses, as an expounder of a moral + code, achieved success. The moral principles which he laid down have been + accepted as sound from that day to this, and are still written up in our + churches, as a standard for men and women, however slackly they may be + observed. But when we come to mark the methods by which Moses obtained + acceptance of his code by his contemporaries, and, above all, sought to + constrain obedience to himself and to it, we find the prospect unalluring. + To begin with, Moses had only begun the exodus when he learned from his + practical father-in-law that the system he employed was fantastic and + certain to fail: his notion being that he should sit and judge causes + himself, as the mouthpiece of the infinite, and that therefore each + judgment he gave would demand a separate miracle or imposture. This could + not be contemplated. Therefore Moses was constrained to impose his code in + writing, once for all, by one gigantic fraud which he must perpetrate + himself. This he tried at Sinai, unblushingly declaring that the stone + tablets which he produced were “written with the finger of God”; + wherefore, as they must have been written by himself, or under his + personal supervision, he brazenly and deliberately lied. His good faith + was obviously suspected, and this suspicion caused disastrous results. To + support his lie Moses caused three thousand unsuspecting and trusting men + to be murdered in cold blood, whose only crime was that they would have + preferred another leadership to his, and because, had they been able to + effect their purpose, they would have disappointed his ambition. + </p> + <p> + To follow Moses further in the course which optimism enforced upon him + would be tedious, as it would be to recapitulate the story which has + already been told. It suffices to say shortly that, at every camp, he had + to sink to deeper depths of fraud, deception, lying, and crime in order to + maintain his credit. It might be that, as at Meribah, it was only claiming + for himself a miracle which he knew he could not work, and for claiming + which, instead of giving the credit to God, he openly declared he deserved + and must receive punishment; or it might be some impudent quackery, like + the brazen serpent, which at least was harmless; or it might have been + complicated combinations which suggest a deeper shade; as, for example, + the outbreak of the plague, after Korah’s rebellion, which bears the + aspect of a successful effort at intimidation to support his own wavering + credit. But the result was always the same. Moses had promised that the + supernatural power he pretended to control should sustain him and give + victory. Possibly, when he started on the exodus he verily believed that + such a power existed, was amenable and could be constrained to intervene. + He found that he had been mistaken on all these heads, and when he + accepted these facts as final, nothing remained for him but suicide, as + has been related. It only remains to glance, for a single moment, at what + befell, when he had gone, the society he had organized on the optimistic + principle of the approach of human beings toward perfection. During the + period of the Judges, when “there was no king in Israel, but every man did + that which was right in his own eyes,” [Footnote: Judges xvii, 6.] anarchy + supervened, indeed, but also the whole Mosaic system broke down because of + the imbecility of the men on whom Moses relied to lift the people toward + perfection. + </p> + <p> + Eli, a descendant of Aaron, was high priest, and a judge, being the + predecessor of Samuel, the last of the judges. Now Eli had two sons who + “were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.” + </p> + <p> + Eli, being very old, “heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how + they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle....” + And Eli argued with them; “notwithstanding they harkened not unto the + voice of their father.” + </p> + <p> + Samuel succeeded Eli. He was not a descendant of Aaron, but became a + judge, apparently, upon his own merits. But as a judge he did not + constrain his sons any better than Eli had his, for “they took bribes, and + perverted judgment.” So the elders of Israel came to Samuel and said, + “Give us a king to judge us.” “And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,” though he + disliked the idea. Yet the result was inevitable. The kingdom was set up, + and the Mosaic society perished. Nothing was left of Mosaic optimism but + the tradition. Also there was the Mosaic morality, and what that amounted + to may best, perhaps, be judged by David, who was the most perfect flower + of the perfection to which humanity was to attain under the Mosaic law, + and has always stood for what was best in Mosaic optimism. David’s + morality is perhaps best illustrated by the story of Uriah the Hittite. + </p> + <p> + One day David saw Uriah’s wife taking a bath on her housetop and took a + fancy to her. The story is all told in the Second of Samuel. How David + sent for her, took her into the palace, and murdered Uriah by sending him + to Joab who commanded the army, and instructing Joab to set Uriah in the + forefront of the hottest battle, and “retire ye from him that he may be + smitten and die.” And Uriah was killed. + </p> + <p> + Then came the famous parable by Nathan of the ewe lamb. “And David’s anger + was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord + liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die. + </p> + <p> + “And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.” + </p> + <p> + And Nathan threatened David with all kinds of disaster and even with + death, and David was very repentant and “he fasted and lay all night upon + the earth.” But for all that, when assured that nothing worse was to + happen to him than the loss of the son Bathsheba had borne him, David + comforted Bathsheba. He by no means gave her up. On the contrary, “he went + in unto her ... and she bare him a son, and he called his name Solomon: + and the Lord loved him.” + </p> + <p> + Again the flesh had prevailed. And so it has always been with each new + movement which has been stimulated by an idealism inspired by a belief + that the spirit was capable of generating an impulse which would overcome + the flesh and which could cause men to move toward perfection along any + other path than the least resistant. And this because man is an automaton, + and can move no otherwise. In this point of view nothing can be more + instructive than to compare the Roman with the Mosaic civilization, for + the Romans were a sternly practical people and worshipped force as Moses + worshipped an ideal. + </p> + <p> + As Moses dreamed of realizing the divine consciousness on earth by + introspection and by prayer, so the Romans supposed that they could attain + to prosperity and happiness on earth by the development of superior + physical force and the destruction of all rivals. Cato the Censor was the + typical Roman landowner, the type of the class which built up the great + vested interest in land which always moved and dominated Rome. He + expressed the Roman ideal in his famous declaration in the Senate, when he + gave his vote for the Third Punic War; “<i>Delenda est Carthago</i>,” + Carthage must be destroyed. And Carthage was destroyed because to a Roman + to destroy Carthage was a logical competitive necessity. Subsequently, the + Romans took the next step in their social adjustment at home. They deified + the energy which had destroyed Carthage. The incarnation of physical force + became the head of the State;—the Emperor when living, the Divus, + when dead. And this conception gained expression in the law. This godlike + energy found vent in the Imperial will; “<i>Quod principi placuit, legis + habet vigorem</i>.” [Footnote: Inst. 1, 2, 6.] + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more antagonistic to the Mosaic philosophy, which invoked + the supernatural unity as authority for every police regulation. Moreover, + the Romans carried out their principle relentlessly, to their own + destruction. That great vested interest which had absorbed the land of + Italy, and had erected the administrative entity which policed it, could + not hold and cultivate its land profitably, in competition with other + lands such as Egypt, North Africa, or Assyria, which were worked by a + cheaper and more resistant people. Therefore the Roman landowners imported + this competitive population from their homes, having first seized them as + slaves, and cultivated their own Italian fields with them after the + eviction of the original native peasants, who could not survive on the + scanty nutriment on which the eastern races throve. [Footnote: I have + dealt with this subject at length in my <i>Law of Civilization and Decay</i>, + chapter II, to which I must refer the reader. More fully still in the + French translation. “This unceasing emigration gradually changed the + character of the rural population, and a similar alteration took place in + the army. As early as the time of Cæsar, Italy was exhausted; his legions + were mainly raised in Gaul, and as the native farmers sank into serfdom or + slavery, and then at last vanished, recruits were drawn more and more from + beyond the limits of the empire.” I cannot repeat my arguments here, but I + am not aware that they have been seriously controverted.] + </p> + <p> + The Roman law, the <i>Romana lex</i>, was as gigantic, as original, and as + comprehensive a structure as was the empire which gave to it expression. + Modern European law is but a dilution thereof. The Roman law attained + perfection, as I conceive, about the time of the Antonines, through the + great jurists who then flourished. If one might name a particular moment + at which so vast and complex a movement culminated, one would be tempted + to suggest the reign of Hadrian, who appointed Salvius Julianus to draw up + the <i>edictum perpetuum</i>, or permanent edict, in the year 132 A.D. + Thenceforward the magistrate had to use his discretion only when the edict + of Julianus did not apply. + </p> + <p> + I am not aware that any capital principle of municipal law has been + evolved since that time, and the astonishing power of the Roman mind can + only be appreciated when it is remembered that the whole of this colossal + fabric was original. Modern European law has been only a servile copy. + But, regard being had to the position of the emperor in relation to the + people, and more especially in relation to the vast bureaucracy of Rome, + which was the embodiment of the vested interest which was Rome itself, the + adherence of Roman thought to the path of least resistance was absolute. + “So far as the cravings of Stoicism found historical and political + fulfilment, they did so in the sixty years of Hadrian and the Antonines, + and so far again as an individual can embody the spirit of an age, its + highest and most representative impersonation is unquestionably to be + found in the person of Marcus Antoninus.... Stoicism faced the whole + problem of existence, and devoted as searching an investigation to + processes of being and of thought, to physics and to dialectic, as to the + moral problems presented by the emotions and the will.” [Footnote: <i>Marcus + Aurelius Antoninus</i>, in English, by Gerald H. Rendall, Introduction, + xxvii.] + </p> + <p> + Such was stoicism, of which Marcus Aurelius was and still remains the + foremost expression. He admitted that as emperor his first duty was to + sacrifice himself for the public and he did his duty with a constancy + which ultimately cost him his life. Among these duties was the great duty + of naming his successor. The Roman Empire never became strictly + hereditary. It hinged, as perhaps no other equally developed system ever + hinged, upon the personality of the emperor, who incarnated the + administrative bureaucracy which gave effect to the <i>Pax Romana</i> and + the <i>Romana lex</i> from the Euphrates to the Atlantic and from Scotland + to the Tropic of Cancer. Of all men Marcus Aurelius was the most + conscientious and the most sincere, and he understood, as perhaps no other + man in like position ever understood, the responsibility which impinged on + him, to allow no private prevention to impose an unfit emperor upon the + empire But Marcus had a son Commodus, who was nineteen when his father + died, and who had already developed traits which caused foreboding. + Nevertheless, Marcus associated Commodus with himself in the empire when + Commodus was fourteen and Commodus attained to absolute power when Marcus + died. Subsequently, Commodus became the epitome of all that was basest and + worst in a ruler. He was murdered by the treachery of Marcia, his favorite + concubine, and the Senate decreed that “his body should be dragged with a + hook into the stripping room of the gladiators, to satiate the public + fury.” [Footnote: <i>Decline and Fall</i>, chap. iv.] + </p> + <p> + From that day Rome entered upon the acute stage of her decline, and she + did so very largely because Marcus Aurelius, the ideal stoic, was + incapable of violating the great law of nature which impelled him to + follow not reason, but the path of least resistance in choosing a + successor; or, in other words, the instinct of heredity. Moreover, this + instinct and not reason is or has been, among the strongest which operate + upon men, and makes them automata. It is the basis upon which the family + rests, and the family is the essence of social cohesion. Also the + hereditary instinct has been the prime motor which has created + constructive municipal jurisprudence and which has evolved religion. + </p> + <p> + With the death of Marcus Aurelius individual competition may be judged to + have done its work, and presently, as the population changed its character + under the stress thereof, a new phase opened: a phase which is marked, as + such phases usually are, by victory in war. Marcus Aurelius died in 180 + A.D. Substantially a century later, in 312, Constantine won the battle of + the Milvian Bridge with his troops fighting under the Labarum, a standard + bearing a cross with the device “<i>In hoc signo vinces</i>”; By this sign + conquer. Probably Constantine had himself scanty faith in the Labarum, but + he speculated upon it as a means to arouse enthusiasm in his men. It + served his purpose, and finding the step he had taken on the whole + satisfactory, he followed it up by accepting baptism in 337 A.D. + </p> + <p> + From this time forward the theory of the possibility of securing divine or + supernatural aid by various forms of incantation or prayer gained steadily + in power for about eight centuries, until at length it became a passion + and gave birth to a school of optimism, the most overwhelming and the most + brilliant which the world has ever known and which evolved an age whose + end we still await. + </p> + <p> + The Germans of the fourth century were a very simple race, who + comprehended little of natural laws, and who therefore referred phenomena + they did not understand to supernatural intervention. This intervention + could only be controlled by priests, and thus the invasions caused a rapid + rise in the influence of the sacred class. The power of every + ecclesiastical organization has always rested on the miracle, and the + clergy have always proved their divine commission as did Moses. This was + eminently the case with the mediæval Church. At the outset Christianity + was socialistic, and its spread among the poor was apparently caused by + the pressure of servile competition; for the sect only became of enough + importance to be persecuted under Nero, contemporaneously with the first + signs of distress which appeared through the debasement of the denarius. + But socialism was only a passing phase, and disappeared as the money value + of the miracle rose, and brought wealth to the Church. Under the Emperor + Decius, about 250, the magistrates thought the Christians opulent enough + to use gold and silver vessels in their service, and by the fourth century + the supernatural so possessed the popular mind that Constantine, as we + have seen, not only allowed himself to be converted by a miracle, but used + enchantment as an engine of war. + </p> + <p> + The action of the Milvian Bridge, fought in 312, by which Constantine + established himself at Rome, was probably the point whence nature began to + discriminate decisively against the vested interest of Western Europe. + Capital had already abandoned Italy; Christianity was soon after + officially recognized, and during the next century the priest began to + rank with the soldier as a force in war. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, as the population sank into exhaustion, it yielded less and + less revenue, the police deteriorated, and the guards became unable to + protect the frontier. In 376, the Goths, hard pressed by the Huns, came to + the Danube and implored to be taken as subjects by the emperor. After + mature deliberation the Council of Valens granted the prayer, and some + five hundred thousand Germans were cantoned in Moesia. The intention of + the government was to scatter this multitude through the provinces as <i>coloni,</i> + or to draft them into the legions; but the detachment detailed to handle + them was too feeble, the Goths mutinied, cut the guard to pieces, and + having ravaged Thrace for two years, defeated and killed Valens at + Hadrianople. In another generation the disorganization of the Roman army + had become complete, and Alaric gave it its death-blow in his campaign of + 410. + </p> + <p> + Alaric was not a Gothic king, but a barbarian deserter, who, in 392, was + in the service of Theodosius. Subsequently he sometimes held imperial + commands, and sometimes led bands of marauders on his own account, but was + always in difficulty about his pay. Finally, in the revolution in which + Stilicho was murdered, a corps of auxiliaries mutinied and chose him their + general. Alleging that his arrears were unpaid, Alaric accepted the + command, and with this army sacked Rome. + </p> + <p> + During the campaign the attitude of the Christians was more interesting + than the strategy of the soldiers. Alaric was a robber, leading mutineers, + and yet the orthodox historians did not condemn him. They did not condemn + him because the sacred class instinctively loved the barbarians whom they + could overawe, whereas they could make little impression on the + materialistic intellect of the old centralized society. Under the empire + the priests, like all other individuals, had to obey the power which paid + the police; and as long as a revenue could be drawn from the provinces, + the Christian hierarchy were subordinate to the monied bureaucracy who had + the means to coerce them. + </p> + <p> + Yet only very slowly, as the empire disintegrated, did the theocratic idea + take shape. As late as the ninth century the pope prostrated himself + before Charlemagne, and did homage as to a Roman emperor. [Footnote: Perz, + <i>Annales Lauressenses</i>, I, 188.] + </p> + <p> + Saint Benedict founded Monte Cassino in 529, but centuries elapsed before + the Benedictine order rose to power. The early convents were isolated and + feeble, and much at the mercy of the laity, who invaded and debauched + them. Abbots, like bishops, were often soldiers, who lived within the + walls with their wives and children, their hawks, their hounds, and their + men-at-arms; and it has been said that, in all France, Corbie and Fleury + alone kept always something of their early discipline. + </p> + <p> + Only in the early years of the most lurid century of the Middle Ages, when + decentralization culminated, and the imagination began to gain its fullest + intensity, did the period of monastic consolidation open with the + foundation of Cluny. In 910 William of Aquitaine draw a charter [Footnote: + Bruel, <i>Recueil des Chartes de l’Abbaye de Cluny</i>, I, 124.] which, so + far as possible, provided for the complete independence of his new + corporation. There was no episcopal visitation, and no interference with + the election of the abbot. The monks were put directly under the + protection of the pope, who was made their sole superior. John XI + confirmed this charter by his bull of 932, and authorized the affiliation + of all converts who wished to share in the reform. [Footnote: <i>Bull. + Clun.</i> p. 2, col. 1. Also Luchaire, <i>Manuel des Institutions + Françaises</i>, 93, 95, where the authorities are collected.] + </p> + <p> + The growth of Cluny was marvellous; by the twelfth century two thousand + houses obeyed its rule, and its wealth was so great, and its buildings so + vast, that in 1245 Innocent IV, the Emperor Baldwin, and Saint Louis were + all lodged together within its walls, and with them all the attendant + trains of prelates and nobles with their servants. + </p> + <p> + In the eleventh century no other force of equal energy existed. The monks + were the most opulent, the ablest, and the best organized society in + Europe, and their effect upon mankind was proportioned to their strength. + They intuitively sought autocratic power, and during the centuries when + nature favored them, they passed from triumph to triumph. They first + seized upon the papacy and made it self-perpetuating; they then gave + battle to the laity for the possession of the secular hierarchy, which had + been under temporal control since the very foundation of the Church. + </p> + <p> + According to the picturesque legend, Bruno, Bishop of Toul, seduced by the + flattery of courtiers and the allurements of ambition, accepted the tiara + from the emperor, and set out upon his journey to Italy with a splendid + retinue, and with his robe and crown. On his way he turned aside at Cluny, + where Hildebrand was prior. Hildebrand, filled with the spirit of God, + reproached him with having seized upon the seat of the vicar of Christ by + force, and accepted the holy office from the sacrilegious hand of a + layman. He exhorted Bruno to cast away his pomp, and to cross the Alps + humbly as a pilgrim, assuring him that the priests and people of Rome + would recognize him as their bishop, and elect him according to canonical + forms. Then he would taste the joys of a pure conscience, having entered + the fold of Christ as a shepherd and not as a robber. Inspired by these + words, Bruno dismissed his train, and left the convent gate as a pilgrim. + He walked barefoot, and when after two months of pious meditations he + stood before Saint Peter’s, he spoke to the people and told them it was + their privilege to elect the pope, and since he had come unwillingly he + would return again, were he not their choice. + </p> + <p> + He was answered with acclamations, and on February 2, 1049, he was + enthroned as Leo IX. His first act was to make Hildebrand his minister. + </p> + <p> + The legend tells of the triumph of Cluny as no historical facts could do. + Ten years later, in the reign of Nicholas II, the theocracy made itself + self-perpetuating through the assumption of the election of the pope by + the college of cardinals, and in 1073 Hildebrand, the incarnation of + monasticism, was crowned under the name of Gregory VII. + </p> + <p> + With Hildebrand’s election, war began. The Council of Rome, held in 1075, + decreed that holy orders should not be recognized where investiture had + been granted by a layman, and that princes guilty of conferring + investiture should be excommunicated. The Council of the next year, which + excommunicated the emperor, also enunciated the famous propositions of + Baronius—the full expression of the theocratic idea. The priest had + grown to be a god on earth. + </p> + <p> + “So strong in this confidence, for the honour and defence of your Church, + on behalf of the omnipotent God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, + by your power and authority, I forbid the government of the German and + Italian kingdoms, to King Henry, the son of the Emperor Henry, who, with + unheard-of arrogance, has rebelled against your Church. I absolve all + Christians from the oaths they have made or may make to him, and I forbid + that any one should obey him as king.” [Footnote: Migne, CXLVIII, 790.] + </p> + <p> + Henry marched on Italy, but in all European history there has been no + drama more tremendous than the expiation of his sacrilege. To his soldiers + the world was a vast space, peopled by those fantastic beings which are + still seen on Gothic towers. These demons obeyed the monk of Rome, and his + army, melting from about the emperor under a nameless horror, left him + helpless. + </p> + <p> + Gregory lay like a magician in the fortress of Canossa: but he had no need + of carnal weapons, for when the emperor reached the Alps he was almost + alone. Then his imagination also took fire, the panic seized him, and he + sued for mercy. + </p> + <p> + On August 7, 1106, Henry died at Liège, an outcast and a mendicant, and + for five long years his body lay at the church door, an accursed thing + which no man dared to bury. + </p> + <p> + Gregory prevailed because, to the understanding of the eleventh century, + the evidence at hand indicated that he embodied in a high degree the + infinite energy. The eleventh century was intensely imaginative and the + evidence which appealed to it was those phenomena of trance, hypnotism, + and catalepsy which are as mysterious now as they were then, but whose + effect was then to create an overpowering demand for miracle-working + substances. The sale of these substances gradually drew the larger portion + of the wealth of the community into the hands of the clergy, and with + wealth went temporal power. No vested interest in any progressive + community has probably ever been relatively stronger, for the Church found + no difficulty, when embarrassed, in establishing and operating a thorough + system for exterminating her critics. + </p> + <p> + Under such a pressure modern civilization must have sunk into some form of + caste had the mediæval mind resembled any antecedent mind, but the middle + age, though superficially imaginative, was fundamentally materialistic, as + the history of the crusades showed. + </p> + <p> + At Canossa the laity conceded as a probable hypothesis that the Church + could miraculously control nature; but they insisted that if the Church + possessed such power, she must use that power for the common good. Upon + this point they would not compromise, nor would they permit delay. During + the chaos of the ninth century turmoil and violence reached a stage at + which the aspirations of most Christians ended with self-preservation; but + when the discovery and working of the Harz silver had brought with it some + semblance of order, an intense yearning possessed both men and women to + ameliorate their lot. If relics could give protection against oppression, + disease, famine, and death, then relics must be obtained, and, if the + cross and the tomb were the most effective relics, then the cross and the + tomb must be conquered at any cost. In the north of Europe especially, + misery was so acute that the people gladly left their homes upon the + slenderest promise of betterment, even following a vagrant like Peter the + Hermit, who was neither soldier nor priest. There is a passage in William + of Tyre which has been often quoted to explain a frenzy which is otherwise + inexplicable, and in the old English of Caxton the words still glow with + the same agony which makes lurid the supplication of the litany,—“From + battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord deliver us”: + </p> + <p> + “Of charyte men spack not, debates, discordes, and warres were nyhe + oueral, in suche wyse, that it seemed, that thende of the world was nyghe, + by the signes that our lord sayth in the gospell, ffor pestylences and + famynes were grete on therthe, ferdfulness of heuen, tremblyng of therthe + in many places, and many other thinges there were that ought to fere the + hertes of men.... + </p> + <p> + “The prynces and the barons brente and destroyed the contrees of theyr + neyghbours, yf ony man had saved ony thynge in theyr kepyng, theyr owne + lordes toke them and put them in prison and in greuous tormentis, for to + take fro them suche as they had, in suche qyse that the chyldren of them + that had ben riche men, men myght see them goo fro dore to dore, for to + begge and gete theyr brede, and some deye for hungre and mesease.” + [Footnote: Godeffroy of Bologne, by William, Archbishop of Tyre, + translated from the French by William Caxton, London, 1893, 21, 22.] + </p> + <p> + Throughout the eleventh century the excitement touching the virtues of the + holy places in Judea grew, until Gregory VII, about the time of Canossa, + perceived that a paroxysm was at hand, and considered leading it, but on + the whole nothing is so suggestive of the latent scepticism of the age as + the irresolution of the popes at this supreme moment. The laity were the + pilgrims and the agitators. The kings sought the relics and took the + cross; the clergy hung back. Robert, Duke of Normandy, for example, the + father of William the Conqueror, died in 1035 from hardship at Nicæa when + returning from Palestine, absorbed to the last in the relics which he had + collected, but the popes stayed at home. Whatever they may have said in + private, neither Hildebrand nor Victor nor Urban moved officially until + they were swept forward by the torrent. They shunned responsibility for a + war which they would have passionately promoted had they been sure of + victory. The man who finally kindled the conflagration was a half-mad + fanatic, a stranger to the hierarchy. No one knew the family of Peter the + Hermit, or whence he came, but he certainly was not an ecclesiastic in + good standing. Inflamed by fasting and penance, Peter followed the throng + of pilgrims to Jerusalem, and there, wrought upon by what he saw, he + sought the patriarch. Peter asked the patriarch if nothing could be done + to protect the pilgrims, and to retrieve the Holy Places. The patriarch + replied, “Nothing, unless God will touch the heart of the western princes, + and will send them to succor the Holy City.” The patriarch did not propose + meddling himself, nor did it occur to him that the pope should intervene. + He took a rationalistic view of the Moslem military power. Peter, on the + contrary, was logical, arguing from eleventh-century premises. If he could + but receive a divine mandate, he would raise an invincible army. He + prayed. His prayer was answered. One day while prostrated before the + sepulchre he heard Christ charge him to announce in Europe that the + appointed hour had come. Furnished with letters from the patriarch, Peter + straightway embarked for Rome to obtain Urban’s sanction for his design. + Urban listened and gave a consent which he could not prudently have + withheld, but he abstained from participating in the propaganda. In March, + 1095, Urban called a Council at Piacenza, nominally to consider the + deliverance of Jerusalem, and this Council was attended by thirty thousand + impatient laymen, only waiting for the word to take the vow, but the pope + did nothing. Even at Clermont eight months later, he showed a disposition + to deal with private war, or church discipline, or with anything in fact + rather than with the one engrossing question of the day, but this time + there was no escape. A vast multitude of determined men filled not only + Clermont but the adjacent towns and villages, even sleeping in the fields, + although the weather was bitterly cold, who demanded to know the policy of + the Church. Urban seems to have procrastinated as long as he safely could, + but, at length, at the tenth session, he produced Peter on the platform, + clad as a pilgrim, and, after Peter had spoken, he proclaimed the war. + Urban declined, however, to command the army. The only effective force + which marched was a body of laymen, organized and led by laymen, who in + 1099 carried Jerusalem by an ordinary assault. In Jerusalem they found the + cross and the sepulchre, and with these relics as the foundation of their + power, the laity began an experiment which lasted eighty-eight years, + ending in 1187 with the battle of Tiberias. At Tiberias the infidels + defeated the Christians, captured their king and their cross, and shortly + afterward seized the tomb. + </p> + <p> + If the eleventh-century mind had been as rigid as the Roman mind of the + first century, mediæval civilization could hardly, after the collapse of + the crusades, have failed to degenerate as Roman civilization degenerated + after the defeat of Varus. Being more elastic, it began, under an + increased tension, to develop new phases of thought. The effort was indeed + prodigious and the absolute movement possibly slow, but a change of + intellectual attitude may be detected almost contemporaneously with the + fall of the Latin kingdom in Palestine. It is doubtless true that the + thirteenth century was the century in which imaginative thought reached + its highest brilliancy, when Albertus Magnus and Saint Thomas Aquinas + taught, when Saint Francis and Saint Clara lived, and when Thomas of + Celano wrote the <i>Dies Iræ</i>. It was then that Gothic architecture + touched its climax in the cathedrals of Chartres and Amiens, of Bourges + and of Paris; it was then also that Blanche of Castile ruled in France and + that Saint Louis bought the crown of thorns, but it is equally true that + the death of Saint Louis occurred in 1270, shortly after the thorough + organization of the Inquisition by Innocent IV in 1252, and within two + years or so of the production by Roger Bacon of his <i>Opus Majus</i>. + </p> + <p> + The establishment of the Inquisition is decisive, because it proves that + sceptical thought had been spread far enough to goad the Church to general + and systematic repression, while the <i>Opus Majus</i> is a scientific + exposition of the method by which the sceptical mind is trained. + </p> + <p> + Roger Bacon was born about 1214, and going early to Oxford fell under the + influence of the most liberal teachers in Europe, at whose head stood + Robert Grosseteste, afterward Bishop of Lincoln. Bacon conceived a + veneration for Grosseteste, and even for Adam de Marisco his disciple, and + turning toward mathematics rather than toward metaphysics he eagerly + applied himself, when he went to Paris, to astrology and alchemy, which + were the progenitors of the modern exact sciences. In the thirteenth + century a young man like Bacon could hardly stand alone, and Bacon joined + the Franciscans, but before many years elapsed he embroiled himself with + his superiors. His friend, Grosseteste, died in 1253, the year after + Innocent IV issued the bull <i>Ad extirpanda</i> establishing the + Inquisition, and Bacon felt the consequences. The general of his order, + Saint Bonaventura, withdrew him from Oxford where he was prominent, and + immured him in a Parisian convent, treating him rigorously, as Bacon + intimated to Pope Clement IV. There he remained, silenced, for some ten + years, until the election of Clement IV, in 1265. Bacon at once wrote to + Clement complaining of his imprisonment, and deploring to the pope the + plight into which scientific education had fallen. The pope replied + directing Bacon to explain his views in a treatise, but did not order his + release. In response Bacon composed the <i>Opus Majus</i>. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Opus Majus</i> deals among other things with experimental science, + and in the introductory chapter to the sixth part Bacon stated the theory + of inductive thought quite as lucidly as did Francis Bacon three and a + half centuries later in the <i>Novum Organum</i>. [Footnote: Positis + radicibus sapientiae Latinorum penes Linguas et Mathematicam et + Perspectivam, nunc volo revolvere radices a parte Scientiae + Experimentalis, quia sine experientia nihil sufficienter scire protest. + Duo enim simt modi cognoscendi, scilicet per argumentum et experimentum. + Argumentum concludit et facit nos concedere conclusionem, sed non + certificat neque removet dubitationem ut quiescat animus in intuitu + veritatis, nisi eam inveniat via experientiae; quia multi habent argumenta + ad scibilia, sed quia non habent experientiam, negligunt ea, nee vitant + nociva nex persequuntue bona. J. H. Bridges, <i>The Opus Majus of Roger + Bacon</i> (Oxford, 1897), II, 167.] + </p> + <p> + Clement died in 1268. The papacy remained vacant for a couple of years, + but in 1271 Gregory X came in on a conservative reaction. Bacon passed + most of the rest of his life in prison, perhaps through his own + ungovernable temper, and ostensibly his writings seem to have had little + or no effect on his contemporaries, yet it is certain that he was not an + isolated specimen of a type of intelligence which suddenly bloomed during + the Reformation. Bacon constantly spoke of his friends, but his friends + evidently did not share his temperament. The scientific man has seldom + relished martyrdom, and Galileo’s experience as late as 1633 shows what + risks men of science ran who even indirectly attacked the vested interests + of the Church. After the middle of the thirteenth century the danger was + real enough to account for any degree of secretiveness, and a striking + case of this timidity is related by Bacon himself. No one knows even the + name of the man to whom Bacon referred as “Master Peter,” but according to + Bacon, “Master Peter” was the greatest and most original genius of the + age, only he shunned publicity. The “Dominus experimentorum,” as Bacon + called him, lived in a safe retreat and devoted himself to mathematics, + chemistry, and the mechanical arts with such success that, Bacon insisted, + he could by his inventions have aided Saint Louis in his crusade more than + his whole army. [Footnote: Émile Charles, <i>Roger Bacon. Sa vie et ses + ouvrages</i>, 17.] Nor is this assertion altogether fantastic. Bacon + understood the formula for gunpowder, and if Saint Louis had been provided + with even a poor explosive he might have taken Cairo; not to speak of the + terror which Greek fire always inspired. Saint Louis met his decisive + defeat in a naval battle fought in 1250, for the command of the Nile, by + which he drew supplies from Damietta, and he met it, according to Matthew + Paris, because his ships could not withstand Greek fire. Gunpowder, even + in a very simple form, might have changed the fate of the war. + </p> + <p> + Scepticism touching the value of relics as a means for controlling nature + was an effect of experiment, and, logically enough, scepticism advanced + fastest among certain ecclesiastics who dealt in relics. For example, in + 1248 Saint Louis undertook to invade Egypt in defence of the cross. + Possibly Saint Louis may have been affected by economic considerations + also touching the eastern trade, but his ostensible object was a crusade. + The risk was very great, the cost enormous, and the responsibility the + king assumed of the most serious kind. Nothing that he could do was left + undone to ensure success. In 1249 he captured Damietta, and then stood in + need of every pound of money and of every man that Christendom could + raise; yet at this crisis the Church thought chiefly of making what it + could in cash out of the war, the inference being that the hierarchy + suspected that even if Saint Louis prevailed and occupied Jerusalem, + little would be gained from an ecclesiastical standpoint. At all events, + Matthew Paris has left an account, in his chronicle of the year 1249, of + how the pope and the Franciscans preached this crusade, which is one of + the most suggestive passages in thirteenth-century literature: + </p> + <p> + “About the same time, by command of the pope, whom they obeyed implicitly, + the Preacher and Minorite brethren diligently employed themselves in + preaching; and to increase the devotion of the Christians, they went with + great solemnity to the places where their preaching was previously + indicated, and granted many days of indulgence to those who came to hear + them.... Preaching on behalf of the cross, they bestowed that symbol on + people of every age, sex and rank, whatever their property or worth, and + even on sick men and women, and those who were deprived of strength by + sickness or old age; and on the next day, or even directly afterwards, + receiving it back from them, they absolved them from their vow of + pilgrimage, for whatever sum they could obtain for the favour. What seemed + unsuitable and absurd was, that not many days afterwards, Earl Richard + collected all this money in his treasury, by the agency of Master Bernard, + an Italian clerk, who gathered in the fruit; whereby no slight scandal + arose in the Church of God, and amongst the people in general, and the + devotion of the faithful evidently cooled.” [Footnote: Matthew Paris, <i>English + History</i>, translated by the Rev. J. A, Giles, II, 309.] + </p> + <p> + When the unfortunate Baldwin II became Emperor of the East in 1237, the + relics of the passion were his best asset. In 1238, while Baldwin was in + France trying to obtain aid, the French barons who carried on the + government at Constantinople in his absence were obliged to pledge the + crown of thorns to an Italian syndicate for 13,134 perpera, which Gibbon + conjectures to have been besants. Baldwin was notified of the pledge and + urged to arrange for its redemption. He met with no difficulty. He + confidently addressed himself to Saint Louis and Queen Blanche, and + “Although the king felt keen displeasure at the deplorable condition of + Constantinople, he was well pleased, nevertheless, with the opportunity of + adorning France with the richest and most precious treasure in all + Christendom.” More especially with “a relic, and a sacred object which was + not on the commercial market.” [Footnote: Du Cange, <i>Histoire de + L’empire de Constantinople sous les empereurs Français</i>, edition de + Buchon, I, 259.] + </p> + <p> + Louis, beside paying the loan and the cost of transportation which came to + two thousand French pounds (the mark being then coined into £2, 15 sous + and 6 pence), made Baldwin a present of ten thousand pounds for acting as + broker. Baldwin was so well contented with this sale which he closed in + 1239, that a couple of years later he sent to Paris all the contents of + his private chapel which had any value. Part of the treasure was a + fragment of what purported to be the cross, but the authenticity of this + relic was doubtful; there was beside, however, the baby linen, the + spear-head, the sponge, and the chain, beside several miscellaneous + articles like the rod of Moses. + </p> + <p> + Louis built the Sainte Chapelle at a cost of twenty thousand marks as a + shrine in which to deposit them. The Sainte Chapelle has usually ranked as + the most absolutely perfect specimen of mediaeval religious architecture. + [Footnote: On this whole subject of the inter-relation of mediæval + theology with architecture and philosophy the reader is referred to <i>Mont-Saint-Michel + et Chartres</i>, by Henry Adams, which is the most philosophical and + thorough exposition of this subject which ever has been attempted.] + </p> + <p> + When Saint Louis bought the Crown of Thorns from Baldwin in 1239, the + commercial value of relics may, possibly, be said to have touched its + highest point, but, in fact, the adoration of them had culminated with the + collapse of the Second Crusade, and in another century and a half the + market had decisively broken and the Reformation had already begun, with + the advent of Wycliffe and the outbreak of Wat Tyler’s Rebellion in 1381. + For these social movements have always a common cause and reach a + predetermined result. + </p> + <p> + In the eleventh century the convent of Cluny, for example, had an enormous + and a perfectly justified hold upon the popular imagination, because of + the sanctity and unselfishness of its abbots. Saint Hugh won his sainthood + by a self-denial and effort which were impossible to ordinary men, but + with Louis IX the penitential life had already lost its attractions and + men like Arnold rapidly brought religion and religious thought into + contempt. The famous Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, born, probably, in + 1175, died in 1253. He presided over the diocese of Lincoln at the precise + moment when Saint Louis was building the Sainte Chapelle, but Grosseteste + in 1250 denounced in a sermon at Lyons the scandals of the papal court + with a ferocity which hardly was surpassed at any later day. + </p> + <p> + To attempt even an abstract of the thought of the English Reformation + would lead too far, however fascinating the subject might be. It must + suffice to say briefly that theology had little or nothing to do with it. + Wycliffe denounced the friars as lazy, profligate impostors, who wrung + money from the poor which they afterwards squandered in ways offensive to + God, and he would have stultified himself had he admitted, in the same + breath, that these reprobates, when united, formed a divinely illuminated + corporation, each member of which could and did work innumerable miracles + through the interposition of Christ. Ordinary miracles, indeed, could be + tested by the senses, but the essence of transubstantiation was that it + eluded the senses. Thus nothing could be more convenient to the government + than to make this invisible and intangible necromancy a test in capital + cases for heresy-Hence Wycliffe had no alternative but to deny + transubstantiation, for nothing could be more insulting to the + intelligence than to adore a morsel of bread which a priest held in his + hand. The pretension of the priests to make the flesh of Christ was, + according to Wycliffe, an impudent fraud, and their pretension to possess + this power was only an excuse by which they enforced their claim to + collect fees, and what amounted to extortionate taxes, from the people. + [Footnote: Nowhere, perhaps, does Wycliffe express himself more strongly + on this subject than in a little tract called <i>The Wicket</i>, written + in English, which he issued for popular consumption about this time.] But, + in the main, no dogma, however incomprehensible, ever troubled + Protestants, as a class. They easily accepted the Trinity, the double + procession, or the Holy Ghost itself, though no one had the slightest + notion what the Holy Ghost might be. Wycliffe roundly declared in the + first paragraph of his confession [Footnote: Fasciculi Zizaniorum, 115.] + that the body of Christ which was crucified was truly and really in the + consecrated host, and Huss, who inherited the Wycliffian tradition, + answered before the Council of Constance, “Verily, I do think that the + body of Christ is really and totally in the sacrament of the altar, which + was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, died, and rose again, and sitteth + on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” [Footnote: Foxe, <i>Acts + and Monuments</i>, III, 452.] That which has rent society in twain and has + caused blood to flow like water, has never been abstract opinions, but + that economic competition either between states or classes, that lust for + power and wealth, which makes a vested interest. Thus by 1382 the + eucharist had come to represent to the privileged classes power and + wealth, and they would have repudiated Wycliffe even had they felt strong + enough to support him. But they were threatened by an adversary equally + formidable with heresy in the person of the villeins whom the constantly + increasing momentum of the time had raised into a position in which they + undertook to compete for the ownership of the land which they still tilled + as technical serfs. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. + </h2> + <p> + Now the courts may say what they will in support of the vested interests, + for to support vested interests is what lawyers are paid for and what + courts are made for. Only, unhappily, in the process of argument courts + and lawyers have caused blood to flow copiously, for in spite of all that + can be said to the contrary, men have practically proved that they do own + all the property they can defend, all the courts in Christendom + notwithstanding, and this is an issue of physical force and not at all of + words or of parchments. And so it proved to be in England in the + fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, alike in Church and State. It was a + matter of rather slow development. After the conquest villeins could + neither in fact nor theory acquire or hold property as against their lord, + and the class of landlords stretched upwards from the owner of a knight’s + fee to the king on his throne, who was the chief landlord of all, but by + so narrow a margin that he often had enough to do to maintain some vestige + of sovereignty. So, to help himself, it came to pass that the king + intrigued with the serfs against their restive masters, and the abler the + king, the more he intrigued, like Henry I, until the villeins gained very + substantial advantages. Thus it was that toward 1215, or pretty nearly + contemporaneously with the epoch when men like Grosseteste began to show + restlessness under the extortionate corruption of the Church, the villein + was discovered to be able to defend his claim to some portion of the + increment in the value of the land which he tilled and which was due to + his labor: and this title the manorial courts recognized, because they + could not help it, as a sort of tenant right, calling it a customary + tenancy by base service. A century later these services in kind had been + pretty frequently commuted into a fixed rent paid in money, and the serf + had become a freeman, and a rather formidable freeman, too. For it was + largely from among these technical serfs that Edward III recruited the + infantry who formed his line at Crécy in 1346, and the archers of Crécy + were not exactly the sort of men who take kindly to eviction, to say + nothing of slavery. As no one meddled much with the villeins before 1349, + all went well until after Crécy, but in 1348 the Black Death ravaged + England, and so many laborers died that the cost of farming property by + hired hands exceeded the value of the rent which the villeins paid. Then + the landlords, under the usual reactionary and dangerous legal advice, + tried coercion. Their first experiment was the famous Statute of Laborers, + which fixed wages at the rates which prevailed in 1347, but as this + statute accomplished nothing the landlords repudiated their contracts, and + undertook to force their villeins to render their ancient customary + services. Though the lay landlords were often hard masters, the + ecclesiastics, especially the monks, were harder still, and the + ecclesiastics were served by lawyers of their own cloth, whose sharp + practice became proverbial. Thus the law declined to recognize rights in + property existing in fact, with the inevitable result of the peasant + rising in 1381, known as Wat Tyler’s Rebellion. Popular rage perfectly + logically ran highest against the monks and the lawyers. Both the + Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon de Sudbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the + Chief Justice were killed, and the insurgents wished to kill, as Capgrave + has related, “all the men that had learned ony law.” Finally the rebellion + was suppressed, chiefly by the duplicity of Richard II. Richard promised + the people, by written charters, a permanent tenure as freemen at + reasonable rents, and so induced them to go home with his charters in + their hands; but they were no sooner gone than vengeance began. Though + Richard had been at the peasants’ mercy, who might have killed him had + they wished, punitive expeditions were sent in various directions. One was + led by Richard himself, who travelled with Tresilian, the new Chief + Justice, the man who afterward was himself hanged at Tyburn. Tresilian + worked so well that he is said to have strung up a dozen villeins to a + single beam in Chelmsford because he had no time to have them executed + regularly. Stubbs has estimated that seven thousand victims hardly + satisfied the landlords’ sense of outraged justice. What concerns us, + chiefly, is that this repression, however savage, failed altogether to + bring tranquillity. After 1381 a full century of social chaos supervened, + merging at times into actual civil war, until, in 1485, Henry Tudor came + in after his victory at Bosworth, pledged to destroy the whole reactionary + class which incarnated feudalism. For the feudal soldier was neither + flexible nor astute, and allowed himself to be caught between the upper + and the nether millstone. While industrial and commercial capital had been + increasing in the towns, capitalistic methods of farming had invaded the + country, and, as police improved, private and predatory warfare, as a + business, could no longer be made to pay. The importance of a feudal noble + lay in the body of retainers who followed his banner, and therefore the + feudal tendency always was to overcharge the estate with military + expenditure. Hence, to protect themselves from creditors, the landlords + passed the Statute <i>De Donis</i> [Footnote: 13 Edw. I, c. I (A.D. + 1284).] which made entails inalienable. Toward the end of the Wars of the + Roses, however, the pressure for money, which could only be raised by + pledging their land, became too strong for the feudal aristocracy. Edward + IV, who was a very able man, perceived, pretty early in his reign, that + his class could not maintain themselves unless their land were put upon a + commercial basis. Therefore he encouraged the judges, in the collusive + litigation known to us as Taltarum’s Case, decided in 1472, to set aside + the Statute <i>De Donis</i>, by the fiction of the Common Recovery. The + concession, even so, came too late. The combination against them had grown + too strong for the soldiers to resist. Other classes evolved by + competition wanted their property, and these made Henry Tudor king of + England to seize it for them. + </p> + <p> + Henry’s work was simple enough. After Bosworth, with a competent police + force at hand to execute process, he had only to organize a political + court, and to ruin by confiscatory fines all the families strong enough, + or rash enough, to maintain garrisoned houses. So Henry remodelled the + Star Chamber, in 1486, [Footnote: 3 Henry 7, C 1.] to deal with the + martial gentry, and before long a new type of intelligence possessed the + kingdom. + </p> + <p> + The feudal soldiers being disposed of, it remained to evict the monks, who + were thus left without their natural defenders. No matter of faith was + involved. Henry VIII boasted that in doctrine he was as orthodox as the + pope. There was, however, an enormous monastic landed property to be + redistributed This was confiscated, and appropriated, not to public + purposes, but, as usually happens in revolutions, to the use of the + astutest of the revolutionists. Among these, John Russell, afterward Earl + of Bedford, stood preeminent. Russell had no particular pedigree or + genius, save the acquisitive genius, but he made himself useful to Henry + in such judicial murders as that of Richard Whiting, Abbot of Glastonbury. + He received in payment, among much else, Woburn Abbey, which has since + remained the Bedford country seat, and Covent Garden or Convent Garden, + one of the most valuable parcels of real estate in London. Covent Garden + the present duke recently sold, anticipating, perhaps, some such + legislation as ruined the monks and made his ancestor’s fortune. As for + the monks whom Henry evicted, they wandered forth from their homes + beggars, and Henry hanged all of them whom he could catch as vagrants. How + many perished as counterpoise for the peasant massacres and Lollard + burnings of the foregoing two centuries can never be known, nor to us is + it material. What is essential to mark, from the legal standpoint, is that + while this long and bloody revolution, of one hundred and fifty years, + displaced a favored class and confiscated its property, it raised up in + their stead another class of land monopolists, rather more greedy and + certainly quite as cruel as those whom they superseded. Also, in spite of + all opposition, labor did make good its claim to participate more or less + fully in the ownership of the property it cultivated, for while the + holding of the ancient villein grew to be well recognized in the royal + courts as a copyhold estate, villeinage itself disappeared. + </p> + <p> + Yet, unless I profoundly err, in the revolution of the sixteenth century, + the law somewhat conspicuously failed in its function of moderating + competition, for I am persuaded that competition of another kind + sharpened, and shortly caused a second civil war bloodier than the Wars of + the Roses. + </p> + <p> + Fifteen years before the convents were seized, Sir Thomas More wrote <i>Utopia</i>, + in whose opening chapter More has given an account of a dinner at Cardinal + Morton’s, who, by the way, presided in the Star Chamber. At this dinner + one of the cardinal’s guests reflected on the thievish propensities of + Englishmen, who were to be found throughout the country hanged as felons, + sometimes twenty together on a single gallows. More protested that this + was not the fault of the poor who were hanged, but of rich land + monopolists, who pastured sheep and left no fields for tillage. According + to More, these capitalists plucked down houses and even towns, leaving + nothing but the church for a sheep-house, so that “by covin and fraud, or + by violent oppression, ... or by wrongs and injuries,” the husbandmen “be + thrust out of their own,” and, “must needs depart away, poor, wretched + souls, men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless children, widows.” The + dissolution of the convents accelerated the process, and more and more of + the weaker yeomanry were ruined and evicted. It is demonstrated that the + pauperization of the feebler rural population went on apace by the passage + of poor-laws under Elizabeth, which, in the Middle Ages, had not been + needed and, therefore, were unknown. This movement, described by More, was + the beginning of the system of enclosing common lands which afterward + wrought havoc among the English yeomen, and which, I suppose, contributed + more than any other single cause to the Great Rebellion of the seventeenth + century. In the mediæval village the owners of small farms enjoyed certain + rights in the common land of the community, affording them pasturage for + their cattle and the like, rights without which small farming could not be + made profitable. These commons the land monopolists appropriated, + sometimes giving some shadow of compensation, sometimes by undisguised + force, but on the whole compensation amounted to so little that the + enclosure of the commons must rank as confiscation. Also this seizure of + property would doubtless have caused a convulsion as lasting as that which + followed the insurrection of 1381, or as did actually occur in Ireland, + had it not been for an unparalleled contemporaneous territorial and + industrial expansion. Thorold Rogers always insisted that between 1563, + the year of the passage of the Statute of Apprentices, [Footnote: 5 Eliz. + c. 4.] and 1824, a regular conspiracy existed between the lawyers “and the + parties interested in its success ... to cheat the English workman of his + wages, ... and to degrade him to irremediable poverty.” [Footnote: <i>Work + and Wages</i>, 398.] Certainly the land monopolists resorted to strong + measures to accumulate land, for something like six hundred and fifty + Enclosure Acts were passed between 1760, the opening of the Industrial + Revolution, and 1774, the outbreak of the American War. But without + insisting on Rogers’s view, it is not denied that the weakest of the small + yeomen sank into utter misery, becoming paupers or worse. On the other + hand, of those stronger some emigrated to America, others, who were among + the ablest and the boldest, sought fortune as adventurers over the whole + earth, and, like the grandfather of Chatham, brought home from India as + smugglers or even as pirates, diamonds to be sold to kings for their + crowns, or, like Clive, became the greatest generals and administrators of + the nation. Probably, however, by far the majority of those who were of + average capacity found compensation for the confiscated commons in + domestic industry, owning their houses with lots of land and the tools of + their trade. Defoe has left a charming description of the region about + Halifax in Yorkshire, toward the year 1730, where he found the whole + population busy, prosperous, healthy, and, in the main, self-sufficing. He + did not see a beggar or an idle person in the whole country. So, favored + by circumstances, the landed oligarchy met with no effective resistance + after the death of Cromwell, and achieved what amounted to being + autocratic power in 1688. Their great triumph was the conversion of the + House of Commons into their own personal property, about the beginning of + the eighteenth century, with all the guaranties of law. In the Middle Ages + the chief towns of England had been summoned by the king to send burgesses + to Westminster to grant him money, but as time elapsed the Commons + acquired influence and, in 1642, became dominant. Then, after the + Restoration, the landlords conceived the idea of appropriating the right + of representation, as they had appropriated and were appropriating the + common lands. Lord John Russell one day observed in the House of Commons + that the burgesses were originally chosen from among the inhabitants of + the towns they represented, but that, in the reign of Anne, the landlords, + to depress the shipping interest, opened the borough representation to all + qualified persons without regard to domicile. [Footnote: 36 Hansard, Third + Series, 548.] Lord John was mistaken in his date, for the change occurred + earlier, but he described correctly enough the persistent animus of the + landlords. An important part of their policy turned on the so-called + Determination Acts of 1696 and 1729, which defined the franchises and + which had the effect of confirming the titles of patrons to borough + property, [Footnote: Porritt, <i>Unreformed House of Commons</i>, I, 9, <i>et + seq.</i>] thus making a seat in the House of Commons an incorporeal + hereditament fully recognized by law. On this point so high an authority + as Lord Eldon was emphatic. [Footnote: 12 Hansard, Third Series, 396.] By + the time of the American War the oligarchy had become so narrow that one + hundred and fifty-four peers and commoners returned three hundred and + seven members, or much more than a majority of the House as then + organized. [Footnote: Grey’s motion for Reform, 30 <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 795 + (A.D. 1793)] With the privileged class reduced to these contemptible + numbers a catastrophe necessarily followed. Almost impregnable as the + position of the oligarchy appeared, it yet had its vulnerable point. As + Burke told the Duke of Portland, a duke’s power did not come from his + title, but from his wealth, and the landlords’ wealth rested on their + ability to draw a double rent from their estates, one rent for themselves, + and another to provide for the farmer to whom they let their acres. + Evidently British land could not bear this burden if brought in + competition with other equally good land that paid only a single rent, and + from a pretty early period the landlords appear to have been alive to this + fact. Nevertheless, ocean freights afforded a fair protection, and as long + as the industrial population remained tolerably self-supporting, England + rather tended to export than to import grain. But toward 1760 advances in + applied science profoundly modified the equilibrium of English society. + The new inventions, stimulated by steam, could only be utilized by costly + machinery installed in large factories, which none but considerable + capitalists could build, but once in operation the product of these + factories undersold domestic labor, and ruined and evicted the population + of whole regions like Halifax. These unfortunate laborers were thrust in + abject destitution into filthy and dark alleys in cities, where they + herded in masses, in misery and crime. In consequence grain rose in value, + so much so that in 1766 prayers were offered touching its price. + Thenceforward England imported largely from America, and in 1773 + Parliament was constrained to reduce the duty on wheat to a point lower + than the gentry conceded again, until the total repeal of the Corn Laws in + 1846. [Footnote: John Morley, <i>The Life of Richard Cobden</i>, 167, note + 5.] The situation was well understood in London. Burke, Governor Pownall, + and others explained it in Parliament, while Chatham implored the + landlords not to alienate America, which they could not, he told them, + conquer, but which gave them a necessary market,—a market as he + aptly said, both of supply and demand. And Chatham was right, for America + not only supplied the grain to feed English labor, but bought from England + at least one third of all her surplus manufactures. + </p> + <p> + This brings us to the eighteenth century, which directly concerns us, + because the religious superstition, which had previously caused men to + seek in a conscious supreme energy the effective motor in human affairs, + had waned, and the problem presented was reduced to the operation of that + acceleration of movement by the progress of applied science which always + has been, and always must be, the prime cause of the quickening of + economic competition either as between communities or as between + individuals. And this is the capital phenomenon of civilization. For it is + now generally admitted that war is nothing but economic competition in its + acutest form. When competition reaches a certain intensity it kindles into + war or revolution, precisely as when iron is raised to a certain heat it + kindles into flame. And, for the purposes of illustration, possibly the + best method of showing how competition was quickened, and how it affected + adjacent communities during the eighteenth century, is to take navigation, + not only because navigation was much improved during the first three + quarters of that period, but because both England and France competed for + control in America by means of ships. It suffices to mention, very + succinctly, a few of the more salient advances which were then made. + </p> + <p> + Toward 1761 John Harrison produced the chronometer, by which longitude + could be determined at sea, making the ship independent in all parts of + the world. At the same time more ingenious rigging increased her power of + working to windward. With such advantages Captain Cook became a mighty + discoverer both in the southern and western oceans, charted New Zealand + and much else, and more important than all, in 1759 he surveyed the Saint + Lawrence and piloted ships up the river, of which he had established the + channel. Speaking of Cook naturally leads to the solution of the problem + of the transportation of men, sailors, soldiers, and emigrants, on long + voyages, thereby making population fluid. Cook, in his famous report, read + before the Royal Society in March, 1776, after his second voyage, + established forever the hygienic principles by observing which a ship’s + company may safely be kept at sea for any length of time. Previously there + had always been a very high mortality from scurvy and kindred diseases, + which had, of course, operated as a very serious check to human movement. + On land the same class of phenomena were even more marked. In England the + Industrial Revolution is usually held to date from 1760, and, by common + consent, the Industrial Revolution is attributed altogether to applied + science, or, in other words, to mechanical inventions. In 1760 the + flying-shuttle appeared, and coal began to replace wood for smelting. In + 1764 Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny; in 1779 Crompton contrived + the mule; and in 1768 Watt brought the steam-engine to maturity. In 1761 + the first boat-load of coals sailed over the Barton viaduct, which James + Brindley built for the Duke of Bridgewater’s canal, to connect Worsley + with Manchester, thus laying the foundation of British inland navigation, + which before the end of the century had covered England; while John + Metcalf, the blind road-builder, began his lifework in 1765. He was + destined to improve English highways, which up to that time had been + mostly impossible for wheeled traffic. In France the same advance went on. + Arthur Young described the impression made on him in 1789 by the + magnificence of the French roads which had been built since the + administration of Colbert, as well as by the canal which connected the + Mediterranean with the Atlantic. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of this activity Washington grew up. Washington was a born + soldier, engineer, and surveyor with the topographical instinct peculiar + to that temperament. As early as 1748 he was chosen by Lord Fairfax, who + recognized his ability, though only sixteen years old, to survey his vast + estate west of the Blue Ridge, which was then a wilderness. He spent three + years in this work and did it well. In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie sent + Washington on a mission to the French commander on the Ohio, to warn him + to cease trespassing on English territory, a mission which Washington + fulfilled, under considerable hardship and some peril, with eminent + success. Thus early, for he was then only twenty-two, Washington gained + that thorough understanding of the North American river system which + enabled him, many years afterward, to construct the Republic of the United + States upon the lines of least resistant intercommunication. And + Washington’s conception of the problem and his solution thereof were, in + substance, this: + </p> + <p> + The American continent, west of the mountains and south of the Great + Lakes, is traversed in all directions by the Mississippi and its + tributaries, but we may confine our attention to two systems of + watercourses, the one to the west, forming by the Wisconsin and the main + arm of the Mississippi, a thoroughfare from Lake Michigan to the Gulf; and + the other by French Creek and the Allegheny, broken only by one easy + portage, affording a perfect means of access to the Ohio, a river which + has always operated as the line of cleavage between our northern and + southern States. The French starting from Quebec floated from Lake Erie + down the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, the English ascended the Potomac to + Cumberland, and thence, following the most practicable watercourses, + advanced on the French position at the junction of the Allegheny and the + Monongahela. There Washington met and fought them in 1754, and ever after + Washington maintained that the only method by which a stable union among + the colonies could be secured was by a main trunk system of transportation + along the line of the Ohio and the Potomac. This was to be his canal which + should bind north and south, east and west, together by a common interest, + and which should carry the produce of the west, north, and south, to the + Atlantic coast, where it should be discharged at the head of deep-water + navigation, and which should thus stimulate industry adjacent to the spot + he chose for the Federal City, or, in our language, for the City of + Washington. Thus the capital of the United States was to become the + capital of a true nation, not as a political compromise, but because it + lay at the central point of a community made cohesive by a social + circulation which should build it up, in his own words, into a capital, or + national heart, if not “as large as London, yet of a magnitude inferior to + few others in Europe.” [Footnote: Washington to Mrs. Fairfax, 16 May, + 1798; Sparks, xi, 233.] Maryland and Virginia abounded, as Washington well + knew, in coal and iron. His canal passing through this region would + stimulate industry, and these States would thus become the focus of + exchanges. Manufacturing is incompatible with slavery, hence slavery would + gradually and peacefully disappear, and the extremities of the Union would + be drawn together at what he described as “the great emporium of the + United States.” To crown all, a national university was to make this + emporium powerful in collective thought. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless Grenville and Townshend had not considered the American problem + as maturely as had Washington, but nevertheless, most well-informed + persons now agree that Englishmen in 1763 were quite alive to the + advantages which would accrue to Great Britain, by holding in absolute + control a rich but incoherent body of colonies whose administrative centre + lay in England, and were as anxious that London should serve as the heart + of America as Washington was that America should have its heart on the + Potomac. + </p> + <p> + Accordingly, England attempted to isolate Massachusetts and pressed an + attack on her with energy, before the whole thirteen colonies should be + able to draw to a unity. On the other hand, Washington, and most sensible + Americans, resisted this attack as resolutely as might be under such + disadvantages, not wishing for independence, but hoping for some + compromise like that which Great Britain has since effected with her + remaining colonies. The situation, however, admitted of no peaceful + adjustment, chiefly because the imbecility of American administration + induced by her incapacity for collective thought, was so manifest, that + Englishmen could not believe that such a society could wage a successful + war. Nor could America have done so alone. She owed her ultimate victory + altogether to Washington and France. + </p> + <p> + It would occupy too much space for me to undertake to analyze, even + superficially, the process by which, after the Seven Years’ War, + competition between America and England reached an intensity which kindled + the American Revolution, but, shortly stated, the economic tension arose + thus: As England was then organized, the estates of the English landlords + had to pay two rents, one to the landlord himself, the other to the farmer + who leased his land, and this it could not do were it brought into direct + competition with equally good land which paid but one profit, and which + was not burdened by an excessive cost of transportation in reaching its + market. As freights between England and America fell because of improved + shipping and the greater safety of the seas, England had to have + protection for her food and she proposed to get it thus: If competing + Continental exports could be excluded from America, and, at the same time, + Americans could be prevented from manufacturing for themselves, the + colonists might be constrained to take what they needed from England, at + prices which would enable labor to buy food at a rate which would yield + the double profit, and thus America could be made to pay the cost of + supporting the landlords. As Cobden afterward observed, the fortunes of + England have turned on American competition. A part of these fortunes were + represented by the Parliamentary boroughs which the landlords owned and + which were confiscated by the Reform Bill, and these boroughs were held by + Lord Eldon to be incorporeal hereditaments: as truly a part of the private + property of the gentry who owned them as church advowsons, or the like. + And the gentry held to their law-making power which gave them such a + privilege with a tenacity which precipitated two wars before they yielded; + but this was naught compared to the social convulsion which rent France, + when a population which had been for centuries restrained from free + domestic movement, burst its bonds and insisted on levelling the barriers + which had immobilized it. + </p> + <p> + The story of the French Revolution is too familiar to need recapitulation + here: indeed, I have already dealt with it in my <i>Social Revolutions</i>; + but the effects of that convulsion are only now beginning to appear, and + these effects, without the shadow of a doubt, have been in their ultimate + development the occasion of that great war whose conclusion we still + await. + </p> + <p> + France, in 1792, having passed into a revolution which threatened the + vested interests of Prussia, was attacked by Prussia, who was defeated at + Valmy. Presently, France retaliated, under Napoleon, invaded Prussia, + crushed her army at Jena, in 1807, dismembered the kingdom and imposed on + her many hardships. To obtain their freedom the Prussians found it needful + to reorganize their social system from top to bottom, for this social + system had descended from Frederic William, the Great Elector of + Brandenburg (1640-1688), and from Frederic the Great (1740-1786), and was + effete and incapable of meeting the French onset, which amounted, in + substance, to a quickened competition. Accordingly, the new Prussian + constitution, conceived by Stein, put the community upon a relatively + democratic and highly developed educational basis. By the Emancipating + Edict of 1807, the peasantry came into possession of their land, while, + chiefly through the impulsion of Scharnhorst, who was the first chief of + staff of the modern army, the country adopted universal military service, + which proved to be popular throughout all ranks. Previous to Scharnhorst, + under Frederic the Great, the qualification of an officer had been birth. + Scharnhorst defined it as education, gallantry, and intelligence. + Similarly, Gneisenau’s conception of a possible Prussian supremacy lay in + its army, its science, and its administration. But the civil service was + intended to incarnate science, and was the product of the modernized + university, exemplified in the University of Berlin organized by William + von Humboldt. Herein lay the initial advantage which Germany gained over + England, an advantage which she long maintained. And the advantage lay in + this: Germany conceived a system of technical education matured and put in + operation by the State. Hence, so far as in human affairs such things are + possible, the intelligence of Germans was liberated from the incubus of + vested interests, who always seek to use education to advance themselves. + It was so in England. The English entrusted education to the Church, and + the Church was, by the necessity of its being, reactionary and hostile to + science, whereas the army, in the main, was treated in England as a social + function, and the officers, speaking generally, were not technically + specially educated at all. Hence, in foreign countries, but especially in + Germany which was destined to be ultimately England’s great competitor, + England laid herself open to rather more than a suspicion of weakness, and + indeed, when it came to a test, England found herself standing, for + several years of war, at a considerable disadvantage because of the lack + of education in those departments wherein Germany had, by the attack of + France, been forced to make herself proficient. This any one may see for + himself by reading the addresses of Fichte to the German nation, delivered + in 1807 and 1808, when Berlin was still occupied by the French. In fine, + it was with Prussia a question of competition, brought to its ultimate + tension by war. Prussia had no alternative as a conquered land but to + radically accelerate her momentum, or perish. And so, at the present day, + it may not improbably be with us. Competition must grow intenser. + </p> + <p> + With England the situation in 1800 was very different. It was less + strenuous. Nothing is more notable in England than to observe how, after + the Industrial Revolution began, there was practically no means by which a + poor man could get an education, save by educating himself. For instance, + in February 1815, four months before Waterloo, George Stephenson took out + a patent for the locomotive engine which was to revolutionize the world. + But George Stephenson was a common laborer in the mines, who had no state + instruction available, nor had he even any private institution at hand in + which the workmen whom he employed in practical construction could be + taught. He and his son Robert, had to organize instruction for themselves + and their employees independently. So it was even with a man like Faraday, + who began life as an errand boy, and later on who actually went abroad as + a sort of valet to Sir Humphry Davy. Davy himself was a self-made man. In + short, England, as a community, did little or nothing by education for + those who had no means, and but little to draw any one toward science. It + was at this precise moment that Germany was cast into the furnace of + modern competition with England, who had, because of a series of causes, + chiefly geographical, topographical, and mineralogical, about a century + the start of her. Against this advantage Germany had to rely exclusively + upon civil and military education. At first this competition by Germany + took a military complexion, and very rapidly wrought the complete + consolidation of Germany by the Austrian and the French wars. But this + phase presently passed, and after the French campaign of 1870 the purely + economic aspect of the situation developed more strenuously still, so much + so that intelligent observers, among whom Lord Roberts was conspicuous, + perceived quite early in the present century that the heat generated in + the conflict must, probably, soon engender war. Nor could it either + theoretically or practically have been otherwise, for the relations + between the two countries had reached a point where they generated a + friction which caused incandescence automatically. And, moreover, the + inflammable material fit for combustion was, especially in Germany, + present in quantity. From the time of Fichte and Scharnhorst downward to + the end of the century, the whole nation had learned, as a sort of gospel, + that the German education produced a most superior engine of economic + competition, whereas the slack education and frivolous amusements of + English civil and military life alike, had gradually created a society apt + to crumble. And it is only needful for any person who has the curiosity, + to glance at the light literature of the Victorian age, which deals with + the army, to see how dominant a part such an amusement as hunting played + in the life of the younger officers, especially in the fashionable + regiments, to be impressed with the soundness of much of this German + criticism. + </p> + <p> + Assuming, then, for the sake of argument, that these historical premises + are sound, I proceed to consider how they bear on our prospective + civilization. + </p> + <p> + This is eminently a scientific age, and yet the scientific mind, as it is + now produced among us, is not without tendencies calculated to cause + uneasiness to those a little conversant with history or philosophy. For + whereas no one in these days would dream of utilizing prayer, as did Moses + or Saint Hugh, as a mechanical energy, nevertheless the search for a + universal prime motor goes on unabated, and yet it accomplishes nothing to + the purpose. On the contrary, the effect is one which could neither be + expected nor desired. Instead of being an aid to social coordination, it + stimulates disintegration to a high degree as the war has shown. It has + stimulated disintegration in two ways. First, it has enormously quickened + physical movement, which has already been discussed, and secondly, it has + stimulated the rapidity with which thought is diffused. The average human + being can only absorb and assimilate safely new forms of thought when + given enough time for digestion, as if he were assimilating food. If he be + plied with new thought too rapidly he fails to digest. He has a surfeit, + serious in proportion to its enormity. That is to say, his power of + drawing correct conclusions from the premises submitted to him fails, and + we have all sorts of crude experiments in sociology attempted, which end + in that form of chaos which we call a violent revolution. The ordinary + result is infinite waste fomented by fallacious hopes; in a word, + financial disaster, supplemented usually by loss of life. The experience + is an old one, and the result is almost invariable. + </p> + <p> + For example, during the Middle Ages, men like Saint Hugh and Peter the + Venerable, and, most of all, Saint Francis, possessed by dreams of + attaining to perfection, by leading lives of inimitable purity, + self-devotion, and asceticism, inspired the community about them with the + conviction that they could work miracles. They thereby, as a reward, drew + to the Church they served what amounted to being, considering the age they + lived in, boundless wealth. But the effect of this economic phenomenon was + far from what they had hoped or expected. Instead of raising the moral + standard of men to a point where all the world would be improved, they so + debased the hierarchy, by making money the standard of ambition within it, + that, as a whole, the priesthood accepted, without any effective protest, + the fires of the Council of Constance which consumed Huss, and the + abominations of the Borgias at Rome. Perfectly logically, as a corollary + to this orgy of crime and bestiality, the wars of the Reformation swept + away many, many thousands of human beings, wasted half of Europe, and only + served to demonstrate the futility of ideals. + </p> + <p> + And so it was with the Puritans, who were themselves the children of the + revolt against social corruption. They fondly believed that a new era was + to be ushered in by the rule of the Cromwellian saints. What the + Cromwellian saints did in truth usher in, was the carnival of debauchery + of Charles II, in its turn to be succeeded by the capitalistic competitive + age which we have known, and which has abutted in the recent war. + </p> + <p> + Man can never hope to change his physical necessities, and therefore his + moral nature must always remain the same in essence, if not in form. As + Washington truly said, “The motives which predominate most in human + affairs are self-love and self-interest,” and “nothing binds one country + or one state to another but interest.” + </p> + <p> + If, then, it be true, that man is an automatic animal moving always along + the paths of least resistance toward predetermined ends, it cannot fail to + be useful to us in the present emergency to mark, as distinctly as we can, + the causes which impelled Germany, at a certain point in her career, to + choose the paths which led to her destruction rather than those which, at + the first blush, promised as well, and which seemed to be equally as easy + and alluring. And we may possibly, by this process, expose certain + phenomena which may profit us, since such an examination may help us to + estimate what avenues are like to prove ultimately the least resistant. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the Middle Ages North Germany, which is the region whereof + Berlin is the capital, enjoyed relatively little prosperity, because + Brandenburg, for example, lay beyond the zone of those main trade routes + which, before the advent of railways, served as the arteries of the + eastern trade. Not until after the opening of the Industrial Revolution in + England, did that condition alter. Nor even then did a change come rapidly + because of the inertia of the Russian people. Nevertheless, as the Russian + railway system developed, Berlin one day found herself standing, as it + were, at the apex of a vast triangle whose boundaries are, roughly, + indicated by the position of Berlin itself, Petersburg, Warsaw, Moscow, + Kiev, and the Ukraine. Beyond Berlin the stream of traffic flowed to + Hamburg and thence found vent in America, as a terminus. Great Britain, + more especially, demanded food, and food passed by sea from Odessa. Hence + Russia served as a natural base for Germany, taking German manufactures + and offering to Germany a reservoir capable of absorbing her redundant + population. Thus it had long been obvious that intimate relations with + Russia were of prime importance to Germany since all the world could + perceive that the monied interests of Russia must more and more fall into + German hands, because of the intellectual limitations of the Russians. + Also pacification to the eastward always was an integral part of + Bismarck’s policy. Notwithstanding which other influences conflicted with, + and ultimately overbalanced, this eastern trend in Germany. + </p> + <p> + For many thousand years before written history began, the economic capital + of the world, the seat for the time being of opulence and of splendor, and + at once the admiration and the envy of less favored rivals, has been a + certain ambulatory spot upon the earth’s surface, at a point where the + lines of trade from east to west have converged. And always the marked + idiosyncrasy of this spot has been its unrest. It has constantly + oscillated from east to west according as the fortunes of war have + prevailed, or as the march of applied science has made one or another + route of transportation cheaper or more defensible. + </p> + <p> + Thus Babylon was conquered and robbed by Rome, and Rome, after a long + heyday of prosperity, yielded to Constantinople, while Constantinople lost + her supremacy to Venice, Genoa, and North Italy, following the sack of + Constantinople by the Venetians in 1202 A.D. The Fairs of Champaign in + France, and the cities of the Rhine and Antwerp were the glory of the + Middle Ages, but these great markets faded when the discovery of the long + sea voyage to India threw the route by the Red Sea and Cairo into + eccentricity, and caused Spain and Portugal to bloom. Spain’s prosperity + did not, however, last long. England used war during the sixteenth century + as an economic weapon, pretty easily conquering. And since the opening of + the Industrial Revolution, at least, London, with the exception of the few + years when England suffered from the American revolt of 1776, has assumed + steadily more the aspect of the great international centre of exchanges, + until with Waterloo her supremacy remained unchallenged. It was this + brilliant achievement of London, won chiefly by arms, which more than any + other cause impelled Germany to try her fortunes by war rather than by the + methods of peace. + </p> + <p> + Nor was the German calculation of chances unreasonable or unwarranted. For + upwards of two centuries Germany had found war the most profitable of all + her economic ventures; especially had she found the French war of 1870 a + most lucrative speculation. And she felt unbounded confidence that she + could win as easy a triumph with her army, over the French, in the + twentieth as in the nineteenth century. But, could she penetrate to Paris + and at the same time occupy the littoral of the Channel and Antwerp, she + was persuaded that she could do to the commerce of England what England + had once done to the commerce of Spain, and that Hamburg and Berlin would + supplant London. And this calculation might have proved sound had it not + been for her oversight in ignoring one essential factor in the problem. + Ever since North America was colonized by the English, that portion of the + continent which is now comprised by the Republic of the United States, had + formed a part of the British economic system, even when the two fragments + of that system were competing in war, as has occurred more than once. And + as America has waxed great and rich these relations have grown closer, + until of recent years it has become hard to determine whether the centre + of gravity of this vast capitalistic mass lay to the east or to the west + of the Atlantic. One fact, however, from before the outset of this war had + been manifest, and that was that the currents of movement flowed with more + power from America to England than from America to Germany. And this had + from before the outbreak of hostilities affected the relations of the + parties. Should Germany prevail in her contest with England, the result + would certainly be to draw the centre of exchanges to the eastward, and + thereby to throw the United States, more or less, into eccentricity; but + were England to prevail the United States would tend to become the centre + toward which all else would gravitate. Hence, perfectly automatically, + from a time as long ago as the Spanish War, the balance, as indicated by + the weight of the United States, hung unevenly as between Germany and + England, Germany manifesting something approaching to repulsion toward the + attraction of the United States while Great Britain manifested favor. And + from subsequent evidence, this phenomenon would seem to have been thus + early developed, because the economic centre of gravity of our modern + civilization had already traversed the Atlantic, and by so doing had + decided the fortunes of Germany in advance, in the greater struggle about + to come. Consider attentively what has happened. In April, 1917, when the + United States entered the conflict, Germany, though it had suffered + severely in loss of men, was by no means exhausted. On the contrary, many + months subsequently she began her final offensive, which she pushed so + vigorously that she penetrated to within some sixty miles of Paris. But + there, at Château Thierry, on the Marne, she first felt the weight of the + economic shift. She suddenly encountered a division of American troops + advancing to oppose her. Otherwise the road to Paris lay apparently open. + The American troops were raw levies whom the Germans pretended to despise. + And yet, almost without making a serious effort at prolonged attack, the + Germans began their retreat, which only ended with their collapse and the + fall of the empire. + </p> + <p> + A similar phenomenon occurred once before in German history, and it is not + an uncommon incident in human experience when nature has already made, or + is on the brink of making, a change in the seat of the economic centre of + the world. In the same way, when Constantine won the battle of the Milvian + Bridge, with his men fighting under the standard of the Labarum, it was + subsequently found that the economic capital of civilization had silently + migrated from the Tiber to the Bosphorus, where Constantine seated himself + at Constantinople, which was destined to be the new capital of the world + for about eight hundred years. So in 1792, when the Prussians and the + French refugees together invaded France, they never doubted for an instant + that they should easily disperse the mob, as they were pleased to call it, + of Kellermann’s “vagabonds, cobblers, and tailors.” Nevertheless the + Germans recoiled on the slope of Valmy from before the republican army, + almost without striking a blow, nor could they be brought again to the + attack, although the French royalists implored to be allowed to storm the + hill alone, provided they could be assured of support. Then the retreat of + the Duke of Brunswick began, and this retreat was the prelude to the + Napoleonic empire, to Austerlitz, to Jena, to the dismemberment and to the + reorganization of Prussia and to the evolution of modern Germany: in + short, to the conversion of the remnants of mediæval civilization into the + capitalistic, industrial, competitive society which we have known. And all + this because of the accelerated movement caused by science. + </p> + <p> + If it be, indeed, a fact that the victory of Château Thierry and the + subsequent retreat of the German army together with the collapse of the + German Empire indicate, as there is abundant reason to suppose that they + may, a shift in the world’s social equilibrium, equivalent to the shift in + Europe presaged by Valmy, or to that which substituted Constantinople for + Rome and which was marked by the Milvian Bridge, it follows that we must + prepare ourselves for changes possibly greater than our world has seen + since it marched to Jerusalem under Godfrey de Bouillon. And the tendency + of those changes is not so very difficult, perhaps, roughly to estimate, + always premising that they are hardly compatible with undue optimism. + Supposing, for example, we consider, in certain of their simpler aspects, + some of the relations of Great Britain toward ourselves, since Great + Britain is not only our most important friend, assuming that she remain a + friend, but our most formidable competitor, should competition strain our + friendship. Also Great Britain has the social system nearest akin to our + own, and most likely to be influenced by the same so-called democratic + tendencies. For upwards of a hundred years Great Britain has been, and she + still is, absolutely dependent on her maritime supremacy for life. It was + on that issue she fought the Napoleonic wars, and when she prevailed at + Trafalgar and Waterloo she assumed economic supremacy, but only on the + condition that she should always be ready and willing to defend it, for it + is only on that condition that economic supremacy can be maintained. War + is the most potent engine of economic competition. Constantinople and + Antwerp survived and flourished on the same identical conditions long + before the day of London. She must keep her avenues of communication with + all the world open, and guard them against possible attack. So long as + America competed actively with England on the sea, even for her own trade, + her relations with Great Britain were troubled. The irritation of the + colonies with the restrictions which England put upon their commerce + materially contributed to foment the revolution, as abundantly appears in + the famous case of John Hancock’s sloop Liberty, which was seized for + smuggling. So in the War of 1812, England could not endure the United + States as a competitor in her contest with France. She must be an ally, + or, in other words, she must function as a component part of the British + economic system, or she must be crushed. The crisis came with the attack + of the Leopard on the Chesapeake in 1807, after which the possibility of + maintaining peace, under such a pressure, appeared, in its true light, as + a phantasm. After the war, with more or less constant friction, the same + conditions continued until the outbreak of the Rebellion, and then Great + Britain manifested her true animus as a competitor. She waged an + unacknowledged campaign against the commerce of the United States, + building, equipping, arming, manning, and succoring a navy for the South, + which operated none the less effectively because its action was officially + repudiated. And in this secret warfare England prevailed, since when the + legislation of the United States has made American competition with + England on the sea impossible. Wherefore we have had peace with England. + We have supplied Great Britain with food and raw materials, abandoning to + England the carrying trade and an undisputed naval supremacy. Consequently + Great Britain feels secure and responds to the full force of that economic + attraction which makes America naturally, a component part of the British + economic system. But let American pretensions once again revive to the + point of causing her to attempt seriously to develop her sea power as of + yore, and the same friction would also revive which could hardly, were it + pushed to its legitimate end, eventuate otherwise than in the ultimate + form of all economic competition. + </p> + <p> + If such a supposition seems now to be fanciful, it is only necessary to + reflect a moment on the rapidity with which national relations vary under + competition, to be assured that it is real. As Washington said, the only + force which binds one nation to another is interest. The rise of Germany, + which first created jealousy in England, began with the attack on Denmark + in 1864. Then Russia was the power which the British most feared and with + whom they were on the worst of terms. About that period nothing would have + seemed more improbable than that these relations would be reversed, and + that Russia and England would jointly, within a generation, wage fierce + war on Germany. We are very close to England now, but we may be certain + that, were we to press, as Germany pressed, on British maritime and + industrial supremacy, we should be hated too. It is vain to disguise the + fact that British fortunes in the past have hinged on American + competition, and that the wisest and most sagacious Englishmen have been + those who have been most alive to the fact. Richard Cobden, for example, + was one of the most liberal as he was one of the most eminent of British + economists and statesmen of the middle of the nineteenth century. He was a + democrat by birth and education, and a Quaker by religion. In 1835, just + before he entered public life, Cobden visited the United States and thus + recorded his impressions on his return: + </p> + <p> + “America is once more the theatre upon which nations are contending for + mastery; it is not, however, a struggle for conquest, in which the victor + will acquire territorial dominion—the fight is for commercial + supremacy, and will be won by the cheapest.... It is from the silent and + peaceful rivalry of American commerce, the growth of its manufactures, its + rapid progress in internal improvements, ... it is from these, and not + from the barbarous policy or the impoverishing armaments of Russia, that + the grandeur of our commercial and national prosperity is endangered.” + [Footnote: John Morley, <i>The Life of Richard Cobden</i>, 107, 108.] + </p> + <p> + It is not, however, any part of my contention that nature should push her + love of competition so far as necessarily to involve us in war with Great + Britain, at least at present, for nature has various and most unlooked-for + ways of arriving at her ends, since men never can determine, certainly in + advance, what avenue will, to them, prove the least resistant. They very + often make an error, as did the Germans, which they can only correct by + enduring disaster, defeat, and infinite suffering. Nature might very well, + for example, prefer that consolidation should advance yet another step + before a reaction toward chaos should begin. + </p> + <p> + This last war has, apparently, been won by a fusion of two economic + systems which together hold and administer a preponderating mass of fluid + capital, and which have partially pooled their resources to prevail. They + appear almost as would a gigantic lizard which, having been severed in an + ancient conflict, was now making a violent but only half-conscious effort + to cause the head and body to unite with the tail, so that the two might + function once more as a single organism, governed by a single will. Under + our present form of capitalistic life there would seem to be no reason why + this fluid capital should not fuse and by its energy furnish the motor + which should govern the world. Rome, for centuries, was governed by an + emperor, who represented the landed class of Italy, under the forms of a + republic. It is not by any means necessary that a plutocratic mass should + have a recognized political head. And America and England, like two + enormous banking houses, might in effect fuse and yet go on as separate + institutions with nominally separate boards of directors. + </p> + <p> + But it is inconceivable that even such an expedient as this, however + successful at the outset, should permanently solve the problem, which + resolves itself once more into individual competition. It is not + imaginable that such an enormous plutocratic society as I have supposed + could conduct its complex affairs upon the basis of the average + intelligence. As in Rome, a civil service would inevitably be organized + which would contain a carefully selected body of ability. We have seen + such a process, in its initial stages, in the recent war. And such a civil + service, however selected and however trained, would, to succeed, have to + be composed of men who were the ablest in their calling, the best + educated, and the fittest: in a word, the representatives of what we call + “the big business” of the country. Such as they might handle the + railroads, the telegraph lines, the food supply, the question of + competitive shipping, and finally prices, as we have seen it done, but + only on condition that they belonged to the fortunate class by merit. + </p> + <p> + But supposing, in the face of such a government, the unfortunate class + should protest, as they already do protest in Russia, in Germany, and even + in England and here at home, that a legal system which sanctions such a + civilization is iniquitous. Here, the discontented say, you insist on a + certain form of competition being carried to its limit. That is, you + demand intellectual and peaceful competition for which I am unfit both by + education, training, and mental ability. I am therefore excluded from + those walks in life which make a man a freeman. I become a slave to + capital. I must work, or fight, or starve according to another man’s + convenience, caprice, or, in fine, according to his will. I could be no + worse off under any despot. To such a system I will not submit. But I can + at least fight. Put me on a competitive equality or I will blow your + civilization to atoms. To such an argument there is no logical answer + possible except the answer which all extreme socialists have always + advanced. The fortunate man should be taxed for all he earns above the + average wage, and the State should confiscate his accumulations at death. + Then, with a system of government education, obligatory on all, children + would start equal from birth. + </p> + <p> + Here we come against the hereditary instinct, the creator and the + preserver of the family: the instinct which has made law and order + possible, so far as our ancestors or we have known order, as far back as + the Ice Age. If the coming world must strive with this question, or + abandon the “democratic ideal,” the future promises to be stormy. + </p> + <p> + But even assuming that this problem of individual competition be overcome, + we are as far as ever from creating a system of moral law which shall + avail us, for we at once come in conflict with the principle of abstract + justice which demands that free men shall be permitted to colonize or move + where they will. But supposing England and America to amalgamate; they now + hold or assume to control all or nearly all the vacant regions of the + earth which are suited to the white man’s habitation. And the white man + cannot live and farm his land in competition with the Asiatic; that was + conclusively proved in the days of Rome. + </p> + <p> + But it is not imaginable that Asiatics will submit to this discrimination + in silence. Nothing can probably constrain them to resignation but force, + and to apply force is to revert to the old argument of the savage or the + despot, who admits that he knows no law save that of the stronger, which + is the system, however much we have disguised it and, in short, lied about + it, under which we have lived and under which our ancestors have lived + ever since the family was organized, and under which it is probable that + we shall continue to live as long as any remnant of civilization shall + survive. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, it seems to be far from improbable that the system of + industrial, capitalistic civilization, which came in, in substance, with + the “free thought” of the Reformation, is nearing an end. Very probably it + may have attained to its ultimate stages and may dissolve presently in the + chaos which, since the Reformation, has been visibly impending. Democracy + in America has conspicuously and decisively failed, in the collective + administration of the common public property. Granting thus much, it + becomes simply a question of relative inefficiency, or degradation of + type, culminating in the exhaustion of resources by waste; unless the + democratic man can supernaturally raise himself to some level more nearly + approaching perfection than that on which he stands. For it has become + self-evident that the democrat cannot change himself from a competitive to + a non-competitive animal by talking about it, or by pretending to be + already or to be about to become other than he is,—the victim of + infinite conflicting forces. + </p> + <p> + BROOKS ADAMS, + </p> + <p> + QUINCY, <i>July</i> 20, 1919. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. — THE COMMONWEALTH. + </h2> + <p> + The mysteries of the Holy Catholic Church had been venerated for ages when + Europe burst from her mediæval torpor into the splendor of the + Renaissance. Political schemes and papal abuses may have precipitated the + inevitable outbreak, but in the dawn of modern thought the darkness faded + amidst which mankind had so long cowered in the abject terrors of + superstition. Already in the beginning of the fifteenth century many of + the ancient dogmas had begun to awaken incredulity, and sceptics learned + to mock at that claim to infallibility upon which the priesthood based + their right to command the blind obedience of the Christian world. Between + such adversaries compromise was impossible; and those who afterward + revolted against the authority of the traditions of Rome sought refuge + under the shelter of the Bible, which they grew to reverence with a + passionate devotion, believing it to have been not only directly and + verbally inspired by God, but the only channel through which he had made + known his will to men. + </p> + <p> + Thus the movement was not toward new doctrines; on the contrary, it was + the rejection of what could no longer be believed. Calvin was no less + orthodox than St. Augustine in what he accepted; his heresy lay in the + denial of enigmas from which his understanding recoiled. The mighty + convulsion of the Reformation, therefore, was but the supreme effort of + the race to tear itself from the toils of a hierarchy whose life hung upon + its success in forcing the children to worship the myths of their + ancestral religion. + </p> + <p> + Three hundred years after Luther nailed his theses to the church door the + logical deduction had been drawn from his great act, and Christendom had + been driven to admit that any concession of the right to reason upon + matters of faith involved the recognition of the freedom of individual + thought. But though this noble principle has been at length established, + long years of bloodshed passed before the victory was won; and from the + outset the attitude of the clergy formed the chief obstacle to the triumph + of a more liberal civilization; for howsoever bitterly Catholic and + Protestant divines have hated and persecuted each other, they have united + like true brethren in their hatred and their persecution of heretics; for + such was their inexorable destiny. + </p> + <p> + Men who firmly believe that salvation lies within their creed alone, and + that doubters suffer endless torments, never can be tolerant. They feel + that duty commands them to defend their homes against a deadly peril, and + even pity for the sinner urges them to wring from him a recantation before + it is too late; and then, moreover, dissent must lessen the power and + influence of a hierarchy and may endanger its very existence; therefore + the priests of every church have been stimulated to crush out schism by + the two strongest passions that can inflame the mind—by bigotry and + by ambition. + </p> + <p> + In England the Reformation was controlled by statesmen, whose object was + to invest the crown with ecclesiastical power, and who made no changes + except such as they thought necessary for their purpose. They repudiated + the papal supremacy, and adopted articles of religion sufficiently + evangelical in form, but they retained episcopacy, the liturgy, and the + surplice; the cross was still used in baptism, the people bowed at the + name of Jesus, and knelt at the communion. Such a compromise with what + they deemed idolatry was offensive to the stricter Protestants, and so + early as 1550 John Hooper refused the see of Gloucester because he would + not wear the robes of office; thus almost from its foundation the church + was divided into factions, and those who demanded a more radical reform + were nicknamed Puritans. As time elapsed large numbers who could no longer + bring themselves to conform withdrew from the orthodox communion, and + began to worship by themselves; persecution followed, and many fled to + Holland, where they formed congregations in the larger towns, the most + celebrated of them being that of John Robinson at Leyden, which afterward + founded Plymouth. But the intellectual ferment was universal, and the same + upheaval that was rending the church was shaking the foundations of the + state: power was passing into the hands of the people, but a century was + to elapse before the relations of the sovereign to the House of Commons + were fully adjusted. During this interval the Stuarts reigned and three of + the four kings suffered exile or death in the fierce contest for mastery. + </p> + <p> + The fixed determination of Charles I. was to establish a despotism and + enforce conformity with ritualism; and the result was the Great Rebellion. + </p> + <p> + Among the statesmen who advised him, none has met with such scant mercy + from posterity as Laud, who has been gibbeted as the impersonification of + narrowness, of bigotry, and of cruelty. The judgment is unscientific, for + whatever may be thought of the humanity or wisdom of his policy, he only + did what all have done who have attempted to impose a creed on men. + </p> + <p> + The real grievance has never been that an observance has been required, or + an indulgence refused, but that the right to think has been denied. + Provided a boundary be fixed within which the reason must be chained, the + line drawn by Laud is as reasonable as that of Calvin; Geneva is no more + infallible than Canterbury or Rome. Comprehension is the dream of + visionaries, for some will always differ from any confession of faith, + however broad; and where there are dogmas there will be heretics till all + have perished. But in their fear and hatred of individual free thought + regarding the mysteries of religion, Laud, Calvin, and the Pope agreed. + </p> + <p> + With the progress of the war, the Puritans, who had at first been united + in their opposition to the crown, themselves divided; one party, to which + most of the peers and of the non-conforming clergy belonged, being anxious + to reestablish the monarchy, and set up a rigid Presbyterianism; the + other, of whose spirit Cromwell was the incarnation, resolving each day + more firmly to crush the king and proclaim freedom of conscience; and it + was this doctrine of toleration which was the snare and the abomination in + the eyes of evangelical divines. + </p> + <p> + Robert Baillie, the Scotch commissioner, while in London, anxiously + watching the rise of the power of the Independents in Parliament, with + each victory of their armies in the field wrote, “Liberty of conscience, + and toleration of all and any religion, is so prodigious an impiety that + this religious parliament cannot but abhor the very meaning of it.” Nor + did his reverend brethren of the Westminster Assembly fall any whit behind + him when they rose to expound the word. In a letter of 17th May, 1644, he + thus described their doctrine: “This day was the best that I have seen + since I came to England.... After D. Twisse had begun with a brief prayer, + Mr. Marshall prayed large two hours, most divinely, confessing the sins of + the members of the assembly, in a wonderful, pathetick, and prudent way. + After, Mr. Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a psalm; thereafter, Mr. + Vines prayed near two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached an hour, and Mr. + Seaman prayed near two hours, then a psalm; after, Mr. Henderson brought + them to a sweet conference of the heat confessed in the assembly, and + other seen faults to be remedied, and the conveniency to preach against + all sects, especially Anabaptists and Antinomians. Dr. Twisse closed with + a short prayer and blessing.” [Footnote: Baillie’s <i>Letters and Journals</i>, + ii. 18.] + </p> + <p> + But Cromwell, gifted with noble instincts and transcendent political + genius, a layman, a statesman, and a soldier, was a liberal from birth + till death. + </p> + <p> + “Those that were sound in the faith, how proper was it for them to labor + for liberty, ... that men might not be trampled upon for their + consciences! Had not they labored but lately under the weight of + persecution? And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others? Is it + ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it? What greater hypocrisy than + for those who were oppressed by the bishops to become the greatest + oppressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed? I could wish + that they who call for liberty now also had not too much of that spirit, + if the power were in their hands.” [Footnote: Speech at dissolution of + first Parliment, Jan. 22, 1655. Carlyle’s <i>Cromwell</i>, iv. 107.] + </p> + <p> + “If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another form, if + an Independent, for example, will despise him under Baptism, and will + revile him and reproach him and provoke him,—I will not suffer it in + him. If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist shall be censuring the + godly ministers of the nation who profess under that of Independency; or + if those that profess under Presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking + evil of them, traducing and censuring of them, as I would not be willing + to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to + impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ,—so + I will not endure any reproach to them.” [Footnote: Speech made September, + 1656. Carlyle’s <i>Cromwell</i>, iv. 234.] + </p> + <p> + The number of clergymen among the emigrants to Massachusetts was very + large, and the character of the class who formed the colony was influenced + by them to an extraordinary degree. Many able pastors had been deprived in + England for non-conformity, and they had to choose between silence or + exile. To men of their temperament silence would have been intolerable; + and most must have depended upon their profession for support. America, + therefore, offered a convenient refuge. The motives are less obvious which + induced the leading laymen, some of whom were of fortune and consequence + at home, to face the hardships of the wilderness. Persecution cannot be + the explanation, for a government under which Hampden and Cromwell could + live and be returned to Parliament was not intolerable; nor does it appear + that any of them had been severely dealt with. The wish of the Puritan + party to have a place of retreat, should the worst befall, may have had + its weight with individuals, but probably the influence which swayed the + larger number was the personal ascendancy of their pastors, for that + ascendancy was complete. In a community so selected, men of the type of + Baillie must have vastly outnumbered those of the stamp of Cromwell, and + in point of fact their minds were generally cast in the ecclesiastical + mould and imbued with the ecclesiastical feeling. Governor Dudley + represented them well, and at his death some lines were found in his + pocket in which their spirit yet glows in all the fierceness of its + bigotry. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch + O’re such as do a Toleration hatch, + Lest that Ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice, + To poison all with heresie and vice.” + </pre> + <p> + [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 2, ch. v. section 1.] + </p> + <p> + In former ages churches had been comprehensive to this extent: infants had + been baptized, and, when the child had become a man, he had been admitted + to the communion as a matter of course, unless his life had given scandal; + but to this system the Congregationalist was utterly opposed. He believed + that, human nature being totally depraved, some became regenerate through + grace; that the signs of grace were as palpable as any other traits of + character, and could be discerned by all the world; therefore, none should + be admitted to the sacrament who had not the marks of the elect; and as in + a well-ordered community the godly ought to rule, it followed that none + should be enfranchised but members of the church. + </p> + <p> + To suppose such a government could be maintained in England was beyond the + dreams even of an enthusiast, and there can be little doubt that the + controlling incentive with many of those who sailed was the hope, with the + aid of their divines, of founding a religious commonwealth in the + wilderness which should harmonize with their interpretation of the + Scriptures. + </p> + <p> + The execution of such a project was, however, far from easy. It would have + been most unsafe for the emigrants to have divulged their true designs, + since these were not only unlawful, but would have been highly offensive + to the king, and yet they were too feeble to exist without the protection + of Great Britain, therefore it was necessary to secure for themselves the + rights of English subjects, and to throw some semblance at least of the + sanction of law over the organization of their new state. Accordingly, a + patent [Footnote: March 4, 1629.] was obtained from the crown, by which + twenty-five persons were incorporated under the name of the Governor and + Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England; and as the extent of the + powers therein granted has given rise to a controversy which is not yet + closed, it is necessary to understand the nature of that instrument in + order to comprehend the bearings of the bitter strife which darkens the + history of the first fifty years of the colony. + </p> + <p> + The germ of the written charter is so ancient as to be lost in obscurity. + During the Middle Ages, oppression was, speaking generally, the accepted + condition of society, no man not noble having the right in theory, or the + power in practice, to control his own actions without interference from + his feudal superior. Under such circumstances the only hope for the weak + was to combine, and most of the early triumphs of freedom were won by + combinations of commons against some noble, or of nobles against a king. + Organization is difficult for a peasantry, but easy for burghers, and from + the outset these seem to have united for their common defense against the + neighboring barons; and thus was born the mediæval guild. + </p> + <p> + The ancient townsmen were not usually strong enough to fight for their + liberties, so they generally resorted to purchase; they agreed with their + lord upon a price to be paid for a privilege, and were given for their + money a grant, which, because it was written, was called a charter. + </p> + <p> + The following charter of the Merchants’ Guild of Leicester is very early + and very simple. It presupposes that there could be no doubt about the + local customs, which are therefore not enumerated, and it shows that the + guild of Leicester existed as a corporation at the Conquest, and must + already have held property in succession and been liable to suit through + two reigns:— + </p> + <p> + “Robert, Earl of Mellent, to Ralph, and all his barons, French and + English, of all his land in England, greeting: Know ye, that I have + granted to my merchants of Leicester their Guild Merchant, with all + customs which they held in the time of King William, of King William his + son, and now hold in the time of Henry the king. + </p> + <p> + “Witness: R., the son of Alcitil.” + </p> + <p> + The object of these ancient writings was only to record the fact of + corporate existence; the popular custom by which the guilds were regulated + was taken for granted; but obviously they must have had succession, been + liable to suit, able to contract, and, in a word, to do all those acts + which were afterward set forth. And such has uniformly been the process by + which English jurisprudence has been shaped; a usage grows up that courts + recognize, and, by their decisions, establish as the common law; but + judicial decisions are inflexible, and, as they become antiquated, they + are themselves modified by legislation. Lawyers observed these customary + companies for some centuries before they learned what functions were + universal; but, with the lapse of time, the patents became more elaborate, + until at length a voluminous grant of each particular power was held + necessary to create a new corporation. + </p> + <p> + A merchants’ guild, like the one of Leicester, was an association of the + townsmen for their common welfare. Every trader was then called a + merchant, and as almost every burgher lived by trade, and was also a + landowner, to the extent at least of his dwelling, it followed that the + guild practically included all free male inhabitants; the guild hall was + used as the town hall, the guild ordinances were the town ordinances, and + the corporation became the government of the borough, and as such chose + persons to represent it in Parliament, when summoned by the king’s writ to + send burgesses to Westminster. + </p> + <p> + London is a corporation by prescription and not by virtue of any + particular charter, and to this day its city hall is called by the ancient + name, Guild Hall. But with the growth of wealth and population the + original fraternity divided into craft organizations (so long ago, indeed, + that no record of its existence remains), and each trade organized a + guild, with a hall of its own; and thus it came to pass that the twelve + livery companies—the Mercers, the Grocers, the Goldsmiths, the + Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the rest—became the government of the + capital of England. + </p> + <p> + All mediæval institutions tended to aristocracy and monopoly, and, + accordingly, after the merchant guilds had split into these corporate + trade unions, boroughs waxed exclusive, and membership, instead of being + an incident of citizenship, grew to confer citizenship itself; thus the + franchise, being confined to freemen, and freedom or membership having + come to depend on birth, marriage, election, or purchase, the + constituencies which returned a majority of the House of Commons grew so + petty and corrupt as to threaten the existence of parliamentary government + itself, and the abuse at last culminated in the agitation which produced + the Reform Bill. + </p> + <p> + When legal forms had taken shape, the land upon which a town stood was not + unusually granted to the mayor and commonalty by metes and bounds, + [Footnote: See Charter of Plymouth, granted 1439. <i>History of Plymouth</i>, + p. 50. The incorporation was by statute.] to them and their successors + forever, upon payment of a rent; and the mayor and common council were + empowered to make laws and ordinances for the local government, and to + fine, imprison, and sometimes whip and otherwise punish offenders, so as + their statutes, fines, pains, and penalties were reasonable and not + repugnant to law. [Footnote: <i>History of Tiverton</i>, App. 5.] The + foreign trading company was an offshoot of the guild, and was intended to + protect commerce. Obviously some such organization must have been + necessary, for, if property was insecure within the realm, it was far more + exposed without; and, indeed, in the fourteenth century, English merchants + domiciled on the Continent could hardly have been safer than Europeans are + now who garrison the so-called factories upon the coast of Africa. + </p> + <p> + At the Conquest, the Hanse merchants had a house in London, which was + afterward famous as the Steel Yard. They lived a strange life,—a + combination of that of the trader, the soldier, and the monk. Their + fortified warehouse, exposed to the attacks of the ferocious mob, was + occasionally taken and sacked; and the garrison shut up within was subject + to an iron discipline. They were forbidden to marry, no woman passed the + gates, nor did they ever sleep a night without the walls; but, always on + the watch, they lay in their cells ready to repulse a storm. For many + years these Germans seem to have monopolized the carrying trade, for it + was not till the thirteenth century that Englishmen appear to have made an + effort at competition. However, about 1296 certain London mercers are said + to have obtained a grant of privileges from John, Duke of Brabant, and to + have established a wool market at Antwerp. [Footnote: Andersen’s <i>History + of Commerce</i>.] The recognition of the Flemish government was of course + necessary; but they could hardly have maintained themselves without some + support at home; for, although their warehouse was abroad, they were + English merchants, and they must have relied upon English protection. No + very early documents remain; but an elaborate charter, granted by Edward + IV. in 1463, proves that the corporation had then had a long legal + existence. [Footnote: Hakluyt’s <i>Voyages</i>, i. 230.] The crown thereby + confirmed one Obrey, the governor, in his office during pleasure, with the + wages theretofore enjoyed; existing laws were approved; the governor and + merchants were empowered to elect twelve Justicers, who were to hold + courts for all merchants and mariners in those parts; and the company was + authorized to regulate the trade and control the traders, provided no laws + were passed contrary to the intent of that charter. + </p> + <p> + Here, as in the Merchant Guild, the inevitable aristocratic revolution + took place, and the old democratic brotherhood became a strict monopoly. + The oppression was so flagrant that a petition was presented to Parliament + in 1497 against the exactions of the Merchant Adventurers, as the + association was then called, by which it appeared that interlopers, + trading to Holland and Flanders, were fined £40, whereas any subject might + have become a freeman in earlier times for an old noble, or about 6s. 8d.; + [Footnote: 12 Henry VII. ch. vi.] and the scandal was so great that the + fine was fixed at 10 marks, or £6 l3s. 4d., by statute. During the + stagnation of the Middle Ages few traces of such commercial enterprises + are to be found, but with the sixteenth century Europe awoke to a new life + and thrilled with a new energy. Trade shared in the impulse. In 1554 + Philip and Mary incorporated the Russia Company in regular modern form; in + 1581 the Turkey Company was organized; in 1600 the East India Company + received its charter; and, to come directly to what is material, in 1629 + Charles I. signed the patent of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts + Bay in New England. + </p> + <p> + Stripped of its verbiage, the provisions are simple. The stockholders, or + “freemen,” as they were then called, were to meet once a quarter in a + “General Court.” This General Court, or stockholders’ meeting, chose the + officers, of which there were twenty, the governor, deputy governor, and + eighteen assistants or directors, on the last Wednesday in each Easter + Term. The assistants were intrusted with the business management, and were + to meet once a month or oftener; while the General Court was empowered to + admit freemen, and “to make laws and ordinances for the good and welfare + of the said company, and for the government and ordering of the said lands + and plantation, and the people inhabiting and to inhabit the same, as to + them from time to time shall be thought meet,—so as such laws and + ordinances be not contrary or repugnant to the laws and statutes of this + our realm of England.” The criminal jurisdiction was limited to the + “imposition of lawful fines, mulcts, imprisonment, or other lawful + correction, according to the course of other corporations in this our + realm of England.” + </p> + <p> + The “course of corporations” referred to was well established. The Master + and Wardens of the Guild of Drapers in London, for example, could make + “such ... pains, punishments, and penalties, by corporal punishment, or + fines and amercements,” ... “as shall seem ... necessary,” provided their + statutes were reasonable and not contrary to the laws of the kingdom. + [Footnote: Herbert’s <i>Livery Companies</i>, i. 489.] In like manner, + boroughs such as Tiverton might “impose and assess punishments by + imprisonments, etc., and reasonable fines upon offenders.” [Footnote: See + <i>History of Tiverton</i>, App. 5.] + </p> + <p> + But all lawyers knew that such grants did not convey full civil or + criminal jurisdiction, which, when thought needful, was specially + conferred, as was done in the case of the East India Company upon their + petition in 1624, [Footnote: Bruce, <i>Annals</i>, i. 252.] and in that of + Massachusetts by the charter of William and Mary. + </p> + <p> + Such was the undoubted theory, and evidently there must always have been + some practical means of checking the abuse of power by these strong + organizations. In semi-barbarous ages the sovereign took matters into his + own hands by seizing the franchise, and even the Plantagenets repeatedly + suspended or revoked the liberties of London,—often, no doubt, for + cause, but sometimes also to make money by a resale; and a succession of + these arbitrary forfeitures demonstrated that charters to be of value must + be beyond the grantor’s control. Resort was had to the courts, as a matter + of course, and finally it was settled that relief should be given by a + writ of <i>quo warranto</i>, upon which the question of the violation of + privileges could be tried; and curious records still remain of ancient + litigations of this nature. + </p> + <p> + In 1321 complaint was made against the London Weavers for injuring the + public by passing regulations tending to raise the price of cloth. + [Footnote: <i>Liber Customarum</i>, i. 416-424.] It was alleged that the + guild, with this intent, had limited the working hours in the day, the + working days in the year, and the number of apprentices the freemen might + employ; and the prayer was that for these abuses the charter should be + annulled. + </p> + <p> + The cause was tried before a jury, who found the truth of some of the + charges; but the judgment is lost, as the roll is imperfect. + </p> + <p> + There was danger, moreover, to the citizen from the oppression of these + powerful bodies, as well as to the public from their usurpations; and were + authority wholly wanting, argument would be almost unnecessary to prove + that some appellate tribunal must always have had jurisdiction to pass + upon the validity of corporate legislation; for otherwise any summary + punishment might have been inflicted upon an individual, though + notoriously unlawful, and the only redress possible would have been + subsequent proceedings to vacate the charter. + </p> + <p> + Through appeals, corporations could be controlled; and by none was this + control so stubbornly disputed, or its necessity so clearly demonstrated, + as by the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. A good + illustration is the trial of the Quaker, Wenlock Christison, for his life + in 1661. + </p> + <p> + “William Leddra being thus dispatch’d, it was resolved to make an end also + of Wenlock Christison. He therefore was brought from the prison to the + court at Boston, where the governor John Indicot, and the deputy governor + Richard Billingham, being both present, it was told him, ‘Unless you will + renounce your religion, you shall surely die.’ But instead of shrinking, + he said with an undaunted courage, ‘Nay, I shall not change my religion, + nor seek to save my life; neither do I intend to deny my Master; but if I + lose my life for Christ’s sake, and the preaching of the gospel, I shall + save my life.’ ... John Indicot asked him ‘what he had to say for himself, + why he should not die?’ ... Then Wenlock asked, ‘By what law will you put + me to death?’ The answer was, ‘We have a law, and by our law you are to + die.’ ‘So said the Jews of Christ,’ (reply’d Wenlock) ‘we have a law, and + by our law he ought to die. Who empowered you to make that law?’ To which + one of the board answered, ‘We have a patent, and are the patentees; judge + whether we have not power to make laws.’ Hereupon Wenlock asked again, + ‘How, have you power to make laws repugnant to the laws of England?’ ‘No,’ + said the governor. ‘Then,’ (reply’d Wenlock,) ‘you are gone beyond your + bounds, and have forfeited your patent; and that is more than you can + answer.’ ‘Are you,’ ask’d he, ‘subjects to the king, yea or nay?’ ... To + which one said, ‘Yea, we are so.’ ‘Well,’ said Wenlock, ‘so am I.’ ... + ‘Therefore seeing that you and I are subjects to the king, I demand to be + tried by the laws of my own nation.’ It was answered, ‘You shall be tried + by a bench and a jury.’ For it seems they began to be afraid to go on in + the former course, of trial without a jury ... But Wenlock said, ‘That is + not the law, but the manner of it; for I never heard nor read of any law + that was in England to hang Quakers.’ To this the governor reply’d ‘that + there was a law to hang Jesuits.’ To which Wenlock return’d, ‘If you put + me to death, it is not because I go under the name of a Jesuit, but of a + Quaker. Therefore, I appeal to the laws of my own nation.’ But instead of + taking notice of this, one said ‘that he was in their hands, and had + broken their law, and they would try him.’” [Footnote: Sewel, pp. 278, + 279.] + </p> + <p> + Yet, though the ecclesiastical party in Massachusetts obstinately refused + to admit appeals to the British judiciary up to the last moment of their + power, for the obvious reason that the existence of the theocracy depended + upon the enforcement of such legislation as that under which the Quakers + suffered, there was no principle in the whole range of English + jurisprudence more firmly established. By a statute of Henry VI. passed in + 1436, corporate enactments were to be submitted to the judges for + approval; and the Court of King’s Bench always set aside such as were bad, + whenever the question of their validity was presented for adjudication. + [Footnote: Stat. 15 H. VI. ch. 6. Stat 19 H. VII. ch. 7. Clark’s Case, 5 + Coke, 633, decided A. D. 1596. See Kyd on Corporations, ii. 107-110, where + authorities are collected. Child v. Hudson Bay Co., 2 P. W. 207.] + </p> + <p> + But discussion is futile; the proposition is self-evident, that an + association endowed with the capacity of acting like a single man, for + certain defined objects, which shall attempt other objects, or shall seek + to compass its ends by unlawful means, violates the condition upon which + its life has been granted, transcends the limits of its existence, and + forfeits its privileges; and that under such circumstances its ordinances + are void, and none are bound to yield them their obedience. + </p> + <p> + Approached thus from the standpoint of legal history, no doubt can exist + concerning the scope of the franchise secured by the Puritans for the + Massachusetts colony. The instrument obtained from Charles I. embodied + certain of their number in an English corporation, whose only lawful + business was the American trade, as the business of the East India Company + was trade in Hindostan. To enable them to act effectively, a tract of land + in New England, between the Merrimack and the Charles, was conveyed to + them, as the soil upon which a town stood was conveyed to the mayor and + commonalty. Within this territory they were authorized to established + their plantations and forts, which they were empowered to defend against + attack, as the Hanse merchants defended the Steel Yard in London. They + were also permitted to govern the country within their grant by reasonable + regulations calculated to preserve the peace, and of much the same + character as the municipal ordinances of towns, subject, of course, to + judicial supervision. The corporation itself was created subject to the + municipal laws of England, and could have no existence without the realm; + and though perhaps even then the American wilderness might have been held + to belong to the British empire, it formed no part of the kingdom, + [Footnote: Blackstone’s <i>Commentaries</i>, i. 109.] and was altogether + beyond the limits of that jurisdiction from whose customs and statutes the + life of this imaginary being sprang. Therefore, the governing body could + legally exercise its functions only when domiciled in some English town. + [Footnote: On this subject see the able paper of Mr. Deane, in <i>Massachusetts + Historical Society Proceedings</i>, December, 1869, p. 166.] + </p> + <p> + Sir Richard Sheldon, the solicitor-general, advised the king that he was + signing a charter containing “such ... clauses for ye electing of + Governors and Officers here in England, ... and powers to make lawes and + ordinances for setling ye governement and magistracye for ye plantacon + there, ... as ... are usuallie allowed to Corporacons in England.” + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc.</i> 1869-70, p. 173.] And there can + be no question that his opinion was sound. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be imagined more ill-suited to serve as the organic law of a + new commonwealth than this instrument. No provision was made for superior + or probate courts, for a representative assembly, for the incorporation of + counties and towns, for police or taxation. In short, hardly a step could + be taken toward founding a territorial government based upon popular + suffrage without working a forfeiture of the charter by abuse of the + franchise. The colonists, it is true, afterward advanced very different + theories of construction; but that they were well aware of their legal + position is demonstrated by the fact that after some hesitation from + apprehension of consequences, they ventured on the singularly bold and + lawless measure of secretly removing their charter to America and + establishing their corporation in a land which they thought would be + beyond the process of Westminster Hall. [Footnote: 1629, Aug. 29.] The + details of the settlement are related in many books, and require only the + briefest mention here. In 1628 an association of gentlemen bought the + tract of country lying between the Merrimack and Charles from the Council + of Plymouth, and sent Endicott to take charge of their purchase. A royal + patent was, however, thought necessary for the protection of a large + colony, and one having been obtained, the Company of Massachusetts Bay was + at once organized in England, Endicott was appointed governor in America, + and six vessels sailed during the spring of 1629, taking out several + hundred persons and a “plentiful provision of godly ministers.” In August + the church of Salem was gathered and Mr. Higginson was consecrated as + their teacher. In that same month Winthrop, Saltonstall, and others met at + Cambridge and signed an agreement binding themselves upon the faith of + Christians to embark for the plantation by the following March; “Provided + always that before the last of September next, the whole government, + together with the patent, ... be first by an order of court legally + transferred and established to remain with us and others which shall + inhabite upon the said plantation.” [Footnote: <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince + Soc. ed. i. 28.] The Company accepted the proposition, Winthrop was chosen + governor, and he anchored in Salem harbor in June. [Footnote: 1630] More + than a thousand settlers landed before winter, and the first General Court + was held at Boston in October; nor did the emigration thus begun entirely + cease until the meeting of the Long Parliament. + </p> + <p> + From the beginning the colonists took what measures they thought proper, + without regarding the limitations of the law. Counties and towns had to be + practically incorporated, taxes were levied upon inhabitants, and in 1634 + all pretence of a General Court of freemen was dropped, and the towns + chose delegates to represent them, though the legislature was not divided + into two branches until ten years later. When the government had become + fully organized supreme power was vested in the General Court, a + legislature composed of two houses; the assistants, or magistrates, as + they were called, and the deputies. The governor, deputy governor, and + assistants were elected by a general vote; but each town sent two deputies + to Boston. + </p> + <p> + For some years justice was dispensed by the magistrates according to the + Word of God, but gradually a judicial system was established; the + magistrate’s local court was the lowest, from whence causes went by appeal + to the county courts, one of whose judges was always an assistant, and + probate jurisdiction was given to the two held at Ipswich and at Salem. + From the judgments entered here an appeal lay to the Court of Assistants, + and then to the General Court, which was the tribunal of last resort. The + clergy and gentry pertinaciously resisted the enactment of a series of + general statutes, upon which the people as steadily insisted, until at + length, in 1641, “The Body of Liberties” was approved by the legislature. + This compilation was the work of the Rev. Mr. Ward, pastor of Ipswich, and + contained a criminal code copied almost word for word from the Pentateuch, + but apart from matters touching religion, the legislation was such as + English colonists have always adopted. A major-general was elected who + commanded the militia, and in 1652 money was coined. + </p> + <p> + The social institutions, however, have a keener interest, for they reflect + that strong cast of thought which has stamped its imprint deep into the + character of so much of the American people. The seventeenth century was + aristocratic, and the inhabitants of the larger part of New England were + divided into three classes, the commonalty, the gentry, and the clergy. + Little need be said of the first, except that they were a brave and + determined race, as ready to fight as Cromwell’s saints, who made Rupert’s + troopers “as stubble to their swords;” that they were intelligent, and + would not brook injustice; and that they were resolute, and would not + endure oppression. All know that they were energetic and shrewd. + </p> + <p> + The gentry had the weight in the community that comes with wealth and + education, and they received the deference then paid to birth, for they + were for the most part the descendants of English country-gentlemen. As a + matter of course they monopolized the chief offices; and they were not + sentenced by the courts to degrading punishments, like whipping, for their + offences, as other criminals were. They even showed some wish at the + outset to create legal distinctions, such as a magistracy for life, and a + disposition to magnify the jurisdiction of the Court of Assistants, whose + seats they filled; but the action of the people was determined though + quiet, a chamber of deputies was chosen, and such schemes were heard of no + more. + </p> + <p> + Yet notwithstanding the existence of this aristocratic element, the real + substance of influence and power lay with the clergy. It has been taught + as an axiom of Massachusetts history, that from the outset the town was + the social and political unit; but an analysis of the evidence tends to + show that the organization of the Puritan Commonwealth was ecclesiastical, + and the congregation, not the town, the basis upon which the fabric + rested. By the constitution of the corporation the franchise went with the + freedom of the company; but in order to form a constituency which would + support a sacerdotal oligarchy, it was enacted in 1631 “that for time to + come noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but + such as are members of some of the churches within ... the same.” + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Records</i>, i. 87.] Thus though communicants were not + necessarily voters, no one could be a voter who was not a communicant; + therefore the town-meeting was in fact nothing but the church meeting, + possibly somewhat attenuated, and called by a different name. By this + insidious statute the clergy seized the temporal power, which they held + till the charter fell. The minister stood at the head of the congregation + and moulded it to suit his purposes and to do his will; for though he + could not when opposed admit an inhabitant to the sacrament, he could + peremptorily exclude therefrom all those of whom he disapproved, for “none + are propounded to the congregation, except they be first allowed by the + elders.” [Footnote: Winthrop’s reply to Vane, <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince + Soc. ed. i. 101.] In such a community the influence of the priesthood must + have been overwhelming. Not only in an age without newspapers or tolerable + roads were their sermons, preached several times each week to every voter, + the most effective of political harangues; but, unlike other party + orators, they were not forced to stimulate the sluggish, or to convince + the hostile, for from a people glowing with fanaticism, each elder picked + his band of devoted servants of the church, men passionately longing to do + the will of Christ, whose commands concerning earth and heaven their + pastor had been ordained to declare. Nor was their power bounded by local + limits; though seldom holding office themselves, they were solemnly + consulted by the government on every important question that arose, + whether of war or peace, and their counsel was rarely disregarded. They + gave their opinion, no matter how foreign the subject might be to their + profession or their education; and they had no hesitation in passing upon + the technical construction of the charter with the authority of a bench of + judges. An amusing example is given by Winthrop: “The General Court + assembled again, and all the elders were sent for, to reconcile the + differences between the magistrates and deputies. When they were come the + first question put to them was, ... whether the magistrates are, by patent + and election of the people, the standing council of this commonwealth in + the vacancy of the General Court, and have power accordingly to act in all + cases subject to government, according to the said patent and the laws of + this jurisdiction; and when any necessary occasions call for action from + authority, in cases where there is no particular express law provided, + there to be guided by the word of God, till the General Court give + particular rules in such cases. The elders, having received the question, + withdrew themselves for consultation about it, and the next day sent to + know, when we would appoint a time that they might attend the court with + their answer. The magistrates and deputies agreed upon an hour “and ... + their answer was affirmative,” on the magistrates behalf, in the very + words of the question, with some reasons thereof. It was delivered in + writing by Mr. Cotton in the name of them all, they being all present, and + not one dissentient.” Then the magistrates propounded four more questions, + the last of which is as follows: “Whether a judge be bound to pronounce + such sentence as a positive law prescribes, in case it be apparently above + or beneath the merit of the offence?” To which the elders replied at great + length, saying that the penalty must vary with the gravity of the crime, + and added examples: “So any sin committed with an high hand, as the + gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day, may be punished with death when a + lesser punishment may serve for gathering sticks privily and in some + need.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 204, 205.] Yet though the clerical + influence was so unbounded the theocracy itself was exposed to constant + peril. In monarchies such as France or Spain the priests who rule the king + have the force of the nation at command to dispose of at their will; but + in Massachusetts a more difficult problem was presented, for the voters + had to be controlled. By the law requiring freemen to be church-members + the elders meant to grasp the key to the suffrage, but experience soon + proved that more stringent regulation was needed. + </p> + <p> + According to the original Congregational theory each church was complete + and independent, and elected its own officers and conducted its own + worship, free from interference from without, except that others of the + same communion might offer advice or admonition. Under the theocracy no + such loose system was possible, for heresy might enter in three different + ways; first, under the early law, “blasphemers” might form a congregation + and from thence creep into the company; second, an established church + might fall into error; third, an unsound minister might be chosen, who + would debauch his flock by securing the admission of sectaries to the + sacrament. Above all, a creed was necessary by means of which false + doctrine might be instantly detected and condemned. Accordingly, one by + one, as the need for vigilance increased, laws were passed to guard these + points of danger. + </p> + <p> + First, in 1635 it was enacted, [Footnote: 1635-6, March 3.] “Forasmuch as + it hath bene found by sad experience, that much trouble and disturbance + hath happened both to the church & civill state by the officers & + members of some churches, which have bene gathered ... in an vndue manner + ... it is ... ordered that ... this Court doeth not, nor will hereafter, + approue of any such companyes of men as shall henceforthe ioyne in any + pretended way of church fellowshipp, without they shall first acquainte + the magistrates, & the elders of the greater parte of the churches in + this jurisdiction, with their intenctions, and have their approbaction + herein. And ffurther, it is ordered, that noe person, being a member of + any churche which shall hereafter be gathered without the approbaction of + the magistrates, & the greater parte of the said churches, shallbe + admitted to the ffreedome of this commonwealthe.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + i. 168.] + </p> + <p> + In 1648 all the elders met in a synod at Cambridge; they adopted the + Westminster Confession of Faith and an elaborate “Platform of Church + Discipline,” the last clause of which is as follows: “If any church ... + shall grow schismatical, rending itself from the communion of other + churches, or shall walk incorrigibly and obstinately in any corrupt way of + their own contrary to the rule of the word; in such case the magistrate, + ... is to put forth his coercive power, as the matter shall require.” + [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 5, ch. xvii. Section 9.] + </p> + <p> + In 1658 the General Court declared: “Whereas it is the duty of the + Christian magistrate to take care the people be fed with wholesome & + sound doctrine, & in this houre of temptation, ... it is therefore + ordered, that henceforth no person shall ... preach to any company of + people, whither in church society or not, or be ordeyned to the office of + a teaching elder, where any two organnick churches, councill of state, or + Generall Court shall declare theire dissatisfaction thereat, either in + refference to doctrine or practize... and in case of ordination... timely + notice thereof shall be given unto three or fower of the neighbouring + organicke churches for theire approbation.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + iv. pt. 1, p. 328.] And lastly, in 1679, the building of meeting-houses + was forbidden, without leave from the freemen of the town or the General + Court. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 213.] + </p> + <p> + But legislation has never yet controlled the action of human thought. All + experience shows that every age, and every western nation, produces men + whose nature it is to follow the guidance of their reason in the face of + every danger. To exterminate these is the task of religious persecution, + for they can be silenced only by death. Thus is a dominant priesthood + brought face to face with the alternative, of surrendering its power or of + killing the heretic, and those bloody deeds that cast their sombre shadow + across the history of the Puritan Commonwealth cannot be seen in their + true bearing unless the position of the clergy is vividly before the mind. + </p> + <p> + Cromwell said that ministers were “helpers of, not lords over, God’s + people,” [Footnote: Cromwell to Dundass, letter cxlviii. Carlyle’s <i>Cromwell</i>, + iii. 72.] but the orthodox New Englander was the vassal of his priest. + Winthrop was the ablest and the most enlightened magistrate the + ecclesiastical party ever had, and he tells us that “I honoured a faithful + minister in my heart and could have kissed his feet.” [Footnote: <i>Life + and Letters of Winthrop</i>, i. 61.] If the governor of Massachusetts and + the leader of the emigration could thus describe his moral growth,—a + man of birth, education, and fortune, who had had wide experience of life, + and was a lawyer by profession,—the awe and terror felt by the mass + of the communicants can be imagined. + </p> + <p> + Jonathan Mitchel, one of the most famous of the earlier divines, thus + describes his flock: “They were a gracious, savoury-spirited people, + principled by Mr. Shepard, liking an humbling, mourning, heart-breaking + ministry and spirit; living in religion, praying men and women.” And “he + would speak with such a transcendent majesty and liveliness, that the + people ... would often shake under his dispensations, as if they had heard + the sound of the trumpets from the burning mountain, and yet they would + mourn to think, that they were going presently to be dismissed from such + an heaven upon earth.” ... “When a publick admonition was to be dispensed + unto any one that had offended scandalously... the hearers would be all + drowned in tears, as if the admonition had been, as indeed he would with + much artifice make it be directed unto them all; but such would be the + compassion, and yet the gravity, the majesty, the scriptural and awful + pungency of these his dispensations, that the conscience of the offender + himself, could make no resistance thereunto.” [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, + bk. 4, ch. iv. Sub-section 9, 10.] + </p> + <p> + Their arrogance was fed by the submission of the people, and they would + not tolerate the slightest opposition even from their most devoted + retainers. The Reforming Synod was held in 1679. “When the report of a + committee on ‘the evils that had provoked the Lord’ came up for + consideration, ‘Mr. Wheelock declared that there was a cry of injustice in + that magistrates and ministers were not rated’ (taxed), ‘which occasioned + a very warm discourse. Mr. Stodder’ (minister of Northampton) ‘charged the + deputy with saying what was not true, and the deputy governor’ (Danforth) + ‘told him he deserved to be laid by the heels, etc.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘After we broke up, the deputy and several others went home with Mr. + Stodder, and the deputy asked forgiveness of him and told him he freely + forgave him, but Mr. Stodder was high.’ The next day ‘the deputy owned his + being in too great a heat, and desired the Lord to forgive it, and Mr. + Stodder did something, though very little, by the deputy.’” [Footnote: + Palfrey’s <i>History of New England</i>, in. 330, note 2. Extract from <i>Journal</i> + of Rev. Peter Thacher.] Wheelock was lucky in not having to smart more + severely for his temerity, for the unfortunate Ursula Cole was sentenced + to pay £5 [Footnote: Five pounds was equivalent to a sum between one + hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty dollars now. Ursula was + of course poor, or she would not have been sentenced to be whipped. The + fine was therefore extremely heavy.] or be whipped for the lighter crime + of saying “she had as lief hear a cat mew” [Footnote: Frothingham, <i>History + of Charlestown</i>, p. 208.] as Mr. Shepard preach. The daily services in + the churches consumed so much time that they became a grievance with which + the government was unable to cope. + </p> + <p> + In 1633 the Court of Assistants, thinking “the keepeing of lectures att + the ordinary howres nowe obserued in the forenoone, to be dyvers wayes + preiudiciall to the common good, both in the losse of a whole day, & + bringing other charges & troubles to the place where the lecture is + kept,” ordered that they should not begin before one o’clock. [Footnote: + <i>Mass. Rec.</i> i. 110.] The evil still continued, for only the next + year it was found that so many lectures “did spend too much time and + proved overburdensome,” and they were reduced to two a week. [Footnote: + Felt’s <i>Eccl. Hist.</i> i. 201.] Notwithstanding these measures, relief + was not obtained, because, as the legislature complained in 1639, lectures + “were held till night, and sometimes within the night, so as such as dwelt + far off could not get home in due season, and many weak bodies could not + endure so long, in the extremity of the heat or cold, without great + trouble and hazard of their health,” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 324.] and a + consultation between the elders and magistrates was suggested. + </p> + <p> + But to have the delights of the pulpit abridged was more than the divines + could bear. They declared roundly that their privileges were invaded; + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, i. 325.] and the General Court had to give way. A + few lines in Winthrop’s Journal give an idea of the tax this loquacity + must have been upon the time of a poor and scattered people. “Mr. Hooker + being to preach at Cambridge, the governor and many others went to hear + him.... He preached in the afternoon, and having gone on, with much + strength of voice and intention of spirit, about a quarter of an hour, he + was at a stand, and told the people that God had deprived him both of his + strength and matter, &c. and so went forth, and about half an hour + after returned again, and went on to very good purpose about two hours.” + [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 304.] Common men could not have kept this hold + upon the inhabitants of New England, but the clergy were learned, + resolute, and able, and their strong but narrow minds burned with + fanaticism and love of power; with their beliefs and under their + temptations persecution seemed to them not only their most potent weapon, + but a duty they owed to Christ—and that duty they unflinchingly + performed. John Cotton, the most gifted among them, taught it as a holy + work: “But the good that is brought to princes and subjects by the due + punishment of apostate seducers and idolaters and blasphemers is manifold. + </p> + <p> + “First, it putteth away evill from the people and cutteth off a gangreene, + which would spread to further ungodlinesse.... + </p> + <p> + “Secondly, it driveth away wolves from worrying and scattering the sheep + of Christ. For false teachers be wolves, ... and the very name of wolves + holdeth forth what benefit will redound to the sheep, by either killing + them or driving them away. + </p> + <p> + “Thirdly, such executions upon such evill doers causeth all the country to + heare and feare, and doe no more such wickednesse.... Yea as these + punishments are preventions of like wickednesse in some, so are they + wholesome medicines, to heale such as are curable of these eviles.... + </p> + <p> + “Fourthly, the punishments executed upon false prophets and seducing + teachers, doe bring downe showers of God’s blessings upon the civill + state.... + </p> + <p> + “Fifthly, it is an honour to God’s Justice that such judgments are + executed....” [Footnote: <i>Bloody Tenent Washed</i>, pp. 137, 138.] + </p> + <p> + All motives combined to drive them headlong into cruelty; for in the + breasts of the larger number, even the passion of bigotry was cool beside + the malignant hate they felt for those whose opinions menaced their + earthly power and dominion; and they never wearied of exhorting the + magistrates to destroy the enemies of the church. “Men’s lusts are sweet + to them, and they would not be disturbed or disquieted in their sin. Hence + there be so many such as cry up tolleration boundless and libertinism so + as (if it were in their power) to order a total and perpetual confinement + of the sword of the civil magistrate unto its scabbard; (a notion that is + evidently distructive to this people, and to the publick liberty, peace, + and prosperity of any instituted churches under heaven.)” [Footnote: <i>Eye + Salve</i>, Election Sermon, by Mr. Shepard of Charlestown, p. 21.] “Let + the magistrates coercive power in matters of religion (therefore) be still + asserted, seing he is one who is bound to God more than any other men to + cherish his true religion; ... and how wofull would the state of things + soon be among us, if men might have liberty without controll to profess, + or preach, or print, or publish what they list, tending to the seduction + of others.” [Footnote: <i>Eye Salve</i>, p. 38.] Such feelings found their + fit expression in savage laws against dissenting sects; these, however, + will be dealt with hereafter; only those which illustrate the fundamental + principles of the theocracy need be mentioned here. One chief cause of + schism was the hearing of false doctrine; and in order that the people + might not be led into temptation, but might on the contrary hear true + exposition of the word, every inhabitant was obliged to attend the + services of the established church upon the Lord’s day under a penalty of + fine or imprisonment; the fine not to exceed 5s. (equal to about $5 now) + for every absence. [Footnote: 1634-35, 4 March. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> i. 140.] + </p> + <p> + “If any Christian so called ... shall contemptuously behave himselfe + toward ye word preached, or ye messengers thereof called to dispence ye + same in any congregation, ... or like a sonn of Corah cast upon his true + doctrine or himselfe any reproach ... shall for ye first scandole be + convented ... and bound to their good behaviour; and if a second time they + breake forth into ye like contemptuous carriages, either to pay £5 to ye + publike treasury or to stand two houres openly upon a block 4 foote high, + on a lecture day, with a pap fixed on his breast with this, A Wanton + Gospeller, written in capitall letters ye others may fear & be ashamed + of breaking out into the like wickednes.” [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> ii. 179.] + </p> + <p> + “Though no humane power be Lord over ye faith & consciences of men and + therefore may not constraine ym to beleeve or profes against their + conscience, yet because such as bring in damnable heresies tending to ye + subversion of ye Christian faith ... ought duely to be restrained from + such notorious impiety, if any Christian ... shall go about to subvert ... + ye Christian faith, by broaching ... any damnable heresy, as deniing ye + immortality of ye soule, or ye resurrection of ye body, or any sinn to be + repented of in ye regenerate, or any evill done by ye outward man to be + accounted sinn, or deniing yt Christ gave himselfe a ransome for or sinns + ... or any other heresy of such nature & degree ... shall pay to ye + common treasury during ye first six months 20s. a month and for ye next + six months 40s. p. m., and so to continue dureing his obstinacy; and if + any such person shall endeavour to seduce others ... he shall forfeit ... + for every severall offence ... five pounds.” [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> ii. 177.] + </p> + <p> + “For ye honnor of ye aetaernall God, whome only wee worshippp and serve,” + (it is ordered that) “no person within this jurisdiction, whether + Christian or pagan, shall wittingly and willingly presume to blaspheme his + holy name either by wilfull or obstinate denying ye true God, or reproach + ye holy religion of God, as if it were but a polliticke devise to keepe + ignorant men in awe, ... or deny his creation or gouvernment of ye world, + or shall curse God, or shall vtter any other eminent kind of blasphemy, of + ye like nature and degree; if any person or persons whatsoeuer within our + jurisdiction shall breake this lawe they shall be putt to death.” + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> iii.98.] + </p> + <p> + The special punishments for Antinomians, Baptists, Quakers, and other + sectaries were fine and imprisonment, branding, whipping, mutilation, + banishment, and hanging. Nor were the elders men to shrink from executing + these laws with the same ferocious spirit in which they were enacted. + Remonstrance and command were alike neglected. The Long Parliament warned + them to beware; Charles II. repeatedly ordered them to desist; their + trusted and dearest friend, Sir Richard Saltonstall, wrote from London to + Cotton: “It doth not a little grieve my spirit to heare what sadd things + are reported dayly of your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that + you fyne, whip, and imprison men for their consciences,” [Footnote: <i>Hutch. + Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 127.] and told them their “rigid wayes have + laid you very lowe in the hearts of the saynts.” Thirteen of the most + learned and eminent nonconforming ministers in England wrote to the + governor of Massachusetts imploring him that he and the General Court + would not by their violence “put an advantage into the hands of some who + seek pretences and occasions against our liberty.” [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, + bk. 7, ch. iv. section 4.] Winthrop, the wisest and ablest champion the + clergy ever had, hung back. Like many another political leader, he was + forced by his party into measures from which his judgment and his heart + recoiled. He tells us how, on a question arising between him and Mr. + Haynes, the elders “delivered their several reasons which all sorted to + this conclusion, that strict discipline, both in criminal offences and in + martial affairs, was more needful in plantations than in a settled state, + as tending to the honor and safety of the gospel. Whereupon Mr. Winthrop + acknowledged that he was convinced that he had failed in over much lenity + and remissness, and would endeavor (by God’s assistance) to take a more + strict course thereafter.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 178.] But his better + nature revolted from the foul task and once more regained ascendancy just + as he sunk in death. For while he was lying very sick, Dudley came to his + bedside with an order to banish a heretic: “No,” said the dying man, “I + have done too much of that work already,” and he would not sign the + warrant. [Footnote: <i>Life and Letters of Winthrop</i>, ii. 393.] + </p> + <p> + Nothing could avail, for the clergy held the state within their grasp, and + shrank from no deed of blood to guard the interests of their order. + </p> + <p> + The case of Gorton may serve as an example of a rigor that shocked even + the Presbyterian Baillie; it must be said in explanation of his story that + the magistrates condemned Gorton and his friends to death for the crime of + heresy in obedience to the unanimous decision of the elders, [Footnote: + Winthrop, ii. 146.] but the deputies refusing to concur, the sentence of + imprisonment in irons during the pleasure of the General Court was agreed + upon as a compromise. “Only they in New England are more strict and rigid + than we, or any church, to suppress, by the power of the magistrate, all + who are not of their way, to banishment ordinarily and presently even to + death lately, or perpetual slavery; for one Jortin, sometime a famous + citizen here for piety, having taught a number in New England to cast oft + the word and sacrament, and deny angels and devils, and teach a gross kind + of union with Christ in this life, by force of arms was brought to New + Boston, and there with ten of the chief of his followers, by the civil + court was discerned perpetual slaves, but the votes of many were for their + execution. They lie in irons, though gentlemen; and out of their prison + write to the admiral here, to deal with the parliament for their + deliverance.” [Footnote: Baillie’s Letters, ii. 17, 18.] + </p> + <p> + Like all phenomena of nature, the action of the mind is obedient to law; + the cause is followed by the consequence with the precision that the earth + moves round the sun, and impelled by this resistless power his destiny is + wrought out by man. To the ecclesiastic a deep debt of gratitude is due, + for it was by his effort that the first step from barbarism was made. In + the world’s childhood, knowledge seems divine, and those who first acquire + its rudiments claim, and are believed, to have received it by revelation + from the gods. In an archaic age the priest is likewise the law-giver and + the physician, for all erudition is concentrated in one supremely favored + class—the sacred caste. Their discoveries are kept profoundly + secret, and yet to perpetuate their mysteries among their descendants they + found schools which are the only repositories of learning; but the time + must inevitably come when this order is transformed into the deadliest + enemy of the civilization which it has brought into being. The power of + the spiritual oligarchy rests upon superstitious terrors which dwindle + before advancing enlightenment; hence the clergy have become reactionary, + have sought to stifle the spirit of free inquiry, and have used the + schools which they have builded as instruments to keep alive unreasoning + prejudice, or to serve their selfish ends. This, then, has been the + fiercest battle of mankind; the heroic struggle to break down the + sacerdotal barrier, to popularize knowledge, and to liberate the mind, + began ages before the crucifixion upon Calvary; it still goes on. In this + cause the noblest and the bravest have poured forth their blood like + water, and the path to freedom has been heaped with the corpses of her + martyrs. + </p> + <p> + In that tremendous drama Massachusetts has played her part; it may be said + to have made her intellectual life; and it is the passion of the combat + which gives an interest at once so sombre and so romantic to her story. + </p> + <p> + In the tempest of the Reformation a handful of the sternest rebels were + cast upon the bleak New England coast, and the fervor of that devotion + which led them into the wilderness inspired them with the dream of + reproducing the institutions of God’s chosen people, a picture of which + they believed was divinely preserved for their guidance in the Bible. What + they did in reality was to surrender their new commonwealth to their + priests. Yet they were a race in whose bone and blood the spirit of free + thought was bred; the impulse which had goaded them to reject the Roman + dogmas was quick within them still, and revolt against the ecclesiastical + yoke was certain. The clergy upon their side trod their appointed path + with the precision of machines, and, constrained by an inexorable destiny, + they took that position of antagonism to liberal thought which has become + typical of their order. And the struggles and the agony by which this poor + and isolated community freed itself from its gloomy bondage, the means by + which it secularized its education and its government, won for itself the + blessing of free thought and speech, and matured a system of + constitutional liberty which has been the foundation of the American + Union, rise in dignity to one of the supreme efforts of mankind. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. — THE ANTINOMIANS. + </h2> + <p> + Habit may be defined with enough accuracy for ordinary purposes as the + result of reflex action, or the immediate response of the nerves to a + stimulus, without the intervention of consciousness. Many bodily functions + are naturally reflex, and most movements may be made so by constant + repetition; they are then executed independently of the will. It is no + exaggeration to say that the social fabric rests on the control this + tendency exerts over the actions of men; and its strength is strikingly + exemplified in armies, which, when well organized, are machines, wherein + subjection to command is instinctive, and insubordination, therefore, + practically impossible. + </p> + <p> + An analogous phenomenon is presented by the church, whose priests have + intuitively exhausted their ingenuity in weaving webs of ceremonial, as + soldiers have directed their energies to perfecting manuals of arms; and + the evidence leads to the conclusion that increasing complexity of ritual + indicates a densening ignorance and a deepening despotism. The Hindoos, + the Spaniards, and the English are types of the progression. + </p> + <p> + Within the historic ages unnumbered methods of sacerdotal discipline have + been evolved, but whether the means used to compass the end has been the + bewildering maze of a Levitical code, or the rosary and the confessional + of Rome, the object has always been to reduce the devotee to the implicit + obedience of the trooper. And the stupendous power of these amazingly + perfect systems for destroying the capacity for original thought cannot be + fully realized until the mind has been brought to dwell upon the fact that + the greatest eras of human progress have begun with the advent of those + who have led successful insurrection; nor can the dazzling genius of these + brilliant exceptions be appreciated, unless it be remembered how + infinitely small has been the number of those among mankind who, having + been once drilled to rigid conformity, have not lapsed into automatism, + but have been endowed with the mental energy to revolt. On the other hand, + though ecclesiastics have differed widely in the details of the training + they have enforced upon the faithful, they have agreed upon this cardinal + principle: they have uniformly seized upon the education of the young, and + taught the child to revere the rites in which he was made to partake + before he could reason upon their meaning, for they understood well that + the habit of abject submission to authority, when firmly rooted in + infancy, would ripen into a second nature in after years, and would almost + invariably last till death. + </p> + <p> + But this manual of religion, this deadening of the soul by making + mechanical prayers and genuflexions the gauge of piety, has always roused + the deepest indignation in the great reformers; and, un-appalled by the + most ghastly perils, they have never ceased to exhort mankind to cast off + the slavery of custom and emancipate the mind. Christ rebuked the + Pharisees because they rejected the commandment of God to keep their own + tradition; Paul proclaimed that men should be justified by faith without + the deeds of the law; and Luther preached that the Christian was free, + that the soul did not live because the body wore vestments or prayed with + the lips, and he denounced the tyranny of the clergy, who arrogated to + themselves a higher position than others who were Christian in the spirit. + On their side priesthoods know these leaders of rebellion by an unerring + instinct and pursue them to the death. + </p> + <p> + The ministers of New England were formalists to the core, and the society + over which they dominated was organized upon the avowed basis of the + manifestation of godliness in the outward man. The sad countenance, the + Biblical speech, the sombre garb, the austere life, the attendance at + worship, and, above all, the unfailing deference paid to themselves, were + the marks of sanctification by which the elders knew the saints on earth, + for whom they were to open the path to fortune by making them members of + the church. + </p> + <p> + Happily for Massachusetts, there has never been a time when all her + children could be docile under such a rule; and, among her champions of + freedom, none have been braver than those who have sprung from the ranks + of her ministry, as the fate of Roger Williams had already proved. In such + a community, before the ecclesiastical power had been solidified by time, + only a spark was needed to kindle a conflagration, and that spark was + struck by a woman. + </p> + <p> + So early as 1634 a restless spirit was abroad, for Winthrop was then set + aside, and now, in 1636, young Henry Vane was enthusiastically elected + governor, though he was only twenty-four, and had been but a few months in + the colony. The future seemed bright and serene, yet he had hardly taken + office before the storm burst, which not only overthrew him, but was + destined to destroy that unhappy lady whom the Rev. Thomas Welde called + the American Jezebel. [Footnote: Opinions are divided as to the authorship + of the <i>Short Story</i>, but I conclude from internal evidence that the + ending at least was written by Mr. Welde.] + </p> + <p> + John Cotton, the former rector of St. Botolph’s, was the teacher of the + Boston church. By common consent the leader of the clergy, he was the most + brilliant, and, in some respects, the most powerful man in the colony. Two + years before, Anne Hutchinson, with all her family, had followed him from + her home in Lincolnshire into the wilderness, for, “when our teacher came + to New England, it was a great trouble unto me, my brother, Wheelwright, + being put by also.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist</i>. ii. 440.] A gentlewoman + of spotless life, with a kind and charitable heart, a vigorous + understanding and dauntless courage, her failings were vanity and a bitter + tongue toward those whom she disliked. [Footnote: Cotton, <i>Way of New + England Churches</i>, p. 52.] Unfortunately also for herself, she was one + of the enthusiasts who believe themselves subject to divine revelations, + for this pretension would probably in any event have brought upon her the + displeasure of the church. It is worth while to attempt some logical + explanation of the dislike felt by the Massachusetts elders to any + suggestion of such supernatural interposition. The half-unconscious train + of reasoning on which they based their claim to exact implicit obedience + from the people seems, when analyzed, to yield this syllogism: All + revelation is contained in the Bible; but to interpret the ancient sacred + writings with authority, a technical training is essential, which is + confined to priests; therefore no one can define God’s will who is not of + the ministry. Had the possibility of direct revelation been admitted this + reasoning must have fallen; for then, obviously, the word of an inspired + peasant would have outweighed the sermon of an uninspired divine; it + follows, necessarily, that ecclesiastics so situated would have been + jealous of lay preaching, and absolutely intolerant of the inner light. + </p> + <p> + In May, 1636, the month of Vane’s election, Mrs. Hutchinson had been + joined by her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, the deprived vicar of + Bilsby. Her social influence was then at its height; her amiable + disposition had made her popular, and for some time past she had held + religious meetings for women at her house. The ostensible object of these + gatherings was to recapitulate the sermons of the week; but the step from + discussion to criticism was short, and it soon began to be said that she + cast reproach “upon the ministers, ... saying that none of them did preach + the covenant of free grace, but Master Cotton, and that they have not the + seale of the Spirit, and so were not able ministers of the New Testament.” + [Footnote: <i>Short Story</i>, p. 36.] Or, to use colloquial language, she + accused the clergy of being teachers of forms, and said that, of them all, + Cotton alone appealed to the animating spirit like Luther or St. Paul. + </p> + <p> + “A company of legall professors,” quoth she, “lie poring on the law which + Christ hath abolished.” [Footnote: <i>Wonder-Working Providence</i>, + Poole’s ed. p. 102.] + </p> + <p> + Such freedom of speech was, of course, intolerable; and so, as Cotton was + implicated by her imprudent talk, the elders went to Boston in a body in + October to take him to task. In the hope of adjusting the difficulty, he + suggested a friendly meeting at his house, and an interview took place. At + first Mrs. Hutchinson, with much prudence, declined to commit herself; but + the Rev. Hugh Peters besought her so earnestly to deal frankly and openly + with them that she, confiding in the sacred character of a confidential + conversation with clergymen in the house of her own religious teacher, + committed the fatal error of admitting that she saw a wide difference + between Mr. Cotton’s ministry and theirs, and that they could not preach a + covenant of grace so clearly as he, because they had not the seal of the + Spirit. The progress of the new opinion was rapid, and it is clear Mrs. + Hutchinson had only given expression to a feeling of discontent which was + both wide-spread and deep. Before winter her adherents, or those who + condemned the covenant of works,—in modern language, the liberals,—had + become an organized political party, of which Vane was the leader; and + here lay their first danger. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding his eminent ability, he was then but a boy, and the task + was beyond his strength. The stronghold of his party was Boston, where, + except some half-dozen, [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 212.] the whole + congregation followed him and Cotton: yet even here he met with the + powerful opposition of Winthrop and the pastor, John Wilson. In the + country he was confronted by the solid body of the clergy, whose influence + proved sufficient to hold together a majority of the voters in + substantially all the towns, so that the conservatives never lost control + of the legislature. + </p> + <p> + The position was harassing, and his nerves gave way under the strain. In + December he called a court and one day suddenly announced that he had + received letters from England requiring his immediate return; but when + some of his friends remonstrated he “brake forth into tears and professed + that, howsoever the causes propounded for his departure were such as did + concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he would rather have + hazarded all” ... “but for the danger he saw of God’s judgment to come + upon us for these differences and dissensions which he saw amongst us, and + the scandalous imputations brought upon himself, as if he should be the + cause of all.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 207.] + </p> + <p> + Such a flight was out of the question. The weight of his name and the + protection given his supporters by the power of his family in England + could not be dispensed with, and therefore the Boston congregation + intervened. After a day’s reflection he seems himself to have become + convinced that he had gone too far to recede, so he “expressed himself to + be an obedient child to the church and therefore ... durst not go away.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, i. 208.] + </p> + <p> + That a young and untried man like Vane should have grown weary of his + office and longed to escape will astonish no one who is familiar with the + character and the mode of warfare of his adversaries. + </p> + <p> + In that society a layman could not retort upon a minister who insulted + him, nor could Vane employ the arguments with which Cromwell so + effectually silenced the Scotch divines. The following is a specimen of + the treatment to which he was probably almost daily subjected, and the + scene in this instance was the more mortifying because it took place + before the assembled legislature. + </p> + <p> + “The ministers had met a little before and had drawn into heads all the + points wherein they suspected Mr. Cotton did differ from them, and had + propounded them to him, and pressed him to a direct answer ... to every + one; which he had promised. ... This meeting being spoke of in the court + the day before, the governour took great offence at it, as being without + his privity, &c., which this day Mr. Peter told him as plainly of + (with all due reverence), and how it had sadded the ministers’ spirits, + that he should be jealous of their meetings, or seem to restrain their + liberty, &c. The governour excused his speech as sudden and upon a + mistake. Mr. Peter told him also, that before he came, within less than + two years since, the churches were in peace.... Mr. Peter also besought + him humbly to consider his youth and short experience in the things of + God, and to beware of peremptory conclusions which he perceived him to be + very apt unto.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 209.] This coarse bully was the + same Hugh Peters of whom Whitelock afterward complained that he often + advised him, though he “understood little of the law, but was very + opinionative,” [Footnote: Memorials, p. 521.] and who was so terrified at + the approach of death that on his way to the scaffold he had to drink + liquor to keep from fainting. [Footnote: Burnet, i. 162.] + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Wilson” also “made a very sad speech to the General Court of the + condition of our churches, and the inevitable danger of separation, if + these differences ... were not speedily remedied, and laid the blame upon + these new opinions ... which all the magistrates except the governour and + two others did confirm and all the ministers but two.” [Footnote: + Winthrop, i. 209.] Those two were John Cotton and John Wheelwright, the + preachers of the covenant of grace. + </p> + <p> + Their brethren might well make sad speeches, for their cup of bitterness + was full; but they must be left to describe for themselves the tempest of + fear and wrath that raged within them. “Yea, some that had beene begotten + to Christ by some of their faithfull labours in this land” (England, where + the tract was published,) “for whom they could have laid downe their + lives, and not being able to beare their absence followed after them + thither to New England to enjoy their labours, yet these falling + acquainted with those seducers, were suddenly so altered in their + affections toward those their spirituall fathers, that they would neither + heare them, nor willingly come in their company, professing they had never + received any good from them.” ... “Now the faithfull ministers of Christ + must have dung cast on their faces ... must be pointed at as it were with + the finger, and reproached by name, such a church officer is an ignorant + man, and knows not Christ; such an one is under a covenant of works: such + a pastor is a proud man, and would make a good persecutor ... so that + through these reproaches occasion was given to men, to abhorre the + offerings of the Lord.” [Footnote: Welde’s <i>Short Story</i>, Pref. + Sections 7-11.] + </p> + <p> + “Now, one of them in a solemne convention of ministers dared to say to + their faces, that they did not preach the Covenant of Free Grace, and that + they themselves had not the seale of the Spirit.... Now, after our sermons + were ended at our publike lectures, you might have seene halfe a dozen + pistols discharged at the face of the preacher (I meane) so many + objections made by the opinionists in the open assembly against our + doctrine ... to the marvellous weakening of holy truths delivered ... in + the hearts of all the weaker sort.” [Footnote: Welde’s <i>Short Story</i>, + Pref. Sections 7-11.] + </p> + <p> + John Wheelwright was a man whose character extorts our admiration, if it + does not win our love. The personal friend of Cromwell and of Vane, with a + mind vigorous and masculine, and a courage stern and determined even above + the Puritan standard of resolution and of daring, he spoke the truth which + was within him, and could neither be intimidated nor cajoled. In October + an attempt had been made to have him settled as a teacher of the Boston + church in conjunction with Wilson and Cotton, but it had miscarried + through Winthrop’s opposition, and he had afterward taken charge of a + congregation that had been gathered at Mount Wollaston, in what is now + Quincy. + </p> + <p> + On the 19th of January a fast was held on account of the public + dissensions, and on that day Wheelwright preached a great sermon in Boston + which brought on the crisis. He was afterward accused of sedition: the + charge was false, for he did not utter one seditious word; but he did that + which was harder to forgive, he struck at what he deemed the wrong with + his whole might, and those who will patiently pore over his pages until + they see the fire glowing through his rugged sentences will feel the power + of his blow. And what he told his hearers was in substance this: It maketh + no matter how seemingly holy men be according to the law, if ... they are + such as trust to their own righteousness they shall die, saith the Lord. + Do ye not after their works; for they say and do not. They make broad + their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the + uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues; and + greetings in the market place and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But + believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved, for being + justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. + And the way we must take if so be we will not have the Lord Jesus Christ + taken from us is this, we must all prepare a spiritual combat, we must put + on the whole armor of God, and must have our loins girt up and be ready to + fight, ... because of fear in the night if we will not fight the Lord + Jesus Christ may come to be surprised. + </p> + <p> + And when his brethren heard it they sought how they might destroy him; for + they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. + </p> + <p> + In March the legislature met, and Wheelwright was arraigned before a court + composed, according to the account of the Quaker Groom, of Henry Vane, + “twelve magistrates, twelve priests, & thirty-three deputies.” + [Footnote: Groom’s Glass for New England, p. 6.] His sermon was produced, + and an attempt was made to obtain an admission that by those under a + covenant of works he meant his brethren. But the accused was one whom it + was hard to entrap and impossible to frighten. He defied his judges to + controvert his doctrine, offering to prove it by the Scriptures, and as + for the application he answered that “if he were shown any that walked in + such a way as he had described to be a covenant of works, them did he + mean.” [Footnote: Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 17, note 27.] Then the + rest of the elders were asked if they “did walk in such a way, and they + all acknowledged they did,” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 215. Wheelwright, p. + 18.] excepting John Cotton, who declared that “brother Wheelwright’s + doctrine was according to God in the parts controverted, and wholly and + altogether.” [Footnote: Groom’s <i>Glass for New England</i>, p. 7.] He + received ecclesiastical justice. There was no jury, and the popular + assembly that decided law and fact by a partisan vote was controlled by + his adversaries. Yet even so, a verdict of sedition was such a flagrant + outrage that the clergy found it impossible to command prompt obedience. + For two days the issue was in doubt, but at length “the priests got two of + the magistrates on their side, and so got the major part with them.” + [Footnote: Felt’s <i>Eccl. Hist.</i> ii. 611.] They appear, however, to + have felt too weak to proceed to sentence, for the prisoner was remanded + until the next session. + </p> + <p> + No sooner was the judgment made known than more than sixty of the most + respected citizens of Boston signed a petition to the court in + Wheelwright’s behalf, In respectful and even submissive language they + pointed out the danger of meddling with the right of free speech. “Paul + was counted a pestilent fellow, or a moover of sedition, and a ringleader + of a sect, ... and Christ himselfe, as well as Paul, was charged to bee a + teacher of New Doctrine.... Now wee beseech you, consider whether that old + serpent work not after his old method, even in our daies.” [Footnote: + Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 21.] + </p> + <p> + The charge of sedition made against them they repudiated in emphatic + words, which deserve attention, as they were afterwards held to be + criminal. + </p> + <p> + “Thirdly, if you look at the effects of his doctrine upon the hearers, it + hath not stirred up sedition in us, not so much as by accident; wee have + not drawn the sword, as sometimes Peter did, rashly, neither have wee + rescued our innocent brother, as sometimes the Israelites did Jonathan, + and yet they did not seditiously. The covenant of free grace held forth by + our brother hath taught us rather to become humble suppliants to your + worships, and if wee should not prevaile, wee would rather with patience + give our cheekes to the smiters.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>.] + </p> + <p> + The liberal feeling ran so strongly in Boston that the conservatives + thought it prudent to remove the government temporarily to Cambridge, that + they might more easily control the election which was to come in May. + Vane, with some petulance, refused to entertain the motion; but Endicott + put the question, and it was carried. As the time drew near the excitement + increased, the clergy straining every nerve to bring up their voters from + the country; and on the morning of the day the feeling was so intense that + the Rev. Mr. Wilson, forgetting his dignity and his age, scrambled up a + tree and harangued the people from its branches. [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist</i>. + i. 62, note.] + </p> + <p> + Yet, though the freemen were so deeply moved, there was no violence, and + Winthrop was peaceably elected governor, with a strong conservative + majority in the legislature. It so happened that just at this time a + number of the friends of Wheelwright and the Hutchinsons were on their way + from England to settle in Massachusetts. The first act of the new + government was to exclude these new-comers by passing a law forbidding any + town to entertain strangers for more than three weeks without the consent + of two of the magistrates. + </p> + <p> + This oppressive statute caused such discontent that Winthrop thought it + necessary to publish a defence, to which Vane replied and Winthrop + rejoined. The controversy would long since have lost its interest had it + not been for the theory then first advanced by Winthrop, that the + corporation of Massachusetts, having bought its land, held it as though it + were a private estate, and might exclude whom they pleased therefrom; and + ever since this plea has been set up in justification of every excess + committed by the theocracy. + </p> + <p> + Winthrop was a lawyer, and it is but justice to his reputation to presume + that he spoke as a partisan, knowing his argument to be fallacious. As a + legal proposition he must have been aware that it was unsound. + </p> + <p> + Although during the reign of Charles I. monopolies were a standing + grievance with the House of Commons, yet they had been granted and + enforced for centuries; and had Massachusetts claimed the right to exclude + strangers as interlopers in trade, she would have stood upon good + precedent. Such, however, was not her contention. The legislation against + the friends of Wheelwright was passed avowedly upon grounds of religious + difference of opinion, and a monopoly in religion was unknown. + </p> + <p> + Her commercial privileges alone were exclusive, and, provided he respected + them, a British subject had the same right to dwell in Massachusetts as in + any of the other dominions of the crown, or, indeed, in any borough which + held its land by grant, like Plymouth. To subject Englishmen to + restriction or punishment unknown to English law was as outrageous as the + same act would have been had it been perpetrated by the city of London,—both + corporations having a like power to preserve the peace by local + ordinances, and both being controlled by the law of the land as + administered by the courts. Such arguments as those advanced by Winthrop + were only solemn quibbling to cloak an indefensible policy. To banish + freemen for demanding liberty of conscience was a still more flagrant + wrong. A precisely parallel case would have been presented had the + directors of the East India Company declared the membership of a + proprietor to be forfeited, and ordered his stock to be sold, because he + disapproved of enforcing conformity in worship among inhabitants of the + factories in Hindostan. + </p> + <p> + Vane sailed early in August, and his departure cleared the last barrier + from the way of vengeance. Proceedings were at once begun by a synod of + all the ministers, which was held at Cambridge, for the purpose of restoring + peace to the churches. “There were about eighty opinions, some + blasphemous, others erroneous, and all unsafe, condemned by the whole + assembly.... Some of the church of Boston ... were offended at the + producing of so many errors, ... and called to have the persons named + which held those errors.” To which the elders answered that all those + opinions could be proved to be held by some, but it was not thought fit to + name the parties. “Yet this would not satisfy some but they oft called for + witnesses; and because some of the magistrates declared to them ... that + if they would not forbear it would prove a civil disturbance ... they + objected.... So as he” (probably meaning Winthrop) “was forced to tell one + of them that if he would not forbear ... he might see it executed. Upon + this some of Boston departed from the assembly and came no more.” + [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 238.] Once freed from their repinings all went + well, and their pastor, Mr. Wilson, soon had the satisfaction of sending + their reputed heresies “to the devil of hell from whence they came.” + [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 3, ch. ii. Section 13.] Cotton, seeing + that all was lost, hastened to make his peace by a submission which the + Rev. Mr. Hubbard of Ipswich describes with unconscious cynicism. “If he + were not convinced, yet he was persuaded to an amicable compliance with + the other ministers; ... for, although it was thought he did still retain + his own sense and enjoy his own apprehension in all or most of the things + then controverted (as is manifest by some expressions of his ... since + that time published,”...) yet. “By that means did that reverend and worthy + minister of the gospel recover his former splendour throughout ... New + England.” [Footnote: Hubbard, p. 302.] + </p> + <p> + He was not a sensitive man, and having once determined to do penance, he + was far too astute a politician to do it by halves; he not only gave + himself up to the task of detecting the heterodoxy of his old friends, + [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 253.] but on a day of solemn fasting he publicly + professed repentance with many tears, and told how, “God leaving him for a + time, he fell into a spirituall slumber; and had it not been for the + watchfulnesse of his brethren, the elders, &c., hee might have slept + on, ... and was very thankfull to his brethren for their watchfulnesse + over him.” [Footnote: <i>Hypocrisie Unmasked</i>, p. 76.] Nor to the end + of his life did he feel quite at ease; “yea, such was his ingenuity and + piety as that his soul was not satisfied without often breaking forth into + affectionate bewailing of his infirmity herein, in the publick assembly, + sometimes in his prayer, sometimes in his sermon, and that with tears.” + [Footnote: Norton’s <i>Funeral Sermon</i>, p. 37.] + </p> + <p> + Wheelwright was made of sterner stuff, and was inflexible. In fact, + however, the difference of dogma, if any existed, was trivial. The clergy + used the cry of heresy to excite odium, just as they called their + opponents Antinomians, or dangerous fanatics. To support these accusations + the synod gravely accepted every unsavory inference which ingenuity could + wring from the tenets of their adversaries; and these, together with the + fables invented by idle gossip, made up the long list of errors they + condemned. Though the scheme was unprincipled, it met with complete + success, and the Antinomians have come down to posterity branded as deadly + enemies of Christ and the commonwealth; yet nothing is more certain than + that they were not only good citizens, but substantially orthodox. On such + a point there is no one among the conservatives whose testimony has the + weight of Winthrop’s, who says: “Mr. Cotton ... stated the differences in + a very narrow scantling; and Mr. Shepherd, preaching at the day of + election, brought them yet nearer, so as, except men of good + understanding, and such as knew the bottom of the tenents of those of the + other party, few could see where the difference was.” [Footnote: Winthrop, + i. 221.] While Cotton himself complains bitterly of the falsehoods spread + about him and his friends: “But when some of ... the elders of neighbour + churches advertised me of the evill report ... I ... dealt with Mrs. + Hutchinson and others of them, declaring to them the erroneousnesse of + those tenents, and the injury done to myself in fathering them upon mee. + Both shee and they utterly denyed that they held such tenents, or that + they had fathered them upon mee. I returned their answer to the elders.... + They answered me they had but one witnesse, ... and that one both to be + known.” ... [Footnote: Cotton, <i>Way of New England Churches</i>, pp. 39, + 40.] Moreover, it is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the advantage + it would have given the reactionists to have been able to fix subversive + opinions upon their prominent opponents, it was found impossible to prove + heresy in a single case which was brought to trial. The legislature chosen + in May was apparently unfit for the work now to be done, for the + extraordinary step of a dissolution was decided on, and a new election + held, under circumstances in which it was easy to secure the return of + suitable candidates. The session opened on November 2, and Wheelwright was + summoned to appear. He was ordered to submit, or prepare for sentence. He + replied that he was guilty of neither sedition nor contempt; that he had + preached only the truth of Christ, the application of which was for + others, not for him. “To which it was answered by the court that they had + not censured his doctrine, but left it as it was; but his application, by + which hee laid the magistrates and ministers and most of the people of God + in these churches under a covenant of works.” [Footnote: <i>Short Story</i>, + p. 24.] The prisoner was then sentenced to be disfranchised and banished. + He demanded an appeal to the king; it was refused; and he was given + fourteen days to leave Massachusetts. So he went forth alone in the bitter + winter weather and journeyed to the Piscataqua,—yet “it was + marvellous he got thither at that time, when they expelled him, by reason + of the deep snow in which he might have perished.” [Footnote: Wheelwright, + Prince Soc. ed. <i>Mercurius Americanus</i>, p. 24.] Nor was banishment by + any means the trivial penalty it has been described. On the contrary, it + was a punishment of the utmost rigor. The exiles were forced suddenly to + dispose of their property, which, in those times, was mostly in houses and + land, and go forth among the savages with helpless women and children. + Such an ordeal might well appall even a brave man; but Wheelwright was + sacrificing his intellectual life. He was leaving books, friends, and the + mental activity, which made the world to him, to settle in the forests + among backwoodsmen; and yet even in this desolate solitude the theocracy + continued to pursue him with persevering hate. + </p> + <p> + But there were others beside Wheelwright who had sinned, and some pretext + had to be devised by which to reach them. The names of most of his friends + were upon the petition that had been drawn up after his trial. It is true + it was a proceeding with which the existing legislature was not concerned, + since it had been presented to one of its predecessors; it is also true + that probably never, before or since, have men who have protested they + have not drawn the sword rashly, but have come as humble suppliants to + offer their cheeks to the smiters, been held to be public enemies. Such + scruples, however, never hampered the theocracy. Their justice was + trammelled neither by judges, by juries, nor by laws; the petition was + declared to be a seditious libel, and the petitioners were given their + choice of disavowing their act and making humble submission, or exile. + </p> + <p> + Aspinwall was at once disfranchised and banished. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + i. 207.] Coddington, Coggeshall, and nine more were given leave to depart + within three months, or abide the action of the court; others were + disfranchised; and fifty-eight of the less prominent of the party were + disarmed in Boston alone. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, i. 223.] + </p> + <p> + Thus were the early liberals crushed in Massachusetts; the bold were + exiled, the timid were terrified; as a political organization they moved + no more till the theocracy was tottering to its fall; and for forty years + the power of the clergy was absolute in the land. + </p> + <p> + The fate of Anne Hutchinson makes a fit ending to this sad tale of + oppression and of wrong. In November, 1637, when her friends were crushed, + and the triumphant priests felt that their victim’s doom was sure, she was + brought to trial before that ghastliest den of human iniquity, an + ecclesiastical criminal court. The ministers were her accusers, who came + burning with hate to testify to the words she had spoken to them at their + own request, in the belief that the confidence she reposed was to be held + sacred. She had no jury to whose manhood she could appeal, and John + Winthrop, to his lasting shame, was to prosecute her from the judgment + seat. She was soon to become a mother, and her health was feeble, but she + was made to stand till she was exhausted; and yet, abandoned and forlorn, + before those merciless judges, through two long, weary days of hunger and + of cold, the intrepid woman defended her cause with a skill and courage + which even now, after two hundred and fifty years, kindles the heart with + admiration. The case for the government was opened by John Winthrop, the + presiding justice, the attorney-general, the foreman of the jury, and the + chief magistrate of Massachusetts Bay. He upbraided the prisoner with her + many evil courses, with having spoken things prejudicial to the honor of + the ministers, with holding an assembly in her house, and with divulging + the opinions held by those who had been censured by that court; closing in + these words, which sound strangely in the mouth of a New England judge:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + We have thought good to send for you ... that if you be in an erroneous + way we may reduce you that so you may become a profitable member here + among us, otherwise if you be obstinate ... that then the court may take + such course that you may trouble us no further, therefore I would entreat + you ... whether you do not justify Mr. Wheelwright’s sermon and the + petition. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> I am called here to answer before you, but I hear no things + laid to my charge. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> I have told you some already, and more I can tell you. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> Name one, sir. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Have I not named some already? + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> What have I said or done?... + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> You have joined with them in the faction. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> In what faction have I joined with them? + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> In presenting the petition.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> But I had not my hand to the petition. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> You have counselled them. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> Wherein? + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Why, in entertaining them. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> What breach of law is that, sir? + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Why, dishonoring of parents.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> I may put honor upon them as the children of God and as + they do honor the Lord. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> We do not mean to discourse with those of your sex but only + this; you do adhere unto them, and do endeavor to set forward this + faction, and so you do dishonor us. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> I do acknowledge no such thing, neither do I think that I + ever put any dishonor upon you. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + And, on the whole, the chief justice broke down so hopelessly in his + examination, that the deputy governor, or his senior associate upon the + bench, thought it necessary to interfere. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>Dep. Gov.</i> I would go a little higher with Mrs. Hutchinson. Now ... + if she in particular hath disparaged all our ministers in the land that + they have preached a covenant of works, and only Mr. Cotton a covenant of + grace, why this is not to be suffered... + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> I pray, sir, prove it, that I said they preached nothing + but a covenant of works.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Dep. Gov.</i> If they do not preach a covenant of grace, clearly, then, + they preach a covenant of works. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> No, sir, one may preach a covenant of grace more clearly + than another, so I said. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Dudley was faring worse than Winthrop, and the divines, who had been + bursting with impatience, could hold no longer. The Rev. Hugh Peters broke + in: “That which concerns us to speak unto, as yet we are sparing in, + unless the court command us to speak, then we shall answer to Mrs. + Hutchinson, notwithstanding our brethren are very unwilling to answer.” + And without further urging, that meek servant of Christ went on to tell + how he and others had heard that the prisoner said they taught a covenant + of works, how they had sent for her, and though she was “very tender” at + first, yet upon being begged to speak plainly, she had explained that + there “was a broad difference between our Brother Mr. Cotton and + ourselves. I desired to know the difference. She answered ‘that he + preaches the covenant of grace and you the covenant of works, and that you + are not able ministers of the New Testament, and know no more than the + apostles did before the resurrection.’”... + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> If our pastor would show his writings you should see what I + said, and that many things are not so as is reported. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Wilson.</i> Sister Hutchinson, for the writings you speak of I have + them not.... + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Five more divines followed, who, though they were “loth to speak in that + assembly concerning that gentlewoman,” yet to ease their consciences in + “the relation wherein” they stood “to the Commonwealth and... unto God,” + felt constrained to state that the prisoner had said they were not able + ministers of the New Testament, and that the whole of the evidence of Hugh + Peters was true, and in so doing they came to an issue of veracity with + Cotton. + </p> + <p> + An adjournment soon followed till next day, and the presiding justice + seems to have considered his case against his prisoner as closed. + </p> + <p> + In the morning Mrs. Hutchinson opened her defence by calling three + witnesses, Leverett, Coggeshall, and John Cotton. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Mr. Coggeshall was not present. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> Yes, but I was, only I desired to be silent till I should be + called. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Will you ... say that she did not say so? + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> Yes, I dare say that she did not say all that which they lay + against her. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Peters.</i> How dare you look into the court to say such a word? + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> Mr. Peters takes upon him to forbid me. I shall be + silent.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Well, Mr. Leverett, what were the words? I pray speak. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. L.</i> To my best remembrance ... Mr. Peters did with much + vehemency and entreaty urge her to tell what difference there was between + Mr. Cotton and them, and upon his urging of her she said: “The fear of man + is a snare, but they that trust upon the Lord shall be safe.” And ... that + they did not preach a covenant of grace so clearly as Mr. Cotton did, and + she gave this reason of it, because that as the apostles were for a time + without the Spirit so until they had received the witness of the Spirit + they could not preach a covenant of grace so clearly. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + The Rev. John Cotton was then called. He was much embarrassed in giving + his evidence, but, if he is to be believed, his brethren, in their anxiety + to make out a case, had colored material facts. He closed his account of + the interview in these words: “I must say that I did not find her saying + they were under a covenant of works, nor that she said they did preach a + covenant of works.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> You say you do not remember, but can you say she did not speak + so? + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> I do remember that she looked at them as the apostles before + the ascension.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Dep. Gov.</i> They affirm that Mrs. Hutchinson did say they were not + able ministers of the New Testament. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> I do not remember it. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Hutchinson had shattered the case of the government in a style worthy + of a leader of the bar, but she now ventured on a step for which she has + been generally condemned. She herself approached the subject of her + revelations. To criticise the introduction of evidence is always simpler + than to conduct a cause, but an analysis of her position tends to show not + only that her course was the result of mature reflection, but that her + judgment was in this instance correct. She probably assumed that when the + more easily proved charges had broken down she would be attacked here; and + in this assumption she was undoubtedly right. The alternative presented to + her, therefore, was to go on herself, or wait for Winthrop to move. If she + waited she knew she should give the government the advantage of choosing + the ground, and she would thus be subjected to the danger of having fatal + charges proved against her by hearsay or distorted evidence. If she took + the bolder course, she could explain her revelations as monitions coming + to her through texts in Scripture, and here she was certain of Cotton’s + support. Before that tribunal she could hardly have hoped for an + acquittal; but if anything could have saved her it would have been the + sanction given to her doctrines by the approval of John Cotton. At all + events, she saw the danger, for she closed her little speech in these + touching words: “Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my + conscience I know to be truth, I must commit myself unto the Lord.” + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Nowell.</i> How do you know that that was the Spirit? + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> How did Abraham know that it was God?... + </p> + <p> + <i>Dep. Gov.</i> By an immediate voice. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> So to me by an immediate revelation. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Then she proceeded to state how, through various texts which she cited, + the Lord showed her what He would do; and she particularly dwelt on one + from Daniel. So far all was well; she had planted herself on ground upon + which orthodox opinion was at least divided; but she now committed the one + grave error of her long and able defence. As she went on her excitement + gained upon her, and she ended by something like a defiance and + denunciation: “You have power over my body, but the Lord Jesus hath power + over my body and soul; and assure yourselves thus much, you do as much as + in you lies to put the Lord Jesus Christ from you, and if you go on in + this course you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your posterity, + and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Daniel was delivered by miracle. Do you think to be delivered + so too? + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> I do here speak it before the court. I look that the Lord + should deliver me by his providence.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Dep. Gov.</i> I desire Mr. Cotton to tell us whether you do approve of + Mrs. Hutchinson’s revelations as she hath laid them down. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> I know not whether I do understand her, but this I say, if + she doth expect a deliverance in a way of providence, then I cannot deny + it. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> ... I see a marvellous providence of God to bring things to + this pass.... God by a providence hath answered our desires, and made her + to lay open herself and the ground of all these disturbances to be by + revelations. . . . + </p> + <p> + <i>Court.</i> We all consent with you. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Ey, it is the most desperate enthusiasm in the world.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Endicott.</i> I speak in reference to Mr. Cotton.... Whether do you + witness for her or against her. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> This is that I said, sir, and my answer is plain, that if + she doth look for deliverance from the hand of God by his providence, and + the revelation be ... according to a word [of Scripture] that I cannot + deny. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Endicott.</i> You give me satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + <i>Dep. Gov.</i> No, no, he gives me none at all.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. C.</i> I pray, sir, give me leave to express myself. In that sense + that she speaks I dare not bear witness against it. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Nowell.</i> I think it is a devilish delusion. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Of all the revelations that ever I read of I never read the + like ground laid as is for this. The enthusiasts and Anabaptists had never + the like.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Peters.</i> I can say the same ... and I think that is very + disputable which our brother Cotton hath spoken.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> I am persuaded that the revelation she brings forth is + delusion. + </p> + <p> + All the court but some two or three ministers cry out, We all believe it, + we all believe it.... + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + And then Coddington stood up before that angry meeting like the brave man + he was, and said, “I beseech you do not speak so to force things along, + for I do not for my own part see any equity in the court in all your + proceedings. Here is no law of God that she hath broken, nor any law of + the country that she hath broke, and therefore deserves no censure; and if + she say that the elders preach as the apostles did, why they preached a + covenant of grace and what wrong is that to them, ... therefore I pray + consider, what you do, for here is no law of God or man broken.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>Mr. Peters.</i> I profess I thought Mr. Cotton would never have took + her part. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> The court hath already declared themselves satisfied ... + concerning the troublesomeness of her spirit and the danger of her course + amongst us which is not to be suffered. Therefore if it be the mind of the + court that Mrs. Hutchinson ... shall be banished out of our liberties and + imprisoned till she be sent away let them hold up their hands. + </p> + <p> + All but three consented. + </p> + <p> + Those contrary minded hold up yours. Mr. Coddington and Colburn only. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that + you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for + our society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away. + </p> + <p> + <i>Mrs. H.</i> I desire to know wherefore I am banished. + </p> + <p> + <i>Gov.</i> Say no more, the court knows wherefore and is satisfied. + [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> vol. ii. App. 2.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + With refined malice she was committed to the custody of Joseph Welde of + Roxbury, the brother of the Rev. Thomas Welde who thought her a Jezebel. + Here “divers of the elders resorted to her,” and under this daily torment + rapid progress was made. Probably during that terrible interval her reason + was tottering, for her talk came to resemble ravings. [Footnote: <i>Brief + Apologie</i>, p. 59.] When this point was reached the divines saw their + object attained, and that “with sad hearts” they could give her up to + Satan. [Footnote: <i>Brief Apologie</i>, p. 59.] Accordingly they “wrote + to the church at Boston, offering to make proof of the same,” whereupon + she was summoned and the lecture appointed to begin at ten o’clock. + [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 254.] + </p> + <p> + “When she was come one of the ruling elders called her forth before the + assembly,” and read to her the twenty-nine errors of which she was + accused, all of which she admitted she had maintained. “Then she asked by + what rule such an elder would come to her pretending to desire light and + indeede to entrappe her.” He answered that he came not to “entrap her but + in compassion to her soule....” + </p> + <p> + “Then presently she grew into passion ... professing withall that she held + none of these things ... before her imprisonment.” [Footnote: <i>Brief + Apol.</i> pp. 59-61.] + </p> + <p> + The court sat till eight at night, when “Mr. Cotton pronounced the + sentence of admonition ... with much zeal and detestation of her errors + and pride of spirit.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 256.] An adjournment was + then agreed on for a week and she was ordered to return to Roxbury; but + this was more than she could bear, and her distress was such that the + congregation seem to have felt some touch of compassion, for she was + committed to the charge of Cotton till the next lecture day, when the + trial was to be resumed. [Footnote: <i>Brief Apol.</i> p. 62.] At his + house her mind recovered its tone and when she again appeared she not only + retracted the wild opinions she had broached while at Joseph Welde’s, but + admitted “that what she had spoken against the magistrates at the court + (by way of revelation) was rash and ungrounded.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. + 258.] + </p> + <p> + But nothing could avail her. She was in the hands of men determined to + make her expiation of her crimes a by-word of terror; her fate was sealed. + The doctrines she now professed were less objectionable, so she was + examined as to former errors, among others “that she had denied inherent + righteousness;” she “affirmed that it was never her judgment; and though + it was proved by many testimonies ... yet she impudently persisted in her + affirmation to the astonishment of all the assembly. So that ... the + church with one consent cast her out.... After she was excommunicated her + spirit, which seemed before to be somewhat dejected, revived again and she + gloried in her sufferings.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 258.] And all this + time she had been alone; her friends were far away. + </p> + <p> + That no circumstances of horror might be lost, she and one of her most + devoted followers, Mary Dyer, were nearing their confinements during this + time of misery. Both cases ended in misfortunes over whose sickening + details Thomas Welde and his reverend brethren gloated with a savage joy, + declaring that “God himselfe was pleased to step in with his casting vote + ... as clearly as if he had pointed with his finger.” [Footnote: <i>Short + Story</i>, Preface, Section 5.] Let posterity draw a veil over the + shocking scene. + </p> + <p> + Two or three days after her condemnation “the governor sent [her] a + warrant ... to depart ... she went by water to her farm at the Mount ... + and so to the island in the Narragansett Bay which her husband and the + rest of that sect had purchased of the Indians.” [Footnote: Winthrop, i. + 259.] + </p> + <p> + This pure and noble but most unhappy woman had sinned against the clergy, + past forgiveness here or hereafter. They gibbeted her as Jezebel, and her + name became a reproach in Massachusetts through two hundred years. But her + crimes and the awful ending of her life are best read in the Christian + words of the Rev. Thomas Welde, whose gentle spirit so adorned his holy + office. + </p> + <p> + “For the servants of God who came over into New England ... seeing their + ministery was a most precious sweete savour to all the saints before she + came hither, it is easie to discerne from what sinke that ill vapour hath + risen which hath made so many of her seduced party to loath now the smell + of those flowers which they were wont to find sweetnesse in. [Footnote: <i>Short + Story</i>, p. 40.] ... The Indians set upon them, and slew her and all the + family. [Footnote: Mrs. Hutchinson and her family were killed in a general + massacre of the Dutch and English by the Indians on Long Island. Winthrop, + ii. 136.] ... Some write that the Indians did burne her to death with + fire, her house and all the rest named that belonged to her; but I am not + able to affirme by what kind of death they slew her, but slaine it seemes + she is, according to all reports. I never heard that the Indians in those + parts did ever before this, commit the like outrage ...; and therefore + God’s hand is the more apparently seene herein, to pick out this wofull + woman, to make her and those belonging to her, an unheard of heavie + example of their cruelty above al others.” [Footnote: <i>Short Story</i>, + Preface.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. — THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. + </h2> + <p> + With the ruin of the Antinomians, opposition to the clergy ceased within + the church itself, but many causes combined to prevent the bulk of the + people from participating in the communion. Of those who were excluded, + perhaps even the majority might have found it impossible to have secured + their pastor’s approbation, but numbers who would have been gladly + received were restrained by conscientious scruples; and more shrank from + undergoing the ordeal to which they would have been obliged to submit. It + was no light matter for a pious but a sincerely honest man to profess his + conversion, and how God had been pleased to work “in the inward parts of + his soul,” when he was not absolutely certain that he had indeed been + visited by the Spirit. And it is no exaggeration to say that to sensitive + natures the initiation was appalling. The applicant had first to convince + the minister of his worthiness, then his name was openly propounded, and + those who knew of any objection to his character, either moral or + religious, were asked to give notice to the presbytery of elders. If the + candidate succeeded in passing this private examination as to his fitness + the following scene took place in church:— + </p> + <p> + “The party appearing in the midst of the assembly ... the ruling elder + speaketh in this manner: Brethren of this congregation, this man or woman + ... hath beene heretofore propounded to you, desiring to enter into church + fellowship with us, and we have not since that heard anything from any of + you to the contrary of the parties admittance but that we may goe on to + receive him: therefore now, if any of you know anything against him, why + he may not be admitted, you may yet speak.... Whereupon, sometimes men do + speak to the contrary ... and so stay the party for that time also till + this new offence be heard before the elders, so that sometimes there is a + space of divers moneths between a parties first propounding and receiving, + and some are so bashfull as that they choose rather to goe without the + communion than undergoe such publique confessions and tryals, but that is + held their fault.” [Footnote: Lechford, <i>Plain Dealing</i>, pp. 6, 7.] + </p> + <p> + Those who were thus disfranchised, Lechford, who knew what he was talking + about, goes on to say, soon began to complain that they were “ruled like + slaves;” and there can be no doubt that they had to submit to very + substantial grievances. The administration of justice especially seems to + have been defective. “Now the most of the persons at New England are not + admitted of their church, and therefore are not freemen, and when they + come to be tryed there, be it for life or limb, name or estate, or + whatsoever, they must bee tryed and judged too by those of the church, who + are in a sort their adversaries: how equall that hath been, or may be, + some by experience doe know, others may judge.” [Footnote: <i>Plain + Dealing</i>, p. 23.] + </p> + <p> + The government was in fact in the hands of a small oligarchy of saints, + [Footnote: “Three parts of the people of the country remaine out of the + church.” <i>Plain Dealing</i>, p. 73. A. D. 1642.] who were, in their + turn, ruled by their priests, and as the repression of thought inevitable + under such a system had roused the Antinomians, who were voters, to demand + a larger intellectual freedom, so the denial of ordinary political rights + to the majority led to discontent. + </p> + <p> + Since under the theocracy there was no department of human affairs in + which the clergy did not meddle, they undertook as a matter of course to + interfere with the militia, and the following curious letter written to + the magistrates by the ministers of Rowley shows how far they carried + their supervision even so late as 1689. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + ROWLEY, <i>July</i> 24th, 1689. + </p> + <p> + <i>May it please your honors,</i> + </p> + <p> + The occasion of these lines is to inform you that whereas our military + company have nominated Abel Platts, for ensign, we conceive that it is our + duty to declare that we cannot approve of their choice in that he is + corrupt in his judgment with reference to the Lord’s Supper, declaring + against Christ’s words of justification, and hereupon hath withdrawn + himself from communion with the church in that holy ordinance some years, + besides some other things wherein he hath shown no little vanity in his + conversation and hath demeaned himself unbecomingly toward the word and + toward the dispensers of it.... + </p> + <p> + SAMUEL PHILLIPS. EDWARD PAISON. [Footnote: <i>History of Newbury</i>, p. + 80.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + A somewhat similar difficulty, which happened in Hingham in 1645, produced + very serious consequences. A new captain had been chosen for their + company; but a dispute having arisen, the magistrates, on the question + being submitted to them, set the election aside and directed the old + officers to keep their places until the General Court should meet. + Notwithstanding this order the commotion continued to increase, and the + pastor, Mr. Peter Hubbert, “was very forward to have excommunicated the + lieutenant,” who was the candidate the magistrates favored. [Footnote: + Winthrop, ii. 222, 223.] Winthrop happened to be deputy governor that + year, and the aggrieved officer applied to him for protection; whereupon, + as the defendants seemed inclined to be recalcitrant, several were + committed in open court, among whom were three of Mr. Hubbert’s brothers. + </p> + <p> + Forthwith the clergyman in great wrath headed a petition to which he + obtained a large number of signatures, in which he prayed the General + Court to take cognizance of the cause, since it concerned the public + liberty and the liberty of the church. + </p> + <p> + At its next session, the legislature proceeded to examine the whole case, + and Winthrop was brought to trial for exceeding his jurisdiction as a + magistrate. A contest ensued between the deputies and assistants, which + was finally decided by the influence of the elders. The result was that + Winthrop was acquitted and Mr. Hubbert and the chief petitioners were + fined. [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 227.] + </p> + <p> + In March the constable went to Hingham to collect the money, [Footnote: + 1645-46, 18 March.] but he found the minister indisposed to submit in + silence. About thirty people had collected, and before them all Mr. + Hubbert demanded the warrant; when it was produced he declared it + worthless because not in the king’s name, and then went on to add that the + government “was not more then a corporation in England, and ... had not + power to put men to death ... that for himself he had neither horn nor + hoofe of his own, nor anything wherewith to buy his children cloaths ... + if he must pay the fine he would pay it in books, but that he knew not for + what they were fined, unlesse it were for petitioning: and if they were so + waspish they might not be petitioned, then he could not tell what to say.” + [Footnote: <i>New Eng. Jonas</i>, Marvin’s ed. p. 5.] + </p> + <p> + Unluckily for Mr. Hubbert he had taken the popular side in this dispute + and had thus been sundered from his brethren, who sustained Winthrop, and + in the end carried him through in triumph; and not only this, but he was + suspected of Presbyterian tendencies, and a committee of the elders who + had visited Hingham to reconcile some differences in the congregation had + found him in grave fault. The government was not sorry, therefore, to make + him a public example, as appeared not only by these proceedings, but by + the way he was treated in the General Court the next autumn. He was + accordingly indicted for sedition, tried and convicted in June, fined + twenty pounds, and bound over to good behavior in forty pounds more. + [Footnote: <i>New Eng. Jonas</i>, p. 6., 2 June, 1646.] Such a disturbance + as this seems to have been all that was needed to bring the latent + discontent to a focus. + </p> + <p> + William Vassal had been an original patentee and was a member of the first + Board of Assistants, who were appointed by the king. Being, however, a man + of liberal views he had not found Massachusetts congenial; he had returned + to England after a stay of only a month, and when he came again to America + in 1635, he had settled at Scituate, the town adjoining Hingham, but in + the Plymouth jurisdiction. Having both wealth and social position he + possessed great influence, and he now determined to lead an agitation for + equal rights and liberty of conscience in both colonies at once, by + petitioning the legislatures, and in case of failure there, presenting + similar petitions to Parliament. + </p> + <p> + Bradford was this year [Footnote: 1645.] governor of Plymouth, and Edward + Winslow was an assistant. Winslow himself had been governor repeatedly, + was a thorough-going churchman, and deep in all the councils of the + conservative party. There was, however, no religious qualification for the + suffrage in the old colony, and the complexion of its politics was + therefore far more liberal than in Massachusetts; so Vassal was able to + command a strong support when he brought forward his proposition. Winslow, + writing to his friend Winthrop at Boston, gives an amusing account of his + own and Bradford’s consternation, and the expedients to which they were + forced to resort in the legislature to stave off a vote upon the petition, + when Vassal made his motion in October, 1645. + </p> + <p> + “After this, the first excepter [Vassal] having been observed to tender + the view of a scroule from man to man, it came at length to be tendered to + myself, and withall, said he, it may be you will not like this. Having + read it, I told him I utterly abhorred it as such as would make us odious + to all Christian commonweales: But at length he told the governor + [Bradford] he had a written proposition to be propounded to the court, + which he desired the court to take into consideration, and according to + order, if thought meet, to be allowed: To this the deputies were most made + beforehand, and the other three assistants, who applauded it as their + Diana; and the sum of it was, to allow and maintaine full and free + tollerance of religion to all men that would preserve the civill peace and + submit unto government; and there was no limitation or exception against + Turke, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicholaytan, Familist, or any other, + &c. But our governor and divers of us having expressed the sad + consequences would follow, especially myselfe and Mr. Prence, yet + notwithstanding it was required, according to order, to be voted: But the + governor would not suffer it to come to vote, as being that indeed would + eate out the power of Godlines, &c.... You would have admired to have + seen how sweet this carrion relished to the pallate of most of the + deputies! What will be the issue of these things, our all ordering God + onely knows.... But if he have such a judgment for this place, I trust we + shall finde (I speake for many of us that groane under these things) a + resting place among you for the soales of our feet.” [Footnote: <i>Hutch. + Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. i. 174.] + </p> + <p> + As just then nothing more could be done in Plymouth, proceedings were + transferred to Massachusetts. Samuel Maverick is a bright patch of color + on the sad Puritan background. He had a dwelling at Winnisime, that “in + the yeare 1625 I fortified with a pillizado and fflankers and gunnes both + belowe and above in them which awed the Indians who at that time had a + mind to cutt off the English.” [Footnote: Mass. <i>Hist. Soc. Proceedings</i>, + Oct. 1884, p. 236.] When Winthrop landed, he found him keeping open house, + so kindly and freehanded that even the grim Johnson relaxes when he speaks + of him: “a man of very loving and curteous behaviour, very ready to + entertaine strangers, yet an enemy to the reformation in hand, being + strong for the lordly prelatical power.” [Footnote: <i>Wonder-Working + Providence</i>, Poole’s ed. p. 37.] + </p> + <p> + This genial English churchman entertained every one at his home on + Noddle’s Island, which is now East Boston: Vane and Lord Ley, and La Tour + when he came to Boston ruined, and even Owen when he ran off with another + man’s wife, and so brought a fine of £100 on his host. Josselyn says with + much feeling: “I went a shore upon Noddles Island to Mr. Samuel Maverick, + ... the only hospitable man in the whole countrey.” He was charitable + also, and Winthrop relates how, when the Indians were dying of the + smallpox, he, “his wife and servants, went daily to them, ministered to + their necessities, and buried their dead, and took home many of their + children.” He was generous, too, with his wealth; and when the town had to + rebuild the fort on Castle Island much of the money came from him. + </p> + <p> + But, as Endicott told the Browns, when he shipped them to England, because + their practice in adhering to their Episcopal orders tended to “mutiny,” + “New England was no place for such as they.” One by one they had gone,—the + Browns first, and afterward William Blackstone, who had found it best to + leave Boston because he could not join the church; and now the pressure on + Maverick began to make him restive. Though he had been admitted a freeman + in the early days, he was excluded from all offices of importance; he was + taxed to support a church of which he disapproved, yet was forced to + attend, though it would not baptize his children; and he was so suspected + that, in March, 1635, he had been ordered to remove to Boston, and was + forbidden to lodge strangers for more than one night without leave from a + magistrate. Under such circumstances he could not but sympathize with + Vassal in his effort to win for all men equal rights before the law. Next + after him in consequence was Dr. Robert Childe, who had taken a degree at + Padua, and who, though not a freeman, had considerable interests in the + country,—a man of property and standing. There were five more + signers of the petition: Thomas Burton, John Smith, David Yale, Thomas + Fowle, and John Dand, but they do not require particular notice. They + prayed that “civil liberty and freedome be forthwith granted to all truly + English, equall to the rest of their countrymen, as in all plantations is + accustomed to be done, and as all free-borne enjoy in our native + country.... Further that none of the English nation ... be banished + unlesse they break the known lawes of England.... We therefore humbly + intreat you, in whose hands it is to help ... for the glory of God ... to + give liberty to the members of the churches of England not scandalous in + their lives ... to be taken into your congregations, and to enjoy with you + all those liberties and ordinances Christ hath purchased for them, and + into whose name they are baptized... or otherwise to grant liberty to + settle themselves here in a church way according to the best reformations + of England and Scotland. If not, we and they shall be necessitated to + apply our humble desires to the Honorable Houses of Parliament.” + [Footnote: <i>New Eng. Jonas</i>, Marvin’s ed. pp. 13-15.] + </p> + <p> + This petition was presented to the court on May 19, 1646; but the session + was near its close, and it was thought best to take no immediate steps. + The elders, however, became satisfied that the moment had come for a + thorough organization of the church, and they therefore caused the + legislature to issue a general invitation to all the congregations to send + representatives to a synod to be held at Cambridge. But notwithstanding + the inaction of the authorities, the clergy were perfectly aware of the + danger, and they passed the summer in creating the necessary indignation + among the voters: they bitterly denounced from their pulpits “the sons of + Belial, Judasses, sons of Corah,” “with sundry appellations of that nature + ... which seemed not to arise from a gospel spirit.” Sometimes they + devoted “a whole sermon, and that not very short,” to describing the + impending ruin and exhorting the magistrates “to lay hold upon” the + offenders. [Footnote: <i>New Eng. Jonas</i>, Marvin’s ed. p. 19.] Winthrop + had been chosen governor in May, and, when the legislature met in October, + he was made chairman of a committee to draft an answer to Childe. This + document may be found in Hutchinson’s Collection. As a state paper devoted + to the discussion of questions of constitutional law it has little merit, + but it may have been effective as a party manifesto. A short adjournment + followed till November, when, on reassembling, the elders were asked for + their advice upon this absorbing topic. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Hubbard of Hingham came with the rest, but the court being informed + that he had an hand in a petition, which Mr. Vassall carried into England + against the country in general, the governour propounded, that if any + elder present had any such hand, &c., he would withdraw himself.” Mr. + Hubbert sitting still a good space, one of the deputies stated that he was + suspected, whereupon he rose and said he knew nothing of such a petition. + </p> + <p> + Then Winthrop replied that he “must needs deliver his mind about him,” and + though he had no proof about the petition, “yet in regard he had so much + opposed authority and offered such contempt to it, ... he thought he would + (in discretion) withdraw himself, &c., whereupon he went out.” + [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 278.] + </p> + <p> + The ministers who remained then proceeded to define the relations of + Massachusetts toward England, and the position they assumed was very + simple. + </p> + <p> + “I. We depend upon the state of England for protection and immunities of + Englishmen.... II. We conceive ... we have granted by patent such full and + ample power ... of making all laws and rules of our obedience, and of a + full and final determination of all cases in the administration of + justice, that no appeals or other ways of interrupting our proceedings do + lie against us.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 282.] + </p> + <p> + In other words, they were to enjoy the privileges and safeguards of + British subjects without yielding obedience to British law. + </p> + <p> + Under popular governments the remedy for discontent is free discussion; + under despotisms it is repression. In Massachusetts energetic steps were + promptly taken to punish the ring-leaders in what the court now declared + to be a conspiracy. The petitioners were summoned, and on being questioned + refused to answer until some charge was made. A hot altercation followed, + which ended in the defendants tendering an appeal, which was refused; and + they were committed for trial. [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 285.] A species of + indictment was then prepared in which they were charged with publishing + seditious libels against the Church of Christ and the civil government. + The gravamen of the offence was the attempt to persuade the people “that + the liberties and privileges in our charter belong to all freeborn + Englishmen inhabitants here, whereas they are granted only to such as the + governour and company shall think fit to receive into that fellowship.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>.] The appeal was held criminal because a denial of + the jurisdiction of the government. The trial resembled Wheelwright’s. + Like him the defendants refused to make submission, but persisted + “obstinately and proudly in their evil practice;” that is to say, they + maintained the right of petition and the legality of their course. They + were therefore fined: Childe £50; Smith £40; Maverick, because he had not + yet appealed, £10; and the others £30 each; three magistrates dissented. + </p> + <p> + Childe at once began hasty preparations to sail. To prevent him Winthrop + called the assistants together, without, however, giving the dissenting + magistrates notice, and arranged to have him arrested and searched. + </p> + <p> + One striking characteristic of the theocracy was its love for inflicting + mental suffering upon its victims. The same malicious vindictiveness which + sent Morton to sea in sight of his blazing home, and which imprisoned Anne + Hutchinson in the house of her bitterest enemy, now suggested a scheme for + making Childe endure the pangs of disappointment, by allowing him to + embark, and then seizing him as the ship was setting sail. And though the + plan miscarried, and the arrest had to be made the night before, yet even + as it was the prisoner took his confinement very “grievously, but he could + not help it.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 294.] + </p> + <p> + Nothing criminating was found in his possession, but in Dand’s study, + which was ransacked, copies of two petitions were discovered, with a + number of queries relating to certain legal aspects of the charter, and + intended to be submitted to the Commissioners for the Plantations at + London. + </p> + <p> + These petitions were substantially those already presented, except that, + by way of preamble, the story of the trial was told; and how the ministers + “did revile them, &c., as far as the wit or malice of man could, and + that they meddled in civil affaires beyond their calling, and were masters + rather than ministers, and ofttimes judges, and that they had stirred up + the magistrates against them, and that a day of humiliation was appointed, + wherein they were to pray against them.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 293.] + </p> + <p> + Such words had never been heard in Massachusetts. The saints were aghast. + Winthrop speaks of the offence as “being in nature capital,” and Johnson + thought the Lord’s gracious goodness alone quelled this malice against his + people. + </p> + <p> + Of course no mercy was shown. It is true that the writings were lawful + petitions by English subjects to Parliament; that, moreover, they had + never been published, but were found in a private room by means of a + despotic search. Several of the signers were imprisoned for six months and + then were punished in May:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Doctor Childe, (imprisonment till paid,) £200 + John Smith, “ “ “ 100 + John Dand, “ “ “ 200 + Tho. Burton, “ “ “ 100 + Samuel Maverick, for his offence in being party + to ye conspiracy, (imprisonment + till paid,) 100 + Samuel Maverick, for his offence in breaking his + oath and in appealing against ye + intent of his oath of a freeman, 50 +[Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> iii, 113. May 26, 1647. £200 was the equivalent +of about $5,000.] +</pre> + <p> + The conspirators of the poorer class were treated with scant ceremony. A + carpenter named Joy was in Dand’s study when the officers entered. He + asked if the warrant was in the king’s name. “He was laid hold on, and + kept in irons about four or five days, and then he humbled himself...for + meddling in matters belonging not to him, and blessed God for these irons + upon his legs, hoping they should do him good while he lived.” [Footnote: + Winthrop, ii. 294.] + </p> + <p> + But though the government could oppress the men, they could not make their + principles unpopular, and the next December after Vassal and his friends + had left the colony, the orthodox Samuel Symonds of Ipswich wrote + mournfully to Winthrop: “I am informed that coppies of the petition are + spreading here, and divers (specially young men and women) are taken with + it, and are apt to wonder why such men should be troubled that speake as + they doe: not being able suddenly to discerne the poyson in the sweet + wine, nor the fire wrapped up in the straw.” [Footnote: Felt’s <i>Eccl. + Hist.</i> i. 593.] The petitioners, however, never found redress. Edward + Winslow had been sent to London as agent, and in 1648 he was able to write + that their “hopes and endeavours ... had been blasted by the special + providence of the Lord who still wrought for us.” And Winthrop piously + adds: “As for those who went over to procure us trouble, God met with them + all. Mr. Vassall, finding no entertainment for his petitions, went to + Barbadoes,” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 321.] ... “God had brought” Thomas + Fowle “very low, both in his estate and in his reputation, since he joined + in the first petition.” And “God had so blasted” Childe’s “estate as he + was quite broken.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 322.] + </p> + <p> + Maverick remained some years in Boston, being probably unable to abandon + his property; during this interval he made several efforts to have his + fine remitted, and he did finally secure an abatement of one half. He then + went to England and long afterward came back as a royal commissioner to + try his fortune once again in a contest with the theocracy. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Palfrey has described this movement as a plot to introduce a direct + government by England by inducing Parliament to establish Presbyterianism. + By other than theological reasoning this inference cannot be deduced from + the evidence. All that is certainly known about the leaders is that they + were not of any one denomination. Maverick was an Episcopalian; Vassal was + probably an Independent like Cromwell or Milton; and though the elders + accused Childe of being a Jesuit, there is some ground to suppose that he + inclined toward Geneva. So far as the testimony goes, everything tends to + prove that the petitioners were perfectly sincere in their effort to gain + some small measure of civil and religious liberty for themselves and for + the disfranchised majority. + </p> + <p> + Viewed from the standpoint of history and not of prejudice, the events of + these early years present themselves in a striking and unmistakable + sequence. + </p> + <p> + They are the phenomena that regularly attend a certain stage of human + development,—the absorption of power by an aristocracy. The clergy’s + rule was rigid, and met with resistance, which was crushed with an iron + hand. Was it defection from their own ranks, the deserters met the fate of + Wheelwright, of Williams, of Cotton, or of Hubbert; were politicians + contumacious, they were defeated or exiled, like Vane, or Aspinwall, or + Coddington; were citizens discontented, they were coerced like Maverick + and Childe. The process had been uninterrupted alike in church and state. + The congregations, which in theory should have included all the + inhabitants of the towns, had shrunk until they contained only a third or + a quarter of the people; while the churches themselves, which were + supposed to be independent of external interference and to regulate their + affairs by the will of the majority, had become little more than the + chattels of the priests, and subject to the control of the magistrates who + were their representatives. This system has generally prevailed; in like + manner the Inquisition made use of the secular arm. The condition of + ecclesiastical affairs is thus described by the highest living authority + on Congregationalism:— + </p> + <p> + “Our fathers laid it down—and with perfect truth—that the will + of Christ, and not the will of the major or minor part of a church, ought + to govern that church. But somebody must interpret that will. And they + quietly assumed that Christ would reveal his will to the elders, but would + not reveal it to the church-members; so that when there arose a difference + of opinion as to what the Master’s will might be touching any particular + matter, the judgment of the elders, rather than the judgment even of a + majority of the membership, must be taken as conclusive. To all intents + and purposes, then, this was precisely the aristocracy which they affirmed + that it was not. For the elders were to order business in the assurance + that every truly humble and sincere member would consent thereto. If any + did not consent, and after patient debate remained of another judgment, he + was ‘partial’ and ‘factious,’ and continuing ‘obstinate,’ he was + ‘admonished’ and his vote ‘nullified;’ so that the elders could have their + way in the end by merely adding the insult of the apparent but illusive + offer of cooperation to the injury of their absolute control. As Samuel + Stone of Hartford no more tersely than truly put it, this kind of + Congregationalism was simply a ‘speaking Aristocracy in the face of a + silent Democracy.’” [Footnote: <i>Early New England Congregationalism, as + seen in its Literature</i>, p. 429. Dr. Dexter.] + </p> + <p> + It is true that Vassal’s petition was the event which made the ministers + decide to call a synod [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 264.] by means of an + invitation of the General Court; but it is also certain that under no + circumstances would the meeting of some such council have been long + delayed. For sixteen years the well-known process had been going on, of + the creation of institutions by custom, having the force of law; the stage + of development had now been reached when it was necessary that those + usages should take the shape of formal enactments. The Cambridge platform + therefore marks the completion of an organization, and as such is the + central point in the history of the Puritan Commonwealth. The work was + done in August, 1648: the Westminster Confession was promulgated as the + creed; the powers of the clergy were minutely defined, and the duty of the + laity stated to be “obeying their elders and submitting themselves unto + them in the Lord.” [Footnote: <i>Cambridge Platform,</i> ch. x. section + 7.] The magistrate was enjoined to punish “idolatry, blasphemy, heresy,” + and to coerce any church becoming “schismatical.” + </p> + <p> + In October, 1649, the court commended the platform to the consideration of + the congregations; in October, 1651, it was adopted; and when church and + state were thus united by statute the theocracy was complete. + </p> + <p> + The close of the era of construction is also marked by the death of those + two remarkable men whose influence has left the deepest imprint upon the + institutions they helped to mould: John Winthrop, who died in 1649, and + John Cotton in 1652. + </p> + <p> + Winthrop’s letters to his wife show him to have been tender and gentle, + and that his disposition was one to inspire love is proved by the + affection those bore him who had suffered most at his hands. Williams and + Vane and Coddington kept their friendship for him to the end. But these + very qualities, so amiable in themselves, made him subject to the + influence of men of inflexible will. His dream was to create on earth a + commonwealth of saints whose joy would be to walk in the ways of God. But + in practice he had to deal with the strongest of human passions. In 1634, + though supported by Cotton, he was defeated by Dudley, and there can be no + doubt that this was caused by the defection of the body of the clergy. The + evidence seems conclusive, for the next year Vane brought about an + interview between the two at which Haynes was present, and there Haynes + upbraided him with remissness in administering justice. [Footnote: + Winthrop, i. 178.] Winthrop agreed to leave the question to the ministers, + who the next morning gave an emphatic opinion in favor of strict + discipline. Thenceforward he was pliant in their hands, and with that day + opened the dark epoch of his life. By leading the crusade against the + Antinomians he regained the confidence of the elders and they never again + failed him; but in return they exacted obedience to their will; and the + rancor with which he pursued Anne Hutchinson, Gorton, and Childe cannot be + extenuated, and must ever be a stain upon his fame. + </p> + <p> + As Hutchinson points out, in early life his tendencies were liberal, but + in America he steadily grew narrow. The reason is obvious. The leader of + an intolerant party has himself to be intolerant. His claim to eminence as + a statesman must rest upon the purity of his moral character, his calm + temper, and his good judgment; for his mind was not original or brilliant, + nor was his thought in advance of his age. Herein he differed from his + celebrated contemporary, for among the long list of famous men, who are + the pride of Massachusetts, there are few who in mere intellectual + capacity outrank Cotton. He was not only a profound scholar, an eloquent + preacher, and a famous controversialist, but a great organizer, and a + natural politician. He it was who constructed the Congregational + hierarchy; his publications were the accepted authority both abroad and at + home; and the system which he developed in his books was that which was + made law by the Cambridge Platform. + </p> + <p> + Of medium height, florid complexion, and as he grew old some tendency to + be stout, but with snowy hair and much personal dignity, he seems to have + had an irresistible charm of manner toward those whom he wished to + attract. + </p> + <p> + Comprehending thoroughly the feelings and prejudices of the clergy, he + influenced them even more by his exquisite tact than by his commanding + ability; and of easy fortune and hospitable alike from inclination and + from interest, he entertained every elder who went to Boston. He + understood the art of flattery to perfection; or, as Norton expressed it, + “he was a man of ingenuous and pious candor, rejoicing (as opportunity + served) to take notice of and testifie unto the gifts of God in his + brethren, thereby drawing the hearts of them to him....” [Footnote: + Norton’s <i>Funeral Sermon</i>, p. 37.] No other clergyman has ever been + able to reach the position he held with apparent ease, which amounted to a + sort of primacy of New England. His dangers lay in the very fecundity of + his mind. Though hampered by his education and profession, he was + naturally liberal; and his first miscalculation was when, almost + immediately on landing, he supported Winthrop, who was in disgrace for the + mildness of his administration, against the austerer Dudley. + </p> + <p> + The consciousness of his intellectual superiority seems to have given him + an almost overweening confidence in his ability to induce his brethren to + accept the broader theology he loved to preach; nor did he apparently + realize that comprehension was incompatible with a theocratic government, + and that his success would have undermined the organization he was + laboring to perfect. He thus committed the error of his life in + undertaking to preach a religious reformation, without having the + resolution to face a martyrdom. But when he saw his mistake, the way in + which he retrieved himself showed a consummate knowledge of human nature + and of the men with whom he had to deal. Nor did he ever forget the + lesson. From that time forward he took care that no one should be able to + pick a flaw in his orthodoxy; and whatever he may have thought of much of + the policy of his party, he was always ready to defend it without + flinching. + </p> + <p> + Neither he nor Winthrop died too soon, for with the completion of the task + of organization the work that suited them was finished, and they were + unfit for that which remained to be done. An oligarchy, whose power rests + on faith and not on force, can only exist by extirpating all who openly + question their pretensions to preeminent sanctity; and neither of these + men belonged to the class of natural persecutors,—the one was too + gentle, the other too liberal. An example will show better than much + argument how little in accord either really was with that spirit which, in + the regular course of social development, had thenceforward to dominate + over Massachusetts. + </p> + <p> + Captain Partridge had fought for the Parliament, and reached Boston at the + beginning of the winter of 1645. He was arrested and examined as a + heretic. The magistrates referred the case to Cotton, who reported that + “he found him corrupt in judgment,” but “had good hope to reclaim him.” + [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 251.] An instant recantation was demanded; it was + of course refused, and, in spite of all remonstrance, the family was + banished in the snow. Winthrop’s sad words were: “But sure, the rule of + hospitality to strangers, and of seeking to pluck out of the fire such as + there may be hope of, ... do seem to require more moderation and + indulgence of human infirmity where there appears not obstinacy against + the clear truth.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 251.] + </p> + <p> + But in the savage and bloody struggle that was now at hand there was no + place for leaders capable of pity or remorse, and the theocracy found + supremely gifted chieftains in John Norton and John Endicott. + </p> + <p> + Norton approaches the ideal of the sterner orders of the priesthood. A + gentleman by birth and breeding, a ripe scholar, with a keen though + polished wit, his sombre temper was deeply tinged with fanaticism. Unlike + so many of his brethren, temporal concerns were to him of but little + moment, for every passion of his gloomy soul was intensely concentrated on + the warfare he believed himself waging with the fiend. Doubt or compassion + was impossible, for he was commissioned by the Lord. He was Christ’s + elected minister, and misbelievers were children of the devil whom it was + his sacred duty to destroy. He knew by the Word of God that all save the + orthodox were lost, and that heretics not only perished, but were the + hirelings of Satan, who tempted the innocent to their doom; he therefore + hated and feared them more than robbers or murderers. Words seemed to fail + him when he tried to express his horror: “The face of death, the King of + Terrours, the living man by instinct turneth his face from. An unusual + shape, a satanical phantasm, a ghost, or apparition, affrights the + disciples. But the face of heresie is of a more horrid aspect than all ... + put together, as arguing some signal inlargement of the power of darkness + as being diabolical, prodigeous, portentous.” [Footnote: <i>Heart of New + Eng. Rent</i>, p. 46.] By nature, moreover, he had in their fullest + measure the three attributes of a preacher of a persecution,—eloquence, + resolution, and a heart callous to human suffering. To this formidable + churchman was joined a no less formidable magistrate. + </p> + <p> + No figure in our early history looms out of the past like Endicott’s. The + harsh face still looks down from under the black skull-cap, the gray + moustache and pointed beard shading the determined mouth, but throwing + into relief the lines of the massive jaw. He is almost heroic in his + ferocious bigotry and daring,—a perfect champion of the church. + </p> + <p> + The grim Puritan soldier is almost visible as, standing at the head of his + men, he tears the red cross from the flag, and defies the power of + England; or, in that tremendous moment, when the people were hanging + breathless on the fate of Christison, when insurrection seemed bursting + out beneath his feet, and his judges shrunk aghast before the peril, we + yet hear the savage old man furiously strike the table, and, thanking God + that he at least dares to do his duty, we see him rise alone before that + threatening multitude to condemn the heretic to death. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. — THE ANABAPTISTS. + </h2> + <p> + The Rev. Thomas Shepard, pastor of Charlestown, was such an example, “in + word, in conversation, in civility, in spirit, in faith, in purity, that + he did let no man despise his youth;” [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 4, + ch. ix. Section 6.] and yet, preaching an election sermon before the + governor and magistrates, he told them that “anabaptisme ... hath ever + been lookt at by the godly leaders of this people as a scab.” [Footnote: + <i>Eye Salve</i>, p. 24.] While the Rev. Samuel Willard, president of + Harvard, declared that “such a rough thing as a New England Anabaptist is + not to be handled over tenderly.” [Footnote: <i>Ne Sutor</i>, p. 10.] + </p> + <p> + So early as 1644, therefore, the General Court “Ordered and agreed, yt if + any person or persons within ye iurisdiction shall either openly condemne + or oppose ye baptizing of infants, or go about secretly to seduce others + from ye app’bation or use thereof, or shall purposely depart ye + congregation at ye administration of ye ordinance, ... and shall appear to + ye Co’t willfully and obstinately to continue therein after due time and + meanes of conviction, every such person or persons shallbe sentenced to + banishment.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> ii. 85. 13 November, 1644.] + </p> + <p> + The legislation, however, was unpopular, for Winthrop relates that in + October, 1645, divers merchants and others petitioned to have the act + repealed, because of the offense taken thereat by the godly in England, + and the court seemed inclined to accede, “but many of the elders ... + entreated that the law might continue still in force, and the execution of + it not suspended, though they disliked not that all lenity and patience + should be used for convincing and reclaiming such erroneous persons. + Whereupon the court refused to make any further order.” [Footnote: + Winthrop, ii. 251.] And Edward Winslow assured Parliament in 1646, when + sent to England to represent the colony, that, some mitigation being + desired, “it was answered in my hearing. ‘T is true we have a severe law, + but wee never did or will execute the rigor of it upon any.... But the + reason wherefore wee are loath either to repeale or alter the law is, + because wee would have it ... to beare witnesse against their judgment, + ... which we conceive ... to bee erroneous.” [Footnote: <i>Hypocrisie + Unmasked</i>, 101.] + </p> + <p> + Unquestionably, at that time no one had been banished; but in 1644 “one + Painter, for refusing to let his child be baptized, ... was brought before + the court, where he declared their baptism to be anti-Christian. He was + sentenced to be whipped, which he bore without flinching, and boasted that + God had assisted him.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 208, note.] Nor + was his a solitary instance of severity. Yet, notwithstanding the scorn + and hatred which the orthodox divines felt for these sectaries, many very + eminent Puritans fell into the errors of that persuasion. Roger Williams + was a Baptist, and Henry Dunster, for the same heresy, was removed from + the presidency of Harvard, and found it prudent to end his days within the + Plymouth jurisdiction. Even that great champion of infant baptism, + Jonathan Mitchell, when thrown into intimate relations with Dunster, had + doubts. + </p> + <p> + “That day ... after I came from him I had a strange experience; I found + hurrying and pressing suggestions against Pædobaptism, and injected + scruples and thoughts whether the other way might not be right, and infant + baptism an invention of men; and whether I might with good conscience + baptize children and the like. And these thoughts were darted in with some + impression, and left a strange confusion and sickliness upon my spirit. + Yet, methought, it was not hard to discern that they were from the <i>Evil + One</i>; ... And it made me fearful to go needlessly to Mr. D.; for + methought I found a venom and poison in his insinuations and discourses + against Pædobaptism.” [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section + 10.] + </p> + <p> + Henry Dunster was an uncommon man. Famed for piety in an age of + fanaticism, learned, modest, and brave, by the unremitting toil of + thirteen years he raised Harvard from a school to the position which it + has since held; and though very poor, and starving on a wretched and + ill-paid pittance, he gave his beloved college one hundred acres of land + at the moment of its sorest need. [Footnote: Quincy’s <i>History of + Harvard</i>, i. 15.] Yet he was a criminal, for he would not baptize + infants, and he met with the “lenity and patience” which the elders were + not unwilling should be used toward the erring. + </p> + <p> + He was indicted and convicted of disturbing church ordinances, and + deprived of his office in October, 1654. He asked for leave to stay in the + house he had built for a few months, and his petition in November ought to + be read to understand how heretics were made to suffer:— + </p> + <p> + “1st. The time of the year is unseasonable, being now very near the + shortest day, and the depth of winter. + </p> + <p> + “2d. The place unto which I go is unknown to me and my family, and the + ways and means of subsistance.... + </p> + <p> + “3d. The place from which I go hath fire, fuel, and all provisions for man + and beast, laid in for the winter.... The house I have builded upon very + damageful conditions to myself, out of love for the college, taking + country pay in lieu of bills of exchange on England, or the house would + not have been built.... + </p> + <p> + “4th. The persons, all beside myself, are women and children, on whom + little help, now their minds lie under the actual stroke of affliction and + grief. My wife is sick, and my youngest child extremely so, and hath been + for months, so that we dare not carry him out of doors, yet much worse now + than before.... Myself will willingly bow my neck to any yoke of personal + denial, for I know for what and for whom, by grace I suffer.” [Footnote: + <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 18.] + </p> + <p> + He had before asked Winthrop to cause the government to pay him what it + owed, and he ended his prayer in these words: “Considering the poverty of + the country, I am willing to descend to the lowest step; and if nothing + can comfortably be allowed, I sit still appeased; desiring nothing more + than to supply me and mine with food and raiment.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + i. 20.] He received that mercy which the church has ever shown to those + who wander from her fold; he was given till March, and then, with dues + unpaid, was driven forth a broken man, to die in poverty and neglect. + </p> + <p> + But Jonathan Mitchell, pondering deeply upon the wages he saw paid at his + very hearthstone, to the sin of his miserable old friend, snatched his own + soul from Satan’s jaws. And thenceforward his path lay in pleasant places, + and he prospered exceedingly in the world, so that “of extream lean he + grew extream fat; and at last, in an extream hot season, a fever arrested + him, just after he had been preaching.... Wonderful were the lamentations + which this deplorable death fill’d the churches of New England withal.... + Yea ... all New England shook when that pillar fell to the ground.” + [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 16.] + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding, therefore, clerical promises of gentleness, Massachusetts + was not a comfortable place of residence for Baptists, who, for the most + part, went to Rhode Island; and John Clark [Footnote: For sketch of + Clark’s life see <i>Allen’s Biographical Dictionary</i>.] became the + pastor of the church which they formed at Newport about 1644. He had been + born about 1610, and had been educated in London as a physician. In 1637 + he landed at Boston, where he seems to have become embroiled in the + Antinomian controversy; at all events, he fared so ill that, with several + others, he left Massachusetts ‘resolving, through the help of Christ, to + get clear of all [chartered companies] and be of ourselves.’ In the course + of their wanderings they fell in with Williams, and settled near him. + </p> + <p> + Clark was perhaps the most prominent man in the Plantations, filled many + public offices, and was the commissioner who afterward secured for the + colony the famous charter that served as the State Constitution till 1842. + </p> + <p> + Obediah Holmes, who succeeded him as Baptist minister of Newport, is less + well known. He was educated at Oxford, and when he emigrated he settled at + Salem; from thence he went to Seaconk, where he joined the church under + Mr. Newman. Here he soon fell into trouble for resisting what he + maintained was an “unrighteous act” of his pastor’s; in consequence he and + several more renounced the communion, and began to worship by themselves; + they were baptized and thereafter they were excommunicated; the inevitable + indictment followed, and they, too, took refuge in Rhode Island. + [Footnote: Holmes’s Narrative, Backus, i. 213.] + </p> + <p> + William Witter [Footnote: For the following events, see “<i>Ill Newes from + New England” Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fourth series, vol. ii.] of Lynn was an + aged Baptist, who had already been prosecuted, but, in 1651, being blind + and infirm, he asked the Newport church to send some of the brethren to + him, to administer the communion, for he found himself alone in + Massachusetts. [Footnote: Backus, i. 215.] Accordingly Clark undertook the + mission, with Obediah Holmes and John Crandall. + </p> + <p> + They reached Lynn on Saturday, July 19, 1651, and on Sunday stayed within + doors in order not to disturb the congregation. A few friends were + present, and Clark was in the midst of a sermon, when the house was + entered by two constables with a warrant signed by Robert Bridges, + commanding them to arrest certain “erroneous persons being strangers.” The + travellers were at once seized and carried to the tavern, and after dinner + they were told that they must go to church. + </p> + <p> + Gorton, like many another, had to go through this ordeal, and he speaks of + his Sundays with much feeling: “Only some part of those dayes they brought + us forth into their congregations, to hear their sermons ... which was + meat to be digested, but only by the heart or stomacke of an ostrich.” + [Footnote: <i>Simplicitie’s Defence</i>, p. 57.] + </p> + <p> + The unfortunate Baptists remonstrated, saying that were they forced into + the meeting-house, they should be obliged to dissent from the service, but + this, the constable said, was nothing to him, and so he carried them away. + On entering, during the prayer, the prisoners took off their hats, but + presently put them on again and began reading in their seats. Whereupon + Bridges ordered the officers to uncover their heads, which was done, and + the service was then quietly finished. When all was over, Clark asked + leave to speak, which, after some hesitation, was granted, on condition he + would not discuss what he had heard. He began to explain how he had put on + his hat because he could not judge that they were gathered according to + the visible order of the Lord; but here he was silenced, and the three + were committed to custody for the night. On Tuesday they were taken to + Boston, and on the 31st were brought before Governor Endicott. Their trial + was of the kind reserved by priests for heretics. No jury was impanelled, + no indictment was read, no evidence was heard, but the prisoners were + reviled by the bench as Anabaptists, and when they repudiated the name + were asked if they did not deny infant baptism. The theological argument + which followed was cut short by a recommitment to await sentence. + </p> + <p> + That afternoon John Cotton exhorted the judges from the pulpit. He + expounded the law, and commanded them to do their duty; he told them that + the rejection of infant baptism would overthrow the church; that this was + a capital crime, and therefore the captives were “foul murtherers.” + [Footnote: <i>Ill Newes</i>, p. 56.] Thus inspired, the court came in + toward evening. + </p> + <p> + The record recites a number of misdemeanors, such as wearing the hat in + church, administering the communion to the excommunicated, and the like, + but no attempt was made to prove a single charge. [Footnote: <i>Ill Newes</i>, + pp. 31-44.] The reason is obvious: the only penalty provided by statute + for the offence of being a Baptist was banishment, hence the only legal + course would have been to dismiss the accused. Endicott condemned them to + fines of twenty, thirty, and five pounds, respectively, or to be whipped. + Clark understood his position perfectly, and from the first had demanded + to be shown the law under which he was being tried. He now, after + sentence, renewed the request. Endicott well knew that in acting as the + mouthpiece of the clergy he was violating alike justice, his oath of + office, and his honor as a judge; and, being goaded to fury, he broke out: + You have deserved death; I will not have such trash brought into our + jurisdiction. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 33.] Holmes tells the rest: “As I + went from the bar, I exprest myself in these words,—I blesse God I + am counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus; whereupon John Wilson + (their pastor, as they call him) strook me before the judgement seat, and + cursed me, saying, The curse of God ... goe with thee; so we were carried + to the prison.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 47.] + </p> + <p> + All the convicts maintained that their liberty as English subjects had + been violated, and they refused to pay their fines. Clark’s friends, + however, alarmed for his safety, settled his for him, and he was + discharged. + </p> + <p> + Crandall was admitted to bail, but being misinformed as to the time of + surrender, he did not appear, his bond was forfeited, and on his return to + Boston he found himself free. + </p> + <p> + Thus Holmes was left to face his punishment alone. Actuated apparently by + a deep sense of duty toward himself and his God, he refused the help of + friends, and steadfastly awaited his fate. As he lay in prison he suffered + keenly as he thought of his birth and breeding, his name, his worldly + credit, and the humiliation which must come to his wife and children from + his public shame; then, too, he began to fear lest he might not be able to + bear the lash, might flinch or shed tears, and bring contempt on himself + and his religion. Yet when the morning came he was calm and resolute; + refusing food and drink, that he might not be said to be sustained by + liquor, he betook himself to prayer, and when his keeper called him, with + his Bible in his hand, he walked cheerfully to the post. He would have + spoken a few words, but the magistrate ordered the executioner to do his + office quickly, for this fellow would delude the people; then he was + seized and stripped, and as he cried, “Lord, lay not this sin unto their + charge,” he received the first blow. [Footnote: <i>Ill Newes</i>, pp. 48, + 56.] + </p> + <p> + They gave him thirty lashes with a three-thonged whip, of such horrible + severity that it was many days before he could endure to have his + lacerated body touch the bed, and he rested propped upon his hands and + knees. [Footnote: Backus, i. 237, note. MS. of Gov. Jos. Jencks.] Yet, in + spite of his torture, he stood firm and calm, showing neither pain nor + fear, breaking out at intervals into praise to God; and his dignity and + courage so impressed the people that, in spite of the danger, numbers + flocked about him when he was set free, in sympathy and admiration. John + Spur, being inwardly affected by what he saw and heard, took him by the + hand, and, with a joyful countenance, said: “Praised be the Lord,” and so + went back with him. That same day Spur was arrested, charged with the + crime of succoring a heretic. Then said the undaunted Spur: “Obediah + Holmes I do look upon as a godly man: and do affirm that he carried + himself as did become a Christian, under so sad an affliction.” “We will + deal with you as we have dealt with him,” said Endicott. “I am in the + hands of God,” answered Spur; and then his keeper took him to his prison. + [Footnote: <i>Ill Newes</i>, p. 57.] + </p> + <p> + Perhaps no persecutor ever lived who was actuated by a single motive: + Saint Dominic probably had some trace of worldliness; Henry VIII. some + touch of bigotry; and this was preeminently true of the Massachusetts + elders. Doubtless there were among them men like Norton, whose fanaticism + was so fierce that they would have destroyed the heretic like the wild + beast, as a child of the devil, and an abomination to God. But with the + majority worldly motives predominated: they were always protesting that + they did not constrain men’s consciences, but only enforced orderly + living. Increase Mather declared: in “the same church there have been + Presbyterians, Independents, Episcopalians, and Antipædobaptists, all + welcome to the same table of the Lord when they have manifested to the + judgment of Christian charity a work of regeneration in their souls.” + [Footnote: <i>Vindication of New Eng.</i> p. 19.] And Winslow solemnly + assured Parliament, “Nay, some in our churches” are “of that judgment, and + as long as they [Baptists] carry themselves peaceably as hitherto they + doe, wee will leave them to God.” [Footnote: <i>Hypocrisie Unmasked</i>, + p. 101. A. D. 1646.] + </p> + <p> + Such statements, although intended to convey a false impression, contained + this much truth: provided a man conformed to all the regulations of the + church, paid his taxes, and held his tongue, he would not, in ordinary + circumstances, have been molested under the Puritan Commonwealth. But the + moment he refused implicit obedience, or, above all, if he withdrew from + his congregation, he was shown no mercy, because such acts tended to shake + the temporal power. John Wilson, pastor of Boston, was a good example of + the average of his order. On his death-bed he was asked to declare what he + thought to be the worst sins of the country. “‘I have long feared several + sins, whereof one,’ he said, ‘was Corahism: that is, when people rise up + as Corah against their ministers, as if they took too much upon them, when + indeed they do but rule for Christ, and according to Christ.’” [Footnote: + <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 3, ch. iii. Section 17.] Permeated with this love of + power, and possessed of a superb organization, the clergy never failed to + act on public opinion with decisive effect whenever they saw their worldly + interests endangered. Childe has described the attack which overwhelmed + him, and Gorton gives a striking account of their process of inciting a + crusade:— + </p> + <p> + “These things concluded to be heresies and blasphemies.... The ministers + did zealously preach unto the people the great danger of such things, and + the guilt such lay under that held them, stirring the people up to labour + to find such persons out and to execute death upon them, making persons so + execrable in the eyes of the people, whom they intimated should hold such + things, yea some of them naming some of us in their pulpits, that the + people that had not seen us thought us to be worse by far in any respect + then those barbarous Indians are in the country.... Whereupon we heard a + rumor that the Massachusets was sending out an army of men to cut us off.” + [Footnote: <i>Simplicitie’s Defence</i>, p. 32.] + </p> + <p> + The persecution of the Baptists lays bare this selfish clerical policy. + The theory of the suppression of heresy as a sacred duty breaks down when + it is conceded that the heretic may be admitted to the orthodox communion + without sin; therefore the motives for cruelty were sordid. The ministers + felt instinctively that an open toleration would impair their power; not + only because the congregations would divide, but because these sectaries + listened to “John Russell the shoemaker.” [Footnote: <i>Ne Sutor</i>, p. + 26.] Obviously, were cobblers to usurp the sacerdotal functions, the + superstitious reverence of the people for the priestly office would not + long endure: and it was his crime in upholding this sacrilegious practice + which made the Rev. Thomas Cobbett cry out in his pulpit “against Gorton, + that arch-heretick, who would have al men to be preachers.” [Footnote: <i>Simplicities + Defence</i>, p. 32. See <i>Ne Sutor</i>, p. 26.] + </p> + <p> + Therefore, though Winslow solemnly protested before the Commissioners at + London that Baptists who lived peaceably would be left unmolested, yet + such of them as listened to “foul-murtherers” [Footnote: “<i>Ill Newes</i>,” + <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fourth series, vol. ii. p. 56.] were denounced by + the divines as dangerous fanatics who threatened to overthrow the + government, and were hunted through the country like wolves. + </p> + <p> + Thomas Gould was an esteemed citizen of Charles-town, but, unfortunately + for himself, he had long felt doubt concerning infant baptism; so when, in + 1655, a child was born to him, he “durst not” have it christened. “The + elder pressed the church to lay me under admonition, which the church was + backward to do. Afterward I went out at the sprinkling of children, which + was a great trouble to some honest hearts, and they told me of it. But I + told them I could not stay, for I lookt upon it as no ordinance of Christ. + They told me that now I had made known my judgment I might stay.... So I + stayed and sat down in my seat when they were at prayer and administring + the service to infants. Then they dealt with me for my unreverent + carriage.” [Footnote: Gould’s Narrative, Backus, i. 364-366.] That is to + say, his pastor, Mr. Symmes, caused him to be admonished and excluded from + the communion. In October, 1656, he was presented to the county court for + “denying baptism to his child,” convicted, admonished, and given till the + next term to consider of his error; and gradually his position at + Charlestown became so unpleasant that he went to church at Cambridge, + which was a cause of fresh offence to Mr. Symmes. [Footnote: <i>History of + Charlestown</i>, Frothingham, p. 164.] + </p> + <p> + From this time forward for several years, though no actual punishment + seems to have been inflicted, Gould was subjected to perpetual annoyance, + and was repeatedly summoned and admonished, both by the courts and the + church, until at length he brought matters to a crisis by withdrawing, and + with eight others forming a church, on May 28, 1665. + </p> + <p> + He thus tells his story: “We sought the Lord to direct us, and taking + counsel of other friends who dwelt among us, who were able and godly, they + gave us counsel to congregate ourselves together; and so we did, ... to + walk in the order of the gospel according to the rule of Christ, yet + knowing it was a breach of the law of this country.... After we had been + called into one or two courts, the church understanding that we were + gathered into church order, they sent three messengers from the church to + me, telling me the church required me to come before them the next Lord’s + day.” [Footnote: Gould’s Narrative, Backus, i. 369.] That Sunday he could + not go, but he promised to attend on the one following; [Footnote: Gould’s + Narrative, Backus, i. 371.] and his wife relates what was then done: “The + word was carried to the elder, that if they were alive and well they would + come the next day, yet they were so hot upon it that they could not stay, + but master Sims, when he was laying out the sins of these men, before he + had propounded it to the church, to know their mind, the church having no + liberty to speak, he wound it up in his discourse, and delivered them up + to Satan, to the amazement of the people, that ever such an ordinance of + Christ should be so abused, that many of the people went out; and these + were the excommunicated persons.” [Footnote: Mrs. Gould’s Answer, Backus, + i. 384.] The sequence is complete: so long as Gould confined his heresy to + pure speculation upon dogma he was little heeded; when he withheld his + child from baptism and went out during the ceremony he was admonished, + denied the sacrament, and treated as a social outcast; but when he + separated, he was excommunicated and given to the magistrate to be + crushed. + </p> + <p> + Passing from one tribunal to another the sectaries came before the General + Court in October, 1665: such as were freemen were disfranchised, and all + were sentenced, upon conviction before a single magistrate of continued + schism, to be imprisoned until further order. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 291.] The following April they were fined four pounds + and put in confinement, where they lay till the 11th of September, when + the legislature, after a hearing, ordered them to be discharged upon + payment of fines and costs. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 2, + p. 316.] + </p> + <p> + How many Baptists were prosecuted, and what they suffered, is not known, + as only an imperfect record remains of the fortunes of even the leaders of + the movement; this much, however, is certain, they not only continued + contumacious, but persecution added to their numbers. So at length the + clergy decided to try what effect a public refutation of these heretics + would have on popular opinion. Accordingly the governor and council, + actuated by “Christian candor,” ordered the Baptists to appear at the + meeting-house, at nine o’clock in the morning, on the 14th of April, 1668; + and six ministers were deputed to conduct the disputation. [Footnote: + Backus, i. 375.] + </p> + <p> + During the immolation of Dunster the Rev. Mr. Mitchell had made up his + mind that he “would have an argument able to remove a mountain” before he + would swerve from his orthodoxy; he had since confirmed his faith by + preaching “more than half a score ungainsayable sermons” “in defence of + this comfortable truth,” and he was now prepared to maintain it against + all comers. Accordingly this “worthy man was he who did most service in + this disputation; whereof the effect was, that although the erring + brethren, as is usual in such cases, made this their last answer to the + arguments which had cast them into much confusion: ‘Say what you will we + will hold our mind.’ Yet others were happily established in the right ways + of the Lord.” [Footnote: <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 10.] + </p> + <p> + Such is the account of Cotton Mather: but the story of the Baptists + presents a somewhat different view of the proceedings. “It is true there + were seven elders appointed to discourse with them.... and when they were + met, there was a long speech made by one of them of what vile persons they + were, and how they acted against the churches and government here, and + stood condemned by the court. The others desiring liberty to speak, they + would not suffer them, but told them they stood there as delinquents and + ought not to have liberty to speak.... Two days were spent to little + purpose; in the close, master Jonathan Mitchel pronounced that dreadful + sentence against them in Deut. xvii. 8, to the end of the 12th, and this + was the way they took to convince them, and you may see what a good effect + it had.” [Footnote: Mrs. Gould’s Answer, Backus, i. 384, 385.] + </p> + <p> + The sentence pronounced by Mitchell was this: “And the man that will do + presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to + minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man + shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.” [Footnote: <i>Deut.</i> + xvii. 12.] + </p> + <p> + On the 27th of May, 1668, Gould, Turner, and Farnum, “obstinate & + turbulent Annabaptists,” were banished under pain of perpetual + imprisonment. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. ii, pp. 373-375.] + They determined to stay and face their fate: afterward they wrote to the + magistrates:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + HONOURED SIRS: ... After the tenders of our service according to Christ, + his command to your selves and the country, wee thought it our duty and + concernment to present your honours with these few lines to put you in + remembrance of our bonds: and this being the twelfth week of our + imprisonment, wee should be glad if it might be thought to stand with the + honour and safety of the country, and the present government thereof, to + be now at liberty. For wee doe hereby seriously profess, that as farre as + wee are sensible or know anything of our own hearts, wee do prefer their + peace and safety above our own, however wee have been resented otherwise: + and wherein wee differ in point of judgment wee humbly beeseech you, let + there be a bearing with us, till god shal reveale otherwise to us; for + there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them + understanding, therefore if wee are in the dark, wee dare not say that wee + doe see or understand, till the Lord shall cleare things up to us. And to + him wee can appeale to cleare up our innocency as touching the government, + both in your civil and church affaires. That it never was in our hearts to + thinke of doing the least wrong to either: but have and wee hope, by your + assistance, shal alwaies indeavour to keepe a conscience void of offence + towards god and men. And if it shal be thought meete to afforde us our + liberty, that wee may take that care, as becomes us, for our families, wee + shal engage ourselves to be alwayes in a readines to resigne up our + persons to your pleasure. Hoping your honours will be pleased seriously to + consider our condition, wee shall commend both you and it to the wise + disposing and blessing of the Almighty, and remaine your honours faithful + servants in what we may. + </p> + <p> + THO: GOLD WILL: TURNER JOHN FARNUM. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Archives</i>, x. + 220.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Such were the men whom the clergy daily warned their congregations “would + certainly undermine the churches, ruine order, destroy piety, and + introduce prophaneness.” [Footnote: <i>Ne Sutor</i>, p. 11.] And when they + appealed to their spotless lives and their patience under affliction, they + were told “that the vilest hereticks and grossest blasphemers have + resolutely and cheerfully (at least sullenly and boastingly) suffered as + well as the people of God.” [Footnote: <i>Ne Sutor</i>, p. 9.] + </p> + <p> + The feeling of indignation and of sympathy was, notwithstanding, strong; + and in spite of the danger of succoring heretics, sixty-six inhabitants, + among whom were some of the most respected citizens of Charlestown, + petitioned the legislature for mercy: “They being aged and weakly men; ... + the sense of this their ... most deplorable and afflicted condition hath + sadly affected the hearts of many ... Christians, and such as neither + approve of their judgment or practice; especially considering that the men + are reputed godly, and of a blameless conversation.... We therefore most + humbly beseech this honored court, in their Christian mercy and bowels of + compassion, to pity and relieve these poor prisoners.” [Footnote: Backus, + i. 380, 381.] On November 7, 1668, the petition was voted “scandalous + & reproachful,” the two chief promoters were censured, admonished, and + fined ten and five pounds respectively; the others were made, under their + own hands, to express their sorrow, “for giving the court such just ground + of offence.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 413.] + </p> + <p> + The shock was felt even in England. In March, 1669, thirteen of the most + influential dissenting ministers wrote from London earnestly begging for + moderation lest they should be made to suffer from retaliation; but their + remonstrance was disregarded. [Footnote: Backus, i. 395.] What followed is + not exactly known; the convicts would seem to have lain in jail about a + year, and they are next mentioned in a letter to Clark written in + November, 1670, in which he was told that Turner had been again arrested, + but that Gould had eluded the officers, who were waiting for him in + Boston; and was on Noddle’s Island. Subsequently all were taken and + treated with the extremest rigor; for in June, 1672, Russell was so + reduced that it was supposed he could not live, and he was reported to + have died in prison. Six months before Gould and Turner had been thought + past hope; their sufferings had brought them all to the brink of the + grave. [Footnote: Backus, i. 398-404, 405.] But relief was at hand: the + victory for freedom had been won by the blood of heretics, as devoted, as + fearless, but even unhappier than they; and the election of Leverett, in + 1673, who was opposed to persecution, marks the moment when the hierarchy + admitted their defeat. During his administration the sectaries usually met + in private undisturbed; and soon every energy of the theocracy became + concentrated on the effort to repulse the ever contracting circle of + enemies who encompassed it. + </p> + <p> + During the next few years events moved fast. In 1678 the ecclesiastical + power was so shattered that the Baptists felt strong enough to build a + church; but the old despotic spirit lived even in the throes of death, and + the legislature passed an act forbidding the erection of unlicensed + meeting-houses under penalty of confiscation. Nevertheless it was + finished, but on the Sunday on which it was to have been opened the + marshal nailed the doors fast and posted notices forbidding all persons to + enter, by order of the court. After a time the doors were broken open, and + services were held; a number of the congregation were summoned before the + court, admonished, and forbidden to meet in any public place; [Footnote: + June 11, 1680. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 271.] but the handwriting was now + glowing on the wall, priestly threats had lost their terror; the order was + disregarded; and now for almost two hundred years Massachusetts has been + foremost in defending the equal rights of men before the law. + </p> + <p> + The old world was passing away, a new era was opening, and a few words are + due to that singular aristocracy which so long ruled New England. For two + centuries Increase Mather has been extolled as an eminent example of the + abilities and virtues which then adorned his order. In 1681, when all was + over, he published a solemn statement of the attitude the clergy had held + toward the Baptists, and from his words posterity may judge of their + standard of morality and of truth. + </p> + <p> + “The Annabaptists in New England have in their narrative lately published, + endeavoured to ... make themselves the innocent persons and the Lord’s + servants here no better than persecutors.... I have been a poor labourer + in the Lord’s Vineyard in this place upward of twenty years; and it is + more than I know, if in all that time, any of those that scruple infant + baptism, have met with molestation from the magistrate merely on account + of their opinion.” [Footnote: Preface to <i>Ne Sutor</i>.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. — THE QUAKERS. + </h2> + <p> + The lower the organism, the less would seem to be the capacity for + physical adaptation to changed conditions of life; the jelly-fish dies in + the aquarium, the dog has wandered throughout the world with his master. + The same principle apparently holds true in the evolution of the + intellect; for while the oyster lacks consciousness, the bee modifies the + structure of its comb, and the swallow of her nest, to suit unforeseen + contingencies, while the dog, the horse, and the elephant are capable of a + high degree of education. [Footnote: <i>Menial Evolution in Animals</i>, + Romanes, Am. ed. pp. 203-210.] + </p> + <p> + Applying this law to man, it will be found to be a fact that, whereas the + barbarian is most tenacious of custom, the European can adopt new fashions + with comparative ease. The obvious inference is, that in proportion as the + brain is feeble it is incapable of the effort of origination; therefore, + savages are the slaves of routine. Probably a stronger nervous system, or + a peculiarity of environment, or both combined, served to excite + impatience with their surroundings among the more favored races, from + whence came a desire for innovation. And the mental flexibility thus + slowly developed has passed by inheritance, and has been strengthened by + use, until the tendency to vary, or think independently, has become an + irrepressible instinct among some modern nations. Conservatism is the + converse of variation, and as it springs from mental inertia it is always + a progressively salient characteristic of each group in the descending + scale. The Spaniard is less mutable than the Englishman, the Hindoo than + the Spaniard, the Hottentot than the Hindoo, and the ape than the + Hottentot. Therefore, a power whose existence depends upon the fixity of + custom must be inimical to progress, but the authority of a sacred caste + is altogether based upon an unreasoning reverence for tradition,—in + short, on superstition; and as free inquiry is fatal to a belief in those + fables which awed the childhood of the race, it has followed that + established priesthoods have been almost uniformly the most conservative + of social forces, and that clergymen have seldom failed to slay their + variable brethren when opportunity has offered. History teems with such + slaughters, some of the most instructive of which are related in the Old + Testament, whose code of morals is purely theological. + </p> + <p> + Though there may be some question as to the strict veracity of the author + of the Book of Kings, yet, as he was evidently a thorough churchman, there + can be no doubt that he has faithfully preserved the traditions of the + hierarchy; his chronicle therefore presents, as it were, a perfect mirror, + wherein are reflected the workings of the ecclesiastical mind through many + generations. According to his account, the theocracy only triumphed after + a long and doubtful struggle. Samuel must have been an exceptionally able + man, for, though he failed to control Saul, it was through his intrigues + that David was enthroned, who was profoundly orthodox; yet Solomon lapsed + again into heresy, and Jeroboam added to schism the even blacker crime of + making “priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of + Levi,” [Footnote: I Kings xii. 31.] and in consequence he has come down to + posterity as the man who made Israel to sin. Ahab married Jezebel, who + introduced the worship of Baal, and gave the support of government to a + rival church. She therefore roused a hate which has made her immortal; but + it was not until the reign of her son Jehoram that Elisha apparently felt + strong enough to execute a plot he had made with one of the generals to + precipitate a revolution, in which the whole of the house of Ahab should + be murdered and the heretics exterminated. The awful story is told with + wonderful power in the Bible. + </p> + <p> + “And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and + said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, + and go to Ramoth-gilead: and when thou comest thither, look out there + Jehu, ... and make him arise up ... and carry him to an inner chamber; + then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the + Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.... + </p> + <p> + “So the young man ... went to Ramoth-gilead.... And he said, I have an + errand to thee, O captain.... + </p> + <p> + “And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, + and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee + king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. + </p> + <p> + “And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the + blood of my servants the prophets.... + </p> + <p> + “For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: ... and I will make the house + of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ... and the dogs + shall eat Jezebel.... + </p> + <p> + “Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: ... And he said, Thus + spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king + over Israel. + </p> + <p> + “Then they hasted, ... and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king. So + Jehu ... conspired against Joram.... + </p> + <p> + “But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which + the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.... + </p> + <p> + “So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there.... + </p> + <p> + “And Joram ... went out ... in his chariot, ... against Jehu.... And it + came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he + answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and + her witchcrafts are so many? + </p> + <p> + “And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is + treachery, O Ahaziah. + </p> + <p> + “And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his + arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his + chariot.... + </p> + <p> + “But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the + garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the + chariot. And they did so.... + </p> + <p> + “And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted + her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. + </p> + <p> + “And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew + his master?... + </p> + <p> + “And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her + blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trod her under + foot.... + </p> + <p> + “And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, ... to the + elders, and to them that brought up Ahab’s children, saying, ... If ye be + mine, ... take ye the heads of ... your master’s sons, and come to me to + Jezreel by to-morrow this time.... And it came to pass, when the letter + came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, + and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.... + </p> + <p> + “And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate + until the morning.... + </p> + <p> + “So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all + his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none + remaining. + </p> + <p> + “And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the + shearing house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of + Judah.... + </p> + <p> + “And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at + the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any + of them.... + </p> + <p> + “And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in + Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, + which he spake to Elijah. + </p> + <p> + “And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab + served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call + unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; + let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever + shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the + intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.... + </p> + <p> + “And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, + so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the + house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another.... + </p> + <p> + “And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt + offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay + them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; + and the guard and the captains cast them out.... + </p> + <p> + “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.” [Footnote: 2 <i>Kings</i> ix., + x.] + </p> + <p> + Viewed from the standpoint of comparative history, the policy of + theocratic Massachusetts toward the Quakers was the necessary consequence + of antecedent causes, and is exactly parallel with the massacre of the + house of Ahab by Elisha and Jehu. The power of a dominant priesthood + depended on conformity, and the Quakers absolutely refused to conform; nor + was this the blackest of their crimes: they believed that the Deity + communicated directly with men, and that these revelations were the + highest rule of conduct. Manifestly such a doctrine was revolutionary. The + influence of all ecclesiastics must ultimately rest upon the popular + belief that they are endowed with attributes which are denied to common + men. The syllogism of the New England elders was this: all revelation is + contained in the Bible; we alone, from our peculiar education, are capable + of interpreting the meaning of the Scriptures: therefore we only can + declare the will of God. But it was evident that, were the dogma of “the + inner light” once accepted, this reasoning must fall to the ground, and + the authority of the ministry be overthrown. Necessarily those who held so + subversive a doctrine would be pursued with greater hate than less harmful + heretics, and thus contemplating the situation there is no difficulty in + understanding why the Rev. John Wilson, pastor of Boston, should have + vociferated in his pulpit, that “he would carry fire in one hand and + faggots in the other, to burn all the Quakers in the world;” [Footnote: <i>New + England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 124.] why the Rev. John Higginson should + have denounced the “inner light” as “a stinking vapour from hell;” + [Footnote: <i>Truth and Innocency Defended</i>, ed. 1703, p. 80.] why the + astute Norton should have taught that “the justice of God was the devil’s + armour;” [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 9.] and why + Endicott sternly warned the first comers, “Take heed you break not our + ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure to stretch by a halter.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 9.] + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, this view has not commended itself to those learned + clergymen who have been the chief historians of the Puritan commonwealth. + They have, on the contrary, steadily maintained that the sectaries were + the persecutors, since the company had exclusive ownership of the soil, + and acted in self-defence. + </p> + <p> + The case of Roger Williams is thus summed up by Dr. Dexter: “In all + strictness and honesty he persecuted them—not they him; just as the + modern ‘Come-outer,’ who persistently intrudes his bad manners and + pestering presence upon some private company, making himself, upon + pretence of conscience, a nuisance there; is—if sane—the + persecutor, rather than the man who forcibly assists, as well as + courteously requires, his desired departure.” [Footnote: <i>As to Roger + Williams</i>, p. 90.] + </p> + <p> + Dr. Ellis makes a similar argument regarding the Quakers: “It might appear + as if good manners, and generosity and magnanimity of spirit, would have + kept the Quakers away. Certainly, by every rule of right and reason, they + ought to have kept away. They had no rights or business here.... Most + clearly they courted persecution, suffering, and death; and, as the + magistrates affirmed, ‘they rushed upon the sword.’ Those magistrates + never intended them harm, ... except as they believed that all their + successive measures and sharper penalties were positively necessary to + secure their jurisdiction from the wildest lawlessness and absolute + anarchy.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. and its Early History</i>, p. 110] His + conclusion is: “It is to be as frankly and positively affirmed that their + Quaker tormentors were the aggressive party; that they wantonly initiated + the strife, and with a dogged pertinacity persisted in outrages which + drove the authorities almost to frenzy....” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. + 104] + </p> + <p> + The proposition that the Congregationalists owned the territory granted by + the charter of Charles I. as though it were a private estate, has been + considered in an earlier chapter; and if the legal views there advanced + are sound, it is incontrovertible, that all peaceful British subjects had + a right to dwell in Massachusetts, provided they did not infringe the + monopoly in trade. The only remaining question, therefore, is whether the + Quakers were peaceful. Dr. Ellis, Dr. Palfrey, and Dr. Dexter have + carefully collected a certain number of cases of misconduct, with the view + of proving that the Friends were turbulent, and the government had + reasonable grounds for apprehending such another outbreak as one which + occurred a century before in Germany and is known as the Peasants’ War. + Before, however, it is possible to enter upon a consideration of the + evidence intelligently, it is necessary to fix the chronological order of + the leading events of the persecution. + </p> + <p> + The twenty-one years over which it extended may be conveniently divided + into three periods, of which the first began in July, 1656, when Mary + Fisher and Anne Austin came to Boston, and lasted till December, 1661, + when Charles II. interfered by commanding Endicott to send those under + arrest to England for trial. Hitherto John Norton had been preeminent, but + in that same December he was appointed on a mission to London, and as he + died soon after his return, his direct influence on affairs then probably + ceased. He had been chiefly responsible for the hangings of 1659 and 1660, + but under no circumstances could they have been continued, for after four + heretics had perished, it was found impossible to execute Wenlock + Christison, who had been condemned, because of popular indignation. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the respite was brief. In June, 1662, the king, in a letter + confirming the charter, excluded the Quakers from the general toleration + which he demanded for other sects, and the old legislation was forthwith + revived; only as it was found impossible to kill the schismatics openly, + the inference, from what occurred subsequently, is unavoidable, that the + elders sought to attain their purpose by what their reverend historians + call “a humaner policy,” [Footnote: <i>As to Roger Williams</i>, p. 134.] + or, in plain English, by murdering them by flogging and starvation. Nor + was the device new, for the same stratagem had already been resorted to by + the East India Company, in Hindostan, before they were granted full + criminal jurisdiction. [Footnote: Mill’s <i>British India</i>, i. 48, + note.] + </p> + <p> + The Vagabond Act was too well contrived for compassing such an end, to + have been an accident, and portions of it strongly suggest the hand of + Norton. It was passed in May, 1661, when it was becoming evident that + hanging must be abandoned, and its provisions can only be explained on the + supposition that it was the intention to make the infliction of death + discretionary with each magistrate. It provided that any foreign Quaker, + or any native upon a second conviction, might be ordered to receive an + unlimited number of stripes. It is important also to observe that the whip + was a two-handed implement, armed with lashes made of twisted and knotted + cord or catgut. [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 357, + note.] There can be no doubt, moreover, that sundry of the judgments + afterward pronounced would have resulted fatally had the people permitted + their execution. During the autumn following its enactment this statute + was suspended, but it was revived in about ten months. + </p> + <p> + Endicott’s death in 1665 marks the close of the second epoch, and ten + comparatively tranquil years followed. Bellingham’s moderation may have + been in part due to the interference of the royal commissioners, but a + more potent reason was the popular disgust, which had become so strong + that the penal laws could not be enforced. + </p> + <p> + A last effort was made to rekindle the dying flame in 1675, by fining + constables who failed in their duty to break up Quaker meetings, and + offering one third of the penalty to the informer. Magistrates were + required to sentence those apprehended to the House of Correction, where + they were to be kept three days on bread and water, and whipped. + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 60.] Several suffered during this revival, + the last of whom was Margaret Brewster. At the end of twenty-one years the + policy of cruelty had become thoroughly discredited and a general + toleration could no longer be postponed; but this great liberal triumph + was only won by heroic courage and by the endurance of excruciating + torments. Marmaduke Stevenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer, and William + Leddra were hanged, several were mutilated or branded, two at least are + known to have died from starvation and whipping, and it is probable that + others were killed whose fate cannot be traced. The number tortured under + the Vagabond Act is unknown, nor can any estimate be made of the misery + inflicted upon children by the ruin and exile of parents. + </p> + <p> + The early Quakers were enthusiasts, and therefore occasionally spoke and + acted extravagantly; they also adopted some offensive customs, the most + objectionable of which was wearing the hat; all this is immaterial. The + question at issue is not their social attractiveness, but the cause whose + consequence was a virulent persecution. This can only be determined by an + analysis of the evidence. If, upon an impartial review of the cases of + outrage which have been collected, it shall appear probable that the + conduct of the Friends was sufficiently violent to make it credible that + the legislature spoke the truth, when it declared that “the prudence of + this court was exercised onely in making provission to secure the peace + & order heere established against theire attempts, whose designe (wee + were well assured by our oune experjence, as well as by the example of + theire predecessors in Munster) was to vndermine & ruine the same;” + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 385.] then the reverend + historians of the theocracy must be considered to have established their + proposition. But if, on the other hand, it shall seem apparent that the + intense vindictiveness of this onslaught was due to the bigotry and greed + of power of a despotic priesthood, who saw in the spread of independent + thought a menace to the ascendency of their order, then it must be held to + be demonstrated that the clergy of New England acted in obedience to those + natural laws, which have always regulated the conduct of mankind. + </p> + <p> + CHRONOLOGY. + </p> + <p> + 1656, July. First Quakers came to Boston. + </p> + <p> + 1656, 14 Oct. First act against Quakers passed. Providing that + ship-masters bringing Quakers should be fined £100. Quakers to be whipped + and imprisoned till expelled. Importers of Quaker books to be fined. Any + defending Quaker opinions to be fined, first offence, 40s.; second, £4; + third, banishment. + </p> + <p> + 1657, 14 Oct. By a supplementary act; Quakers returning after one + conviction for first offence, for men, loss of one ear; imprisonment till + exile. Second offence, loss other ear, like imprisonment. For females; + first offence, whipping, imprisonment. Second offence, idem. Third + offence, men and women alike; tongue to be bored with a hot iron, + imprisonment, exile. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 309.] + </p> + <p> + 1658. In this year Rev. John Norton actively exerted himself to secure + more stringent legislation; procured petition to that effect to be + presented to court. + </p> + <p> + 1658, 19 Oct. Enacted that undomiciled Quakers returning from banishment + should be hanged. Domiciled Quakers upon conviction, refusing to + apostatize, to be banished, under pain of death on return. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + p. 346.] + </p> + <p> + Under this act the following persons were hanged: + </p> + <p> + 1659, 27 Oct. Robinson and Stevenson hanged. + </p> + <p> + 1660, 1 June. Mary Dyer hanged. (Previously condemned, reprieved, and + executed for returning.) + </p> + <p> + 1660-1661, 14 Mar. William Leddra hanged. + </p> + <p> + 1661, June. Wenlock Christison condemned to death; released. + </p> + <p> + 1661, 22 May. Vagabond Act. Any person convicted before a county + magistrate of being an undomiciled or vagabond Quaker to be stripped naked + to the middle, tied to the cart’s tail, and flogged from town to town to + the border. Domiciled Quakers to be proceeded against under Act of 1658 to + banishment, and then treated as vagabond Quakers. The death penalty was + still preserved but not enforced. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. + pt. 2, p. 3.] + </p> + <p> + 1661, 9 Sept. King Charles II. wrote to Governor Endicott directing the + cessation of corporal punishment in regard to Quakers, and ordering the + accused to be sent to England for trial. + </p> + <p> + 1661. 27 Nov. Vagabond Act suspended. + </p> + <p> + 1662. 28 June. The company’s agents, Bradstreet and Norton, received from + the king his letter of pardon, etc., wherein, however, Quakers are + excepted from the demand made for religious toleration. + </p> + <p> + 1662, 8 Oct. Encouraged by the above letter the Vagabond law revived. + </p> + <p> + 1664-5, 15 March. Death of John Endicott. Bellingham governor. + Commissioners interfere on behalf of Quakers in May. The persecution + subsides. + </p> + <p> + 1672, 3 Nov. Persecution revived by passage of law punishing persons found + at Quaker meeting by fine or imprisonment and flogging. Also fining + constables for neglect in making arrests and giving one third the fine to + informers. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 60.] + </p> + <p> + 1677, Aug. 9. Margaret Brewster whipped for entering the Old South in + sackcloth. + </p> + <h3> + TURBULENT QUAKERS. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1656, Mary Prince. 1662, Deborah Wilson. + 1658, Sarah Gibbons. 1663, Thomas Newhouse. + “ Dorothy Waugh. “ Edward Wharton. + 1660, John Smith. 1664, Hannah Wright. [Footnote: Uncertain.] + 1661, Katherine Chatham. “ Mary Tomkins. + “ George Wilson. 1665, Lydia Wardwell. + 1662, Elizabeth Hooton. 1677, Margaret Brewster. +</pre> + <p> + “It was in the month called July, of this present year [1656] + when Mary Fisher and Ann Austin arrived in the road before Boston, before + ever a law was made there against the Quakers; and yet they were very ill + treated; for before they came ashore, the deputy governor, Richard + Bellingham (the governor himself being out of town) sent officers aboard, + who searched their trunks and chests, and took away the books they found + there, which were about one hundred, and carried them ashore, after having + commanded the said women to be kept prisoners aboard; and the said books + were, by an order of the council, burnt in the market-place by the + hangman.... And then they were shut up close prisoners, and command was + given that none should come to them without leave; a fine of five pounds + being laid on any that should otherwise come at, or speak with them, tho’ + but at the window. Their pens, ink, and paper were taken from them, and + they not suffered to have any candle-light in the night season; nay, what + is more, they were stript naked, under pretence to know whether they were + witches [a true touch of sacerdotal malignity] tho’ in searching no token + was found upon them but of innocence. And in this search they were so + barbarously misused that modesty forbids to mention it: And that none + might have communication with them a board was nailed up before the window + of the jail. And seeing they were not provided with victuals, Nicholas + Upshal, one who had lived long in Boston, and was a member of the church + there, was so concerned about it, (liberty being denied to send them + provision) that he purchased it of the jailor at the rate of five + shillings a week, lest they should have starved. And after having been + about five weeks prisoners, William Chichester, master of a vessel, was + bound in one hundred pound bond to carry them back, and not suffer any to + speak with them, after they were put on board; and the jailor kept their + beds ... and their Bible, for his fees.” [Footnote: Sewel, p. 160.] + </p> + <p> + Endicott was much dissatisfied with the forbearance of Bellingham, and + declared that had he “been there ... he would have had them well whipp’d.” + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 10.] No exertion was + spared, nevertheless, to get some hold upon them, the elders examining + them as to matters of faith, with a view to ensnare them as heretics. In + this, however, they were foiled. + </p> + <p> + On the authority of Hutchinson, Dr. Dexter [Footnote: <i>As to Roger + Williams</i>, p. 127.] and r. Palfrey complain [Footnote: Palfrey, ii. + 464.] that Mary Prince reviled two of the ministers, who “with much + moderation and tenderness endeavored to convince her of her errors.” + [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 181.] A visitation of the clergy was a + form of torment from which even the boldest recoiled; Vane, Gorton, + Childe, and Anne Hutchinson quailed under it, and though the Quakers + abundantly proved that they could bear stripes with patience, they could + not endure this. She called them “Baal’s priests, the seed of the + serpent.” Dr. Ellis also speaks of “stinging objurgations screamed out ... + from between the bars of their prisons.” [Footnote: <i>Mem. Hist. of + Boston</i>, i. 182.] He cites no cases, but he probably refers to the same + woman who called to Endicott one Sunday on his way from church: “Woe unto + thee, thou art an oppressor.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 181.] If + she said so she spoke the truth, for she was illegally imprisoned, was + deprived of her property, and subjected to great hardship. + </p> + <p> + In October, 1656, the first of the repressive acts was passed, by which + the “cursed” and “blasphemous” intruders were condemned to be “comitted to + the house of correction, and at theire entrance to be seuerely whipt and + by the master thereof to be kept constantly to worke, and none suffered to + converse or speak with them;” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 1, + p. 278.] and any captain knowingly bringing them within the jurisdiction + to be fined one hundred pounds, with imprisonment till payment. + </p> + <p> + “When this law was published at the door of the aforenamed Nicholas + Upshall, the good old man, grieved in spirit, publickly testified against + it; for which he was the next morning sent for to the General Court, where + he told them that: ‘The execution of that law would be a forerunner of a + judgment upon their country, and therefore in love and tenderness which he + bare to the people and place, desired them to take heed, lest they were + found fighters against God.’ For this, he, though one of their + church-members, and of a blameless conversation, was fined £20 and £3 more + for not coming to church, whence the sense of their wickedness had induced + him to absent himself. They also banished him out of their jurisdiction, + allowing him but one month for his departure, though in the winter season, + and he a weakly ancient man: Endicott the governor, when applied to on his + behalf for a mitigation of his fine, churlishly answered, ‘I will not bate + him a groat.’” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 181.] + </p> + <p> + Although, after the autumn of 1656, whippings, fines, and banishments + became frequent, no case of misconduct is alleged until the 13th of the + second month, 1658, when Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh broke two bottles + in Mr. Norton’s church, after lecture, to testify to his emptiness; + [Footnote: This charge is unproved.] both had previously been imprisoned + and banished, but the ferocity with which Norton at that moment was + forcing on the persecution was the probable incentive to the trespass. + “They were sent to the house of correction, where, after being kept three + days without any food, they were cruelly whipt, and kept three days longer + without victuals, though they had offered to buy some, but were not + suffered.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 184.] + </p> + <p> + In 1661 Katharine Chatham walked through Boston, in sackcloth. This was + during the trial of Christison for his life, when the terror culminated, + and hardly needs comment. + </p> + <p> + George Wilson is charged with having “rushed through the streets of + Boston, shouting: ‘The Lord is coming with fire and sword!’” [Footnote: <i>As + to Roger Williams</i>, p. 133.] The facts appear to be these: in 1661, + just before Christison’s trial, he was arrested, without any apparent + reason, and, as he was led to prison, he cried, that the Lord was coming + with fire and sword to plead with Boston. [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, + ed. 1703, p. 351.] At the general jail delivery [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 19. Order passed 28 May, 1661.] in anticipation of the + king’s order, he was liberated, but soon rearrested, “sentenced to be tied + to the cart’s tail,” and flogged with so severe a whip that the Quakers + wanted to buy it “to send to England for the novelty of the cruelty, but + that was not permitted.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 224.] + </p> + <p> + Elizabeth Hooton coming from England in 1661, with Joan Brooksup, “they + were soon clapt up in prison, and, upon their discharge thence, being + driven with the rest two days’ journey into the vast, howling wilderness, + and there left ... without necessary provisions.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. + 228, 229.] They escaped to Barbadoes. “Upon their coming again to Boston, + they were presently apprehended by a constable, an ignorant and furious + zealot, who declared, ‘It was his delight, and he could rejoice in + following the Quakers to their execution as much as ever.’” Wishing to + return once more, she obtained a license from the king to buy a house in + any plantation. Though about sixty, she was seized at Dover, where the + Rev. Mr. Rayner was settled, put into the stocks, and imprisoned four days + in the dead of winter, where she nearly perished from cold. [Footnote: + Besse, ii. 229.] Afterward, at Cambridge, she exhorted the people to + repentance in the streets, [Footnote: “Repentance! Repentance! A day of + howling and sad lamentation is coming upon you all from the Lord.”] and + for this crime, which is cited as an outrage to Puritan decorum, + [Footnote: <i>As to Roger Williams</i>, p. 133.] she was once more + apprehended and “imprisoned in a close, stinking dungeon, where there was + nothing either to lie down or sit on, where she was kept two days and two + nights without bread or water,” and then sentenced to be whipped through + three towns. “At Cambridge she was tied to the whipping-post, and lashed + with ten stripes with a three-stringed whip, with three knots at the end: + At Watertown she was laid on with ten stripes more with rods of willow: At + Dedham, in a cold frosty morning, they tortured her aged body with ten + stripes more at a cart’s tail.” The peculiar atrocity of flogging from + town to town lay in this: that the victim’s wounds became cold between the + times of punishment, and in winter sometimes frozen, which made the + torture intolerably agonizing. Then, as hanging was impossible, other + means were tried to make an end of her: “Thus miserably torn and beaten, + they carried her a weary journey on horseback many miles into the + wilderness, and toward night left her there among wolves, bears, and other + wild beasts, who, though they did sometimes seize on living persons, were + yet to her less cruel than the savage-professors of that country. When + those who conveyed her thither left her, they said, ‘They thought they + should never see her more.’” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 229. See <i>New England + Judged</i>, p. 413.] + </p> + <p> + The intent to kill is obvious, and yet Elizabeth Hooton suffered less than + many of those convicted and sentenced after public indignation had forced + the theocracy to adopt what their reverend successors are pleased to call + the “humaner policy” of the Vagabond Act. [Footnote: <i>As to Roger + Williams</i>, p. 134.] + </p> + <p> + Any want of deference to a clergyman is sure to be given a prominent place + in the annals of Massachusetts; and, accordingly, the breaking of bottles + in church, which happened twice in twenty-one years, is never omitted. + </p> + <p> + In 1663 “John Liddal, and Thomas Newhouse, having been at meeting” (at + Salem), “were apprehended and ... sentenced to be whipt through three + towns as vagabonds,” which was accordingly done. + </p> + <p> + “Not long after this, the aforesaid Thomas Newhouse was again whipt + through the jurisdiction of Boston for testifying against the persecutors + in their meeting-house there; at which time he, in a prophetick manner, + having two glass bottles in his hands, threw them down, saying, ‘so shall + you be dashed in pieces.’” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 232.] + </p> + <p> + The next turbulent Quaker is mentioned in this way by Dr. Dexter: “Edward + Wharton was ‘pressed in spirit’ to repair to Dover and proclaim ‘Wo, + vengeance, and the indignation of the Lord’ upon the court in session + there.” [Footnote: <i>As to Roger Williams</i>, p. 133.] This happened in + the summer of 1663, and long ere then he had seen and suffered the + oppression that makes men mad. He was a peaceable and industrious + inhabitant of Salem; in 1659 he had seen Robinson and Stevenson done to + death, and, being deeply moved, he said, “the guilt of [their] blood was + so great that he could not bear it;” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 205.] he was + taken from his home, given twenty lashes and fined twenty pounds; the next + year, just at the time of Christison’s trial, he was again seized, led + through the country like a notorious offender, and thrown into prison, + “where he was kept close, night and day, with William Leddra, sometimes in + a very little room, little bigger than a saw-pit, having no liberty + granted them.” + </p> + <p> + “Being brought before their court, he again asked, ‘What is the cause, and + wherefore have I been fetcht from my habitation, where I was following my + honest calling, and here laid up as an evil-doer?’ They told him, that + ‘his hair was too long, and that he had disobeyed that commandment which + saith, Honour thy father and mother.’ He asked, ‘Wherein?’ ‘In that you + will not,’ said they, ‘put off your hat to magistrates.’ Edward replied, + ‘I love and own all magistrates and rulers, who are for the punishment of + evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.’” [Footnote: Besse, + ii. 220.] + </p> + <p> + Then Rawson pronounced the sentence: “You are upon pain of death to depart + this jurisdiction, it being the 11th of this instant March, by the one and + twentieth of the same, on the pain of death.... ‘Nay [said Wharton], I + shall not go away; therefore be careful what you do.’” [Footnote: Besse, + ii. 221.] + </p> + <p> + And he did not go, but was with Leddra when he died upon the tree. On the + day Leddra suffered, Christison was brought before Endicott, and commanded + to renounce his religion; but he answered: “Nay, I shall not change my + religion, nor seek to save my life; ... but if I lose my life for Christ’s + sake and the preaching of the gospel, I shall save it.” They then sent him + back to prison to await his doom. At the next court he was brought to the + bar, where he demanded an appeal to England; but in the midst a letter was + brought in from Wharton, signifying, “That whereas they had banished him + on pain of death, yet he was at home in his own house at Salem, and + therefore proposing, ‘That they would take off their wicked sentence from + him, that he might go about his occasions out of their jurisdiction.’” + [Footnote: Besse, ii. 222, 223.] + </p> + <p> + Endicott was exasperated to frenzy, for he felt the ground crumbling + beneath him; he put the fate of Christison to the vote, and failed to + carry a condemnation. “The governor seeing this division, said, ‘I could + find it in my heart to go home;’ being in such a rage, that he flung + something furiously on the table. ...Then the governor put the court to + vote again; but this was done confusedly, which so incensed the governor + that he stood up and said, ‘You that will not consent record it: I thank + God I am not afraid to give judgment...Wenlock Christison, hearken to your + sentence: You must return unto the place from whence you came, and from + thence to the place of execution, and there you must be hang’d until you + are dead, dead, dead.’” [Footnote: Sewel, p. 279.] Thereafter Wharton + invoked the wrath of God against the theocracy. + </p> + <p> + To none of the enormities committed, during these years are the divines + more keenly alive than to the crime of disturbing what they call “public + Sabbath worship;” [Footnote: <i>As to Roger Williams</i>, p. 139.] and + since their language conveys the impression that such acts were not only + very common, but also unprovoked, whereas the truth is that they were + rare, it cannot fail to be instructive to relate the causes which led to + the interruption of the ordination of that Mr. Higginson, who called the + “inner light” “a stinking vapour from hell.” [Footnote: Ordained July 8, + 1660. <i>Annals of Salem</i>.] + </p> + <p> + John and Margaret Smith were members of the Salem church, and John was a + freeman. In 1658, Margaret became a Quaker, and though in feeble health, + she was cast into prison, and endured the extremities of privation; her + sufferings and her patience so wrought upon her husband that he too became + a convert, and a few weeks before the ceremony wrote to Endicott: + </p> + <p> + “O governour, governour, do not think that my love to my wife is at all + abated, because I sit still silent, and do not seek her ... freedom, which + if I did would not avail.... Upon examination of her, there being nothing + justly laid to her charge, yet to fulfil your wills, it was determined, + that she must have ten stripes in the open market place, it being very + cold, the snow lying by the walls, and the wind blowing cold.... My love + is much more increased to her, because I see your cruelty so much enlarged + to her.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 208, 209.] + </p> + <p> + Yet, though laboring under such intense excitement, the only act of + insubordination wherewith this man is charged was saying in a loud voice + during the service, “What you are going about to set up, our God is + pulling down.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 187.] + </p> + <p> + Dr. Dexter also speaks with pathos of the youth of some of the criminals. + </p> + <p> + “Hannah Wright, a mere girl of less than fifteen summers, toiled ... from + Oyster Bay ... to Boston, that she might pipe in the ears of the court ‘a + warning in the name of the Lord.’” [Footnote: <i>As to Roger Williams,</i> + p. 133.] This appears to have happened in 1664, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 234. + <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 461.] yet the name of Hannah + Wright is recorded among those who were released in the general jail + delivery in 1661, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 224.] when she was only twelve; + and her sister had been banished. [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, + ed. 1703, p. 461.] + </p> + <p> + But of all the scandals which have been dwelt on for two centuries with + such unction, none have been made more notorious than certain + extravagances committed by three women; and regarding them, the reasoning + of Dr. Dexter should be read in full. + </p> + <p> + “The Quaker of the seventeenth century ... was essentially a coarse, + blustering, conceited, disagreeable, impudent fanatic; whose religion + gained subjective comfort in exact proportion to the objective comfort of + which it was able to deprive others; and which broke out into its choicest + exhibitions in acts which were not only at that time in the nature of a + public scandal and nuisance, but which even in the brightest light of this + nineteenth century ... would subject those who should be guilty of them to + the immediate and stringent attention of the police court. The disturbance + of public Sabbath worship, and the indecent exposure of the person—whether + conscience be pleaded for them or not—are punished, and rightly + punished, as crimes by every civilized government.” [Footnote: <i>As to + Roger Williams</i>, pp. 138, 139.] + </p> + <p> + This paragraph undoubtedly refers to Mary Tomkins, who “on the First Day + of the week at Oyster River, broke up the service of God’s house ... the + scene ending in deplorable confusion;” [Footnote: <i>As to Roger Williams</i>, + p. 133.] and to Lydia Wardwell and Deborah Wilson, who appeared in public + naked. + </p> + <p> + Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose came to Massachusetts in 1662; landing at + Dover, they began preaching at the inn, to which a number of people + resorted. Mr. Rayner, hearing the news, hurried to the spot, and in much + irritation asked them what they were doing there? This led to an argument + about the Trinity, and the authority of ministers, and at last the + clergyman “in a rage flung away, calling to his people, at the window, to + go from amongst them.” [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. + 362.] Nothing was done at the moment, but toward winter the two came back + from Maine, whither they had gone, and then Mr. Rayner saw his + opportunity. He caused Richard Walden to prosecute them, and as the + magistrate was ignorant of the technicalities of the law, the elder acted + as clerk, and drew up for him the following warrant:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, + Wenham, Linn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vagabond Quakers + are carried out of this jurisdiction. You and every of you are required, + in the King’s Majesty’s name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anne + Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart’s + tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip them on + their backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them in each + town, and so to convey them from constable to constable, till they come + out of this jurisdiction, as you will answer it at your peril: and this + shall be your warrant. + </p> + <p> + Per me RICHARD WALDEN. At Dover, dated December the 22d, 1662. [Footnote: + Besse, ii. 227.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + The Rev. John Rayner pronounced judgment of death by flogging, for the + weather was bitter, the distance to be walked was eighty miles, and the + lashes were given with a whip, whose three twisted, knotted thongs cut to + the bone. + </p> + <p> + “So, in a very cold day, your deputy, Walden, caused these women to be + stripp’d naked from the middle upward, and tyed to a cart, and after a + while cruelly whipp’d them, whilst the priest stood and looked, and + laughed at it.... They went with the executioner to Hampton, and through + dirt and snow at Salisbury, half way the leg deep, the constable forced + them after the cart’s tayl at which he whipp’d them.” [Footnote: <i>New + England Judged</i>, pp. 366, 367.] + </p> + <p> + Had the Reverend John Rayner but followed the cart, to see that his three + hundred and thirty lashes were all given with the same ferocity which + warmed his heart to mirth at Dover, before his journey’s end he would + certainly have joyed in giving thanks to God over the women’s gory + corpses, freezing amid the snow. His negligence saved their lives, for + when the ghastly pilgrims passed through Salisbury, the people to their + eternal honor set the captives free. + </p> + <p> + Soon after, on Sunday,—“Whilst Alice Ambrose was at prayer, two + constables ... came ... and taking her ... dragged her out of doors, and + then with her face toward the snow, which was knee deep, over stumps and + old trees near a mile; when they had wearied themselves they ... left the + prisoner in an house ... and fetched Mary Tomkins, whom in like manner + they dragged with her face toward the snow....On the next morning, which + was excessive cold, they got a canoe ... and so carried them to the + harbour’s mouth, threatning, that ‘They would now so do with them, as that + they would be troubled with them no more.’ The women being unwilling to + go, they forced them down a very steep place in the snow, dragging Mary + Tomkins over the stumps of trees to the water side, so that she was much + bruised, and fainted under their hands: They plucked Alice Ambrose into + the water, and kept her swimming by the canoe in great danger of drowning, + or being frozen to death. They would in all probability have proceeded in + their wicked purpose to the murthering of those three women, had they not + been prevented by a sudden storm, which drove them back to the house + again. They kept the women there till near midnight, and then cruelly + turned them out of doors in the frost and snow, Alice Ambrose’s clothes + being frozen hard as boards.... It was observable that those constables, + though wicked enough of themselves, were animated by a ruling elder of + their church, whose name corresponded not with his actions, for he was + called Hate-evil Nutter, he put those men forward, and by his presence + encouraged them.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 228.] + </p> + <p> + Subsequently, Mary Tomkins committed the breach of the peace complained + of, which was an interruption of a sermon against Quaker preaching. + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 386.] + </p> + <p> + Deborah Wilson, one of the women who went abroad naked, was insane, the + fact appearing of record subsequently as the judgment of the court. She + was flogged. [Footnote: <i>Quaker Invasion</i>, p. 104.] + </p> + <p> + Lydia Wardwell was the daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman. She married + Eliakim Wardwell, son of Thomas Wardwell, who was also a citizen. They + became Quakers; and the story begins when the poor young woman had been a + wife just three years. “At Hampton, Priest Seaborn Cotton, understanding + that one Eliakim Wardel had entertained Wenlock Christison, went with some + of his herd to Eliakim’s house, having like a sturdy herdsman put himself + at the head of his followers, with a truncheon in his hand.” Eliakim was + fined for harboring Christison, and “a pretty beast for the saddle, worth + about fourteen pound, was taken ... the overplus of [Footnote: Sewel, p. + 340.] which to make up to him, your officers plundred old William Marston + of a vessel of green ginger, which for some fine was taken from him, and + forc’d it into Eliakim’s house, where he let it lie and touched it not; + ... and notwithstanding he came not to your invented worship, but was + fined ten shillings a day’s absence, for him and his wife, yet was he + often rated for priest’s hire; and the priest (Seaborn Cotton, old John + Cotton’s son) to obtain his end and to cover himself, sold his rate to a + man almost as bad as himself, ... who coming in pretence of borrowing a + little corn for himself, which the harmless honest man willingly lent him; + and he finding thereby that he had corn, which was his design, Judas-like, + he went ... and measured it away as he pleased.” + </p> + <p> + “Another time, the said Eliakim being rated to the said priest, Seaborn + Cotton, the said Seaborn having a mind to a pied heifer Eliakim had, as + Ahab had to Naboth’s vineyard, sent his servant nigh two miles to fetch + her; who having robb’d Eliakim of her, brought her to his master.”... + </p> + <p> + “Again the said Eliakim was had to your court, and being by them fined, + they took almost all his marsh and meadow-ground from him to satisfie it, + which was for the keeping his cattle alive in winter ... and [so] seized + and took his estate, that they plucked from him most of that he had.” + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged,</i> ed. 1703, pp. 374-376.] Lydia + Wardwell, thus reduced to penury, and shaken by the daily scenes of + unutterable horror through which she had to pass, was totally unequal to + endure the strain under which the masculine intellect of Anne Hutchinson + had reeled. She was pursued by her pastor, who repeatedly commanded her to + come to church and explain her absence from communion. [Footnote: Besse, + ii. 235.] The miserable creature, brooding over her blighted life and the + torments of her friends, became possessed with the delusion that it was + her duty to testify against the barbarity of flogging naked women; so she + herself went in among them naked for a sign. There could be no clearer + proof of insanity, for it is admitted that in every other respect her + conduct was exemplary. + </p> + <p> + Her judges at Ipswich had her bound to a rough post of the tavern, in + which they sat, and then, while the splinters tore her bare breasts, they + had her flesh cut from her back with the lash. [Footnote: <i>New England + Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 377.] + </p> + <p> + “Thus they served the wife, and the husband escaped not free; ... he + taxing Simon Broadstreet, ... for upbraiding his wife ... and telling + Simon of his malitious reproaching of his wife who was an honest woman ... + and of that report that went abroad of the known dishonesty of Simon’s + daughter, Seaborn Cotton’s wife; Simon in a fierce rage, told the court, + ‘That if such fellows should be suffered to speak so in the court, he + would sit there no more:’ So to please Simon, Eliakim was sentenc’d to be + stripp’d from his waste upward, and to be bound to an oak-tree that stood + by their worship-house, and to be whipped fifteen lashes; ... as they were + having him out ... he called to Seaborn Cotton ... to come and see the + work done (so far was he from being daunted by their cruelty), who hastned + out and followed him thither, and so did old Wiggins, one of the + magistrates, who when Eliakim was tyed to the tree and stripp’d, said ... + to the whipper... ‘Whip him a good;’ which the executioner cruelly + performed with cords near as big as a man’s little finger;... Priest + Cotton standing near him ... Eliakim ... when he was loosed from the tree, + said to him, amongst the people, ‘Seaborn, hath my py’d heifer calv’d + yet?’ Which Seaborn, the priest, hearing stole away like a thief.” + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, pp. 377-379.] + </p> + <p> + As Margaret Brewster was the last who is known to have been whipped, so is + she one of the most famous, for she has been immortalized by Samuel + Sewall, an honest, though a dull man. + </p> + <p> + “July 8, 1677. New Meeting House Mane: In sermon time there came in a + female Quaker, in a canvas frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a + Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two + other followed. It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I + ever saw. Isaiah 1. 12, 14.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fifth + series, v. 43.] + </p> + <p> + In 1675 the persecution had been revived, and the stories the woman heard + of the cruelties that were perpetrated on those of her own faith inspired + her with the craving to go to New England to protest against the wrong; so + she journeyed thither, and entered the Old South one Sunday morning + clothed in sackcloth, with ashes on her head. + </p> + <p> + At her trial she asked for leave to speak: “Governour, I desire thee to + hear me a little, for I have something to say in behalf of my friends in + this place: ... Oh governour! I cannot but press thee again and again, to + put an end to these cruel laws that you have made to fetch my friends from + their peaceable meetings, and keep them three days in the house of + correction, and then whip them for worshipping the true and living God: + Governour! Let me entreat thee to put an end to these laws, for the desire + of my soul is, that you may act for God, and then would you prosper, but + if you act against the Lord and his blessed truth, you will assuredly come + to nothing, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” ... + </p> + <p> + “Margaret Brewster, You are to have your clothes stript off to the middle, + and to be tied to a cart’s tail at the South Meeting House, and to be + drawn through the town, and to receive twenty stripes upon your naked + body.” + </p> + <p> + “The will of the Lord be done: I am contented.” ... + </p> + <p> + <i>Governour.</i> “Take her away.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 263, 264.] + </p> + <p> + So ends the sacerdotal list of Quaker outrages, for, after Margaret + Brewster had expiated her crime of protesting against the repression of + free thought, there came a toleration, and with toleration a deep + tranquillity, so that the very name of Quaker has become synonymous with + quietude. The issue between them and the Congregationalists must be left + to be decided upon the legal question of their right as English subjects + to inhabit Massachusetts; and secondarily upon the opinion which shall be + formed of their conduct as citizens, upon the testimony of those witnesses + whom the church herself has called. But regarding the great fundamental + struggle for liberty of individual opinion, no presentation of the + evidence could be historically correct which did not include at least one + example of the fate that awaited peaceful families, under this + ecclesiastical government, who roused the ire of the priests. + </p> + <p> + Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick were an aged couple, members of the Salem + church, and Lawrence was a freeman. Josiah, their eldest son, was a man; + but they had beside a younger boy and girl named Daniel and Provided. + </p> + <p> + The father and mother were first arrested in 1657 for harboring two + Quakers; Lawrence was soon released, but a Quaker tract was found upon + Cassandra. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 183.] Although no attempt seems to have + been made to prove heresy to bring the case within the letter of the law, + the paper was treated as a heretical writing, and she was imprisoned for + seven weeks and fined forty shillings. + </p> + <p> + Persecution made converts fast, and in Salem particularly a number + withdrew from the church and began to worship by themselves. All were soon + arrested, and the three Southwicks were again sent to Boston, this time to + serve as an example. They arrived on the 3d of February, 1657; without + form of trial they were whipped in the extreme cold weather and imprisoned + eleven days. Their cattle were also seized and sold to pay a fine of £4 + 13s. for six weeks’ absence from worship on the Lord’s day. + </p> + <p> + The next summer, Leddra, who was afterwards hanged, and William Brend went + to Salem, and several persons were seized for meeting with them, among + whom were the Southwicks. A room was prepared for the criminals in the + Boston prison by boarding up the windows and stopping ventilation. + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 64.] They were refused + food unless they worked to pay for it; but to work when wrongfully + confined was against the Quaker’s conscience, so they did not eat for five + days. On the second day of fasting they were flogged, and then, with + wounds undressed, the men and women together were once more locked in the + dark, close room, to lie upon the bare boards, in the stifling July heat; + for they were not given beds. On the fourth day they were told they might + go if they would pay the jail fees and the constables; but they refused, + and so were kept in prison. On the morrow the jailer, thinking to bring + them to terms, put Brend in irons, neck and heels, and he lay without food + for sixteen hours upon his back lacerated with flogging. + </p> + <p> + The next day the miserable man was ordered to work, but he lacked the + strength, had he been willing, for he was weak from starvation and pain, + and stiffened by the irons. And now the climax came. The jailer seized a + tarred rope and beat him till it broke; then, foaming with fury, he + dragged the old man down stairs, and, with a new rope, gave him + ninety-seven blows, when his strength failed; and Brend, his flesh black + and beaten to jelly, and his bruised skin hanging in bags full of clotted + blood, was thrust into his cell. There, upon the floor of that dark and + fetid den, the victim fainted. But help was at hand; an outcry was raised, + the people could bear no more, the doors were opened, and he was rescued. + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 66.] + </p> + <p> + The indignation was deep, and the government was afraid. Endicott sent his + own doctor, but the surgeon said that Brend’s flesh would “rot from off + his bones,” and he must die. And now the mob grew fierce and demanded + justice on the ruffian who had done this deed, and the magistrates nailed + a paper on the church door promising to bring him to trial. + </p> + <p> + Then it was that the true spirit of his order blazed forth in Norton, for + the jailer was fashioned in his own image, and he threw over him the + mantle of the holy church. He made the magistrates take the paper down, + rebuking them for their faintness of heart, saying to them:— + </p> + <p> + William “Brend endeavoured to beat our gospel ordinances black and blue, + if he then be beaten black and blue, it is but just upon him, and I will + appear in his behalf that did so.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 186.] And the man + was justified, and commanded to whip “the Quakers in prison ... twice a + week, if they refused to work, and the first time to add five stripes to + the former ten, and each time to add three to them.... Which order ye sent + to the jaylor, to strengthen his hands to do yet more cruelly; being + somewhat weakened by the fright of his former doings.” [Footnote: <i>New + England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 67.] + </p> + <p> + After this the Southwicks, being still unable to obtain their freedom, + sent the following letter to the magistrates, which is a good example of + the writings of these “coarse, blustering, ... impudent fanatics:”—[Footnote: + <i>As to Roger Williams</i>, p. 138.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <i>This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem.</i> + </p> + <h3> + FRIENDS, + </h3> + <p> + Whereas it was your pleasures to commit us, whose names are under-written, + to the house of correction in Boston, altho’ the Lord, the righteous Judge + of heaven and earth, is our witness, that we had done nothing worthy of + stripes or of bonds; and we being committed by your court, to be dealt + withal as the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term us; + and having some of us, suffered your law and pleasures, now that which we + do expect, is, that whereas we have suffered your law, so now to be set + free by the same law, as your manner is with strangers, and not to put us + in upon the account of one law, and execute another law upon us, of which, + according to your own manner, we were never convicted as the law + expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of your new law, we should + have expected the jaylor’s order to have been on that account, which that + it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the punishment which + we bare, as four of us were whipp’d, among whom was one that had formerly + been whipp’d, so now also according to your former law. Friends, let it + not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in you lies, + our families to ruine. It’s not unknown to you the season, and the time of + the year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and + families may be exposed unto; and also such as live on trade; we know if + the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you, these things would take + impression on your spirits. What our lives and conversations have been in + that place, is well known; and what we now suffer for, is much for false + reports, and ungrounded jealousies of heresie and sedition. These thing + lie upon us to lay before you. As for our parts, we have true peace and + rest in the Lord in all our sufferings, and are made willing in the power + and strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in this cause of God, + for which we suffer; Yea and we do find (through grace) the enlargements + of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves and + families, for the disposing of us according to his infinite wisdom and + pleasure, in whose love is our rest and life. + </p> + <p> + From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made captives by the + wills of men, although made free by the Son, John 8, 36. In which we + quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th month, 1658. + </p> + <p> + LAWRENCE | CASSANDRA | SOUTHWICK JOSIAH | SAMUEL SHATTOCK JOSHUA BUFFUM. + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 74.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + What the prisoners apprehended was being kept in prison and punished under + an <i>ex post facto</i> law, and this was precisely what was done. When + brought into court they demanded to be told the crime wherewith they were + charged. They were answered: “It was ‘Entertaining the Quakers who were + their enemies; not coming to their meetings; and meeting by themselves.’ + They adjoyned, ‘That as to those things they had already fastned their law + upon them.’ ... So ye had nothing left but the hat, for which (then) ye + had no law. They answered—that they intended no offence to ye in + coming thither ... for it was not their manner to have to do with courts. + And as for withdrawing from their meetings, or keeping on their hats, or + doing anything in contempt of them, or their laws, they said, the Lord was + their witness ... that they did it not. So ye rose up, and bid the jaylor + take them away.” [Footnote: <i>New England Judged,</i> ed. 1703, p. 85.] + </p> + <p> + An acquittal seemed certain; yet it was intolerable to the clergy that + these accursed blasphemers should elude them when they held them in their + grasp; wherefore, the next day, the Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching at + Thursday lecture, thus taught Christ’s love for men: “Suppose ye should + catch six wolves in a trap ... [there were six Salem Quakers] and ye + cannot prove that they killed either sheep or lambs; and now ye have them + they will neither bark nor bite: yet they have the plain marks of wolves. + Now I leave it to your consideration whether ye will let them go alive, + yea or nay.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, pp. 85, 86.] + </p> + <p> + Then the divines had a consultation, “and your priests were put to it, how + to prove them as your law had said: and ye had them before you again, and + your priests were with you, every one by his side (so came ye to your + court) and John Norton must ask them questions, on purpose to ensnare + them, that by your standing law for hereticks, ye might condemn them (as + your priests before consulted) and when this would not do (for the Lord + was with them, and made them wiser than your teachers) ye made a law to + banish them, upon pain of death....” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 87.] + </p> + <p> + After a violent struggle, the ministers, under Norton’s lead, succeeded, + on the 19th of October, 1658, in forcing the capital act through the + legislature, which contained a clause making the denial of reverence to + superiors, or in other words, the wearing the hat, evidence of Quakerism. + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, pp. 100, 101; <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 346.] + </p> + <p> + On that very day the bench ordered the prisoners at Ipswich to be brought + to the bar, and the Southwicks were bidden to depart before the spring + elections. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 349.] They did + not go, and in May were once more in the felon’s dock. They asked what + wrong they had done. The judges told them they were rebellious for not + going as they had been commanded. The old man and woman piteously pleaded + “that they had no otherwhere to go,” nor had they done anything to deserve + banishment or death, though £100 (all they had in the world) had been + taken from them for meeting together. [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, + ed. 1703, p. 106.] + </p> + <p> + “Major-General Dennison replied, that ‘they stood against the authority of + the country, in not submitting to their laws: that he should not go about + to speak much concerning the error of their judgments: but,’ added he, + ‘you and we are not able well to live together, and at present the power + is in our hand, and therefore the stronger must send off.’” [Footnote: + Besse, ii. 198.] + </p> + <p> + The father, mother, and son were banished under pain of death. The aged + couple were sent to Shelter Island, but their misery was well-nigh done; + they perished within a few days of each other, tortured to death by + flogging and starvation. + </p> + <p> + Josiah was shipped to England, but afterward returned, was seized, and in + the “seventh month, 1661, you had him before you, and at which according + to your former law, he should have been tried for his life.” + </p> + <p> + “But the great occasion you took against him, was his hat, which you + commanded him to pull off: ‘He told your governour he could not.’ You + said, ‘He would not.’ He told you, ‘It was a cross to his will to keep it + on; ... and that he could not do it for conscience sake.’ ... But your + governour told him, ‘That he was to have been tryed for his life, but that + you had made your late law to save his life, which, you said, was mercy to + him.’ Then he asked you, ‘Whether you were not as good to take his life + now, as to whip him after your manner, twelve or fourteen times at the + cart’s tail, through your towns, and then put him to death afterward?’” He + was condemned to be flogged through Boston, Roxbury, and Dedham; but he, + when he heard the judgment, “with arms stretched out, and hands spread + before you, said, ‘Here is my body, if you want a further testimony of the + truth I profess, take it and tear it in pieces ... it is freely given up, + and as for your sentence I matter it not.’” [Footnote: <i>New England + Judged</i>, ed. 1703, pp. 354-356.] + </p> + <p> + This coarse, blustering, impudent fanatic had, indeed, “with a dogged + pertinacity” persisted in outrages which “had driven” the authorities + almost to frenzy; “therefore they tied him to a cart and lashed him for + fifteen miles, and while he “sang to the praise of God,” his tormentor + swung with all his might a tremendous two-handed whip, whose knotted + thongs were made of twisted cat-gut; [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, + ed. 1703, p. 357, note.] thence he was carried fifteen miles from any town + into the wilderness.” [Footnote: Besse, ii. 225.] + </p> + <p> + An end had been made of the grown members of the family, but the two + children were still left. To reach them, the device was conceived of + enforcing the penalty for not attending church, since “it was well known + they had no estate, their parents being already brought to poverty by + their rapacious persecutors.” [Footnote: Sewel, p. 223.] + </p> + <p> + Accordingly, they were summoned and asked to account for their absence + from worship. Daniel answered “that if they had not so persecuted his + father and mother perhaps he might have come.” [Footnote: <i>New England + Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 381.] They were fined; and on the day on which + they lost their parents forever, the sale as slaves of this helpless boy + and girl was authorized to satisfy the debt. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 366.] + </p> + <p> + Edmund Batter, treasurer of Salem, brought the children to the town, and + went to a shipmaster who was about to sail, to engage a passage to + Barbadoes. The captain made the excuse that they would corrupt his ship’s + company. “Oh, no,” said Batter, “you need not fear that, for they are poor + harmless creatures, and will not hurt any body.” ... “Will they not so?” + broke out the sailor, “and will ye offer to make slaves of so harmless + creatures?” [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 112.] + </p> + <p> + Thus were free-born English subjects and citizens of Massachusetts dealt + with by the priesthood that ruled the Puritan Commonwealth. + </p> + <p> + None but ecclesiastical partisans can doubt the bearing of such evidence. + It was the mortal struggle between conservatism and liberality, between + repression and free thought. The elders felt it in the marrow of their + bones, and so declared it in their laws, denouncing banishment under pain + of death against those “adhering to or approoving of any knoune Quaker, or + the tenetts & practices of the Quakers, ... manifesting thereby theire + compliance with those whose designe it is to ouerthrow the order + established in church and commonwealth.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. + iv. pt. 1, p. 346.] + </p> + <p> + Dennison spoke with an unerring instinct when he said they could not live + together, for the faith of the Friends was subversive of a theocracy. + Their belief that God revealed himself directly to man led with logical + certainty to the substitution of individual judgment for the rules of + conduct dictated by a sacred class, whether they claimed to derive their + authority from their skill in interpreting the Scriptures, or from + traditions preserved by Apostolic Succession. Each man, therefore, became, + as it were, a priest unto himself, and they repudiated an ordained + ministry. Hence, their crime resembled that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, + who “made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons + of Levi;” [Footnote: Jeroboam’s sin is discussed in <i>Ne Sutor</i>, p. + 25; <i>Divine Right of Infant Baptism</i>, p. 26.] and it was for this + reason that John Norton and John Endicott resolved upon their + extermination, even as Elisha and Jehu conspired to exterminate the house + of Ahab. + </p> + <p> + That they failed was due to no mercy for their victims, nor remorse for + the blood they made to flow, but to their inability to control the people. + Nothing is plainer upon the evidence, than that popular sympathy was never + with the ecclesiastics in their ferocious policy; and nowhere does the + contrast of feeling shine out more clearly than in the story of the + hanging of Robinson and Stevenson. + </p> + <p> + The figure of Norton towers above his contemporaries. He held the + administration in the hollow of his hand, for Endicott was his mouthpiece; + yet even he, backed by the whole power of the clergy, barely succeeded in + forcing through the Chamber of Deputies the statute inflicting death. + </p> + <p> + “The priests and rulers were all for blood, and they pursued it.... This + the deputies withstood, and it could not pass, and the opposition grew + strong, for the thing came near. Deacon Wozel was a man much affected + therewith; and being not well at that time that he supposed the vote might + pass, he earnestly desired the speaker ... to send for him when it was to + be, lest by his absence it might miscarry. The deputies that were against + the ... law, thinking themselves strong enough to cast it out, forbore to + send for him. The vote was put and carried in the affirmative,—the + speaker and eleven being in the negative and thirteen in the affirmative: + so one vote carried it; which troubled Wozel so ... that he got to the + court, ... and wept for grief, ... and said ‘If he had not been able to + go, he would have crept upon his hands and knees, rather than it should + have been.’” [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, pp. 101, + 102.] + </p> + <p> + After the accused had been condemned, the people, being strongly moved, + flocked about the prison, so that the magistrates feared a rescue, and a + guard was set. + </p> + <p> + As the day approached the murmurs grew, and on the morning of the + execution the troops were under arms and the streets patrolled. Stevenson + and Robinson were loosed from their fetters, and Mary Dyer, who also was + to die, walked between them; and so they went bravely hand in hand to the + scaffold. The prisoners were put behind the drums, and their voices + drowned when they tried to speak; for a great multitude was about them, + and at a word, in their deep excitement, would have risen. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + pp. 122, 123.] + </p> + <p> + As the solemn procession moved along, they came to where the Reverend John + Wilson, the Boston pastor, stood with others of the clergy. Then Wilson + “fell a taunting at Robinson, and, shaking his hand in a light, scoffing + manner, said, ‘Shall such Jacks as you come in before authority with your + hats on?’ with many other taunting words.” Then Robinson replied, “Mind + you, mind you, it is for the not putting off the hat we are put to death.” + [Footnote: <i>New England Judged</i>, ed. 1703, p. 124.] + </p> + <p> + When they reached the gallows, Robinson calmly climbed the ladder and + spoke a few words. He told the people they did not suffer as evil-doers, + but as those who manifested the truth. He besought them to mind the light + of Christ within them, of which he testified and was to seal with his + blood. + </p> + <p> + He had said so much when Wilson broke in upon him: “Hold thy tongue, be + silent; thou art going to dye with a lye in thy mouth.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + p. 125.] Then they seized him and bound him, and so he died; and his body + was “cast into a hole of the earth,” where it lay uncovered. + </p> + <p> + Even the voters, the picked retainers of the church, were almost equally + divided, and beyond that narrow circle the tide of sympathy ran strong. + </p> + <p> + The Rev. John Rayner stood laughing with joy to see Mary Tomkins and Alice + Ambrose flogged through Dover, on that bitter winter day; but the men of + Salisbury cut those naked, bleeding women from the cart, and saved them + from their awful death. + </p> + <p> + The Rev. John Norton sneered at the tortures of Brend, and brazenly + defended his tormentor; but the Boston mob succored the victim as lie lay + fainting on the boards of his dark cell. + </p> + <p> + The Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching the word of God, told his hearers to + kill the Southwicks like wolves, since he could not have their blood by + law; but the honest sailor broke out in wrath when asked to traffic in the + flesh of our New England children. + </p> + <p> + The Rev. John Wilson jeered at Robinson on his way to meet his death, and + reviled him as he stood beneath the gibbet, over the hole that was his + grave; but even the savage Endicott knew well that all the trainbands of + the colony could not have guarded Christison to the gallows from the + dungeon where he lay condemned. + </p> + <p> + Yet awful as is this Massachusetts tragedy, it is but a little fragment of + the sternest struggle of the modern world. The power of the priesthood + lies in submission to a creed. In their onslaughts on rebellion they have + exhausted human torments; nor, in their lust for earthly dominion, have + they felt remorse, but rather joy, when slaying Christ’s enemies and their + own. The horrors of the Inquisition, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the + atrocities of Laud, the abominations of the Scotch Kirk, the persecution + of the Quakers, had one object,—the enslavement of the mind. + </p> + <p> + Freedom of thought is the greatest triumph over tyranny that brave men + have ever won; for this they fought the wars of the Reformation; for this + they have left their bones to whiten upon unnumbered fields of battle; for + this they have gone by thousands to the dungeon, the scaffold, and the + stake. We owe to their heroic devotion the most priceless of our + treasures, our perfect liberty of thought and speech; and all who love our + country’s freedom may well reverence the memory of those martyred Quakers + by whose death and agony the battle in New England has been won. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. — THE SCIRE FACIAS. + </h2> + <p> + Had the Puritan Commonwealth been in reality the thing which its + historians have described; had it been a society guided by men devoted to + civil liberty, and as liberal in religion as was consistent with the + temper of their age, the early relations of Massachusetts toward Great + Britain might now be a pleasanter study for her children. Cordiality + toward Charles I. would indeed have been impossible, for the Puritans well + knew the fate in store for them should the court triumph. Gorges was the + representative of the despotic policy toward America, and so early as + 1634, probably at his instigation, Laud became the head of a commission, + with absolute control over the plantations, while the next year a writ of + <i>quo warranto</i> was brought against the patent. [Footnote: See + introduction to <i>New Canaan</i>, Prince Soc. ed.] With Naseby, however, + these dangers vanished, and thenceforward there would have been nothing to + mar an affectionate confidence in both Parliament and the Protector. + </p> + <p> + In fact, however, Massachusetts was a petty state, too feeble for + independence, yet ruled by an autocratic priesthood whose power rested + upon legislation antagonistic to English law; therefore the ecclesiastics + were jealous of Parliament, and had little love for Cromwell, whom they + found wanting in “a thorough testimony against the blasphemers of our + days.” [Footnote: Diary of Hull, Palfrey, ii. 400, 401, and note.] + </p> + <p> + The result was that the elders clung obstinately to every privilege which + served their ends, and repudiated every obligation which conflicted with + their ambition. Clerical political morality seldom fails to be + instructive, and the following example is typical of that peculiar mode of + reasoning. The terms of admission to ordinary corporations were fixed by + each organization for itself, but in case of injustice the courts could + give relief by setting aside unreasonable ordinances, and sometimes + Parliament itself would interfere, as it did upon the petition against the + exactions of the Merchant Adventurers. Now there was nothing upon which + the theocracy more strongly insisted than that “our charter doeth expresly + give vs an absolute & free choyce of our oune members;” [Footnote: <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> v. 287.] because by means of a religious test the ministers could + pack the constituencies with their tools; but on the other hand they as + strenuously argued “that no appeals or other ways of interrupting our + proceedings do lie against us,” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 283.] because + they well knew that any bench of judges before whom such questions might + come would annul the most vital of their statutes as repugnant to the + British Constitution. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately for these churchmen, their objects, as ecclesiastical + politicians, could seldom be reconciled with their duty as English + subjects. At the outset, though made a corporation within the realm, they + felt constrained to organize in America to escape judicial supervision. + They were then obliged to incorporate towns and counties, to form a + representative assembly, and to levy general taxes and duties, none of + which things they had power to do. Still, such irregularities as these, + had they been all, most English statesmen would have overlooked as + unavoidable. But when it came to adopting a criminal code based on the + Pentateuch, and, in support of a dissenting form of worship, fining and + imprisoning, whipping, mutilating, and hanging English subjects without + the sanction of English law; when, finally, the Episcopal Church itself + was suppressed, and peaceful subjects were excluded from the corporation + for no reason but because they partook of her communion, and were + forbidden to seek redress by appealing to the courts of their king, it + seems impossible that any self-respecting government could have long been + passive. + </p> + <p> + At the Restoration Massachusetts had grown arrogant from long impunity. + She thought the time of reckoning would never come, and even in trivial + matters seemed to take a pride in slighting Great Britain and in vaunting + her independence. Laws were enacted in the name of the Commonwealth, the + king’s name was not in the writs, nor were the royal arms upon the public + buildings; even the oath of allegiance was rejected, though it was + unobjectionable in form. She had grown to believe that were offence taken + she had only to invent pretexts for delay, to have her fault forgotten in + some new revolution. General Denison, at the Quaker trials, put the + popular belief in a nut-shell: “This year ye will go to complain to the + Parliament, and the next year they will send to see how it is; and the + third year the government is changed.” [Footnote: Sewel, p. 280.] + </p> + <p> + But, beside these irritating domestic questions, the corporation was + bitterly embroiled with its neighbors. Samuel Gorton and his friends were + inhabitants of Rhode Island, and were, no doubt, troublesome to deal with; + but their particular offence was ecclesiastical. An armed force was sent + over the border and they were seized. They were brought to Boston and + tried on the charge of being “blasphemous enemies of the true religion of + our Lord Jesus Christ, and of all his holy ordinances, and likewise of all + civil government among his people, and particularly within this + jurisdiction.” [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 146.] All the magistrates but + three thought that Gorton ought to die, but he was finally sentenced to an + imprisonment of barbarous cruelty. The invasion of Rhode Island was a + violation of an independent jurisdiction, the arrest was illegal, the + sentence an arbitrary outrage. [Footnote: See paper of Mr. Charles Deane, + <i>New Eng. Historical and Genealogical Register</i>, vol. iv.] + </p> + <p> + Massachusetts was also at feud in the north, and none of her quarrels + brought more serious results than this with the proprietors of New + Hampshire and Maine. The grant in the charter was of all lands between the + Charles and Merrimack, and also all lands within the space of three miles + to the northward of the said Merrimack, or to the northward of any part + thereof, and all lands lying within the limits aforesaid from the Atlantic + to the South Sea. + </p> + <p> + Clearly the intention was to give a margin of three miles beyond a river + which was then supposed to flow from west to east, and accordingly the + territory to the north, being unoccupied, was granted to Mason and Gorges. + Nor was this construction questioned before 1639—the General Court + having at an early day measured off the three miles and marked the + boundary by what was called the Bound House. + </p> + <p> + Gradually, however, as it became known that the Merrimack rose to the + north, larger claims were made. In 1641 the four New Hampshire towns were + absorbed with the consent of their inhabitants, who thus gained a regular + government; another happy consequence was the settlement of sundry eminent + divines, by whose ministrations the people “were very much civilized and + reformed.” [Footnote: Neal’s New England, i. 210.] + </p> + <p> + In 1652 a survey was made of the whole river, and 43° 40’ 12” was fixed as + the latitude of its source. A line extended east from three miles north of + this point came out near Portland, and the intervening space was forthwith + annexed. The result of such a policy was that Charles had hardly been + crowned before complaints poured in from every side. Quakers, Baptists, + Episcopalians, all who had suffered persecution, flocked to the foot of + the throne; and beside these came those who had been injured in their + estates, foremost of whom were the heirs of Mason and Gorges. The pressure + was so great and the outcry so loud that, in September, 1660, it was + thought in London a governor-general would be sent to Boston; [Footnote: + Leverett to Endicott. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 40.] and, in point + of fact, almost the first communication between the king and his colony + was his order to spare the Quakers. + </p> + <p> + The outlook was gloomy, and there was hesitation as to the course to + pursue. At length it was decided to send Norton and Bradstreet to England + to present an address and protect the public interests. The mission was + not agreeable; Norton especially was reluctant, and with reason, for he + had been foremost in the Quaker persecutions, and was probably aware that + in the eye of English law the executions were homicide. + </p> + <p> + However, after long vacillation, “the Lord so encouraged and strengthened” + his heart that he ventured to sail. [Footnote: Feb. 11, 1661-2. Palfrey, + ii. 524.] So far as the crown was concerned apprehension was needless, for + Lord Clarendon was prime minister, whose policy toward New England was + throughout wise and moderate, and the agents were well received. Still + they were restless in London, and Sewel tells an anecdote which may partly + account for their impatience to be gone. + </p> + <p> + “Now the deputies of New England came to London, and endeavored to clear + themselves as much as possible, but especially priest Norton, who bowed no + less reverently before the archbishop, than before the king.... + </p> + <p> + “They would fain have altogether excused themselves; and priest Norton + thought it sufficient to say that he did not assist in the bloody trial, + nor had advised to it. But John Copeland, whose ear was cut off at Boston, + charged the contrary upon him: and G. Fox, the elder, got occasion to + speak with them in the presence of some of his friends, and asked Simon + Broadstreet, one of the New England magistrates, ‘whether he had not a + hand in putting to death those they nicknamed Quakers?’ He not being able + to deny this confessed he had. Then G. Fox asked him and his associates + that were present, ‘whether they would acknowledge themselves to be + subjects to the laws of England? and if they did by what law they had put + his friends to death?’ They answered, ‘They were subjects to the laws of + England; and they had put his friends to death by the same law, as the + Jesuits were put to death in England.’ Hereupon G. Fox asked, ‘whether + they did believe that those his friends, whom they had put to death, were + Jesuits, or jesuitically affected?’ They said ‘Nay.’ ‘Then,’ replied G. + Fox, ‘ye have murdered them; for since ye put them to death by the law + that Jesuits are put to death here in England, it plainly appears, you + have put them to death arbitrarily, without any law.’ Thus Broadstreet, + finding himself and his company ensnar’d by their own words, ask’d, ‘Are + you come to catch us?’ But he told them ‘They had catch’d themselves, and + they might justly be questioned for their lives; and if the father of + William Robinson (one of those that were put to death) were in town, it + was probable he would question them, and bring their lives into jeopardy. + For he not being of the Quakers persuasion, would perhaps not have so much + regard to the point of forbearance, as they had.’ Broadstreet seeing + himself thus in danger began to flinch and to sculk; for some of the old + royalists were earnest with the Quakers to prosecute the New England + persecutors. But G. Fox and his friends said, ‘They left them to the Lord, + to whom vengeance belonged, and he would repay it.’ Broadstreet however, + not thinking it safe to stay in England, left the city, and with his + companions went back again to New England.” [Footnote: Sewel, p. 288.] + </p> + <p> + The following June the agents were given the king’s answer [Footnote: + 1662, June 28.] to their address and then sailed for home. It is certainly + a most creditable state paper. The people of Massachusetts were thanked + for their good will, they were promised oblivion for the past, and were + assured that they should have their charter confirmed to them and be safe + in all their privileges and liberties, provided they would make certain + reforms in their government. They were required to repeal such statutes as + were contrary to the laws of England, to take the oath of allegiance, and + to administer justice in the king’s name. And then followed two + propositions that were crucial: “And since the principle and foundation of + that charter was and is the freedom of liberty of conscience, wee do + hereby charge and require you that that freedom and liberty be duely + admitted,” especially in favor of those “that desire to use the Book of + Common Prayer.” And secondly, “that all the freeholders of competent + estates, not vicious in conversations, orthodox in religion (though of + different perswasions concerning church government) may have their vote in + the election of all officers civill or millitary.” [Footnote: Hutch. + Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 101-103.] + </p> + <p> + However judicious these reforms may have been, or howsoever strictly they + conformed with the spirit of English law, was immaterial. They struck at + the root of the secular power of the clergy, and they roused deep + indignation. The agents had braved no little danger, and had shown no + little skill in behalf of the commonwealth; and the fate of John Norton + enables us to realize the rancor of theological feeling. The successor of + Cotton, by general consent the leading minister, in some respects the most + eminent man in Massachusetts, he had undertaken a difficult mission + against his will, in which he had acquitted himself well; yet on his + return he was so treated by his brethren and friends that he died in the + spring of a broken heart. [Footnote: April 5, 1663.] + </p> + <p> + The General Court took no notice of the king’s demands except to order the + writs to run in the royal name. [Footnote: Oct. 8, 1662. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> + vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 58.] And it is a sign of the boldness, or else of the + indiscretion, of those in power, that this crisis was chosen for striking + a new coin, [Footnote: 1662, May 7.]—an act confessedly illegal and + certain to give offence in England, both as an assumption of sovereignty + and an interference with the currency. + </p> + <p> + From the first Lord Clarendon paid some attention to colonial affairs, and + he appears to have been much dissatisfied with the condition in which he + found them. At length, in 1664, he decided to send a commission to New + England to act upon the spot. + </p> + <p> + Great pressure must have been brought by some who had suffered, for Samuel + Maverick, the Episcopalian, who had been fined and imprisoned in 1646 for + petitioning with Childe, was made a member. Colonel Richard Nichols, the + head of the board, was a man of ability and judgment; the choice of Sir + Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwright was less judicious. + </p> + <p> + The commissioners were given a public and private set of instructions, + [Footnote: Public Instructions, Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 459.] and both were + admirable. They were to examine the condition of the country and its laws, + and, if possible, to make some arrangement by which the crown might have a + negative at least upon the choice of the governor; they were to urge the + reforms already demanded by the king, especially a larger toleration, for + “they doe in truth deny that liberty of conscience to each other, which is + equally provided for and granted to every one of them by their charter.” + [Footnote: Private Instructions <i>O’Callaghan Documents</i>, iii. 58.] + They were directed to be conciliatory toward the people, and under no + circumstances to meddle with public worship, nor were they to press for + any sudden enforcement of the revenue acts. On one point alone they were + to insist: they were instructed to sit to hear appeals in causes in which + the parties alleged they had been wronged by colonial decisions. + </p> + <p> + Unquestionably the chancellor was right in principle. The only way whereby + such powerful corporations as the trade-guilds or the East India Company + could be kept from acts of oppression was through the appellate + jurisdiction, by which means their enactments could be brought before the + courts, and those annulled which in the opinion of the judges transcended + the charters. The Company of Massachusetts Bay was a corporation having + jurisdiction over many thousand English subjects, only a minority of whom + were freemen and voters. So long, therefore, as she remained within the + empire, the crown was bound to see that the privileges of the English + Constitution were not denied within her territory. Yet, though this is + true, it is equally certain that the erection of a commission of appeal + without an act of Parliament was irregular. The stretch of prerogative, + nevertheless, cannot be considered oppressive when it is remembered that + Massachusetts was a corporation which had escaped from the realm to avoid + judicial process, and which refused to appear and plead; hence Lord + Clarendon had but this alternative: he could send judges to sit upon the + spot, or he could proceed against the charter in London. The course he + chose may have been illegal, but it was the milder of the two. + </p> + <p> + The commissioners landed on July 23, 1664, but they did not stay in + Boston. Their first business was to subdue the Dutch at New York, and they + soon left to make the attack. The General Court now recurred, for the + first time, to the dispatch which their agents had brought home, and + proceeded to amend the law relating to the franchise. They extended the + qualification by enacting that Englishmen who presented a certificate + under the hands of the minister of the town that they were orthodox in + religion and not vicious in life, and who paid, beside, 10s. at a single + rate, might become freemen, as well as those who were church-members. + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 117.] The effect of such a + change could hardly have been toward liberality, rather, probably, toward + concentration of power in the church. However slight, there was some + popular control over the rejection of an applicant to join a congregation; + but giving a certificate was an act that must have depended on the + pastor’s will alone. + </p> + <p> + The court then drew up an address to the king: “If your poore subjects, + ... doe... prostrate themselues at your royal feete, & begg yor favor, + wee hope it will be graciously accepted by your majestje, and that as the + high place you sustejne on earth doeth number you here among the gods, + [priests can cringe as well as torture] so you will jmitate the God of + heaven, in being ready... to receive their crjes...,” [Footnote: <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 129.] And he was implored to reflect on the + affliction of heart it was to them, that their sins had provoked God to + permit their adversaries to procure a commission, under the great seal, to + four persons to hear appeals. When this address reached London it caused + surprise. The chancellor was annoyed. He wrote to America, pointing out + that His Majesty would hardly think himself well used at complaints before + a beginning had been made, and a demand that his commission should be + revoked before his commissioners had been able to deliver their + instructions. “I know,” he said, “they are expressly inhibited from + intermedling with, or instructing the administration of justice, according + to the formes observed there; but if in truth, in any extraordinary case, + the proceedings there have been irregular, and against the rules of + justice, as some particular cases, particularly recommended to them by His + Majesty, seeme to be, it cannot be presumed that His Majesty hath or will + leave his subjects of New England, without hope of redresse by an appeale + to him, which his subjects of all his other kingdomes have free liberty to + make.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 465.] + </p> + <p> + The campaign against New York was short and successful, and the + commissioners were soon at leisure. As they had reason to believe that + Massachusetts would prove stubborn, they judged it wiser to begin with the + more tractable colonies first. They therefore went to Plymouth, [Footnote: + Feb. 1664-5.] and, on their arrival, according to their instructions, + submitted the four following propositions:— + </p> + <p> + First. That all householders should take the oath of allegiance, and that + justice should be administered in the king’s name. + </p> + <p> + Second. That all men of competent estates and civil conversation, though + of different judgments, might be admitted to be freemen, and have liberty + to choose and be chosen officers, both civil and military. + </p> + <p> + Third. That all men and women of orthodox opinions, competent knowledge, + and civil lives not scandalous, should be admitted to the Lord’s Supper + [and have baptism for their children, either in existing churches or their + own]. + </p> + <p> + Fourth. That all laws ... derogatory to his majesty should be repealed. + [Footnote: Palfrey, ii. 601.] + </p> + <p> + Substantially the same proposals were made subsequently in Rhode Island + and Connecticut. They were accepted without a murmur. A few appeal cases + were heard, and the work was done. + </p> + <p> + The commissioners reported their entire satisfaction to the government, + the colonies sent loyal addresses, and Charles returned affectionate + answers. + </p> + <p> + Massachusetts alone remained to be dealt with, but her temper was in + striking contrast to that of the rest of New England. The reason is + obvious. Nowhere else was there a fusion of church and state. The people + had, therefore, no oppressive statutes to uphold, nor anything to conceal. + Provided the liberty of English subjects was secured to them they were + content to obey the English Constitution. On the other hand, Massachusetts + was a theocracy, the power of whose priesthood rested on enactments + contrary to British institutions, and which, therefore, would have been + annulled upon appeal. Hence the clerical party were wild with fear and + rage, and nerved themselves to desperate resistance. + </p> + <p> + “But alasse, sir, the commission impowering those commisioners to heare + and determine all cases whatever, ... should it take place, what would + become of our civill government which hath binn, under God, the heade of + that libertie for our consciences for which the first adventurers ... bore + all ... discouragements that encountered them ... in this wildernes.” + Rather than submit, they protested they had “sooner leave our place and + all our pleasant outward injoyments.” [Footnote: Court to Boyle. <i>Hutch. + Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 113.] + </p> + <p> + Under such conditions a direct issue was soon reached. The General Court, + in answer to the commissioners’ proposals, maintained that the observance + of their charter was inconsistent with appeals; that they had already + provided an oath of allegiance; that they had conformed to his majesty’s + requirements in regard to the franchise; and lastly, in relation to + toleration, there was no equivocation. “Concerning the vse of the Common + Prayer Booke”... we had not become “voluntary exiles from our deare native + country, ... could wee haue seene the word of God, warranting us to + performe our devotions in that way, & to haue the same set vp here; + wee conceive it is apparent that it will disturbe our peace in our present + enjoyments.” [Footnote: 1665. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. 2, p.200] + </p> + <p> + Argument was useless. The so-called oath of allegiance was not that + required by Parliament; the alteration in the franchise was a sham; while + the two most important points, appeals to England and toleration in + religion, were rejected. The commissioners, therefore, asked for a direct + answer to this question: “Whither doe yow acknowledge his majestjes + comission ... to be of full force?” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. + pt. 2, p.204] They were met by evasion. On the 23d of May they gave notice + that they should sit the next morning to hear the case of Thos. Deane et + al. vs. The Gov. & Co. of Mass. Bay, a revenue appeal. Forthwith the + General Court proclaimed by trumpet that the hearing would not be + permitted. + </p> + <p> + Coercion was impossible, as no troops were at hand. The commissioners + accordingly withdrew and went to Maine, which they proceeded to sever from + Massachusetts. [Footnote: June, 1665] In this they followed the king’s + instructions, who himself acted upon the advice of the law officers of the + crown, who had given an opinion sustaining the claim of Gorges. [Footnote: + Charles II.‘s letter to Inhabitants of Maine. <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince + Soc. ed. ii. 110; Palf. ii. 622.] + </p> + <p> + The triumph was complete. All that the English government was then able to + do was to recall the commissioners, direct that agents should be sent to + London at once, and forbid interference with Maine. No notice was taken of + the order to send agents; and in 1668 possession was again taken of the + province, and the courts of the company once more sat in the county of + York. [Footnote: July, 1668. Report of Com. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> vol. iv. pt. + 2, p. 401.] + </p> + <p> + This was the culmination of the Puritan Commonwealth. The clergy were + exultant, and the Rev. Mr. Davenport of New Haven wrote in delight to + Leverett:— + </p> + <p> + “Their claiming power to sit authoritatively as a court for appeales, and + that to be managed in an arbitrary way, was a manifest laying of a + groundworke to undermine your whole government established by your + charter. If you had consented thereunto, you had plucked downe with your + owne hands that house which wisdom had built for you and your + posterity.... As for the solemnity of publishing it, in three places, by + sounding a trumpet, I believe you did it upon good advice, ... for + declaring the courage and resolution of the whole countrey to defend their + charter liberties and priviledges, and not to yeeld up theire right + voluntarily, so long as they can hold it, in dependence upon God in + Christ, whose interest is in it, for his protection and blessing, who will + be with you while you are with him.” [Footnote: Davenport to Leverett. <i>Hutch. + Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 119.] + </p> + <p> + Although the colonists were alarmed at their own success, there was + nothing to fear. At no time before or since could England have been so + safely defied. In 1664 war was begun against Holland; 1665 was the year of + the plague; 1666 of the fire. In June, 1667, the Dutch, having dispersed + the British fleets, sailed up the Medway, and their guns were heard in + London. Peace became necessary, and in August Clarendon was dismissed from + office. The discord between the crown and Parliament paralyzed the nation, + and the wastefulness of Charles kept him always poor. By the treaty of + Dover in 1670 he became a pensioner of Louis XIV. The Cabal followed, + probably the worst ministry England ever saw; and in 1672, at Clifford’s + suggestion, the exchequer was closed and the debt repudiated to provide + funds for the second Dutch war. In March fighting began, and the + tremendous battles with De Ruyter kept the navy in the Channel. At length, + in 1673, the Cabal fell, and Danby became prime minister. + </p> + <p> + Although during these years of disaster and disgrace Massachusetts was not + molested by Great Britain, they were not all years during which the + theocracy could tranquilly enjoy its victory. + </p> + <p> + So early as 1671 the movements of the Indians began to give anxiety; and + in 1675 Philip’s War broke out, which brought the colony to the brink of + ruin, and in which the clergy saw the judgment of God against the + Commonwealth, for tenderness toward the Quakers. [Footnote: <i>Reforming + Synod, Magnalia</i>, bk. 5, pt. 4.] + </p> + <p> + With the rise of Danby a more regular administration opened, and, as + usual, the attention of the government was fixed upon Massachusetts by the + clamors of those who demanded redress for injuries alleged to have been + received at her hands. In 1674 the heirs of Mason and Gorges, in despair + at the reoccupation of Maine, proposed to surrender their claim to the + king, reserving one third of the product of the customs for themselves. + The London merchants also had become restive under the systematic + violation of the Navigation Acts. The breach in the revenue laws had, + indeed, been long a subject of complaint, and the commissioners had + received instructions relating thereto; but it was not till this year that + these questions became serious. + </p> + <p> + The first statute had been passed by the Long Parliament, but the one that + most concerned the colonies was not enacted till 1663. The object was not + only to protect English shipping, but to give her the entire trade of her + dependencies. To that end it was made illegal to import European produce + into any plantation except through England; and, conversely, colonial + goods could only be exported by being landed in England. + </p> + <p> + The theory upon which this legislation was based is exploded; enforced, it + would have crippled commerce; but it was then, and always had been, a dead + letter at Boston. New England was fast getting its share of the carrying + trade. London merchants already began to feel the competition of its cheap + and untaxed ships, and manufacturers to complain that they were undersold + in the American market, by goods brought direct from the Continental + ports. A petition, therefore, was presented to the king, to carry the law + into effect. No colonial office then existed; the affairs of the + dependencies were assigned to a committee of the Privy Council, called the + Lords of Committee of Trade and Plantations; and on these questions being + referred by them to the proper officers, the commissioners of customs + sustained the merchants; the attorney-general, the heirs of Mason and + Gorges. [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 281; Chalmers’s <i>Political Annals of + the United Colonies</i>, p. 262.] The famous Edward Randolph now appears. + The government was still too deeply embarrassed to act with energy. A + temporizing policy was therefore adopted; and as the experiment of a + commission had failed, Randolph was chosen as a messenger to carry the + petitions and opinions to Massachusetts; together with a letter from the + king, directing that agents should be sent in answer thereto. After + delivering them, he was ordered to devote himself to preparing a report + upon the country. He reached Boston June 10, 1676. Although it was a time + of terrible suffering from the ravages of the Indian war, the temper of + the magistrates was harsher than ever. + </p> + <p> + The repulse of the commissioners had convinced them that Charles was not + only lazy and ignorant, but too poor to use force; and they also believed + him to be so embroiled with Parliament as to make his overthrow probable. + Filled with such feelings, their reception of Randolph was almost brutal. + John Leverett was governor, who seems to have taken pains to mark his + contempt in every way in his power. Randolph was an able, but an + unscrupulous man, and probably it would not have been difficult to have + secured his good-will. Far however from bribing, or even flattering him, + they so treated him as to make him the bitterest enemy the Puritan + Commonwealth ever knew. + </p> + <p> + Being admitted into the council chamber, he delivered the letter. + [Footnote: Randolph’s Narrative. <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. + 240.] The governor opened it, glanced at the signature, and, pretending + never to have heard of Henry Coventry, asked who he might be. He was told + he was his majesty’s principal secretary of state. He then read it aloud + to the magistrates. Even the fierce Endicott, when he received the famous + “missive” from the Quaker Shattock, “laid off his hat ... [when] he look’d + upon the papers,” [Footnote: Sewel, p. 282.] as a mark of respect to his + king; but Leverett and his council remained covered. Then the governor + said “that the matters therein contained were very inconsiderable things + and easily answered, and it did no way concern that government to take any + notice thereof;” and so Randolph was dismissed. Five days after he was + again sent for, and asked whether he “intended for London by that ship + that was ready to saile?” If so, he could have a duplicate of the answer + to the king, as the original was to go by other hands. He replied that he + had other business in charge, and inquired whether they had well + considered the petitions, and fixed upon their agents so soon. Leverett + did not deign to answer, but told him “he looked upon me as Mr. Mason’s + agent, and that I might withdraw.” The next day he saw the governor at his + own house, who took occasion, when Randolph referred to the Navigation + Acts, to expound the legal views of the theocracy. “He freely declared to + me that the lawes made by your majestie and your Parliament obligeth them + in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony, that the + legislative power is and abides in them solely ... and that all matters in + difference are to be concluded by their finall determination, without any + appeal to your majestie, and that your majestie ought not to retrench + their liberties, but may enlarge them.” [Footnote: Randolph’s Narrative. + <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 243.] One last interview took + place when Randolph went for dispatches for England, after his return from + New Hampshire; then he “was entertained by” Leverett “with a sharp reproof + for publishing the substance of my errand into those parts, contained in + your majestie’s letters, ... telling me that I designed to make a + mutiny.... I told him, if I had done anything amisse, upon complaint made + to your majestie he would certainly have justice done him.”... + </p> + <p> + “At my departure ... he ... intreated me to give a favourable report of + the country and the magistrates thereof, adding that those that blessed + them God would blesse, and those that cursed them God would curse.” And + that “they were a people truely fearing the Lord and very obedient to your + majestie.” [Footnote: <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 248.] And + so the royal messenger was dismissed in wrath, to tell his story to the + king. + </p> + <p> + The legislature met in August, 1676, and a decision had to be made + concerning agents. On the whole, the clergy concluded it would be wiser to + obey the crown, “provided they be, with vtmost care & caution, + qualified as to their instructions.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 99.] + Accordingly, after a short adjournment, the General Court chose William + Stoughton and Peter Bulkely; and having strictly limited their power to a + settlement of the territorial controversy, they sent them on their + mission. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 114.] + </p> + <p> + Almost invariably public affairs were seen by the envoys of the Company in + a different light from that in which they were viewed by the clerical + party at home, and these particularly had not been long in London before + they became profoundly alarmed. There was, indeed, reason for grave + apprehension. The selfish and cruel policy of the theocracy had borne its + natural fruit: without an ally in the world, Massachusetts was beset by + enemies. Quakers, Baptists, and Episcopalians whom she had persecuted and + exiled; the heirs of Mason and Gorges, whom she had wronged; Andros, whom + she had maligned; [Footnote: He had been accused of countenancing aid to + Philip when governor of New York. O’Callaghan Documents, iii. 258.] and + Randolph, whom she had insulted, wrought against her with a government + whose sovereign she had offended and whose laws she had defied. Even her + English friends had been much alienated. [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 278, + 279.] + </p> + <p> + The controversy concerning the boundary was referred to the two chief + justices, who promptly decided against the Company; [Footnote: See + Opinion; Chalmers’s <i>Annals</i>, p. 504.] and the easy acquiescence of + the General Court must raise a doubt as to their faith in the soundness of + their claims. And now again the fatality which seemed to pursue the + theocracy in all its dealings with England led it to give fresh + provocation to the king by secretly buying the title of Gorges for twelve + hundred and fifty pounds. [Footnote: May, 1677. Chalmers’s <i>Annals</i>, + pp. 396, 397. See notes, Palfrey, iii. 312.] + </p> + <p> + Charles had intended to settle Maine on the Duke of Monmouth. It was a + worthless possession, whose revenue never paid for its defence; yet so + stubborn was the colony that it made haste to anticipate the crown and + thus become “Lord Proprietary” of a burdensome province at the cost of a + slight which was never forgiven. Almost immediately the Privy Council had + begun to open other matters, such as coining and illicit trade; and the + attorney-general drew up a list of statutes which, in his opinion, were + contrary to the laws of England. The agents protested that they were + limited by their instructions, but were sharply told that his majesty did + not think of treating with his own subjects as with foreigners, and it + would be well to intimate the same to their principals. [Footnote: + Palfrey, iii. 309.] In December, 1677, Stoughton wrote in great alarm that + something must be done concerning the Navigation Acts or a breach would be + inevitable. [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 288.] And the General Court + saw reason in this emergency to increase the tension by reviving the + obnoxious oath of fidelity to the country, [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. + 154.]—the substitute for the oath of allegiance,—and thus gave + Randolph a new and potent weapon. In the spring [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. + 316, 317; Chalmers’s <i>Annals</i>, p. 439.] the law officers gave an + opinion that the misdemeanors alleged against Massachusetts were + sufficient to avoid her patent; and the Privy Council, in view of the + encroachments and injuries which she had continually practised on her + neighbors, and her contempt of his majesty’s commands, advised that a <i>quo + warranto</i> should be brought against the charter. Randolph was appointed + collector at Boston. [Footnote: 1678, May 31.] + </p> + <p> + Even Leverett now saw that some concessions must be made, and the General + Court ordered the oath of allegiance to be taken; nothing but perversity + seems to have caused the long delay. [Footnote: Oct. 2, 1678. <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> v. 193. See Palfrey, iii. 320, note 2.] The royal arms were also + carved in the court-house; and this was all, for the clergy were + determined upon those matters touching their authority. The agents were + told, “that which is farr more considerable then all these is the interest + of the Lord Jesus & of his churches ... which ought to be farr dearer + to us than our liues; and ... wee would not that by any concessions of + ours, or of yours... the least stone should be put out of the wall.” + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 202.] + </p> + <p> + Both agents and magistrates were, nevertheless, thoroughly frightened, and + being determined not to yield, in fact, they resorted to a policy of + misrepresentation, with the hope of deceiving the English government. + [Footnote: See Answers of Agents, Chalmers’s <i>Annals</i>, p. 450.] + Stoughton and Bulkely had already assured the Lords of Committee that the + “rest of the inhabitants were very inconsiderable as to number, compared + with those that were acknowledged church-members.” [Footnote: Palfrey, + iii. 318.] They were in fact probably as five to one. The General Court + had been censured for using the word Commonwealth in official documents, + as intimating independence. They hastened to assure the crown that it had + not of late been used, and should not be thereafter; [Footnote: <i>Mass. + Rec.</i> v. 198. And see, in general, the official correspondence, pp. + 197-203.] yet in November, 1675, commissions were thus issued. [Footnote: + Palfrey, iii. 322.] But the breaking out of the Popish plot began to + absorb the whole attention of the government at London; and the agents, + after receiving a last rebuke for the presumption of the colony in buying + Maine, were at length allowed to depart. [Footnote: Nov. 1679.] + </p> + <p> + Nearly half a century had elapsed since the emigration, and with the + growth of wealth and population changes had come. In March, John Leverett, + who had long been the head of the high-church party, died, and the + election of Simon Bradstreet as his successor was a triumph for the + opposition. Great as the clerical influence still was, it had lost much of + its old despotic power, and the congregations were no longer united in + support of the policy of their pastors. This policy was singularly + desperate. Casting aside all but ecclesiastical considerations, the clergy + consistently rejected any compromise with the crown which threatened to + touch the church. Almost from the first they had recognized that + substantial independence was necessary in order to maintain the theocracy. + Had the colony been strong, they would doubtless have renounced their + allegiance; but its weakness was such that, without the protection of + England, it would have been seized by France. Hence they resorted to + expedients which could only end in disaster, for it was impossible for + Massachusetts, while part of the British Empire, to refuse obedience at + her pleasure to laws which other colonies cheerfully obeyed. + </p> + <p> + Without an ally, no resistance could be made to England, when at length + her sovereignty should be asserted; and an armed occupation and military + government were inevitable upon a breach. + </p> + <p> + Though such considerations are little apt to induce a priesthood to + surrender their temporal power, they usually control commercial + communities. Accordingly, Boston and the larger towns favored concession, + while the country was the ministers’ stronghold. The result of this + divergence of opinion was that the moderate party, to which Bradstreet and + Dudley belonged, predominated in the Board of Assistants, while the + deputies remained immovable. The branches of the legislature thus became + opposed; no course of action could be agreed on, and the theocracy drifted + to its destruction. + </p> + <p> + The duplicity characteristic of theological politics grew daily more + marked. In May, 1679, a law had been passed forbidding the building of + churches without leave from the freemen of the town or the General Court. + [Footnote: Mass. Rec. v. 213.] On the 11th of June, 1680, three persons + representing the society of Baptists were summoned before the legislature, + charged with the crime of erecting a meeting-house. They were admonished + and forbidden to meet for worship except with the established + congregations; and their church was closed. [Footnote: Mass. Rec. v. 271.] + That very day an address was voted to the king, one passage of which is as + follows: “Concerning liberty of conscience, ... that after all, a + multitude of notorious errors ... be openly broached, ... amongst us, as + by the Quakers, &c., wee presume his majesty doeth not intend; and as + for other Prottestant dissenters, that carry it peaceably & soberly, + wee trust there shallbe no cause of just complaint against us on their + behalfe.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 287.] + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Randolph had renewed his attack. He declared that in spite of + promises and excuses the revenue laws were not enforced; that his men were + beaten, and that he hourly expected to be thrown into prison; whereas in + other colonies, he asserted, he was treated with great respect. [Footnote: + June, 1680. Palfrey, iii. 340.] There can be no doubt ingenuity was used + to devise means of annoyance, and certainly the life he was made to lead + was hard. In March [Footnote: March 15, 1680-1.] he sailed for home, and + while in London he made a series of reports to the government which seem + to have produced the conviction that the moment for action had come. In + December he returned, commissioned as deputy-surveyor and auditor-general + for all New England, except New Hampshire. When Stoughton and Bulkely were + dismissed, the colony had been commanded to send new agents within six + months. In September, 1680, another royal letter had been written, in + which the king dwelt upon the misconduct of his subjects, “when ... we + signified unto you our gracious inclination to have all past deeds + forgotten... wee then little thought that those markes of our grace and + favour should have found no better acceptance amoung you.... We doe + therefore by these our letters, strictly command and require you, as you + tender your allegiance unto us, and will deserve the effects of our grace + and favour (which wee are enclyned to afford you) seriously to reflect + upon our commands; ... and particularly wee doe hereby command you to send + over, within three months after the receipt hereof, such... persons as you + shall think fitt to choose, and that you give them sufficient instructions + to attend the regulation and settlement of that our government.” + [Footnote: Sept. 30. <i>Hutch. Coll. </i>, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 261.] + </p> + <p> + The General Court had not thought fit to regard these communications, and + now Randolph came charged with a long and stern dispatch, in which agents + were demanded forthwith, “in default whereof, we are fully resolved, in + Trinity Term next ensuing, to direct our attorney-general to bring a quo + warranto in our court of kings-bench, whereby our charter granted unto + you, with all the powers thereof, may be legally evicted and made void; + and so we bid you farewel.” [Footnote: Chalmers’s <i>Annals</i>, p. 449.] + </p> + <p> + Hitherto the clerical party had procrastinated, buoyed up by the hope that + in the fierce struggle with the commons Charles might be overthrown; but + this dream ended with the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, and + further inaction became impossible. Joseph Dudley and John Richards were + chosen agents, and provided with instructions bearing the peculiar tinge + of ecclesiastical statesmanship. + </p> + <p> + They were directed to represent that appeals would be intolerable; and, + for their private guidance, the legislature used these words: “We + therefore doe not vnderstand by the regulation of the gouernment, that any + alteration of the patent is intended; yow shall therefore neither doe nor + consent to any thing that may violate or infringe the liberties & + priuiledges granted to us by his majesties royall charter, or the + gouernment established thereby; but if any thing be propounded that may + tend therevnto, yow shall say, yow haue received no instruction in that + matter.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 349.] With reference to the + complaints made against the colony, they were to inform the king “that wee + haue no law prohibbiting any such as are of the perswasion of the church + of England, nor haue any euer desired to worship God accordingly that haue + been denyed.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 347. March 23.] + </p> + <p> + Such a statement cannot be reconciled with the answer made the + commissioners; and the laws compelled Episcopalians to attend the + Congregational worship, and denied them the right to build churches of + their own. + </p> + <p> + “As for the Annabaptists, they are now subject to no other poenal statutes + then those of the Congregational way.” This sophistry is typical. The law + under which the Baptist church was closed applied in terms to all + inhabitants, it is true; but it was contrived to suppress schism, it was + used to coerce heretics, and it was unrepealed. Moreover, it would seem as + though the statute inflicting banishment must then have still been in + force. + </p> + <p> + The assurances given in regard to the reform of the suffrage were + precisely parallel:— + </p> + <p> + “For admission of ffreemen, wee humbly conceive it is our liberty, by + charter, to chuse whom wee will admitt into our oune company, which yet + hath not binn restrayned to Congregational men, but others haue been + admitted, who were also provided for according to his majestjes + direction.” [Footnote: 1681-2, March 23.] + </p> + <p> + Such insincerity gave weight to Randolph’s words when he wrote: “My lord, + I have but one thing to reminde your lordship, that nothing their agents + can say or doe in England can be any ground for his majestie to depend + upon.” [Footnote: Randolph to Clarendon. <i>Hutch. Coll.</i>, Prince Soc. + ed. ii. 277] + </p> + <p> + With these documents and one thousand pounds for bribery, soon after + increased to three, [Footnote: Chalmers’s <i>Annals</i>, p. 461.] Dudley + and Richards sailed. Their powers were at once rejected at London as + insufficient, and the decisive moment came. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. + 413.] The churchmen of Massachusetts had to determine whether to accept + the secularization of their government or abandon every guaranty of + popular liberty. The clergy did not hesitate before the momentous + alternative: they exerted themselves to the utmost, and turned the scale + for the last time. [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 303, note.] In fresh + instructions the agents were urged to do what was possible to avert, or at + least delay, the stroke; but they were forbidden to consent to appeals, or + to alterations in the qualifications required for the admission of + freemen. [Footnote: 1683, March 30. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 390.] They had + previously been directed to pacify the king by a present of two thousand + pounds; and this ill-judged attempt at bribery had covered them with + ridicule. [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 303, note.] + </p> + <p> + Further negotiation would have been futile. Proceedings were begun at + once, and Randolph was sent to Boston to serve the writ of <i>quo warranto</i>; + [Footnote: 1683, July 20.] he was also charged with a royal declaration + promising that, even then, were submission made, the charter should be + restored with only such changes as the public welfare demanded. [Footnote: + <i>Mass. Rec.</i> v. 422, 423.] Dudley, who was a man of much political + sagacity, had returned and strongly urged moderation. The magistrates were + not without the instincts of statesmanship: they saw that a breach with + England must destroy all safeguards of the common freedom, and they voted + an address to the crown accepting the proffered terms. [Footnote: 1683, 15 + Nov. Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> i. 304.] But the clergy strove against them: the + privileges of their order were at stake; they felt that the loss of their + importance would be “destructive to the interest of religion and of + Christ’s kingdom in the colony,” [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 381.] and they + roused their congregations to resist. The deputies did not represent the + people, but the church. They were men who had been trained from infancy by + the priests, who had been admitted to the communion and the franchise on + account of their religious fervor, and who had been brought into public + life because the ecclesiastics found them pliable in their hands. The + influence which had moulded their minds and guided their actions + controlled them still, and they rejected the address. [Footnote: Nov. 30. + Palfrey, iii. 385.] Increase Mather took the lead. He stood up at a great + meeting in the Old South, and exhorted the people, “telling them how their + forefathers did purchase it [the charter], and would they deliver it up, + even as Ahab required Naboth’s vineyard, Oh! their children would be bound + to curse them.” [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 388, note 1.] + </p> + <p> + All that could be resolved on was to retain Robert Humphrys of the Middle + Temple to interpose such delays as the law permitted; but no attempt was + made at defence upon the merits of their cause, probably because all knew + well that no such defence was possible. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, for technical reasons, the <i>quo warranto</i> had been + abandoned, and a writ of <i>scire facias</i> had been issued out of + chancery. On June 18, 1684, the lord keeper ordered the defendant to + appear and plead on the first day of the next Michaelmas Term. The time + allowed was too short for an answer from America, and judgment was entered + by default. [Footnote: Decree entered June 21, 1684; confirmed, Oct. 23. + Palfrey, iii. 393, note.] The decree was arbitrary, but no effort was made + to obtain relief. The story, however, is best told by Humphrys himself:— + </p> + <p> + “It is matter of astonishment to me, to think of the returnes I haue had + from you in the affaire of your charter; that a prudent people should + think soe little, in a thing of the greatest moment to them. + </p> + <p> + “Which charge I humbly justify in the following particulars, and yet at + the same time confess that all you could haue done would but haue gained + more time, and spent more money, since the breaches assigned against you, + were as obvious as vnanswerable, soe as all the service your councill and + friends could haue done you here, would haue onely served to deplore, not + prevent the inevitable loss. + </p> + <p> + “When I sent you the lord keeper’s order of the 18th of June 1684 + requireing your appeareing peromptorily the first day of Michaelmas Tearme + then next, and pleading to yssue ... you may remember I sent with it such + drafts of lettres of attorney, to pass vnder your comon seale as were + essentially necessary to empower and justify such appearance, and pleading + for you here, which you could not imagine but that you must haue had due + time to returne them in, noe law compelling impossibilities. + </p> + <p> + “When the first day of that Michaelmas Tearme came, and your lettres of + attorney neither were, nor indeed could be return’d ... I applyd by + councill to the Court of Chancery to enlarge that time urgeing the + impossibility of hauing a returne from you in the time allotted.... But it + is true my lord keeper cutt the ground from under us which wee stood upon, + by telling us the order of the 18th of June was a surprize upon his + lordship and that he ought not to haue granted it, for that every + corporacon ought to haue an attorney in every court to appeare to his + majesties suite, and that London had such.... However certainely you ought + when my lettres were come to you, nunc pro tune, to haue past the lettres + of attorney I sent you under your comon seale and sent them me, and not to + haue stopt them upon any private surmises from other hands then his you + had entrusted in that matter; and the rather for that the judgments of + law, espetially those taken by defaults for non appearances, are not like + the laws of the Medes and Persians irrevocable, but are often on just + grounds sett aside by the court here, and the defendants admitted to plead + as if noe such judgments had been entred vp, and the very order it selfe + of the 18th of June guies you a home instance of it. + </p> + <p> + “And indeed I did therefore forbeare giueing you an account of a further + time being denyd, and the entry of judgment against you, expecting you + would before such lettre could haue reacht you haue sent me the lettres of + attorney vnder your corporacon seale that the court might haue been moved + to admitt your appearance and plea and waiued the judgment. + </p> + <p> + “But instead of those lettres of attorney under your seale you sent me an + address to his late majesty, I confess judiciously drawne. But it is my + wonder in which of your capacityes you could imagine it should be + presented to his majesty, for if as a corporacon, a body politique, it + should have been putt under your corporacon seale if as a private comunity + it should haue been signed by your order. But the paper has neither + private hand nor publique seale to it and soe must be lost.... + </p> + <p> + “In this condicon what could a man doe for you, nothing publiquely for he + had noe warrant from you to justify the accon.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. + Archives</i>, cvi. 343.] + </p> + <p> + So perished the Puritan Commonwealth. The child of the Reformation, its + life sprang from the assertion of the freedom of the mind; but this great + and noble principle is fatal to the temporal power of a priesthood, and + during the supremacy of the clergy the government was doomed to be both + persecuting and repressive. Under no circumstance could the theocracy have + endured: it must have fallen by revolt from within if not by attack from + without. That Charles II. did in fact cause its overthrow gives him a + claim to our common gratitude, for he then struck a decisive blow for the + emancipation of Massachusetts; and thus his successor was enabled to open + before her that splendid career of democratic constitutional liberty which + was destined to become the basis of the jurisprudence of the American + Union. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. — THE WITCHCRAFT. + </h2> + <p> + The history of the years between the dissolution of the Company of + Massachusetts Bay and the reorganization of the country by William III. in + 1692 has little bearing upon the development of the people; for the + presidency of Dudley and the administration of Andros were followed by a + revolution that paralyzed all movement. During the latter portion of this + interval the colony was represented at London by three agents, of whom + Increase Mather was the most influential, who used every effort to obtain + the reëstablishment of the old government; they met, however, with + insuperable obstacles. Quietly to resume was impossible; for the obstinacy + of the clergy, in refusing all compromise with Charles II., had caused the + patent to be cancelled; and thus a new grant had become necessary. Nor was + this all, for the attorney and solicitor general, with whom the two chief + justices concurred, [Footnote: <i>Parentator</i>, p. 139] gave it as their + opinion that, supposing no decree had been rendered, and the same powers + were exercised as before, a writ of <i>scire facias</i> would certainly be + issued, upon which a similar judgment would inevitably be entered. These + considerations, however, became immaterial, as the king was a statesman, + and had already decided upon his policy. His views had little in common + with those held by the Massachusetts ecclesiastics, and when the Rev. Mr. + Mather first read the instrument in which they had been embodied, he + declared he “would sooner part with his life than consent unto such + minutes.” [Footnote: <i>Parentator</i>, p. 134.] He grew calmer, however, + when told that his “consent was not expected nor desired;” and with that + energy and decision for which he was remarkable, at once secured the + patronage. + </p> + <p> + The constitutional aspect of the Provincial Charter is profoundly + interesting, and it will be considered in its legal bearings hereafter. + Its political tendencies, however, first demand attention, for it wrought + a complete social revolution, since it overthrew the temporal power of the + church. Massachusetts, Maine, and Plymouth were consolidated, and within + them toleration was established, except in regard to Papists; the + religious qualification was swept away, and in its stead freeholders of + forty shillings per annum, or owners of personal property to the value of + forty pounds sterling, were admitted to the franchise; the towns continued + to elect the house of representatives, and the whole Assembly chose the + council, subject to the approval of the executive. [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> + ii. 15, 16] The governor, lieutenant-governor, and secretary were + appointed by the crown; the governor had a veto, and the king reserved the + right to disallow legislation within three years of the date of its + enactment. Thus the theocracy fell at a single blow; and it is worthy of + remark that thenceforward prosecutions for sedition became unknown among + the people of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Yet, though the clerical + oligarchy was no longer absolute, the ministers still exerted a prodigious + influence upon opinion. Not only did they speak with all the authority + inherited with the traditions of the past; not only had they or their + predecessors trained the vast majority of the people from their cradles to + reverence them more than anything on earth, but their compact organization + was as yet unimpaired, and at its head stood the two Mathers, the pastors + of the Old North Church. Thus venerated and thus led, the elders were + still able to appeal to the popular superstition and fanaticism with + terrible effect. + </p> + <p> + Widely differing judgments have been formed of these two celebrated + divines; the ecclesiastical view is perhaps well summed up by the Rev. + John Eliot, who thus describes the President of Harvard: “He was the + father of the New England clergy, and his name and character were held in + veneration, not only by those, who knew him, but by succeeding + generations.” [Footnote: <i>Biographical Dictionary</i>, p. 312.] All must + admit his ability and learning, while in sanctimoniousness of deportment + he was unrivalled. His son Cotton says he had such a “gravity as made all + sorts of persons, wherever he came, to be struck with a sensible awe of + his presence, ... yea, if he laughed on them, they believed it not.” “His + very countenance carried the force of a sermon with it.” [Footnote: <i>Parentator</i>, + p. 40.] He kept a strict account of his mental condition, and always was + pleased when able to enter in his diary at the end of the day, “heart + serious.” He was unctuous in his preaching, and wept much in the pulpit; + he often mentions being “quickened at the Lord’s table [during which] + tears gushed from me before the Lord,” [Footnote: <i>Parentator</i>, p. + 48.] but of his self-sacrifice, his mercy, and his truth, his own acts and + words are the best evidence that remain. + </p> + <p> + When the new government was about to be put in operation, an extraordinary + amount of patronage lay at the disposal of the crown; for, beside the + regular executive officers, the entire council had to be named, since they + could not be elected until a legislature had been organized to choose + them. Increase Mather, Elisha Cooke, and Thomas Oakes were acting as + agents, and all had been bitterly opposed to the new charter; but of the + three, the English ministers thought Mather the most important to secure. + And now an odd coincidence happened in the life of this singular man. He + suddenly one day announced himself convinced that the king’s project was + not so intolerable as to be unworthy of support; and then it very shortly + transpired that he had been given all the spoil before the patent had + passed the seals. [Footnote: Palfrey, iv. 85.] The proximity of these + events is interesting as bearing on the methods of ecclesiastical + statesmen, and it is also instructive to observe how thorough a master of + the situation this eminent divine proved himself to be. He not only + appointed all his favorite henchmen to office, but he rigidly excluded his + colleagues at London, who had continued their opposition, and every one + else who had any disposition to be independent. His creature, Sir William + Phips, was made governor; William Stoughton, who was bred for the church, + and whose savage bigotry endeared him to the clergy, was + lieutenant-governor; and the council was so packed that his excellent son + broke into a shout of triumph when he heard the news:— + </p> + <p> + “The time has come! the set time has come! I am now to receive an answer + of so many prayers. All the councellors of the province are of my own + father’s nomination; and my father-in-law, with several related unto me, + and several brethren of my own church are among them. The governor of the + province is not my enemy, but one whom I baptized; namely, Sir William + Phips, one of my own flock, and one of my dearest friends.” [Footnote: + Cotton Mather’s <i>Diary</i>; Quincy’s <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 60.] + Such was the government the theocracy left the country as its legacy when + its own power had passed away, and dearly did Massachusetts rue that fatal + gift in her paroxysms of agony and blood. + </p> + <p> + At the close of the seventeenth century the belief in witchcraft was + widespread, and among the more ignorant well-nigh universal. The + superstition was, moreover, fostered by the clergy, who, in adopting this + policy, were undoubtedly actuated by mixed motives. Their credulity + probably made them for the most part sincere in the unbounded confidence + they professed in the possibility of compacts between the devil and + mankind; but, nevertheless, there is abundant evidence in their writings + of their having been keenly alive to the fact that men horror-stricken at + the sight of the destruction of their wives and children by magic would + grovel in the submission of abject terror at the feet of the priest who + promised to deliver them. + </p> + <p> + The elders began the agitation by sending out a paper of proposals for + collecting stories of apparitions and witchcrafts, and in obedience to + their wish Increase Mather published his “Illustrious Providences” in + 1683-4. Two chapters of this book were devoted to sorceries, and the + reverend author took occasion to intimate his opinion that those who might + doubt the truth of his relations were probably themselves either heretics + or wizards. This movement of the clergy seems to have highly inflamed the + popular imagination, [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> ii. 24.] yet no + immediate disaster followed; and the nervous exaltation did not become + deadly until 1688. In the autumn of that year four children of a Boston + mason named Goodwin began to mimic the symptoms they had so often heard + described; the father, who was a pious man, called in the ministers of + Boston and Charlestown, who fasted and prayed, and succeeded in delivering + the youngest, who was five. Meanwhile, one of the daughters had “cried out + upon” an unfortunate Irish washerwoman, with whom she had quarrelled. + Cotton Mather was now in his element. He took the eldest girl home with + him and tried a great number of interesting experiments as to the relative + power of Satan and the Lord; among others he gravely relates how when the + sufferer was tormented elsewhere he would carry her struggling to his own + study, into which entering, she stood immediately upon her feet, and cried + out, “They are gone! They are gone! They say they cannot—God won’t + let ‘em come here.” [Footnote: <i>Memorable Providences</i>, pp. 27, 28] + </p> + <p> + It is not credible that an educated and a sane man could ever have + honestly believed in the absurd stuff which he produced as evidence of the + supernatural; his description of the impudence of the children is amazing. + </p> + <p> + “They were divers times very near burning or drowning of themselves, but + ... by their own pittiful and seasonable cries for help still procured + their deliverance: which made me consider, whether the little ones had not + their angels, in the plain sense of our Saviour’s intimation.... And + sometimes, tho’ but seldome, they were kept from eating their meals, by + having their teeth sett when they carried any thing to their mouthes.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, pp. 15-17.] + </p> + <p> + And it was upon such evidence that the washerwoman was hanged. There is an + instant in the battle as the ranks are wavering, when the calmness of the + officers will avert the rout; and as to have held their soldiers then is + deemed their highest honor, so to have been found wanting is their + indelible disgrace; the people stood poised upon the panic’s brink, their + pastors lashed them in. + </p> + <p> + Cotton Mather forthwith published a terrific account of the ghostly + crisis, mixed with denunciations of the Sadducee or Atheist who + disbelieved; and to the book was added a preface, written by the four + other clergymen who had assisted with their prayers, the character of + which may be judged by a single extract. “The following account will + afford to him that shall read with observation, a further clear + confirmation, that, there is both a God, and a devil, and witchcraft: that + there is no outward affliction, but what God may, (and sometimes doth) + permit Satan to trouble his people withal.” [Footnote: <i>Memorable + Providences</i>, Preface.] Not content with this, Mather goaded his + congregation into frenzy from the pulpit. “Consider also, the misery of + them whom witchcraft may be let loose upon. What is it to fall into the + hands of devils?... O what a direful thing is it, to be prickt with pins, + and stab’d with knives all over, and to be fill’d all over with broken + bones? ‘Tis impossible to reckon up the varieties of miseries which those + monsters inflict where they can have a blow. No less than death, and that + a languishing and a terrible death will satisfie the rage of those + formidable dragons.” [Footnote: <i>Discourse on Witchcraft</i>, p. 19.] + The pest was sure to spread in a credulous community, fed by their natural + leaders with this morbid poison, and it next broke out in Salem village in + February, 1691-2. A number of girls had become intensely excited by the + stories they had heard, and two of them, who belonged to the family of the + clergyman, were seized with the usual symptoms. Of Mr. Parris it is enough + to say that he began the investigation with a frightful relish. Other + ministers were called in, and prayer-meetings lasting all day were held, + with the result of throwing the patients into convulsions. [Footnote: + Calef’s <i>More Wonders</i>, p. 90 <i>et seq.</i>] Then the name of the + witch was asked, and the girls were importuned to make her known. They + refused at first, but soon the pressure became too strong, and the + accusations began. Among the earliest to be arrested and examined was + Goodwife Cory. Mr. Noyes, teacher of Salem, began with prayer, and when + she was brought in the sufferers “did vehemently accuse her of afflicting + them, by biting, pinching, strangling, &c., and they said, they did in + their fits see her likeness coming to them, and bringing a book for them + to sign.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 92] By April the number of informers + and of the suspected had greatly increased and the prisons began to fill. + Mr. Parris behaved like a madman; not only did he preach inflammatory + sermons, but he conducted the examinations, and his questions were such + that the evidence was in truth nothing but what he put in the mouths of + the witnesses; yet he seems to have been guilty of the testimony it was + his sacred duty to truly record [Footnote: <i>Grounds of Complaint against + Parris</i>, Section 6; <i>More Wonders</i>, p. 96 (<i>i.e.</i> 56).]. And + in all this he appears to have had the approval and the aid of Mr. Noyes. + Such was the crisis when Sir William Phips landed on the 14th of May, + 1692; he was the Mathers’ tool, and the result could have been foretold. + Uneducated and credulous, he was as clay in the hands of his creators; and + his first executive act was to cause the miserable prisoners to be + fettered. Jonathan Cary has described what befell his wife: “Next morning + the jaylor put irons on her legs (having received such a command) the + weight of them was about eight pounds; these irons and her other + afflictions, soon brought her into convulsion fits, so that I thought she + would have died that night.” [Footnote: <i>More Wonders</i>, p. 97] + </p> + <p> + At the beginning of June the governor, by an arbitrary act, created a + court to try the witches, and at its head put William Stoughton. Even now + it is impossible to read the proceedings of this sanguinary tribunal + without a shudder, and it has left a stain upon the judiciary of + Massachusetts that can never be effaced. + </p> + <p> + Two weeks later the opinion of the elders was asked, as it had been of + old, and they recommended the “speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as + have rendered themselves obnoxious,” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> ii. + 53.] nor did their advice fall upon unwilling ears. Stoughton was already + at work, and certain death awaited all who were dragged before that cruel + and bloodthirsty bigot; even when the jury acquitted, the court refused to + receive the verdict. The accounts given of the legal proceedings seem + monstrous. The preliminary examinations were conducted amid such “hideous + clamours and screechings,” that frequently the voice of the defendant was + drowned, and if a defence was attempted at a trial, the victim was + browbeaten and mocked by the bench. [Footnote: <i>More Wonders</i>, p. + 102.] + </p> + <p> + The ghastly climax was reached in the case of George Burroughs, who had + been the clergyman at Wells. At his trial the evidence could hardly be + heard by reason of the fits of the sufferers. “The chief judge asked the + prisoner, who he thought hindered these witnesses from giving their + testimonies? and he answered, he supposed it was the devil. That + honourable person then replied, How comes the devil so loath to have any + testimony born against you? Which cast him into very great confusion.” + Presently the informers saw the ghosts of his two dead wives, whom they + charged him with having murdered, stand before him “crying for vengeance;” + yet though much appalled, he steadily denied that they were there. He also + roused his judges’ ire by asserting that “there neither are, nor ever + were, witches.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, pp. 115-119.] + </p> + <p> + He and those to die with him were carried through the streets of Salem in + a cart. As he climbed the ladder he called God to witness he was innocent, + and his words were so pathetic that the people sobbed aloud, and it seemed + as though he might be rescued even as he stood beneath the tree. Then when + at last he swung above them, Cotton Mather rode among the throng and told + them of his guilt, and how the fiend could come to them as an angel of + light, and so the work went on. They cut him down and dragged him by his + halter to a shallow hole among the rocks, and threw him in, and there they + lay together with the rigid hand of the wizard Burroughs still pointing + upward through his thin shroud of earth. [Footnote: <i>More Wonders</i>, + pp. 103, 104.] + </p> + <p> + By October it seemed as though the bonds of society were dissolving; + nineteen persons had been hanged, one had been pressed to death, and eight + lay condemned; a number had fled, but their property had been seized and + they were beggars; the prisons were choked, while more than two hundred + were accused and in momentary fear of arrest; [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. + 110.] even two dogs had been killed. The plague propagated itself; for the + only hope for those cried out upon was to confess their guilt and turn + informers. Thus no one was safe. Mr. Willard, pastor of the Old South, who + began to falter, was threatened; the wife of Mr. Hale, pastor of Beverly, + who had been one of the great leaders of the prosecutions, was denounced; + Lady Phips herself was named. But the race who peopled New England had a + mental vigor which even the theocracy could not subdue, and Massachusetts + had among her sons liberal and enlightened men, whose voice was heard, + even in the madness of the terror. Of these, the two Brattles, Robert + Calef, and John Leverett were the foremost; and they served their mother + well, though the debt of gratitude and honor which she owes them she has + never yet repaid. + </p> + <p> + On the 8th, four days before the meeting of the legislature, and probably + at the first moment it could be done with safety, Thomas Brattle wrote an + admirable letter, [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> first series, v. + 61.] in which he exposed the folly and wickedness of the delusion with all + the energy the temper of the time would bear; had he miscalculated, his + error of judgment would probably have cost him his life. At the meeting of + the General Court the illegal and blood-stained commission came to an end, + and as the reaction slowly and surely set in, Phips began to feel alarm + lest he should Be called to account in England; accordingly, he tried to + throw the blame on Stoughton: “When I returned, I found people much + dissatisfied at the proceedings of the court; ... The deputy-governor, + [Stoughton] notwithstanding, persisted vigorously in the same method.... + When I put an end to the court, there was at least fifty persons in + prison, in great misery by reason of the extreme cold and their + poverty.... I permitted a special superior court to be held at Salem, ... + on the third day of January, the lieutenant-governor being chief judge.... + All ... were cleared, saving three.... The deputy-governor signed a + warrant for their speedy execution, and also of five others who were + condemned at the former court.... But ... I sent a reprieve; ... the + lieutenant-governor upon this occasion was enraged and filled with + passionate anger, and refused to sit upon the bench at a superior court, + at that time held at Charlestown; and, indeed, hath from the beginning + hurried on these matters with great precipitancy, and by his warrant hath + caused the estates, goods, and chattels of the executed to be seized and + disposed of without my knowledge or consent.” [Footnote: Phips to the Earl + of Nottingham, Feb. 21, 1693. Palfrey, iv. 112, note 2.] Some months + earlier, also, just before the meeting of the legislature, he had called + on Cotton Mather to defend him against the condemnation he had even then + begun to feel, and the elder had responded with a volume which remains as + a memorial of him and his compeers [Footnote: <i>Wonders of the Invisible + World</i>.] He gave thanks for the blood that had already flowed, and + “prayed to God for more.” They were some of the gracious words, inserted + in the advice, which many of the neighbouring ministers, did this summer + humbly lay before our honourable judges: ‘We cannot but with all + thankfulness, acknowledge the success which the merciful God has given + unto the sedulous and assiduous endeavours of our honourable rulers, to + detect the abominable witchcrafts which have been committed in the + country; humbly praying that the discovery of those mysterious and + mischievous wickednesses, may be perfected.’ If in the midst of the many + dissatisfactions among us, the publication of these trials, may promote + such a pious thankfulness unto God, for justice being so far, executed + among us, I shall rejoyce that God is glorified; and pray that no wrong + steps of ours may ever sully any of his glorious works.” [Footnote: <i>Wonders + of the Invisible World</i>, pp. 82, 83.] + </p> + <p> + “These witches ... have met in hellish randez-vouszes.... In these hellish + meetings, these monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing + than to destroy the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these parts of + the world.... We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed + might be very glorious, for the exterminating of those, accursed + things,... But if we make this day quarrelsome,... Alas, O Lord, my flesh + trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.” [Footnote: + <i>Idem</i>, pp. 49-60.] + </p> + <p> + While reading such words the streets of Salem rise before the eyes, with + the cart dragging Martha Cory to the gallows while she protests her + innocence, and there, at her journey’s end, at the gibbet’s foot, stands + the Rev. Nicholas Noyes, pointing to the dangling corpses, and saying: + “What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there.” + [Footnote: <i>More Wonders</i>, p. 108.] + </p> + <p> + The sequence of cause and effect is sufficiently obvious. Although at a + moment when the panic had got beyond control, even the most ultra of the + clergy had been forced by their own danger to counsel moderation, the + conservatives were by no means ready to abandon their potent allies from + the lower world; the power they gave was too alluring. “‘Tis a strange + passage recorded by Mr. Clark, in the life of his father, That the people + of his parish refusing to be reclaimed from their Sabbath breaking, by all + the zealous testimonies which that good man bore against it; at last [one + night] ... there was heard a great noise, with rattling of chains, up and + down the town, and an horrid scent of brimstone.... Upon which the guilty + consciences of the wretches, told them, the devil was come to fetch them + away; and it so terrify’d them, that an eminent reformation follow’d the + sermons which that man of God preached thereupon.” [Footnote: <i>Wonders + of the Invisible World</i>, p. 65.] They therefore saw the constant + acquittals, the abandonment of prosecutions, and the growth of incredulity + with regret. The next year Cotton Mather laid bare the workings of their + minds with cynical frankness. “The devils have with most horrendous + operations broke in upon our neighbourhood, and God has at such a rate + overruled all the fury and malice of those devils, that ... the souls of + many, especially of the rising generation, have been thereby waken’d unto + some acquaintance with religion; our young people who belonged unto the + praying meetings, of both sexes, apart would ordinarily spend whole nights + by the whole weeks together in prayers and psalms upon these occasions; + ... and some scores of other young people, who were strangers to real + piety, were now struck with the lively demonstrations of hell ... before + their eyes.... In the whole—the devil got just nothing, but God got + praises, Christ got subjects, the Holy Spirit got temples, the church got + addition, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits.” [Footnote: <i>More + Wonders</i>, p. 12.] + </p> + <p> + Mather prided himself on what he had done. “I am not so vain as to say + that any wisdom or virtue of mine did contribute unto this good order of + things; but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder this good.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 12.] Men with such beliefs, and lured onward by + such temptations, were incapable of letting the tremendous power + superstition gave them slip from their grasp without an effort on their + own behalf; and accordingly it was not long before the Mathers were once + more at work. On the 10th of September, 1693, or about nine months after + the last spasms at Salem, and when the belief in enchantments was fast + falling into disrepute, a girl named Margaret Rule was taken with the + accustomed symptoms in Boston. Forthwith these two godly divines repaired + to her bedside, and this is what took place:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Then Mr. M—— father and son came up, and others with them, in + the whole were about thirty or forty persons, they being sat, the father + on a stool, and the son upon the bedside by her, the son began to question + her: + </p> + <p> + Margaret Rule, how do you do? Then a pause without any answer. + </p> + <p> + <i>Question.</i> What. Do there a great many witches sit upon you? <i>Answer.</i> + Yes. + </p> + <p> + <i>Question.</i> Do you not know that there is a hard master? + </p> + <p> + Then she was in a fit. He laid his hand upon her face and nose, but, as he + said, without perceiving breath; then he brush’d her on the face with his + glove, and rubb’d her stomach (her breast not being covered with the bed + clothes) and bid others do so too, and said it eased her, then she + revived. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> Don’t you know there is a hard master? <i>A.</i> Yes. + </p> + <p> + <i>Reply.</i> Don’t serve that hard master, you know who. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> Do you believe? Then again she was in a fit, and he again rub’d + her breast &c.... He wrought his fingers before her eyes and asked her + if she saw the witches? <i>A.</i> No.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> Who is it that afflicts you? <i>A.</i> I know not, there is a + great many of them.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> You have seen the black man, hant you? <i>A.</i> No. + </p> + <p> + <i>Reply.</i> I hope you never shall. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> You have had a book offered you, hant you? + </p> + <p> + <i>A.</i> No. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> The brushing of you gives you ease, don’t it? + </p> + <p> + <i>A.</i> Yes. She turn’d herselfe, and a little groan’d. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> Now the witches scratch you, and pinch you, and bite you, don’t + they? <i>A.</i> Yes. Then he put his hand upon her breast and belly, viz. + on the clothes over her, and felt a living thing, as he said; which moved + the father also to feel, and some others. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> Don’t you feel the live thing in the bed? + </p> + <p> + <i>A.</i> No.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> Shall we go to pray ... spelling the word. + </p> + <p> + <i>A.</i> Yes. The father went to prayer for perhaps half an hour, chiefly + against the power of the devil and witchcraft, and that God would bring + out the afflicters.... After prayer he [the son] proceeded. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> You did not hear when we were at prayer did you? <i>A.</i> Yes. + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> You don’t hear always? you don’t hear sometimes past a word or + two, do you? <i>A.</i> No. Then turning him about said, this is just + another Mercy Short.... + </p> + <p> + <i>Q.</i> What does she eat or drink? <i>A.</i> Not eat at all; but drink + rum. [Footnote: <i>More Wonders</i>, pp. 13, 14.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + To sanctify to the godly the ravings of this drunken and abandoned wench + was a solemn joy to the heart of this servant of Christ, who gave his life + to “unwearied cares and pains, to rescue the miserable from the lions and + bears of hell,” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 10.] therefore he prepared + another tract. But his hour was well-nigh come. Though it was impossible + that retribution should be meted out to him for his crimes, at least he + did not escape unscathed, for Calef and the Brattles, who had long been on + his father’s track and his, now seized him by the throat. He knew well + they had been with him in the chamber of Margaret Rule, that they had + gathered all the evidence; and so when Calef sent him a challenge to stand + forth and defend himself, he shuffled and equivocated. + </p> + <p> + At length a rumor spread abroad that a volume was to be published exposing + the whole black history, and then the priest began to cower. His Diary is + full of his prayers and lamentations. “The book is printed, and the + impression is this week arrived here.... I set myself to humble myself + before the Lord under these humbling and wondrous dispensations, and + obtain the pardon of my sins, that have rendered me worthy of such + dispensations.... + </p> + <p> + “28d. 10m. Saturday.—The Lord has permitted Satan to raise an + extraordinary storm upon my father and myself. All the rage of Satan + against the holy churches of the Lord falls upon us. First Calf’s book, + and then Coleman’s, do set the people in a mighty ferment. All the + adversaries of the churches lay their heads together, as if, by blasting + of us, they hoped utterly to blow up all. The Lord fills my soul with + consolations, inexpressible consolations, when I think on my conformity to + my Lord Jesus Christ in the injuries and reproaches that are cast upon + me.... + </p> + <p> + “5d. 2m. Saturday [1701].—I find the enemies of + the churches are set with an implacable enmity against myself; and one + vile fool, namely, R. Calf, is employed by them to go on with more of his + filthy scribbles to hurt my precious opportunities of glorifying my Lord + Jesus Christ. I had need be much in prayer unto my glorious Lord that he + would preserve his poor servant from the malice of this evil generation, + and of that vile man particularly.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc.</i> + 1855-58, pp. 290-293.] + </p> + <p> + “More Wonders of the Invisible World” appeared in 1700, and such was the + terror the clergy still inspired it is said it had to be sent to London to + be printed, and when it was published no bookseller in Boston dared to + offer it in his shop. [Footnote: <i>Some Few Remarks</i>, p. 9.] Yet + though it was burnt in the college yard by the order of Increase Mather, + it was widely read, and dealt the deathblow to the witchcraft superstition + of New England. It did more than this: it may be said to mark an era in + the intellectual development of Massachusetts, for it shook to its centre + that moral despotism which the pastors still kept almost unimpaired over + the minds of their congregations, by demonstrating to the people the + necessity of thinking for themselves. But what the fate of its authors + would have been had the priests still ruled may be guessed by the + onslaught made on them by those who sat at the Mathers’ feet. “Spit on, + Calf; thou shalt be but like the viper on Pauls hand, easily shaken off, + and without any damage to the servant of the Lord.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + p. 22.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. — BRATTLE CHURCH. + </h2> + <p> + If the working of the human mind is mechanical, the quality of its action + must largely depend upon the training it receives. Viewed as civilizing + agents, therefore, systems of education might be tested by their tendency + to accelerate or retard the intellectual development of the race. The + proposition is capable of being presented with almost mathematical + precision; the receptive faculty begins to fail at a comparatively early + age; thereafter new opinions are assimilated with increasing difficulty + until the power is lost. This progressive period of life, which is at best + brief, may, however, be indefinitely shortened by the interposition of + artificial obstacles, which have to be overcome by a waste of time and + energy, before the reason can act with freedom; and when these obstacles + are sufficiently formidable, the whole time is consumed and men are + stationary. The most effectual impediments are those prejudices which are + so easily implanted in youth, and which acquire tremendous power when + based on superstitious terrors. Herein, then, lies the radical divergence + between theological and scientific training: the one, by inculcating that + tradition is sacred, that accurate investigation is sacrilege, certain to + be visited with terrific punishment, and that the highest moral virtue is + submission to authority, seeks to paralyze exact thought, and to produce a + condition in which dogmatic statements of fact, and despotic rules of + conduct, will be received with abject resignation; the other, by + stimulating the curiosity, endeavors to provoke inquiry, and, by + encouraging a scrutiny of what is obscure, tries to put the mind in an + impartial and questioning attitude toward all the phenomena of the + universe. + </p> + <p> + The two methods are irreconcilable, and spring from the great primary + instincts which are called conservatism and liberality. Necessarily the + movement of any community must correspond exactly with the preponderance + of liberalism. Where the theological incubus is unresisted it takes the + form of a sacred caste, as among the Hindoos; appreciable advance then + ceases, except from some external pressure, such as conquest. The same + tendencies in a mitigated form are seen in Spain, whereas Germany is + scientific. + </p> + <p> + Such being the ceaseless conflict between these natural forces, the + vantage-points for which the opposing parties have always struggled in + western Europe are the pulpits and the universities. Through women the + church can reach children at their most impressionable age, while at the + universities the teachers are taught. Obviously, if a priesthood can + control both positions their influence must be immense. At the beginning + of any movement the conservatives are almost necessarily in possession, + and their worst reverses have come from defection from within; for unless + their organization is so perfect as not only to be animated by a single + purpose, but capable of being controlled by a single will, liberals will + penetrate within the fold, and if they can maintain their footing and + preach with the authority of the ancient tradition it leads to revolution. + It was thus the Reformation was accomplished. + </p> + <p> + The clergy of Massachusetts, with the true priestly instinct, took in the + bearings of their situation from the instant they recognized that their + political supremacy was passing away, and in order to keep their + organization in full vigor they addressed themselves with unabated energy + to enforcing the discipline which had been established; at the same time + they set the ablest of their number on guard at Harvard. But the task was + beyond their strength; they might as well have tried to dam the rising + tide with sand. + </p> + <p> + There is a limit to the capacity of even the most gifted man, and Increase + Mather committed a fatal error when he tried to be professor, clergyman, + and statesman at once. He was, it is true, made president in 1685, but the + next year John Leverett and William Brattle were chosen tutors and + fellows, who soon developed into ardent liberals; so it happened that when + the reverend rector went abroad in 1688, in his character of politician, + he left the college in the complete control of his adversaries. He was + absent four years, and during this interval the man was educated who was + destined to overthrow the Cambridge Platform, the corner-stone of the + conservative power. + </p> + <p> + Benjamin Colman was one of Leverett’s favorite pupils and the intimate + friend of Pemberton. As he was to be a minister, he stayed at Cambridge + until he took his master’s degree in 1695; he then sailed at once for + England in the Swan. When she had been some weeks at sea she was attacked + by a French privateer, who took her after a sharp action. During the fight + Colman attracted attention by his coolness; but he declared that though he + fired like the rest, “he was sensible of no courage but of a great deal of + fear; and when they had received two or three broadsides he wondered when + his courage would come, as he had heard others talk.” [Footnote: <i>Life + of B. Colman</i>, p. 6.] + </p> + <p> + After the capture the Frenchmen stripped him and put him in the hold, and + had it not been for a Madame Allaire, who kept his money for him, he might + very possibly have perished from the exposure of an imprisonment in + France, for his lungs were delicate. Moreover, at this time of his life he + was always a pauper, for he was not only naturally generous, but so + innocent and confiding as to fall a victim to any clumsy sharper. Of + course he reached London penniless and in great depression of spirits; but + he soon became known among the dissenting clergy, and at length settled at + Bath, where he preached two years. He seems to have formed singularly + strong friendships while in England, one of which was with Mr. Walter + Singer, at whose house he passed much time, and who wrote him at parting, + “Methinks there is one place vacant in my affections, which nobody can + fill beside you. But this blessing was too great for me, and God has + reserved it for those that more deserved it.—I cannot but hope + sometimes that Providence has yet in store so much happiness for me, that + I shall yet see you.” [Footnote: <i>Life of B. Colman</i>, p. 48.] + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile opinion was maturing fast at home; the passions of the + witchcraft convulsion had gone deep, and in 1697 a movement began under + the guidance of Leverett and the Brattles to form a liberal Congregational + church. The close on which the meetinghouse was to stand was conveyed by + Thomas Brattle to trustees on January 10, 1698, and from the outset there + seems to have been no doubt as to whom the pastor should be. On the 10th + of May, 1699, a formal invitation was dispatched to Colman by a committee, + of which Thomas Brattle was chairman, and it was accompanied by letters + from many prominent liberals. Leverett wrote, “I shall exceedingly rejoice + at your return to your country. We want persons of your character. The + affair offered to your consideration is of the greatest moment.” William + Brattle was even more emphatic, while Pemberton assured him that “the + gentlemen who solicit your return are mostly known to you—men of + repute and figure, from whom you may expect generous treatment; ... I + believe your return will be pleasing to all that know you, I am sure it + will be inexpressibly so to your unfeigned friend and servant.” [Footnote: + <i>Life of B. Colman</i>, pp. 43, 44.] It was, however, thought prudent to + have him ordained in London, since there was no probability that the + clergy of Massachusetts would perform the rite. When he landed in + November, after an absence of four years, he was in the flush of early + manhood, highly trained for theological warfare, having seen the world, + and by no means in awe of his old pastor, the reverend president of + Harvard. + </p> + <p> + The first step after his arrival was to declare the liberal policy, and + this was done in a manifesto which was published almost at once. + [Footnote: <i>History of Brattle St. Church</i>, p. 20.] The efficiency of + the Congregational organization depended upon the perfection of the guard + which the ministers and the congregations mutually kept over each other. + On the one hand no dangerous element could creep in among the people + through the laxness of the elder, since all candidates for the communion + had to pass through the ordeal of a public examination; on the other the + orthodoxy of the ministers was provided for, not only by restricting the + elective body to the communicants, but by the power of the ordained clergy + to “except against any election of a pastor who ... may be ... unfit for + the common service of the gospel.” [Footnote: Propositions determined by + the Assembly of Ministers. <i>Magnalia</i>, bk. 5, Hist. Remarks, Section + 8.] + </p> + <p> + The declaration of the Brattle Street “undertakers” cut this system at the + root, for they announced their intention to dispense with the relation of + experiences, thus practically throwing their communion open to all + respectable persons who would confess the Westminster Creed; and more + fatal still, they absolutely destroyed the homogeneousness of the + ecclesiastical constituency: “We cannot confine the right of chusing a + minister to the male communicants alone, but we think that every baptized + adult person who contributes to the maintenance, should have a vote in + electing.” [Footnote: <i>History of Brattle St. Church</i>, p. 25, Prop. + 16.] + </p> + <p> + They also proposed several innovations of minor importance, such as + relaxing the baptismal regulations, and somewhat changing the established + service by having the Bible read without comment. + </p> + <p> + Their temporal power was gone, toleration was the law of the land they had + once possessed, and now an onslaught was to be made upon the intellectual + ascendency which the clergy felt certain of maintaining over their people, + if only they could enforce obedience in their own ranks. The danger, too, + was the more alarming because so insidious; for, though their propositions + seemed reasonable, it was perfectly obvious that should the liberals + succeed in forcing their church within the pale of the orthodox communion, + discipline must end, and the pulpits might at any time be filled with men + capable of teaching the most subversive doctrines. Although such might be + the inexorable destiny of the Massachusetts hierarchy, it was not in + ecclesiastical human nature to accept the dispensation with meekness, and + the utterances of the conservative divines seem hardly to breathe the + spirit of that gospel they preached at such interminable length. + </p> + <p> + Yet it was very difficult to devise a scheme of resistance. They were + powerless to coerce; for, although Increase Mather had taken care, when at + the summit of his power, to have a statute passed which had the effect of + reënacting the Cambridge Platform, it had been disapproved by the king; + therefore, moral intimidation was the only weapon which could be employed. + Now, aside from the fact that men like Thomas Brattle and Leverett were + not timorous, their position was at this moment very strong from the stand + they had taken in the witchcraft troubles, and worst of all, they were + openly supported by William Brattle, who was already a minister, and by + Pemberton, who was a fellow of Harvard, and soon to be ordained. + </p> + <p> + The attack was, however, begun by Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Noyes, of + witchcraft memory, in a long rebuke, whose temper may be imagined from + such a sentence as this: “We cannot but think you might have entered upon + your declaration with more reverence and humility than so solemnly to + appeal to God, your judge, that you do it with all the sincerity and + seriousness the nature of your engagement commands from you; seeing you + were most of you much unstudied in the controversial points of church + order and discipline, and yet did not advise with the neighboring churches + ... but with a great deal of confidence and freedom, set up by + yourselves.” The letter then goes on to adjure them to revoke the + manifesto, and adjust matters with the “neighbouring elders,” “that so the + right hand of fellowship may be given to your pastor by other pastors, ... + and that you may not be the beginning of a schism that will dishonour God, + ... and be a matter of triumph to the bad.” [Footnote: <i>History of + Brattle St. Church</i>, pp. 29-37.] + </p> + <p> + Cotton Mather’s Diary, however, gives the most pleasing view of the high + churchmen:— + </p> + <p> + “1699. 7th, 10th m. (Dec.) I see another day of temptation begun upon the + town and land. A company of headstrong men in the town, the chief of whom + are full of malignity to the holy ways of our churches, have built in the + town another meetinghouse. To delude many better meaning men in their own + company, and the churches in the neighbourhood, they passed a vote in the + foundation of the proceedings that they would not vary from the practice + of these churches, except in one little particular. + </p> + <p> + “But a young man born and bred here, and hence gone for England, is now + returned hither at their invitation, equipped with an ordination to + qualify him for all that is intended on his returning and arriving here; + these fallacious people desert their vote, and without the advice or + knowledge of the ministers in the vicinity, they have published, under the + title of a manifesto, certain articles that utterly subvert our churches, + and invite an ill party, through all the country, to throw all into + confusion on the first opportunities. This drives the ministers that would + be faithful unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and his interests in the churches, + unto a necessity of appearing for their defence. No little part of these + actions must unavoidably fall to my share. I have already written a large + monitory letter to these innovators, which, though most lovingly penned, + yet enrages their violent and imperious lusts to carry on the apostacy.” + </p> + <p> + “1699. 5th d. 11th m. (Saturday.) I see Satan beginning a terrible shake + in the churches of New England, and the innovators that had set up a new + church in Boston (a new one indeed!) have made a day of temptation among + us. The men are ignorant, arrogant, obstinate, and full of malice and + slander, and they fill the land with lies, in the misrepresentations + whereof I am a very singular sufferer. Wherefore I set apart this day + again for prayer in my study, to cry mightily unto God.” [Footnote: <i>History + of Harvard</i>, Quincy, i. 486, 487, App. x.] + </p> + <p> + “21st d. 11th m. The people of the new church in Boston, who, by their + late manifesto, went on in an ill way, and in a worse frame, and the town + was filled with sin, and especially with slanders, wherein especially my + father and myself were sufferers. We two, with many prayers and studies, + and with humble resignation of our names unto the Lord, prepared a + faithful antidote for our churches against the infection of the example, + which we feared this company had given them, and we put it into the press. + But when the first sheet was near composed at the press, I stopped it, + with a desire to make one attempt more for the bringing of this people to + reason. I drew up a proposal, and, with another minister, carried it unto + them, who at first rejected it, but afterward so far embraced it, as to + promise that they will the next week publicly recognize their covenant + with God and one another, and therewithall declare their adherence to the + Heads of Agreement of the United Brethren in England, and request the + communion of our churches in that foundation.” [Footnote: <i>History of + Harvard</i>, i. 487, App. x.] + </p> + <p> + This last statement is marked by the exuberance of imagination for which + the Mathers are so famed. In truth, Dr. Mather had nothing to do with the + settlement. The facts were these: after Brattle Street Church was + organized, the congregation voted that Mr. Colman should ask the ministers + of the town to keep a day of prayer with them. On the 28th of December, + 1699, they received the following suggestive answer:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + MR. COLMAN: + </h3> + <p> + Whereas you have signified to us that your society have desired us to join + with them in a public fast, in order to your intended communion, our + answer is, that as we have formerly once and again insinuated unto you, + that if you would in due manner lay aside what you call your manifesto, + and resolve and declare that you will keep to the heads of agreement on + which the United Brethren in London have made their union, and then + publicly proceed with the presence, countenance, and concurrence of the + New England churches, we should be free to give you our fellowship and our + best assistance, which things you have altogether declined and neglected + to do; thus we must now answer, that, if you will give us the satisfaction + which the law of Christ requires for your disorderly proceedings, we shall + be happy to gratify your desires; otherwise, we may not do it, lest ... we + become partakers of the guilt of those irregularities by which you have + given just cause of offence.... + </p> + <p> + INCREASE MATHER. JAMES ALLEN. [Footnote: <i>History of Brattle St. Church</i>, + p. 55.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Under the theocracy a subservient legislature would have voted the + association “a seditious conspiracy,” and the country would have been + cleared of Leverett, Colman, the Brattles, and their abettors; but in 1700 + the priests no longer manipulated the constituencies, and there was actual + danger to the conservative cause from their violence; therefore Stoughton + exerted himself to muzzle the Mathers, and he did succeed in quieting them + for the moment, though Sewall seems to intimate that they submitted with + no very good grace: [1699/1700.] “January 24th. The Lt Govr [Stoughton] + calls me with him to Mr. Willards, where out of two papers Mr. Wm Brattle + drew up a third for an accommodation to bring on an agreement between the + new-church and our ministers; Mr. Colman got his brethren to subscribe + it.... January 25th. Mr. I. Mather, Mr. C. Mather, Mr. Willard, Mr. + Wadsworth, and S. S. wait on the Lt Govr at Mr. Coopers: to confer about + the writing drawn up the evening before. Was some heat; but grew calmer, + and after lecture agreed to be present at the fast which is to be observed + January 31.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fifth series, vi. 2.] + </p> + <p> + Humility has sometimes been extolled as the crowning grace of Christian + clergymen, but Cotton Mather’s Diary shows the intolerable arrogance of + the early Congregational divines. + </p> + <p> + “A wonderful joy filled the hearts of our good people far and near, that + we had obtained thus much from them. Our strife seemed now at an end; + there was much relenting in some of their spirits, when they saw our + condescension, our charity, our compassion. We overlooked all past + offences. We kept the public fast with them ... and my father preached + with them on following peace with holiness, and I concluded with prayer.” + [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 487, App. x.] + </p> + <p> + Yet, although there had been this ostensible reconciliation, those who + have appreciated the sensitiveness to sin, of him whom Dr. Eliot calls the + patriarch and his son, must already feel certain they were incapable of + letting Colman’s impiety pass unrebuked; indeed, the Diary says the + “faithful antidote” was at that moment in the press, and it was not long + before it was published, sanctified by their prayers. The patriarch began + by telling how he was defending the “cause of Christ and of his churches + in New England,” and “if we espouse such principles... we then give away + the whole Congregational cause at once.” [Footnote: <i>Order of the Gospel</i>, + pp. 8, 9.] He assured his hearers that a “wandering Levite” like Colman + was no more a pastor than he who “has no children is a father,” [Footnote: + <i>Idem</i>, p. 102.] he was shocked at the abandonment of the relation of + experiences, and was so scandalized at reading the Bible without comment + he could only describe it as “dumb.” In a word, there was nothing the new + congregation had done which was not displeasing to the Lord; but if they + had offended in one particular more than another it was in establishing a + man in “the pastoral office without the approbation of neighbouring + churches or elders.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 8.] To this solemn + admonition Colman and William Brattle had the irreverence to prepare a + reply smacking of levity; nevertheless, they began with a grave and noble + definition of their principles. “The liberties and privileges which our + Lord Jesus Christ has given to his church ... consist ... in ... that our + consciences be not imposed on by men or their traditions.” “We are + reflected on as casting dishonour on our parents, & their pious design + in the first settlement of this land.... Some have made this the great + design, to be freed from the impositions of men in the worship of God.... + In this we are risen up to make good their grounds.” [Footnote: <i>Gospel + Order Revived</i>, Epistle Dedicatory.] + </p> + <p> + They then went on to expose the abuse of public relations of experiences: + “But this is the misery, the more meek and fearful are hereby kept out of + God’s house, while the more conceited and presumptuous never boggle at + this, or anything else. But it seems there is a gross corruption of this + laudable practice which the author does well to censure; and that is, when + some, who have no good intention of their own, get others to devise a + relation for them.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 9.] They even dared to + intimate that it did not savor of modesty for the patriarch “to think any + one of his sermons, or short comments, can edifie more than the reading of + twenty chapters.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 15.] And then they added some + sentences, which were afterward declared by the venerable victim to be as + scurrilous as other portions of the pamphlet were profane. + </p> + <p> + “We are assured, the author is esteemed more a Presbyterian than a + Congregational man, by scores of his friends in London. He is lov’d and + reverenced for a moderate spirit, a peaceable disposition, and a temper so + widely different from his late brothers in London.... Did our reverend + author appear the same here, we should be his easie proselites too. But we + are loath to say how he forfeits that venerable character, which might + have consecrated his name to posterity, more than his learning, or other + honorary titles can.” [Footnote: <i>Gospel Order Revived</i>, pp. 34, 35.] + </p> + <p> + No printer in Boston dared to be responsible for this ribaldry, and when + it came home from New York and was actually cast before the people, words + fail to convey the condition into which the patriarch was thrown. At last + his emotions found a vent in a tract which he prepared jointly with his + son. + </p> + <p> + “A moral heathen would not have done as he has done. [Footnote: <i>Collection + of Some of the More Offensive Matters</i>, Preface.]... There is no one + thing, which does more threaten or disgrace New-England, than want of due + respect unto superiors. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 10.]... It is a + disgrace to the name of Presbyterian, that such as he is should pretend + unto it. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 12.]... and if our children should + learn from them, ... we may tremble to think, what a flood of profaneness + and atheism would break in upon us, and ripen us for the dreadfullest + judgments of God. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 7.]... They assault him [the + aged president] with a volley of rude jeers and taunts, as if they were so + many children of Bethel.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 8.] Among these + taunts some struck deep, for they are quoted at length. “‘Abundance of + people have long obstinately believed, that the contest on his part, is + more for lordship and dominion, than for truth.’ But there are many more + such passages, which laid altogether, would make a considerable dung-hil.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 9.] They dwelt with pathos upon those sacred + rites desecrated by these “unsanctified” “young men” in their “miserable + pamphlet.” “The Lord is exceedingly glorified, and his people are edified, + by the accounts, which the candidates, of the communion in our churches + give of that self-examination which is by plain institution ... a + qualification, of the communicants. Now these think it not enough to + charge the churches, which require & expect such accounts, with + exceedingly provoking the Lord. But of the tears dropt by holy souls on + those occasions, they say with a scoff, ‘whether they be for joy or grief, + we are left in the dark.’” [Footnote: <i>Collection of Some of the More + Offensive Matters</i>, p. 6.] But the suffering divines found peace in + knowing that Christ himself would inflict the punishment upon these + abandoned men which the priests would have meted out with holy joy had + they still possessed the power. + </p> + <p> + “Considering that the things contained in their pamphlet, are a deep + apostasy, in conjunction with such open impiety, and profane scurrility + against the holy wayes in which our fathers walked, in case it become the + sin of the land, (as it will do if not duely testified against) we may + fear that some heavy judgment will come upon the whole land. And will not + the holy Lord Jesus Christ, who walks in the midst of his golden + candlesticks, make all the churches to know ... that these men have + provoked the Lord!” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, pp. 18, 19.] + </p> + <p> + Yet, notwithstanding the Mathers’ piteous prayers, God heeded them not, + and the rising tide that was sweeping over them soon drowned their cries. + Brattle Street congregation became an honored member of the orthodox + communion, the principles which animated its founders spread apace, and + the name of Benjamin Colman waxed great in the land. The liberals had + penetrated the stronghold of the church. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. — HARVARD COLLEGE. + </h2> + <p> + For more than two centuries one ceaseless anthem of adulation has been + chanted in Massachusetts in honor of the ecclesiastics who founded Harvard + University, and this act has not infrequently been cited as + incontrovertible proof that they were both liberal and progressive at + heart. The laudation of ancestors is a task as easy as it is popular; but + history deals with the sequence of cause and effect, and an examination of + facts, apart from sentiment, tends to show that in building a college the + clergy were actuated by no loftier motive than intelligent self-interest, + if, indeed, they were not constrained thereto by the inexorable exigencies + of their position. + </p> + <p> + The truth of this proposition becomes apparent if the soundness of the + following analysis be conceded. + </p> + <p> + There would seem to be a point in the pathway of civilization where every + race passes more or less completely under the dominion of a sacred caste; + when and how the more robust have emerged into freedom is uncertain, but + enough is known to make it possible to trace the process by which this + insidious power is acquired, and the means by which it is perpetuated. A + flood of light has, moreover, been shed on this class of subjects by the + recent remarkable investigations among the Zuñis. [Footnote: Made by Mr. + F. H. Cushing, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution.] + </p> + <p> + Most American Indians are in the matriarchal period of development, which + precedes the patriarchal; and it is then, should they become sedentary, + that caste appears to be born. Some valuable secret, such as a cure for + the bite of the rattlesnake, is discovered, and this gives the finder, and + chosen members of his clan with whom he shares it, a peculiar sanctity in + the eyes of the rest of the tribe. Like facts, however, become known to + other clans, and then coalitions are made which take the form of esoteric + societies, and from these the stronger savages gradually exclude the + weaker and their descendants. Meanwhile an elaborate ritual is developed, + and so an hereditary priesthood comes into life, which always claims to + have received its knowledge by revelation, and which teaches that + resistance to its will is sacrilege. Nevertheless the sacerdotal power is + seldom firmly established without a struggle, the memory whereof is + carefully preserved as a warning of the danger of incurring the divine + wrath. A good example of such a myth is the fable of the rebellious Zuñi + fire-priest, who at the prayer of his orthodox brethren was destroyed with + all his clan by a boiling torrent poured from the burning mountain, sacred + to their order, by the avenging gods. Compare this with the story of + Korah; and it is interesting to observe how the priestly chronicler, in + order to throw the profounder awe about his class, has made the great + national prophet the author of the exclusion of the body of the Levites + from the caste, in favor of his own brother. “And they gathered themselves + together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too + much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, ... wherefore then + lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? + </p> + <p> + “And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face.” Then he told Korah and + his followers, who were descendants of Levi and legally entitled to act as + priests by existing customs, to take censers and burn incense, and it + would appear whether the Lord would respect their offering. So every man + took his censer, and Korah and two hundred and fifty more stood in the + door of the tabernacle. + </p> + <p> + Then Moses said, if “the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with + all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye + shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.... + </p> + <p> + “And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, + and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. + </p> + <p> + “They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and + the earth closed upon them:... And all Israel that were round about them + fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up + also.” [Footnote: <i>Numbers</i> xvi.] Traces of a similar conflict are + found in Hindoo sacred literature, and probably the process has been + well-nigh universal. The caste, therefore, originates in knowledge, real + and pretended, kept by secret tradition in certain families, and its power + is maintained by systematized terrorism. But to learn the mysteries and + ritual requires a special education, hence those destined for the + priesthood have careful provision made for their instruction. The youthful + Zuñi is taught at the sacred college at the shrine of his order; the pious + Hindoo lives for years with some famous Brahmin; as soon as the down came + on the cheek, the descendants of Aaron were taken into the Temple at + Jerusalem, and all have read how Hannah carried the infant Samuel to the + house of the Lord at Shiloh, and how the child did minister unto the Lord + before Eli the priest. + </p> + <p> + These facts seem to lead to well-defined conclusions when applied to New + England history. In their passionate zeal the colonists conceived the idea + of reproducing, as far as they could, the society of the Pentateuch, or, + in other words, of reverting to the archaic stage of caste; and in point + of fact they did succeed in creating a theocratic despotism which lasted + in full force for more than forty years. Of course, in the seventeenth + century such a phase of feeling was ephemeral; but the phenomena which + attended it are exceptionally interesting, and possibly they are somewhat + similar to those which accompany the liberation of a primitive people. + </p> + <p> + The knowledge which divided the Massachusetts clergy from other men was + their supposed proficiency in the interpretation of the ancient writings + containing the revelations of God. For the perpetuation of this lore a + seminary was as essential to them as an association of priests for the + instruction of neophytes is to the Zuni now, or as the training at the + Temple was to the Jews. In no other way could the popular faith in their + special sanctity be sustained. It is also true that few priesthoods have + made more systematic use of terror. The slaughter of Anne Hutchinson and + her family was exultingly declared to be the judgment of God for defaming + the elders. Increase Mather denounced the disobedient Colman in the words + of Moses to Korah; Cotton Mather revelled in picturing the torments of the + bewitched; and, even in the last century Jonathan Edwards frightened + people into convulsions by his preaching. On the other hand, it is obvious + that the reproduction of the Mosaic law could not in the nature of things + have been complete; and the two weak points in the otherwise strong + position of the clergy were that the spirit of their age did not permit + them to make their order hereditary, nor, although their college was a + true theological school, did they perceive the danger of allowing any lay + admixture. The tendency to weaken the force of the discipline is obvious, + yet they were led to abandon the safe Biblical precedent, not only by + their own early associations, but by their hatred of anything savoring of + Catholicism. + </p> + <p> + Men to be great leaders must exalt their cause above themselves; and if so + godly a man as the Rev. Increase Mather can be said to have had a human + failing it was an inordinate love of money and of flattery. The first of + these peculiarities showed itself early in life when, as his son says, he + was reluctant to settle at the North Church, because of “views he had of + greater service elsewhere.” [Footnote: <i>Parentator</i>, p. 25.] In other + words, the parish was not liberal; for it seems “the deacons ... were not + spirited like some that have succeeded them; and the leaders of the more + honest people also, were men of a low, mean, sordid spirit.... For one of + his education, and erudition, and gentlemanly spirit, and conversation, to + be so creepled and kept in such a depressing poverty!—In these + distresses, it was to little purpose for him to make his complaint unto + man! If he had, it would have been basely improved unto his disadvantage.” + [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 30.] His diary teemed with repinings. “Oh! that + the Lord Jesus, who hears my complaints before him, would either give an + heart to my people to look after my comfortable subsistance among them, or + ... remove me to another people, who will take care of me, that so I may + be in a capacity to attend his work, and glorify his name in my + generation.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 33.] However, matters mended with + him, for we are assured that “the Glorious One who knew the works, and the + service and the patience of this tempted man, ordered it, that several + gentlemen of good estate, and of better spirit, were become the members of + his church;” and from them he had “such filial usages... as took away from + him all room of repenting, that he had not under his temptations + prosecuted a removal from them.” [Footnote: <i>Parentator</i>, pp. 34, + 35.] + </p> + <p> + The presidency of Harvard, though nominally the highest place a clergyman + could hold in Massachusetts, had always been one of poverty and + self-denial; for the salary was paid by the legislature, which, as the + unfortunate Dunster had found, was not disposed to be generous. Therefore, + although Mr. Mather was chosen president in 1685, and was afterward + confirmed as rector by Andros, he was far too pious to be led again into + those temptations from which he had been delivered by the interposition of + the Glorious One; and the last thing he proposed was to go into residence + and give up his congregation. Besides, he was engrossed in politics and + went to England in 1688, where he stayed four years. Meanwhile the real + control of education was left in the hands of Leverett, who was appointed + tutor in 1686, and of William Brattle, who was in full sympathy with his + policy. Among the many powers usurped by the old trading company was that + of erecting corporations; hence the effect of the judgment vacating the + patent had been to annul the college charter which had been granted by the + General Court; [Footnote: 23 May, 1650. <i>Mass. Rec.</i> iii. 195.] and + although the institution had gone on much as usual after the Revolution, + its position was felt to be precarious. Such being the situation when the + patriarch came home in 1692 in the plenitude of power, he conceived the + idea of making himself the untrammelled master of the university, and he + forthwith caused a bill to be introduced into the legislature which would + certainly have produced that result. [Footnote: <i>Province Laws</i>, + 1692-93, c. 10.] Nor did he meet with any serious opposition in + Massachusetts, where his power was, for the moment, well-nigh supreme. His + difficulty lay with the king, since the fixed policy of Great Britain was + to foster Episcopalianism, and of course to obtain some recognition for + that sect at Cambridge. And so it came to pass that all the advantage he + reaped by the enactment of this singular law was a degree of Doctor of + Divinity [Footnote: Sept. 5, 1692. Quincy’s <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. + 71.] which he gave himself between the approval of the bill by Phips and + its rejection at London. The compliment was the more flattering, however, + as it was the first ever granted in New England. But the clouds were fast + gathering over the head of this good man. Like many another benefactor of + his race, he was doomed to experience the pangs inflicted by ingratitude, + and indeed his pain was so acute he seldom lost an opportunity of giving + it public expression; to use his own words of some years later, “these are + the last lecture sermons... to be preached by me.... The ill treatment + which I have had from those from whom I had reason to have expected + better, have discouraged me from being any more concerned on such + occasions.” [Footnote: Address to Sermon, <i>The Righteous Man a Blessing</i>, + 1702.] + </p> + <p> + Certainly he was in a false position; he was necessarily unappreciated by + the liberals, and he had not only alienated many staunch conservatives by + his acceptance of the charter, but he had embittered them, by rigorously + excluding all except his particular faction from Phips’s council. To his + deep chagrin, the elections of 1693 went in favor of many of these + thankless men, and his discontent soon took the form of an intense longing + to go abroad in some official position which would give him importance. + The only possible opening seemed to be to get himself made agent to + negotiate a charter for Harvard; and therefore he soon had “angelical” + suggestions that God needed him in England to glorify his name. + </p> + <p> + “1693. September 3d. As I was riding to preach at Cambridge, I prayed to + God,—begged that my labors might be blessed to the souls of the + students; at the which I was much melted. Also saying to the Lord, that + some workings of his Providence seemed to intimate, that I must be + returned to England again; ... I was inexpressibly melted, and that for a + considerable time, and a stirring suggestion, that to England I must go. + In this there was something extraordinary, either divine or angelical.” + </p> + <p> + “December 30th. Meltings before the Lord this day when praying, desiring + being returned to England again, there to do service to his name, and + persuasions that the Lord will appear therein.” + </p> + <p> + “1694. January 27th. Prayers and supplications that tidings may come from + England, that may be some direction to me, as to my returning thither or + otherwise, as shall be most for his glory.” + </p> + <p> + “March 13th. This morning with prayers and tears I begged of God that I + might hear from my friends and acquaintance in England something that + should encourage and comfort me. Such tidings are coming, but I know not + what it is. God has heard me.” [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. + 475, 476, App. ix.] + </p> + <p> + His craving to escape from the country was increased by the nagging of the + legislature; for so early as December, 1693, the representatives passed + the first of a long series of resolves, “that the president of Harvard + College for the time being shall reside there, as hath been accustomed in + time past.” [Footnote: <i>Court Rec.</i> vi. 316.] Now this was precisely + what the Reverend Doctor was determined he would not do; nor could he + resign without losing all hope of his agency; so it is not surprising that + as time went on he wrestled with the Deity. + </p> + <p> + 1698. “September 25th. This day as I was wrestling with the Lord, he gave + me glorious and heart-melting persuasions, that he has work for me to do + in England, for the glory of his name. My soul rejoiceth in the Lord.” + [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 480, App. ix.] + </p> + <p> + Doubtless his trials were severe, but the effect upon his temper was + unfortunate. He brought forward scheme after scheme, and the corporation + was made to address the legislature, and then the legislature was pestered + to accede to the prayer of the corporation, until everybody was wrought to + a pitch of nervous irritation; he himself was always jotting in his Diary + what he had on foot, mixed with his hopes and prayers. + </p> + <p> + “1696. December 11th. I was with the representatives in the General Court, + and did acquaint them with my purpose of undertaking a voyage for England + in the spring (if the Lord will), in order to the attainment of a good + settlement for the college.” + </p> + <p> + “December 28th. The General Court have done nothing for the poor + college.... The corporation are desirous that I should go to England on + the college’s account.” + </p> + <p> + 1696. “April 19th (Sabbath.) In the morning, as I was praying in my + closet, my heart was marvellously melted with the persuasion, that I + should glorify Christ in England.” + </p> + <p> + “1697. June 7th. Discourse with ministers about the college, and the + corporation unanimously desired me to take a voyage for England on the + college’s account.” [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 476, App. + ix.] + </p> + <p> + But of what the senior tutor was doing with the rising generation he took + no note at all. His attention was probably first attracted by rumors of + the Brattle Church revolt, for not till 1697 was he able to divert his + thoughts from himself long enough to observe that all was not as it should + be at Cambridge. Then, at length, he made an effort to get rid of Leverett + by striking his name from the list of fellows when a bill for + incorporation was brought into the legislature; but this crafty politician + had already become too strong in the house of representatives, of which he + was soon after made speaker. + </p> + <p> + Two years later, however, the conservative clergy made a determined effort + and prepared a bill containing a religious test, which they supported with + a petition praying “that, in the charter for the college, our holy + religion may be secured to us and unto our posterity, by a provision, that + no person shall be chosen president, or fellow, of the college, but such + as declare their adherence unto the principles of reformation, which were + espoused and intended by those who first settled the country ... and have + hitherto been the general profession of New England.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + i. 99.] This time they narrowly missed success, for the bill passed the + houses, but was vetoed by Lord Bellomont. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto Cotton Mather had shown an unfilial lack of interest in his + father’s ambition to serve the public; but this summer he also began to + have assurances from God. One cause for his fervor may have been the death + of the Rev. Mr. Morton, who was conceded to stand next in succession to + the presidency, and he therefore supposed himself to be sure of the office + should a vacancy occur. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, i. 102.] + </p> + <p> + “1699. 7th d. 4th m. (June.) The General Court has, divers times of late + years, had under consideration the matter of the settlement of the + college, which was like still to issue in a voyage of my father to + England, and the matter is now again considered. I have made much prayer + about it many and many a time. Nevertheless, I never could have my mind + raised unto any particular faith about it, one way or another. But this + day, as I was (may I not say) in the spirit, it was in a powerful manner + assured me from heaven, that my father should one day be carried into + England, and that he shall there glorify the Lord Jesus Christ;... And + thou, O Mather the younger, shalt live to see this accomplished!” + [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 482, 483, App. x.] + </p> + <p> + “16th d. 5th m. (July.) Being full of distress in my spirit, as I was at + prayer in my study at noon, it was told me from heaven, that my father + shall be carried from me unto England, and that my opportunities to + glorify the Lord Jesus Christ will, on that occasion, <i>be gloriously + accommodated</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “18th d. 5th m.... And now behold a most unintelligible dispensation! At + this very time, even about noon, instead of having the bill for the + college enacted, as was expected, the governor plainly rejected it, + because of a provision therein, made for the religion of the country.” + </p> + <p> + After the veto the patriarch seems to have got the upper hand for a + season, and to have made some arrangement by which he evicted his + adversary, as appears by a very dissatisfied letter written by Leverett in + August, 1699: “As soon as I got home I was informed, that Rev. President + (I. M.), held a corporation at the college the 7th inst., and the said + corporation, after the publication of the <i>new settlement</i>, made + choice of Mr. Flynt to be one of the tutors at college.... I have not the + late act for incorporating the college at hand, nor have I seen the new + temporary settlement; but I perceive, that all the members of the late + corporation were not notified to be at the meeting. I can’t say how legal + these late proceedings are; but it is wonderful, that an establishment for + so short a time as till October next, should be made use of so soon to + introduce an unnecessary addition to that society.” [Footnote: <i>History + of Harvard</i>, i. 500, App. xvi.] + </p> + <p> + A long weary year passed, during which Dr. Mather must have suffered + keenly from the public ingratitude; still, at its end he was happy, since + he felt certain of being rewarded by the Lord; for, just as the earl’s + administration was closing, he had succeeded by unremitting toil in so + adjusting the legislature as to think the spoil his own; when, alas, + suddenly, without warning, in the most distressing manner, the prize + slipped into Bellomont’s pocket. How severely his faith was tried appears + from his son’s Diary. + </p> + <p> + “1700. 16th d. 4th mo. (Lord’s Day.) I am going to relate one of the most + astonishing things that ever befell in all the time of my pilgrimage. + </p> + <p> + “A particular faith had been unaccountably produced in my father’s heart, + and in my own, that God will carry him unto England, and there give him a + short but great opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, before his + entrance into the heavenly kingdom. There appears no probability of my + father’s going thither but in an agency to obtain a charter for the + college. This matter having been for several years upon the very point of + being carried in the General Assembly, hath strangely miscarried when it + hath come to the birth. It is now again before the Assembly, in + circumstances wherein if it succeed not, it is never like to be revived + and resumed any more.... + </p> + <p> + “But the matter in the Assembly being likely now to come unto nothing, I + was in this day in extreme distress of spirit concerning it.... After I + had finished all the other duties of this day, I did in my distress cast + myself prostrate on my study floor before the Lord.... I spread before him + the consequences of things, and the present posture and aspect of them, + and, having told the Lord, that I had always taken a particular faith to + be a work of heaven on the minds of the faithful, but if it should prove a + deceit in that remarkable instance which was now the cause of my agony, I + should be cast into a most wonderful confusion; I then begged of the Lord, + that, if my particular faith about my father’s voyage to England were not + a delusion, he would be pleased to renew it upon me. All this while my + heart had the coldness of a stone upon it, and the straitness that is to + be expected from the lone exercise of reason. But now all on the sudden I + felt an inexpressible force to fall on my mind, an afflatus, which cannot + be described in words; <i>none knows it but he that has it</i>.... It was + told me, that the Lord Jesus Christ loved my father, and loved me, and + that he took delight in us, as in two of his faithful servants, and that + he had not permitted us to be deceived in our particular faith, but that + my father should be carried into England, and there glorify the Lord Jesus + Christ before his passing into glory.... + </p> + <p> + “Having left a flood of tears from me, by these rages from the invisible + world, on my study floor, I rose and went into my chair. There I took up + my Bible, and the first place that I opened was at Acts xxvii. 23-25, + ‘There stood by me an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, + Fear not, thou must be brought before Caesar.’ ... A new flood of tears + gushed from my flowing eyes, and I broke out into these expressions. + ‘What! shall my father yet appear before Caesar! Has an angel from heaven + told me so! And must I believe what has been told me! Well then, it shall + be so! It shall be so!’” + </p> + <p> + “And now what shall I say! When the affair of my father’s agency after + this came to a turning point in the court, it strangely miscarried! All + came to nothing! Some of the Tories had so wrought upon the governor, + that, though he had first moved this matter, and had given us both + directions and promises about it, yet he now (not without base + unhandsomeness) deferred it. The lieutenant-governor, who had formerly + been for it, now (not without great ebullition of unaccountable prejudice + and ingratitude) appeared, with all the little tricks imaginable, to + confound it. It had for all this been carried, had not some of the council + been inconveniently called off and absent. But now the whole affair of the + college was left unto the management of the Earl of Bellamont, so that all + expectation of a voyage for my father unto England, on any such occasion, + is utterly at an end.” [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 484-486, + App. x.] + </p> + <p> + During all these years the legislature had been steadily passing + resolutions requiring the president to go into residence; and in 1698 they + went so far as to vote him the liberal salary, for that age, of two + hundred pounds, and appointed a committee to wait upon him. Judge Sewall + describes the interview:— + </p> + <p> + “Mr. President expostulated with Mr. Speaker ... about the votes being + alter’d from 250 [£.?].” ... “We urg’d his going all we could; I told him + of his birth and education here; that he look’d at work rather than wages, + all met in desiring him.... Objected want of a house, bill for corporation + not pass’d ... must needs preach once every week, which he preferred + before the gold and silver of the West-Indies. I told him would preach + twice aday to the students. He said that [exposition] was nothing like + preaching.” [Footnote: Sewall’s <i>Diary</i>. <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> + fifth series, v. 487.] And in this the patriarch spoke the truth; for if + there was anything he loved more than money it was the incense of + adulation which steamed up to his nostrils from a great congregation. Of + course he declined; and yet this importunity pained the good man, not + because there was any conflict in his mind between his duty to a cause he + held sacred and his own interest, but because it was “a thing contrary to + the faith marvellously wrought into my soul, that God will give me an + opportunity to serve and glorify Christ in England, I set the day apart to + cry to heaven about it.” [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, vi. 481, + App. ix.] + </p> + <p> + There were limits, however, even to the patience of the Massachusetts + Assembly with an orthodox divine; and no sooner was the question of the + agency decided by the appointment of Bellomont, than it addressed itself + resolutely to the seemingly hopeless task of forcing Dr. Mather to settle + in Cambridge or resign his office. On the 10th of July, 1700, they voted + him two hundred and twenty pounds a year, and they appointed a committee + to obtain from him a categorical answer. This time he thought it prudent + to feign compliance; and after a “suitable place... for the reception and + entertainment of the president” had been prepared at the public expense, + he moved out of town and stayed till the 17th of October, when he went + back to Boston, and wrote to tell Stoughton his health was suffering. His + disingenuousness seems to have given Leverett the opportunity for which he + had been waiting; and his acting as chairman of a committee appointed by + the representatives suggests his having forced the issue; it was resolved + that, should Mr. Mather be absent from the college, his duties should + devolve upon Samuel Willard, the vice-president; [Footnote: <i>History of + Harvard</i>, i. 111; <i>Court Rec.</i> vii. 172, 175.] and in March the + committee apparently reported the president’s house to be in good + condition. Stimulated by this hint, the doctor went back to Cambridge and + stayed a little more than three months, when he wrote a characteristic + note to Stoughton, who was acting governor. “I promised the last General + Court to take care of the college until the Commencement. Accordingly I + have been residing in Cambridge these three months. I am determined (if + the Lord will) to return to Boston the next week, and no more return to + reside in Cambridge; for it is not reasonable to desire me to be (as, out + of respect to the public interest, I have been six months within this + twelve) any longer absent from my family.... I do therefore earnestly + desire, that the General Court would... think of another president.... It + would be fatal to the interest of religion, if a person disaffected to the + order of the Gospel, professed and practised in these churches, should + preside over this society. I know the General Assembly, out of their + regard to the interest of Christ, will take care to prevent it.” + [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 501, App. xvii.] Yet though he + himself begged the legislature to select his successor, in his inordinate + vanity he did not dream of being taken at his word; so when he was invited + to meet both houses in the council chamber he explained with perfect + cheerfulness how “he was now removed from Cambridge to Boston, and ... did + not think fitt to continue his residence there, ... but, if the court + thought fit to desire he should continue his care of the colledge as + formerly, he would do so.” [Footnote: <i>Court Records</i>, vii. 229.] + </p> + <p> + Increase Mather delighted to blazon himself as Christ’s foremost champion + in the land. He predicted, and with reason, that should those who had been + already designated succeed him at Harvard, it would be fatal to that cause + to which his life was vowed. The alternative was presented of serving + himself or God, and to him it seemed unreasonable of his friends to expect + of him a choice. And yet when, as was his wont, he would describe himself + from the pulpit, as a refulgent beacon blazing before New England, he + would use such words as these: “Every ... one of a publick spirit ... will + deny himself as to his worldly interests, provided he may thereby promove + the welfare of his people.... He will not only deny himself, but if called + thereto, will encounter the greatest difficulties and dangers for the + publicks sake.” [Footnote: Sermon, <i>The Publick Spirited Man</i>, pp. 7, + 9.] + </p> + <p> + The man had presumed too far; the world was wearying of him. On September + 6, 1701, the government was transferred to Samuel Willard, the + vice-president, and Harvard was lost forever. [Footnote: <i>History of + Harvard</i>, i. 116.] + </p> + <p> + No education is so baleful as the ecclesiastical, because it breeds the + belief in men that resistance to their will is not only a wrong to their + country and themselves, but a sacrilege toward God. The Mathers were now + to give an illustration of the degree to which the theocratic training + debauched the mind; and it is only necessary to observe that Samuel + Sewall, who tells the story, was educated for the ministry, and was + perhaps as staunch a conservative as there was in the province. + </p> + <p> + 1701, “October 20. Mr. Cotton Mather came to Mr. Wilkins’s shop, and there + talked very sharply against me as if I had used his father worse than a + neger; spake so loud that people in the street might hear him.... I had + read in the morn Mr. Dod’s saying; Sanctified afflictions are good + promotions. I found it now a cordial.” + </p> + <p> + “October 9. I sent Mr. Increase Mather a hanch of very good venison; I + hope in that I did not treat him as a negro.” + </p> + <p> + “October 2, 1701. I, with Major Walley and Capt. Samuel Checkly, speak + with Mr. Cotton Mather at Mr. Wilkins’s.... I told him of his book of the + Law of Kindness for the Tongue, whether this were correspondent with that. + Whether correspondent with Christ’s rule: + </p> + <p> + “He said, having spoken to me before there was no need to speak to me + again; and so justified his reviling me behind my back. Charg’d the + council with lying, hypocrisy, tricks, and I know not what all. I ask’d + him if it were done with that meekness as it should; Answer’d, Yes. + Charg’d the council in general, and then shew’d my share, which was my + speech in council; viz. If Mr. Mather should goe to Cambridge again to + reside there with a resolution not to read the Scriptures, and expound in + the Hall: I fear the example of it will do more hurt than his going + thither will doe good. This speech I owned.... I ask’d him if I should + supose he had done somthing amiss in his church as an officer; whether it + would be well for me to exclaim against him in the street for it.” + </p> + <p> + “Thorsday October 23. Mr. Increase Mather said at Mr. Wilkins’s, If I am a + servant of Jesus Christ, some great judgment will fall on Capt. Sewall, or + his family.” [Footnote: Sewall’s <i>Diary. Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fifth + series, vi. 43-45.] + </p> + <p> + Had the patriarch been capable of a disinterested action, for the sake of + those principles he professed to love, he would have stopped Willard’s + presidency, no matter at what personal cost, for he knew him to be no + better than a liberal in disguise, and he had already quarrelled bitterly + with him in 1697 when he was trying to eject Leverett. Sewall noted on + “Nov. 20.... Mr. Willard told me of the falling out between the president + and him about chusing fellows last Monday. Mr. Mather has sent him word, + he will never come to his house more till he give him satisfaction.” + [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fifth series, v. 464.] But they had in + reality separated years before; for when, in the witchcraft terror, + Willard was cried out upon, and had to look a shameful death in the face, + he learned to feel that the men who were willing to risk their lives to + save him were by no means public enemies. And so, as the vice-president + lived in Boston, the administration of the college was left very much to + Leverett and the Brattles, who were presently reinstated. + </p> + <p> + Joseph Dudley was the son of that old governor who wrote the verses about + the cockatrice to be hatched by toleration, yet he inherited very little + of his father’s disposition. He was bred for the ministry, and as the + career did not attract him, he turned to politics, in which he made a + brilliant opening. At first he was the hope of the high churchmen, but + they afterward learned to hate him with a rancor exceptional even toward + their enemies. And he gave them only too good a handle against him, for he + was guilty of the error of selling himself without reserve to the Andros + government. At the Revolution he suffered a long imprisonment, and + afterward went to England, where he passed most of William’s reign. There + his ability soon brought him forward, he was made lieutenant-governor of + the Isle of Wight, was returned to Parliament, and at last appointed + governor by Queen Anne. Though Massachusetts owes a deeper debt to few of + her chief magistrates, there are few who have found scantier praise at the + hands of her historians. He was, it is true, an unscrupulous politician + and courtier, but his mind was broad and vigorous, his policy wise and + liberal, and at the moment of his power his influence was of inestimable + value. + </p> + <p> + Among his other gifts, he was endowed with infinite tact, and when working + for his office he managed not only to conciliate the Mathers, but even to + induce the son to write a letter in his favor; and so when he arrived in + 1702 they were both sedulous in their attentions in the expectation of + controlling him. A month had not passed, however, before this ominous + entry was made in the younger’s diary:— + </p> + <p> + “June 16, 1702. I received a visit from Governour Dudley.... I said to him + ... I should be content, I would approve it, ... if any one should say to + your excellency, ‘By no means let any people have cause to say, that you + take all your measures from the two Mr. Mathers.’ By the same rule I may + say without offence,’ By no means let any people say, that you go by no + measures in your conduct, but Mr. Byfield’s and Mr. Leverett’s.’... The + WRETCH went unto those men and told them, that I had advised him to be no + ways advised by them; and inflamed them into an implacable rage against + me.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> first series, iii. 137.] + </p> + <p> + Leverett, on the contrary, now reached his zenith; from the house he + passed into the council and became one of Dudley’s most trusted advisers. + The Mathers were no match for these two men, and few routs have been more + disastrous than theirs. Lord Bellomont’s sudden death had put an end to + all hope of obtaining a charter by compromise with England, and no further + action had been taken, when, on September 12, 1707, Willard died. On the + 28th of October the fellows met and chose John Leverett president of + Harvard College; and then came a demonstration which proved not only + Increase Mather’s prescience, when he foretold how a liberal university + would kill a disciplined church, but which shows the mighty influence a + devoted teacher can have upon his age. Thirty-nine ministers addressed + Governor Dudley thus:— + </p> + <p> + “We have lately, with great joy, understood the great and early care that + our brethren, who have the present care and oversight of the college at + Cambridge, have taken, ... by their unanimous choice of Mr. John Leverett, + ... to be the president ... Your Excellency personally knows Mr. Leverett + so well, that we shall say the less of him. However, we cannot but give + this testimony of our great affection to and esteem for him; that we are + abundantly satisfied ... of his religion, learning, and other excellent + accomplishments for that eminent service, a long experience of which we + had while he was senior fellow of that house; for that, under the wise and + faithful government of him, and the Rev. Mr. Brattle, of Cambridge, the + greatest part of the now rising ministry in New England were happily + educated; and we hope and promise ourselves, through the blessing of the + God of our fathers, to see religion and learning thrive and flourish in + that society, under Mr. Leverett’s wise conduct and influence, as much as + ever yet it hath done.” [Footnote: <i>History of Harvard</i>, i. 504, App. + xx.] + </p> + <p> + His salary was only one hundred and fifty pounds a year; but the man + worked for love of a great cause, and did not stop to haggle. Nor were he + and Dudley of the temper to leave a task half done. Undoubtedly at the + governor’s instigation, a resolve was introduced into the Assembly + reviving the Act of 1650 by which the university had been incorporated, + and it is by the sanction of this lawless and masterly feat of + statesmanship that Harvard has been administered for almost two hundred + years. + </p> + <p> + Sewall tells how Dudley went out in state to inaugurate his friend. “The + governour prepared a Latin speech for instalment of the president. Then + took the president by the hand and led him down into the hall;... The + governour sat with his back against a noble fire.... Then the governour + read his speech ... and mov’d the books in token of their delivery. Then + president made a short Latin speech, importing the difficulties + discouraging, and yet that he did accept: ... Clos’d with the hymn to the + Trinity. Had a very good dinner upon 3 or 4 tables.... Got home very well. + <i>Laus Deo.</i>” [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fifth series, vi. + 209.] + </p> + <p> + Nor did Dudley fail to provide the new executive with fit support. By the + old law he had revived the corporation was reduced to seven; of this board + Leverett himself was one, and on the day he took his office both the + Brattles and Pemberton were also appointed. And more than this, when, a + few years later, Pemberton died, the arch-rebel, Benjamin Colman, was + chosen in his place. The liberal triumph was complete, and in looking back + through the vista of the past, there are few pages of our history more + strongly stamped with the native energy of the New England mind than this + brilliant capture of Harvard, by which the ancient cradle of bigotry and + superstition was made the home of American liberal thought. As for the + Mathers, when they found themselves beaten in fair fight, they conceived a + revenge so dastardly that Pemberton declared with much emotion he would + humble them, were he governor, though it cost him his head. Being unable + longer to withstand Dudley by honorable means, they tried to blast him by + charging him with felony. Their letters are too long to be reproduced in + full; but their purport may be guessed by the extracts given, and to this + day they remain choice gems of theocratic morality. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + SIR, That I have had a singular respect for you, the Lord knows; but that + since your arrival to the government, my charitable expectations have been + greatly disappointed, I may not deny.... + </p> + <p> + 1st. I am afraid you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of bribery and + unrighteousness.... + </p> + <p> + 2d. I am afraid that you have not been true to the interest of your + country, as God (considering his marvellous dispensations towards you) and + his people have expected from you.... + </p> + <p> + 3d. I am afraid that you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of much + hypocrisy and falseness in the affair of the college.... + </p> + <p> + 4th. I am afraid that the guilt of innocent blood is still crying in the + ears of the Lord against you. I mean the blood of Leister and Milburn. My + Lord Bellamont said to me, that he was one of the committee of Parliament + who examined the matter; and that those men were not only murdered, but + barbarously murdered.... + </p> + <p> + 5th. I am afraid that the Lord is offended with you, in that you + ordinarily forsake the worship of God in the holy church to which you are + related, in the afternoon on the Lord’s day, and after the publick + exercise, spend the whole time with some persons reputed very ungodly men. + I am sure your father did not so.... Would you choose to be with them or + such as they are in another world, unto which you are hastening?... I am + under pressures of conscience to bear a publick testimony without respect + of persons.... I trust in Christ that when I am gone, I shall obtain a + good report of my having been faithful before him. To his mercy I commend + you, and remain in him, + </p> + <p> + Yours to serve, I. MATHER. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> first + series, iii. 126.] BOSTON, <i>January</i> 20, 1707-8. To the Governour. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + BOSTON, <i>Jan</i>. 20, 1707-8. + </p> + <p> + Sir, There have appeared such things in your conduct, that a just concern + for the welfare of your excellency seems to render it necessary, that you + should be <i>faithfully</i> advised of them.... You will give me leave to + write nothing, but in a style, whereof an ignorant mob, to whom (as well + as the General Assembly) you think fit to communicate what <i>fragments</i> + you please of my letters, must be <i>competent judges</i>. I must proceed + accordingly.... I weakly believed that the wicked and horrid things done + before the righteous Revolution, had been heartily repented of; and that + the rueful business at New York, which many illustrious persons ... called + a barbarous murder, ... had been considered with such a repentance, as + might save you and your family from any further storms of heaven for the + revenging of it.... Sir, your <i>snare</i> has been that thing, the <i>hatred</i> + whereof is most expressly required of the <i>ruler</i>, namely + COVETOUSNESS. When a governour shall make his government more an engine to + enrich himself, than to <i>befriend his country</i>, and shall by the + unhallowed hunger of riches be prevailed withal to do many wrong, base, + dishonourable things; it is a covetousness which will shut out from the + kingdom of heaven; and sometimes the <i>loss of a government on earth</i> + also is the punishment of it.... The main channel of that covetousness has + been the reign of bribery, which you, sir, have set up in the land, where + it was hardly known, till you brought it in fashion.... And there lie + affidavits before the queen and council, which affirm that you have been + guilty of it in very many instances. I do also know that you have.... + </p> + <p> + Sir, you are sensible that there is a judgment to come, wherein the + glorious Lord will demand, how far you aimed at serving him in your + government; ... how far you did in your government encourage those that + had most of his image upon them, or place your eyes on the wicked of the + land. Your <i>age</i> and <i>health</i>, as well as other circumstances, + greatly invite you, sir, to entertain <i>awful thoughts</i> of this + matter, and solicit the divine mercy through the only sacrifice.... Yet if + the troubles you brought on yourself should procure your abdication and + recess unto a more private condition, and your present <i>parasites</i> + forsake you, as you <i>may be sure they will</i>, I should think it my + duty to do you all the good offices imaginable. + </p> + <p> + Finally, I can forgive and forget injuries; and I hope I am somewhat ready + for <i>sunset</i>; the more for having discharged the duty of this + letter.... + </p> + <p> + Your humble and faithful servant, + </p> + <p> + COTTON MATHER. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> first series, iii. + 128.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + But these venomous priests had tried their fangs upon a resolute and an + able man. Dudley shook them off like vermin. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN, Yours of the 20th instant I received; and the contents, both as + to the matter and manner, astonish me to the last degree. I must think you + have extremely forgot your own station, as well as my character; otherwise + it had been impossible to have made such an open breach upon all the laws + of decency, honour, justice, and Christianity, as you have done in + treating me with an air of superiority and contempt, which would have been + greatly culpable towards a Christian of the lowest order, and is + insufferably rude toward one whom divine Providence has honoured with the + character of your governour.... + </p> + <p> + Why, gentlemen, have you been so long silent? and suffered sin to lie upon + me years after years? You cannot pretend any new information as to the + main of your charge; for you have privately given your tongues a loose + upon these heads, I am well assured, when you thought you could serve + yourselves by exposing me. Surely murder, robberies, and other such + flaming immoralities were as reprovable then as now.... + </p> + <p> + Really, gentlemen, conscience and religion are things too solemn, + venerable, or sacred, to be played with, or made a covering for actions so + disagreeable to the gospel, as these your endeavours to expose me and my + most faithful services to contempt; nay, to unhinge the government.... + </p> + <p> + I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or sixty good + ministers, your equals in the province, have a share in the government of + the college, and advise thereabouts as well as yourselves, and I hope all + will be well.... + </p> + <p> + I am your humble servant, + </p> + <h3> + J. DUDLEY. + </h3> + <p> + To the Reverend Doctors Mathers. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> first + series, iii. 135.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. — THE LAWYERS. + </h2> + <p> + In the age of sacred caste the priest is likewise the law-maker and the + judge, and as succeeding generations of ecclesiastics slowly spin the + intricate web of their ceremonial code, they fail not to teach the people + that their holy ordinances were received of yore from divine lips by some + great prophet. This process is beautifully exemplified in the Old + Testament: though the complicated ritualism of Leviticus was always + reverently attributed to Moses, it was evidently the work of a much later + period; for the present purpose, however, its date is immaterial, it + suffices to follow the account the scribes thought fit to give in Kings. + </p> + <p> + Long after the time of Solomon, Josiah one day sent to inquire about some + repairs then being made at the Temple, when suddenly, “Hilkiah the high + priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in + the house of the Lord.” And he gave the book to Shaphan. + </p> + <p> + “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book... he + rent his clothes.” And he was greatly alarmed for fear of the wrath of the + Lord, because their fathers had not hearkened unto the words of this book; + as indeed it was impossible they should, since they knew nothing about it. + So, to find out what was best to be done, he sent Hilkiah and others to + Huldah the prophetess, who told them that the wrath of the Lord was indeed + kindled, and he would bring evil unto the land; but, because Josiah’s + heart had been tender, and he had humbled himself, and rent his clothes, + and wept when he had heard what was spoken, he should be gathered into his + grave in peace, and his eyes should not see the evil. [Footnote: 2 <i>Kings</i> + xxii.] + </p> + <p> + Such is an example of the process whereby a compilation of canonical + statutes is brought into practical operation by adroitly working upon the + superstitions fears of the civil magistrate; at an earlier period the + priests administer justice in person. + </p> + <p> + Eli judged Israel forty years, and Samuel went on circuit all the days of + his life; “and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, + and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.” [Footnote: 1 <i>Samuel</i> + iv., vii.] But, sooner or later, the time must come when a soldier is + absolutely necessary, both to fight foreign enemies and to enforce + obedience at home; and then some chief is set up whom the clergy think + they can control: thus Samuel anointed Saul to be captain over the Lord’s + inheritance. [Footnote: 1 <i>Samuel</i> x.] So long as the king is + submissive to authority all goes well, but any insubordination is promptly + punished; and this was the fate of Saul. On one occasion, when he was in + difficulty and Samuel happened to be away, he was so rash as to sacrifice + a burnt offering himself; his presumption offended the prophet, who + forthwith declared that his kingdom should not continue. [Footnote: 1 <i>Samuel</i> + xiii.] After this the relations between them went from bad to worse, and + it was not long before the priest began to intrigue with David, whom he + presently anointed. [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, xvi.] The end of it was that + Saul was defeated in battle, as Samuel’s ghost foretold, for not obeying + “the voice of the Lord;” and after a struggle between the houses of Saul + and David, all the elders of Israel went to Hebron, where David made a + league with them, and in return they anointed him king. [Footnote: 2 <i>Samuel</i> + v.]. + </p> + <p> + Thenceforward, or from the moment when a layman assumed control of the + temporal power, the Jewish chronicles teem with the sins and the disasters + of those rulers who did not walk in the way of their fathers, or who, in + other words, were restive under ecclesiastical dictation. + </p> + <p> + So long as this period lasts, during which the sovereign is forced to obey + the behests of the priesthood, an arbitrary despotism is inevitable; nor + can the foundation of equal justice and civil liberty be laid until first + the military, and then the legal profession, has become distinct and + emancipated from clerical control, and jurisprudence has grown into the + recognized calling of a special class. + </p> + <p> + These phenomena tend to explain the peculiar and original direction taken + by legal thought in Massachusetts, for they throw light upon the + influences under which her first generation of lawyers grew up, whose + destiny it was to impress upon her institutions the form they have ever + since retained. + </p> + <p> + The traditions inherited from the theocracy were vicious in the extreme. + For ten years after the settlement the clergy and their aristocratic + allies stubbornly refused either to recognize the common law or to enact a + code; and when at length further resistance to the demands of the freemen + was impossible, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward drew up “The Body of Liberties,” + which, though it perhaps sufficiently defined civil obligations, contained + this extraordinary provision concerning crimes:— + </p> + <p> + “No mans life shall be taken away, no mans honour or good name shall be + stayned, no mans person shall be arested, restrayned, banished, + dismembred, nor any wayes punished, ... unlesse it be by virtue or equitie + of some expresse law of the country waranting the same, ... or in case of + the defect of a law in any parteculer case by the word of God. And in + capitall cases, or in cases concerning dismembring or banishment according + to that word to be judged by the Generall Court.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. + Hist. Coll.</i> third series, viii. 216] + </p> + <p> + The whole of the subtle policy, whereof this legislation forms a part, + well repays attentive study. The relation of the church to the state was + not unlike that of Samuel toward Saul, for no public man could withstand + its attack, as was demonstrated by the fate of Vane. Much of the story has + been told already in describing the process whereby the clergy acquired a + substantial ascendency over the executive and legislature, through their + command of the constituencies which it was the labor of their lives to + fill with loyal retainers. Nothing therefore remains to be done but to + trace the means they employed to invest their order with judicial + attributes. + </p> + <p> + From the outset lawyers were excluded from practice, so the magistrates + were nothing but common politicians who were nominated by the priests; + thus the bench was not only filled with trusty partisans without + professional training or instincts, but also, as they were elected + annually, they were practically removable at pleasure should they by any + chance rebel. Upon these points there is abundant evidence: “The + government was first by way of charter, which was chiefly managed by the + preachers, who by their power with the people made all the magistrates + & kept them so intirely under obedience, that they durst not act + without them. Soe that whensoever anything strange or unusuall was brought + before them, they would not determine the matter without consulting the + preachers, for should any bee soe sturdy as to presume to act of himself + without takeing advice & directions, he might bee sure of it, his + magistracy ended with the year. He could bee noe magistrate for them, that + was not approved and recommended from the pulpit, & he could expect + little recommendation who was not the preacher’s most humble servant. Soe + they who treated, caressed & presented the preachers most, were the + rulers & magistrates among the people.” [Footnote: An Account of the + Colonies, etc., Lambeth MSS. Perry’s <i>Historical Collections</i>, iii. + 48.] + </p> + <p> + From the decisions of such a judiciary the only appeal lay to a popular + assembly, which could always be manipulated. Obviously, ecclesiastical + supervision over the ordinary course of litigation was amply provided for. + The adjudication of the more important controversies was reserved; for it + was expressly enacted that doubtful questions and the higher crimes should + be judged according to the Word of God. This master-stroke resembled + Hilkiah’s when he imposed his book on Josiah; for on no point of + discipline were the ministers so emphatic as on the sacred and absolute + nature of their prerogative to interpret the Scriptures; nor did they fail + to impress upon the people that it was a sin akin to sacrilege for the + laity to dispute their exposition of the Bible. + </p> + <p> + The deduction to be drawn from these premises is plain. The assembled + elders, acting in their advisory capacity, constituted a supreme tribunal + of last resort, wholly superior to carnal precedent, and capable of + evolving whatsoever decrees they deemed expedient from the depths of their + consciousness. [Footnote: See Gorton’s case, Winthrop, ii. 146.] The + result exemplifies the precision with which a cause operating upon the + human mind is followed by its consequence; and the action of this + resistless force is painfully apparent in every state prosecution under + the Puritan Commonwealth, from Wheelwright’s to Margaret Brewster’s. The + absorption of sacerdotal, political, and juridical functions by a single + class produces an arbitrary despotism; and before judges greedy of earthly + dominion, flushed by the sense of power, unrestrained by rules of law or + evidence, and unopposed by a resolute and courageous bar, trials must + become little more than conventional forms, precursors of predetermined + punishments. + </p> + <p> + After a period of about half a century these social conditions underwent + radical change, but traditions remained that deeply affected the + subsequent development of the people, and produced a marked bent of + thought in the lawyers who afterward wrote the Constitution. + </p> + <p> + At the accession of William III. great progress had been made in the + science of colonial government; charters had been granted to Connecticut + and Rhode Island in 1662 and 1663, which, except in the survival of the + ancient and meaningless jargon of incorporation, had a decidedly modern + form. By these regular local representative governments were established + with full power of legislation, save in so far as limited by clauses + requiring conformity with the law of England; and they served their + purpose well, for both were kept in force many years after the Revolution, + Rhode Island’s not having been superseded until 1843. + </p> + <p> + The stubborn selfishness of the theocracy led to the adoption of a less + liberal policy toward Massachusetts. The nomination of the executive + officers was retained by the crown, and the governor was given very + substantial means of maintaining his authority; he could reject the + councillors elected by the Assembly; he appointed the judges and sheriffs + with the advice of this body, whose composition he could thus in a measure + control; he had a veto, and was commander-in-chief. Appeals to the king in + council were also provided for in personal actions where the matter in + difference exceeded three hundred pounds. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the legislature made all appropriations, including + those for the salaries of the governor and judges, and was only limited in + its capacity to enact statutes by the clause invariably inserted in these + patents. + </p> + <p> + This, therefore, is the precise moment when the modern theory of + constitutional limitations first appears defined; distinct from the + ancient corporate precedents. By a combination of circumstances also, a + sufficient sanction for the written law happened to be provided, thus + making the conception complete, for the tribunal of last resort was an + English court sustained by ample physical force; nevertheless the great + principle of coordinate departments of government was not yet understood, + and substantial relief against legislative usurpation had to be sought in + a foreign jurisdiction. To lawyers of our own time it is self-evident that + the restrictions of an organic code must be futile unless they are upheld + by a judiciary not only secure in tenure and pay, but removed as far as + may be from partisan passions. This truth, however, remained to be + discovered amid the abuses of the eighteenth century, for the position of + the provincial bench was unsatisfactory in the last degree. The justices + held their commissions at the king’s pleasure, but their salaries were at + the mercy of the deputies; they were therefore subject to the caprice of + antagonistic masters. Nor was this the worst, for the charter did not + isolate the judicial office. Under the theocracy the policy of the clergy + had been to suppress the study of law in order to concentrate their own + power; hence no training was thought necessary for the magistrate, no + politician was considered incompetent to fill the judgment-seat because of + ignorance of his duty, and the office-hunter, having got his place by + influence, was deemed at liberty to use it as a point of vantage, from + whence to prosecute his chosen career. For example, the first chief + justice was Stoughton, who was appointed by Phips, probably at the + instigation of Increase Mather. As he was bred for the church, he could + have had no knowledge to recommend him, and his peculiar qualifications + were doubtless family connections and a narrow and bigoted mind; he was + also lieutenant-governor, a member of the council, and part of the time + commander-in-chief. + </p> + <p> + Thomas Danforth was the senior associate, who is described by Sewall as “a + very good husbandman, and a very good Christian, and a good councillor;” + but his reputation as a jurist rested upon a spotless record, he having + been the most uncompromising of the high church managers. + </p> + <p> + Wait Winthrop was a soldier, and was not only in the council, but so + active in public life that years afterward, while on the bench, he was set + up as a candidate for governor in opposition to Dudley. + </p> + <p> + John Richards was a merchant, who had been sent to England as agent in + 1681, just when the troubles came to a crisis; but the labors by which he + won the ermine seem plain enough, for he was bail for Increase Mather when + sued by Randolph, and was appointed by Phips. Samuel Sewall was brought up + to preach, took to politics on the conservative side, and was regularly + chosen to the council. + </p> + <p> + This motley crew, who formed the first superior court, had but one trait + in common: they belonged to the clique who controlled the patronage; and + as it began so it continued to the end, for Hutchinson, the last chief + justice but one, was a merchant; yet he was also probate judge, + lieutenant-governor, councillor, and leader of the Tories. In so + intelligent a community such prostitution of the judicial office would + have been impossible but for the pernicious tradition that the civil + magistrate needed no special training to perform his duty, and was to take + his law from those who expounded the Word of God. + </p> + <p> + And there was another inheritance, if possible, more baleful still. The + legislature, under the Puritan Commonwealth, had been the court of last + resort, and it was by no means forward to abandon its prerogative. It was + consequently always ready to listen to the complaints of suitors who + thought themselves aggrieved by the decisions of the regular tribunals, + and it was fond of altering the course of justice to make it conform to + what the members were pleased to call equity. This abuse finally took such + proportions that Hutchinson remonstrated vigorously in a speech to the + houses in 1772. + </p> + <p> + “Much time is usually spent ... in considering petitions for new trials at + law, for leave to sell the real estates of persons deceased, by their + executors, or administrators, and the real estates of minors, by their + guardians. All such private business is properly cognizable by the + established judicatories.... A legislative body ... is extremely improper + for such decisions. The polity of the English government seldom admits of + the exercise of this executive and judiciary power by the legislature, and + I know of nothing special in the government of this province, to give + countenance to it.” [Footnote: Mass. State Papers, 1765-1775, p. 314.] + </p> + <p> + The disposition to interfere in what did not concern them was probably + aggravated by the presence of judicial politicians in the popular + assemblies, who seem to have been unable to resist the temptation of + intriguing to procure legislation to affect the litigation before them. + But the simplest way to illustrate the working of the system in all its + bearings will be to give a history of a celebrated case finally taken on + appeal to the Privy Council. The cause arose in Connecticut, it is true, + but the social condition of the two colonies was so similar as to make + this circumstance immaterial. + </p> + <p> + Wait Winthrop, [Footnote: This report of Winthrop v. Lechmere is taken + from a MS. brief in the possession of Hon. R. C. Winthrop.] grandson of + the first John Winthrop, died intestate in 1717, leaving two children, + John, of New London, and Anne, wife of Thomas Lechmere, of Boston. The + father intended his son should take the land according to the family + tradition, and in pursuance of this purpose he put him in actual + possession of the Connecticut property in 1711; but he neglected to make a + will. + </p> + <p> + By the common law of England real estate descended to the eldest son of + him who was last seised; but in 1699 the Assembly had passed a statute of + distribution, copied from a Massachusetts act, which directed the probate + court, after payment of debts, to make a “distribution of ... all the + residue ... of the real and personal estate by equal portions to and among + the children ... except the eldest son ... who shall have two shares.” + </p> + <p> + Here, then, at the threshold, the constitutional question had to be met, + as to whether the colonial enactment was not in conflict with the + restriction in the charter, and therefore void. Winthrop took out letters + of administration, and Lechmere became one of the sureties on his bond. + There was no disagreement about the personalty, but the son’s claim to the + land was disputed, though suit was not brought against him till 1723. + </p> + <p> + The litigation began in Boston, but was soon transferred to New London, + where, in July, 1724, Lechmere petitioned for an account. Winthrop + forthwith exhibited an inventory of the chattels, and moved that it should + be accepted as final; but the judge of probate declined so to rule. Then + Lechmere prayed for leave to sue on the bond in the name of the judge. His + prayer was granted, and he presently began no less than six actions in + different forms. + </p> + <p> + Much time was consumed in disposing of technicalities, but at length two + test cases were brought before the superior court. One, being in substance + an action on the bond, was tried on the general issue, and the verdict was + for the defendant. The other was a writ of partition, wherein Anne was + described as co-heir with her brother. It was argued on demurrer to the + declaration, and the defendant again prevailed. + </p> + <p> + Thus, so far as judicial decision could determine private rights to + property, Winthrop had established his title; but he represented the + unpopular side in the controversy, and his troubles were just beginning. + Christopher Christophers was the judge of probate, he was also a justice + of the superior court, and a member of the Assembly, of which body the + plaintiff’s counsel was speaker. In April, 1725, when Lechmere had finally + exhausted his legal remedies, he addressed a petition to the legislature, + where he had this strong support, and which was not to meet till May, + stating the impossibility of obtaining relief by ordinary means, and + asking to have one of the judgments set aside and a new trial ordered, in + such form as to enable him to maintain his writ of partition, + notwithstanding the solemn decision against him by the court of last + resort. The defendant in vain protested that no error was alleged, no new + evidence produced, nor any matter of equity advanced which might justify + interference: the Assembly had determined to sustain the statute of + distributions, and it accordingly resolved that in cases of this + description relief ought to be given in probate by means of a new grant of + administration, to be executed according to the terms of the act. + </p> + <p> + Winthrop was much alarmed, and with reason, for he saw at once the + intention of the legislature was to induce the judges to assume an + unprecedented jurisdiction; he therefore again offered his account, which + Christophers rejected, and he appealed from the decision. Lechmere also + applied for administration on behalf of his wife; and upon his prayer + being denied, pending a final disposition of Winthrop’s cause, he too went + up. In March, 1725-6, final judgment was rendered, the judges holding that + both real and personal property should be inventoried. Winthrop thereupon + entered his appeal to the Privy Council, whose jurisdiction was + peremptorily denied. + </p> + <p> + From what afterward took place, the inference is that Christophers shrank + from assuming alone so great a responsibility as now devolved upon him, + and persuaded his brethren to share it with him; for the superior court + proceeded to issue letters of administration to Lechmere, and took his + bond, drawn to themselves personally, for the faithful performance of his + trust. This was a most high-handed usurpation, for the function of the + higher tribunal in these matters was altogether appellate, it having + nothing to do with such executive business as taking bonds, which was the + province of the judge of probate. + </p> + <p> + However this may have been, progress was thenceforward rapid. In April + Lechmere produced a schedule of debts, which have at this day a somewhat + suspicious look, and when they were allowed, he petitioned the legislature + for leave to sell land to pay them. Winthrop appeared and presented a + remonstrance, which “the Assembly, observing the common course of justice, + and the law of the colony being by application to the said Assembly, when + the judgments of the superior courts are grievous to any person... + dismissed,” and immediately passed an act authorizing the sale, and making + the administrators’ deed good to convey a title. + </p> + <p> + Then Winthrop was so incautious as to make a final effort: he filed a + protest and caution against any illegal interference with his property + pending his appeal, declaring the action already taken to be contrary to + the common and statute law of England, and to the tenor of the charter. + </p> + <p> + The Assembly being of the opinion that this protest “had in it a great + show of contempt,” caused Winthrop to be arrested and brought to the bar; + there he not only defended his representations as reasonable, but avowed + his determination to lay all these proceedings before the king in council. + “This was treated as an insolent contemptuous and disorderly behaviour” in + the prisoner, “as declaring himself <i>coram non judice</i>, and putting + himself on a par with them, and impeaching their authoritys and the + charter; and his said protest was declared to be full of reflections, and + to terrifie so far as in him lay all the authorities established by the + charter.” So they imprisoned him three days and fined him twenty pounds + for his contemptuous words. + </p> + <p> + This leading case was afterward elaborately argued in London, and judgment + was entered for Winthrop, upon the ground that the statute of distribution + was in conflict with the charter and therefore void; but as Connecticut + resolutely refused to abandon its own policy, the utmost confusion + prevailed for seventeen years regarding the settlement of estates. During + all this time the local government made unremitting efforts to obtain + relief, and seems to have used pecuniary as well as legal arguments to + effect its purpose; at all events, it finally secured a majority in the + Privy Council, who reversed Winthrop v. Lechmere, in Clark v. Tousey. The + same question was raised in Massachusetts in 1737, in Phillips v. Savage, + but enough influence was brought to bear to prevent an adverse decision. + [Footnote: <i>Conn. Coll. Rec.</i> vii. 191, note; <i>Proc. Mass. Hist. + Soc.</i> 1860-62, pp. 64-80, 165-171.] A possible distinction between the + two cases also lay in the fact that the Massachusetts act had received the + royal assent. + </p> + <p> + The history of this litigation is interesting, not only as illustrating + the defects in provincial justice, but as showing the process by which the + conception of constitutional limitations became rooted in the minds of the + first generation of lawyers; and in point of fact, they were so thoroughly + impregnated with the theory as to incline to carry it to unwarrantable + lengths. For example, so justly eminent a counsel as James Otis, in his + great argument on the Writs of Assistance in 1761, solemnly maintained the + utterly untenable proposition that an act of Parliament “against the + Constitution is void: an act against natural equity is void: and if an act + of Parliament should be made, in the very words of this petition, it would + be void.” [Footnote: Quincy’s <i>Reports</i>, p. 474.] While so sound a + man, otherwise, as John Adams wrote, in 1776, to Mr. Justice Cushing: “You + have my hearty concurrence in telling the jury the nullity of acts of + Parliament.... I am determined to die of that opinion, let the <i>jus + gladii</i> say what it will.” [Footnote: <i>Works of J. Adams</i>, ix. + 390.] + </p> + <p> + On looking back at Massachusetts as she was in the year 1700, permeated + with the evil theocratic traditions, without judges, teachers, or books, + the mind can hardly fail to be impressed with the unconquerable energy + which produced great jurists from such a soil; and yet in 1725 Jeremiah + Gridley graduated from Harvard, who may fairly be said to have been the + progenitor of a famous race; for long before the Revolution, men like + Prat, Otis, and John Adams could well have held their own before any court + of Common Law that ever sat. Such powerful counsel naturally felt a + contempt for the ignorant politicians who for the most part presided over + them, which they took little pains to hide. Ruggles one day had an aged + female witness who could find no chair and complained to him of + exhaustion. He told her to go and sit on the bench. His honor, in some + irritation, calling him to account, he replied: “I really thought that + place was made for old women.” Hutchinson says of himself: “It was an + eyesore to some of the bar to have a person at the head of the law who had + not been bred to it.” But he explains with perfect simplicity how his + occupation as chief justice “engaged his attention, and he applied his + intervals to reading the law.” [Footnote: <i>Diary and Letters of Thomas + Hutchinson</i>, p. 66.] + </p> + <p> + The British supremacy closed with the evacuation of Boston, and the colony + then became an independent state; yet in that singularly homogeneous + community, which had always been taught to regard their royal patents as + the bulwark of their liberties, no one seems to have seriously thought it + possible to dispense with a written instrument to serve as the basis of + the social organization. Accordingly, in 1779, the legislature called a + convention to draft a Constitution; and it was the good fortune of the + lawyers, who were chosen as delegates, to have an opportunity, not only to + correct those abuses from which the administration of justice had so long + suffered, but to carry into practical operation their favorite theory, of + the limitation of legislative power by the intervention of the courts. The + course pursued was precisely what might have been predicted of the + representatives of a progressive yet sagacious people. Taking the old + charter as the foundation whereon to build, they made only such + alterations as their past experience had shown them to be necessary; they + adopted no fanciful schemes, nor did they lightly depart from a system + with which they were acquainted; and their almost servile fidelity to + their precedent, wherever it could be folio wed, is shown by the following + extracts relating to the legislative and executive departments. + </p> + <h3> + CHARTER. + </h3> + <p> + And we doe further for vs our heires and successors give and grant to the + said governor and the Great and Generall Court or Assembly of our said + province or territory for the time being full power and authority from + time to time to make ordaine and establish all manner of wholsome and + reasonable orders laws statutes and ordinances directions and instructions + either with penalties or without (soe as the same be not repugnant or + contrary to the lawes of this our realme of England) as they shall judge + to be for the good and welfare of our said province or territory and for + the gouernment and ordering thereof and of the people inhabiting or who + shall inhabit the same and for the necessary support and defence of the + government thereof. + </p> + <h3> + CONSTITUTION. + </h3> + <p> + And further, full power and authority are hereby given and granted to the + said General Court, from time to time, to make, ordain, and establish, all + manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, and ordinances, + directions and instructions, either with penalties or without; so as the + same be not repugnant or contrary to this constitution, as they shall + judge to be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth, and for the + government and ordering thereof, and of the subjects of the same, and for + the necessary support and defence of the government thereof. + </p> + <h3> + CHARTER. + </h3> + <p> + The governour of our said province for the time being shall have authority + from time to time at his discretion to assemble and call together the + councillors or assistants of our said province for the time being and that + the said governour with the said assistants or councillors or seaven of + them at the least shall and may from time to time hold and keep a councill + for the ordering and directing the affaires of our said province. + </p> + <h3> + CONSTITUTION. + </h3> + <p> + The governour shall have authority, from time to time at his discretion, + to assemble and call together the councillors of this commonwealth for the + time being; and the governour, with the said councillors, or five of them + at least, shall, and may, from time to time, hold and keep a council, for + the ordering and directing the affairs of the commonwealth, agreeably to + the constitution and the laws of the land. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + The clause concerning the council is curious as an instance of the + survival of an antiquated form. In the province the body had a use, for it + was a regular upper chamber; but when, in 1779, a senate was added, it + became an anomalous and meaningless third house; yet it is still regularly + elected, though its inutility is obvious. So long ago as 1814 John Adams + had become very tired of it; he then wrote: “This constitution, which + existed in my handwriting, made the governor annually elective, gave him + the executive power, shackled with a council, that I now wish was + annihilated.” [Footnote: <i>Works of J. Adams</i>, vi. 465.] + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the changes made are even more interesting, as an + example of the evolution of institutions. The antique document was + simplified by an orderly arrangement and division into sections; the + obsolete jargon of incorporation was eliminated, which had come down from + the mediaeval guilds; in the dispute with England the want of a bill of + rights had been severely felt, so one was prefixed; and then the + convention, probably out of regard to symmetry, blotted their otherwise + admirable work by creating an unnecessary senate. But viewed as a whole, + the grand original conception contained in this instrument, making it loom + up a landmark in history, is the theory of the three coordinate + departments in the administration of a democratic commonwealth, which has + ever since been received as the corner-stone of American constitutional + jurisprudence. + </p> + <p> + Though this assertion may at first sight seem too sweeping, it is borne + out by the facts. During the first sessions of the Continental Congress no + question was more pressing than the reorganization of the colonies should + they renounce their allegiance to the crown, nor was there one in regard + to which the majority of the delegates were more at sea. From, their + peculiar education the New Englanders were exceptions to the general rule, + and John Adams in particular had thought out the problem in all its + details. His conversation so impressed some of his colleagues that he was + asked to put his views in a popular form. His first attempt was a short + letter to Richard Henry Lee, in November, 1775, in which he starts with + this proposition as fundamental: “A legislative, an executive, and a + judicial power comprehend the whole of what is meant and understood by + government. It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, + that the efforts in human nature towards tyranny can alone be checked and + restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution.” + [Footnote: <i>Works of J. Adams</i>, iv. 186.] + </p> + <p> + His next tract, written in 1776 at the request of Wythe of Virginia, was + printed and widely circulated, and similar communications were sent in + reply to applications from New Jersey, North Carolina, and possibly other + States. The effect of this discussion is apparent in all of the ten + constitutions afterward drawn, with the exception of Pennsylvania’s, which + was a failure; but none of them passed beyond the tentative or embryonic + stage. It therefore remained for Massachusetts to present the model, which + in its main features has not yet been superseded. + </p> + <p> + A first attempt was deservedly rejected by the people, and the work was + not done until 1779; but the men who then met in convention at Cambridge + knew precisely what they meant to do. Though the executive and the + legislature were a direct inheritance, needing but little change, a deep + line was drawn between the three departments, and the theory of the + coordinate judiciary was first brought to its maturity within the + jurisdiction where it had been born. To attain this cherished object was + the chief labor of the delegates, for to the supreme court was to be + intrusted the dangerous task of grappling with the representative chambers + and enforcing the popular charter. Therefore they made the tenure of the + judges permanent; they secured their pay; to obtain impartiality they + excluded them from political office; while on the other hand they confined + the legislature within its proper sphere, to the end that the government + they created might be one of laws and not of men. + </p> + <p> + The experiment has proved one of those memorable triumphs which mark an + era. Not only has the great conception of New England been accepted as the + fundamental principle of the Federal Union, but it has been adopted by + every separate State; and more than this, during the one hundred and six + years since the people of our Commonwealth wrote their Constitution, they + have had as large a measure of liberty and safety under the law as men + have ever known on earth. There is no jurisdiction in the world where + justice has been purer or more impartial; nor, probably, has there ever + been a community, of equal numbers, which has produced more numerous or + more splendid specimens of juridical and forensic talent. + </p> + <p> + When freed from the incubus of the ecclesiastical oligarchy the range of + intellectual activity expanded, and in 1780 Massachusetts may be said, + without exaggeration, to have led the liberal movement of the world; for + not only had she won almost in perfection the three chief prizes of modern + civilization, liberty of speech, toleration, and equality before the law; + but she had succeeded in formulating those constitutional doctrines by + which, during the nineteenth century, popular self-government has reached + the highest efficiency it has ever yet attained. + </p> + <p> + A single example, however, must suffice to show what the rise of the class + of lawyers had done for individual security and liberty in that + comparatively short interval of ninety years. + </p> + <p> + Theocratic justice has been described; the trials of Wheelwright, and of + Anne Hutchinson, of Childe, of Holmes, and of Christison have been + related; and also the horrors perpetrated before that ghastly tribunal of + untrained bigots, which condemned the miserable witches undefended and + unheard. [Footnote: In England, throughout the eighteenth century, counsel + were allowed to speak in criminal trials, in cases of treason and + misdemeanor only. Nor is the conduct of Massachusetts in regard to witches + peculiar. Parallel atrocities might probably be adduced from the history + of every European nation, even though the procedure of the courts were + more regular than was that of the Commission of Phips. The relation of the + priest to the sorcerer is a most interesting phenomenon of social + development; but it would require a treatise by itself.] For the honor of + our Common wealth let the tale be told of a state prosecution after her + bar was formed. + </p> + <p> + In 1768 the British Ministry saw fit to occupy Boston with a couple of + regiments, a force large enough to irritate, but too small to overawe, the + town. From the outset bad feeling prevailed between the citizens and the + soldiers, but as the time went on the exasperation increased, and early in + 1770 that intense passion began to glow which precedes the outbreak of + civil war. Yet though there were daily brawls, no blood was shed until the + night of the 5th of March, when a rabble gathered about the sentry at the + custom-house in State Street. He became frightened and called for help, + Captain Preston turned out the guard, the mob pelted them, and they fired + on the people without warning. A terrific outbreak was averted by a + species of miracle, but the troops had to be withdrawn, and Preston and + his men were surrendered and indicted for murder. + </p> + <p> + John Adams, who was a liberal, heart and soul, had just come into leading + practice. His young friend Josiah Quincy was even more deeply pledged to + the popular cause. On the morning after the massacre, Preston, doubtless + at Hutchinson’s suggestion, sent Adams a guinea as a retaining fee, which, + though it seemed his utter ruin to accept, he did not dream of refusing. + What Quincy went through may be guessed from his correspondence with his + father. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + BRAINTREE, March 22, 1770. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SON, I am under great affliction at hearing the bitterest + reproaches uttered against you, for having become an advocate for those + criminals who are charged with the murder of their fellow-citizens. Good + God! Is it possible? I will not believe it. + </p> + <p> + Just before I returned home from Boston, I knew, indeed, that on the day + those criminals were committed to prison, a sergeant had inquired for you + at your brother’s house; but I had no apprehension that it was possible an + application would be made to you to undertake their defence. Since then I + have been told that you have actually engaged for Captain Preston; and I + have heard the severest reflections made upon the occasion, by men who had + just before manifested the highest esteem for you, as one destined to be a + saviour of your country. I must own to you, it has filled the bosom of + your aged and infirm parent with anxiety and distress, lest it should not + only prove true, but destructive of your reputation and interest; and I + repeat, I will not believe it, unless it be confirmed by your own mouth, + or under your own hand. + </p> + <p> + Your anxious and distressed parent, + </p> + <h3> + JOSIAH QUINCY. + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + BOSTON, March 26, 1770. + </p> + <p> + HONOURED SIR, I have little leisure, and less inclination, either to know + or to take notice of those ignorant slanderers who have dared to utter + their “bitter reproaches” in your hearing against me, for having become an + advocate for criminals charged with murder.... Before pouring their + reproaches into the ear of the aged and infirm, if they had been friends, + they would have surely spared a little reflection on the nature of an + attorney’s oath and duty.... + </p> + <p> + Let such be told, sir, that these criminals, charged with murder, are not + yet legally proved guilty, and therefore, however criminal, are entitled, + by the laws of God and man, to all legal counsel and aid; that my duty as + a man obliged me to undertake; that my duty as a lawyer strengthened the + obligation.... This and much more might be told with great truth; and I + dare affirm that you and this whole people will one day rejoice that I + became an advocate for the aforesaid “criminals,” charged with the murder + of our fellow-citizens. + </p> + <p> + I never harboured the expectation, nor any great desire, that all men + should speak well of me. To enquire my duty, and to do it, is my aim.... + When a plan of conduct is formed with an honest deliberation, neither + murmuring, slander, nor reproaches move.... There are honest men in all + sects,—I wish their approbation;—there are wicked bigots in + all parties,—I abhor them. + </p> + <p> + I am, truly and affectionately, your son, + </p> + <p> + JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr. [Footnote: <i>Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr.</i> pp. 26, + 27.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Many of the most respected citizens asserted and believed that the + soldiers had fired with premeditated malice, for the purpose of revenge; + and popular indignation was so deep and strong that even the judges were + inclined to shrink. As Hutchinson was acting governor at the time, the + chief responsibility fell on Benjamin Lynde, the senior associate, who was + by good fortune tolerably competent. He was the son of the elder Lynde, + who, with the exception of Paul Dudley, was the only provincial chief + justice worthy to be called a lawyer. + </p> + <p> + The juries were of course drawn from among those men who afterward fought + at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and, like the presiding judge and the + counsel, they sympathized with the Revolutionary cause. Yet the prisoners + were patiently tried according to the law and the evidence; all that + skill, learning, and courage could do for them was done, the court charged + impartially, and the verdicts were, Not guilty. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. — THE REVOLUTION. + </h2> + <p> + Status appears to be that stage of civilisation whence advancing + communities emerge into the era of individual liberty. In its most perfect + development it takes the form of caste, and the presumption is the + movement toward caste begins upon the abandonment of a wandering life, and + varies in intensity with the environment and temperament of each race, the + feebler sinking into a state of equilibrium, when change by spontaneous + growth ceases to be perceptible. So long as the brain remains too feeble + for sustained original thought, and man therefore lacks the energy to + rebel against routine, this condition of existence must continue, and its + inevitable tendency is toward rigid distinctions of rank, and as a + necessary consequence toward the limitation of the range of ambition, by + the conventional lines dividing the occupations of the classes. Such at + least in a general way was the progression of the Jews, and in a less + marked degree of the barbarians who overran the Roman Empire. Yet even + these, when they acquired permanent abodes, gravitated strongly enough + toward caste to produce a social system based on monopoly and privilege + which lasted through many centuries. On the other hand, the democratic + formula of “equality before the law” best defines the modern conception of + human relations, and this maxim indicates a tone of thought directly the + converse of that which begot status; for whereas the one strove to raise + impassable barriers against free competition in the struggle for + existence, the ideal of the other is to offer the fullest scope for the + expansion of the faculties. + </p> + <p> + As in Western Europe church and state alike rested upon the customs of the + Middle Ages, a change so fundamental must have wrought the overthrow, not + only of the vastest vested interests, but of the profoundest religious + prejudices, consequently, it could not have been accomplished peaceably; + and in point of fact the conservatives were routed in two terrific + outbreaks, whereof the second was the sequence of the first, though + following it after a considerable interval of time. By the wars of the + Reformation freedom of thought was gained; by the revolutions of the + eighteenth century, which swept away the incubus of feudalism, liberty of + action was won; and as Massachusetts had been colonized by the radicals of + the first insurrection, it was not unnatural that their children should + have led the second. So much may be readily conceded, and yet the + inherited tendency toward liberalism alone would have been insufficient to + have inspired the peculiar unanimity of sentiment which animated her + people in their resistance to Great Britain, and which perhaps was + stronger among her clergy, whose instincts regarding domestic affairs were + intensely conservative, than among any other portion of her population. + The reasons for this phenomenon are worthy of investigation, for they are + not only interesting in themselves, but they furnish an admirable + illustration of the irresistible action of antecedent and external causes + on the human mind. + </p> + <p> + Under the Puritan Commonwealth the church gave distinction and power, and + therefore monopolized the ability which sought professional life; but + under the provincial government new careers were opened, and intellectual + activity began to flow in broader channels. John Adams illustrates the + effect produced by the changed environment; when only twenty he made this + suggestive entry in his Diary: “The following questions may be answered + some time or other, namely,—Where do we find a precept in the Gospel + requiring Ecclesiastical Synods? Convocations? Councils? Decrees? Creeds? + Confessions? Oaths? Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trumpery + that we find religion encumbered with in these days?” [Footnote: <i>Works + of J. Adams</i>, ii. 5.] + </p> + <p> + Such men became lawyers, doctors, or merchants; theology ceased to occupy + their minds; and gradually the secular thought of New England grew to be + coincident with that of the other colonies. + </p> + <p> + Throughout America the institutions favored individuality. No privileged + class existed among the whites. Under the careless rule of Great Britain + habits of personal liberty had taken root, which showed themselves in the + tenacity wherewith the people clung to their customs of self-government; + and so long as these usages were respected, under which they had always + lived, and which they believed to be as well established as Magna Charta, + there were not in all the king’s broad dominions more loyal subjects than + men like Washington, Jefferson, and Jay. + </p> + <p> + The generation now living can read the history of the Revolution + dispassionately, and to them it is growing clear that our ancestors were + technically in the wrong. For centuries Parliament has been theoretically + absolute; therefore it might constitutionally tax the colonies, or do + whatsoever else with them it pleased. Practically, however, it is + self-evident that the most perfect despotism must be limited by the extent + to which subjects will obey, and this is a matter of habit; rebellions, + therefore, are usually caused by the conservative instinct, represented by + the will of the sovereign, attempting to enforce obedience to customs + which a people have outgrown. + </p> + <p> + In 1776, though the Middle Ages had passed, their traditions still + prevailed in Europe, and probably the antagonism between this survival of + a dead civilization and the modern democracy of America was too deep for + any arbitrament save trial by battle. Identically the same dispute had + arisen in England the century before, when the commons rebelled against + the prerogatives of the crown, and Cromwell fought like Washington, in the + cause of individual emancipation; but the movement in Great Britain was + too radical for the age, and was followed by a reaction whose force was + not spent when George III. came to the throne. + </p> + <p> + Precedent is only inflexible among stationary races, and advancing nations + glory in their capacity for change; hence it is precisely those who have + led revolt successfully who have won the brightest fame. If, therefore, it + be admitted that they should rank among mankind’s noblest benefactors, who + have risked their lives to win the freedom we enjoy, and which seems + destined to endure, there are few to whom posterity owes a deeper debt + than to our early statesmen; nor, judging their handiwork by the test of + time, have many lived who in genius have surpassed them. In the fourth + article of their Declaration of Rights, the Continental Congress resolved + that the colonists “are entitled to a free and exclusive power of + legislation in their several provincial legislatures, ... in all cases of + taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their + sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, + ... we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of Parliament as + are, <i>bona fide</i>, restrained to the regulation of our external + commerce.” + </p> + <p> + In 1778 a statute was passed, of which an English jurist wrote in 1885: + “One act, indeed, of the British Parliament might, looked at in the light + of history, claim a peculiar sanctity. It is certainly an enactment of + which the terms, we may safely predict, will never be repealed and the + spirit never be violated.... It provides that Parliament’ will not impose + any duty, tax or assessment whatever, payable in any of his majesty’s + colonies ... except only such duties as it may be expedient to impose for + the regulation of commerce.’” [Footnote: <i>The Law of the Constitution</i>, + Dicey, p. 62.] + </p> + <p> + Thus is the memory of their grievance held sacred by the descendants of + their adversaries after the lapse of a century, and the local + self-government for which they pleaded has become the immutable policy of + the empire. The principles they laid down have been equally enduring, for + they proclaimed the equality of men before the law, the corner-stone of + modern civilization, and the Constitution they wrote still remains the + fundamental charter of the liberties of the republic of the United States. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless it remains true that secular liberalism alone could never + have produced the peculiarly acrimonious hostility to Great Britain + wherein Massachusetts stood preeminent, whose causes, if traced, will be + found imbedded at the very foundation of her social organization, and to + have been steadily in action ever since the settlement. Too little study + is given to ecclesiastical history, for probably nothing throws so much + light on certain phases of development; and particularly in the case of + this Commonwealth the impulses which moulded her destiny cannot be + understood unless the events that stimulated the passions of her clergy + are steadily kept in view. + </p> + <p> + The early aggrandizement of her priests has been described; the inevitable + conflict with the law into which their ambition plunged them, and the + overthrow of the theocracy which resulted therefrom, have been related; + but the causes that kept alive the old exasperation with England + throughout the eighteenth century have not yet been told. + </p> + <p> + The influence of men like Leverett and Colman tended to broaden the + church, but necessarily the process was slow; and there is no lack of + evidence that the majority of the ministers had little relish for the + toleration forced upon them by the second charter. It is not surprising, + therefore, to find the sectaries soon again driven to invoke the + protection of the king. + </p> + <p> + Though doubtless some monastic orders have been vowed to poverty, it will + probably be generally conceded that a life of privation has not found + favor with divines as a class; and one of the earliest acts of the + provincial legislature bid each town choose an able and orthodox minister + to dispense the Word of God, who should be “suitably encouraged” by an + assessment on all inhabitants without distinction. This was for many years + a bitter grievance to the dissenting minority; but there was worse to + come; for sometimes the majority were heterodox, when pastors were elected + who gave great scandal to their evangelical brethren. Therefore, for the + prevention of “atheism, irreligion and prophaness,” [Footnote: <i>Province + Laws</i>, 1715, c. 17.] it was enacted in 1775 that the justices of the + county should report any town without an orthodox minister, and thereupon + the General Court should settle a candidate recommended to them by the + ordained elders, and levy a special tax for his support. Nor could men + animated by the fervent piety which raised the Mathers to eminence in + their profession be expected to sit by tamely while blasphemers not only + worshipped openly, but refused to contribute to their incomes. + </p> + <p> + “We expect no other but Satan will show his rage against us for our + endeavors to lessen his kingdom of darkness. He hath grievously afflicted + me (by God’s permission) by infatuating or bewitching three or four who + live in a corner of my parish with Quaker notions, [who] now hold a + separate meeting by themselves.” [Footnote: Rev. S. Danforth, 1720. <i>Mass. + Hist. Coll.</i> fourth series, i.] + </p> + <p> + The heretics, on their side, were filled with the same stubborn spirit + which had caused them “obstinately and proudly” to “persecute” Norton and + Endicott in earlier days. In 1722 godly preachers were settled at + Dartmouth and Tiverton, under the act, the majority of whose people were + Quakers and Baptists; and the Friends tell their own story in a petition + they presented to the crown in 1724: “That the said Joseph Anthony and + John Siffon were appointed assessors of the taxes for the said town of + Tiverton, and the said John Akin and said Philip Tabor for the town of + Dartmouth, but some of the said assessors being of the people called + Quakers, and others of them also dissenting from the Presbyterians and + Independents, and greatest part of the inhabitants of the said towns being + also Quakers or Anabaptists ... the said assessors duly assessed the other + taxes ... relating to the support of government ... yet they could not in + conscience assess any of the inhabitants of the said towns anything for or + towards the maintenance of any ministers. + </p> + <p> + “That the said Joseph Anthony, John Siffon, John Akin and Philip Tabor, + (on pretence of their non-compliance with the said law) were on the 25th + of the month called May, 1723, committed to the jail aforesaid, where they + still continue prisoners under great sufferings and hardships both to + themselves and families, and where they must remain and die, if not + relieved by the king’s royal clemancy and favour.” [Footnote: Gough’s <i>Quakers</i>, + iv. 222, 223.] + </p> + <p> + A hearing was had upon this petition before the Privy Council, and in + June, 1724, an order was made directing the remission of the special taxes + and the release of the prisoners, who were accordingly liberated in + obedience thereto, after they had been incarcerated for thirteen months. + </p> + <p> + The blow was felt to be so severe that the convention of ministers the + next May decided to convene a synod, and Dr. Cotton Mather was appointed + to draw up a petition to the legislature. + </p> + <p> + “Considering the great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the + growth of many miscarriages, which we fear may have provoked the glorious + Lord in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress us.... It is + humbly desired that ... the ... churches ... meet by their pastors ... in + a synod, and from thence offer their advice upon.... What are the + miscarriages whereof we have reason to think the judgments of heaven, upon + us, call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the most + evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop unto those or the like + miscarriages.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> 3d ed. ii. 292, note.] + </p> + <p> + The “evangelical expedient” was of course to revive the Cambridge + Platform; nor was such a scheme manifestly impossible, for the council + voted “that the synod ... will be agreeable to this board, and the + reverend ministers are desired to take their own time, for the said + assembly; and it is earnestly wished the issue thereof may be a happy + reformation.” [Footnote: Chalmers’s <i>Opinions</i>, i. 8.] In the house + of representatives this resolution was read and referred to the next + session. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the Episcopalian clergymen of Boston, in much alarm, presented a + memorial to the General Court, remonstrating against the proposed measure; + but the council resolved “it contained an indecent reflection on the + proceedings of that board,” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 9.] and dismissed + it. Nothing discouraged, the remonstrants applied for protection to the + Bishop of London, who brought the matter to the attention of the law + officers of the crown. In their opinion to call a synod would be “a + contempt of his majesty’s prerogative,” and if “notwithstanding, ... they + shall continue to hold their assembly, ... the principal actors therein + [should] be prosecuted ... for a misdemeanour.” [Footnote: Chalmers’s <i>Opinions</i>, + p. 13.] + </p> + <p> + Steadily and surely the coil was tightening which was destined to strangle + the established church of Massachusetts; but the resistance of the + ministers was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to the + outbreak of the Revolution. They believed it would be impossible for them + to remain a dominant priesthood if Episcopalianism, supported by the + patronage of the crown, should be allowed to take root in the land; yet + the Episcopalians represented conservatism, therefore they were forced to + become radicals, and the liberalism they taught was fated to destroy their + power. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile their sacred vineyard lay open to attack upon every side. At + Boston the royal governors went to King’s Chapel and encouraged the use of + the liturgy, while an inroad was made into Connecticut from New York. + Early in the century a certain Colonel Heathcote organized a regular + system of invasion. He was a man eminently fitted for the task, being + filled with zeal for the conversion of dissenters. “I have the charity to + believe that, after having heard one of our ministers preach, they will + not look upon our church to be such a monster as she is represented; and + being convinced of some of the cheats, many of them may duly consider of + the sin of schism.” [Footnote: Conn. <i>Church Documents</i>, i. 12.] + </p> + <p> + “They have abundance of odd kind of laws, to prevent any dissenting ... + and endeavour to keep the people in as much blindness and unacquaintedness + with any other religion as possible, but in a more particular manner the + church, looking upon her as the most dangerous enemy they have to grapple + withal, and abundance of pains is taken to make the ignorant think as bad + as possible of her; and I really believe that more than half the people in + that government think our church to be little better than the Papist, and + they fail not to improve every little thing against us.” [Footnote: Conn. + <i>Church Documents</i>, i. 9.] + </p> + <p> + He had little liking for the elders, whom he described as being “as + absolute in their respective parishes as the Pope of Rome;” but he felt + kindly toward “the passive, obedient people, who dare not do otherwise + than obey.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, i. 10.] He explained the details of + his plan in his letters, and though he was aware of the difficulties, he + did not despair, his chief anxiety being to get a suitable missionary. He + finally chose the Rev. Mr. Muirson, and in 1706 began a series of + proselytizing tours. Nevertheless, the clergyman was wroth at the + treatment he received. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + HONOR’D SIR, I entreat your acceptance of my most humble and hearty thanks + for the kind and Christian advice you were pleased to tender me in + relation to Connecticut.... I know that meekness and moderation is most + agreeable to the mind of our blessed Saviour, Christ, who himself was meek + and lowly, and would have all his followers to learn that lesson of + him.... I have duly considered all these things, and have carried myself + civilly and kindly to the Independent party, but they have ungratefully + resented my love; yet I will further consider the obligations that my holy + religion lays upon me, to forgive injuries and wrongs, and to return good + for their evil.... I desired only a liberty of conscience might be allowed + to the members of the National Church of England; which, notwithstanding, + they seemed unwilling to grant, and left no means untried, both foul and + fair, to prevent the settling the church among them; for one of their + justices came to my lodging and forewarned me, at my peril, from + preaching, telling me that I did an illegal thing in bringing in new ways + among them; the people were likewise threatened with prison, and a + forfeiture of £5 for coming to hear me. It will require more time than you + will willingly bestow on these lines to express how rigidly and severely + they treat our people, by taking their estates by distress, when they do + not willingly pay to support their ministers.... They tell our people that + they will not suffer the house of God to be defiled with idolatrous + worship and superstitious ceremonies.... They say the sign of the cross is + the mark of the beast and the sign of the devil, and that those who + receive it are given to the devil.... + </p> + <p> + Honored sir, your most assured friend, ... + </p> + <p> + GEO. MUIRSON. RYE, <i>9th January</i>, 1707-8. [Footnote: <i>Conn. Church + Documents</i>, i. 29.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + However, in spite of his difficulties, he was able to boast that “I have + ... in one town, ... baptized about 32, young and old, and administered + the Holy Sacrament to 18, who never received it before. Each time I had a + numerous congregation.” [Footnote: <i>Conn. Church Documents</i>, i. 23.] + </p> + <p> + The foregoing correspondence was with the secretary of the Society for the + Propagation of the Gospel, which had been incorporated in 1701, and had + presently afterward appointed Colonel Heathcote as their agent. They could + have chosen no more energetic representative, nor was it long before his + exertions began to bear fruit. In 1707 nineteen inhabitants of Stratford + sent a memorial to the Bishop of London, the forerunner of many to come. + “Because by reason of the said laws we are not able to support a minister, + we further pray your lordship may be pleased to send one over with a + missionary allowance from the honourable corporation, invested with full + power, so as that he may preach and we hear the blessed Gospel of Jesus + Christ, without molestation and terror.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, i. 34.] + </p> + <p> + The Anglican prelates conceived it to be their duty to meddle with the + religious concerns of New England; therefore, by means of the organization + of the venerable society, they proceeded to plant a number of missions + throughout the country, whose missionaries were paid from the corporate + funds. Whatever opinion may be formed of the wisdom of a policy certain to + exasperate deeply so powerful and so revengeful a class as the + Congregational elders, there can be no doubt the Episcopalians achieved a + measure of success, in the last degree alarming, not only among the laity, + but among the clergy themselves. Mr. Reed, pastor of Stratford, was the + first to go over, and was of course deprived of his parish; his defection + was followed in 1722 by that of the rector of Yale and six other + ministers; and the Rev. Joseph Webb, who thought the end was near, wrote + in deep affliction to break the news to his friends in Boston. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + FAIRFIELD, <i>Oct.</i> 2, 1722. + </p> + <p> + REVEREND AND HONOURED SIR, The occasion of my now giving you the trouble + of these few lines is to me, and I presume to many others, melancholy + enough. You have perhaps heard before now, or will hear before these come + to hand, (I suppose) of the revolt of several persons of figure among us + unto the Church of England. There’s the Rev. Mr. Cutler, rector of our + college, and Mr. Daniel Brown, the tutor thereof. There are also of + ordained ministers, pastors of several churches among us, the Rev. + Messieurs following, viz. John Hart of East Guilford, Samuel Whittlesey of + Wallingford, Jared Eliot of Kennelworth, ... Samuel Johnson of West-Haven, + and James Wetmore of North-Haven. They are the most of them reputed men of + considerable learning, and all of them of a virtuous and blameless + conversation. I apprehend the axe is hereby laid to the root of our civil + and sacred enjoyments; and a doleful gap opened for trouble and confusion + in our churches.... It is a very dark day with us; and we need pity, + prayers and counsel. [Footnote: Rev. Joseph Webb to Dr. C. Mather. <i>Mass. + Hist. Coll.</i> second series, ii. 131.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + From the tone in which these tidings were received it is plain that the + charity and humility of the golden age of Massachusetts were not yet + altogether extinct among her ecclesiastics. The ministers published their + “sentiments” in a document beginning as follows:— + </p> + <p> + “These new Episcopalians have declared their desire to introduce an + usurpation and a superstition into the church of God, clearly condemned in + the sacred Scriptures, which our loyalty and chastity to our Saviour, + obliges us to keep close unto; and a tyranny, from which the whole church, + which desires to be reformed, has groaned that it may be delivered.... The + scandalous conjunction of these unhappy men with the Papists is, perhaps, + more than what they have themselves duly considered.” [Footnote: The + Sentiments of the Several Ministers in Boston. <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> + second series, ii. 133.] In “A Faithful Relation” of what had happened it + was observed: “It has caused some indignation in them,” (the people) “to + see the vile indignity cast by these cudweeds upon those excellent + servants of God, who were the leaders of the flock that followed our + Saviour into this wilderness: and upon the ministry of them, and their + successours, in which there has been seen for more than forescore years + together, the power and blessing of God for the salvation of many + thousands in the successive generations; with a success beyond what any of + them which set such an high value on the Episcopal ordination could ever + boast of!... It is a sensible addition, unto their horrour, to see the + horrid character of more than one or two, who have got themselves + qualified with Episcopal ordination, ... and come over as missionaries, + perhaps to serve scarce twenty families of such people, in a town of + several hundred families of Christians, better instructed than the very + missionaries: to think, that they must have no other ministers, but such + as are ordained, and ordered by them, who have sent over such tippling + sots unto them: instead of those pious and painful and faithful + instructors which they are now blessed withal!” [Footnote: “A Faithful + Relation of a Late Occurrence.” <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> second series, + ii. 138, 139.] + </p> + <p> + Only three of the converts had the fortitude to withstand the pressure to + which they were exposed: Cutler, Johnson, and Brown went to England for + ordination; there Brown died of small-pox, but Cutler returned to Boston + as a missionary, and as he, too, possessed a certain clerical aptitude for + forcible expression, it is fitting he should relate his own experiences:— + </p> + <p> + “I find that, in spite of malice and the basest arts our godly enemies can + easily stoop to, that the interest of the church grows and penetrates into + the very heart of this country.... This great town swarms with them + “(churchmen),” and we are so confident of our power and interest that, out + of four Parliament-men which this town sends to our General Assembly, the + church intends to put up for two, though I am not very sanguine about our + success in it.... My church grows faster than I expected, and, while it + doth so, I will not be mortified by all the lies and affronts they pelt me + with. My greatest difficulty ariseth from another quarter, and is owing to + the covetous and malicious spirit of a clergyman in this town, who, in + lying and villany, is a perfect overmatch for any dissenter that I know; + and, after all the odium that he contracted heretofore among them, is + fully reconciled and endeared to them by his falsehood to the church.” + [Footnote: Dr. Timothy Cutler to Dr. Zachary Grey, April 2, 1725, Perry’s + <i>Collection</i>, iii. 663.] + </p> + <p> + Time did not tend to pacify the feud. There was no bishop in America, and + candidates had to be sent to England for ordination; nor without such an + official was it found possible to enforce due discipline; hence the + anxiety of Dr. Johnson, and, indeed, of all the Episcopalian clergy, to + have one appointed for the colonies was not unreasonable. Nevertheless, + the opposition they met with was acrimonious in the extreme, so much so as + to make them hostile to the charters themselves, which they thought + sheltered their adversaries. + </p> + <p> + “The king, by his instructions to our governor, demands a salary; and if + he punishes our obstinacy by vacating our charter, I shall think it an + eminent blessing of his illustrious reign.” [Footnote: Dr. Cutler to Dr. + Grey, April 20, 1731. Perry’s <i>Coll.</i> iii.] + </p> + <p> + Whitefield came in 1740, and the tumult of the great revival roused fresh + animosities. + </p> + <p> + “When Mr. Whitefield first arrived here the whole town was alarmed.... The + conventicles were crowded; but he chose rather our Common, where + multitudes might see him in all his awful postures; besides that, in one + crowded conventicle, before he came in, six were killed in a fright. The + fellow treated the most venerable with an air of superiority. But he + forever lashed and anathematized the Church of England; and that was + enough. + </p> + <p> + “After him came one Tennent, a monster! impudent and noisy, and told them + all they were damn’d, damn’d, damn’d! This charmed them, and in the most + dreadful winter that i ever saw, people wallowed in the snow night and day + for the benefit of his beastly brayings; and many ended their days under + these fatigues. Both of them carried more money out of these parts than + the poor could be thankful for.” [Footnote: Dr. Cutler to Dr. Grey, Sept. + 24, 1743. Perry’s <i>Coll.</i> iii. 676.] + </p> + <p> + The excitement was followed by its natural reaction conversions became + numerous, and the unevangelical temper this bred between the rival + clergymen is painfully apparent in a correspondence wherein Dr. Johnson + became involved. Mr. Gold, the Congregationalist minister of Stratford, + whom he called a dissenter, had said of him “that he was a thief, and + robber of churches, and had no business in the place; that his church + doors stood open to all mischief and wickedness, and other words of like + import.” He therefore wrote to defend himself: “As to my having no + business here, I will only say that to me it appears most evident that I + have as much business here at least as you have,—being appointed by + a society in England incorporated by royal charter to provide ministers + for the church people in America; nor does his majesty allow of any + establishment here, exclusive of the church, much less of anything that + should preclude the society he has incorporated from providing and sending + ministers to the church people in these countries.” [Footnote: <i>Life of + Dr. Samuel Johnson</i>, p. 108.] To which Mr. Gold replied:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + As for the pleas which you make for Col. Lewis, and others that have broke + away disorderly from our church, I think there’s neither weight nor truth + in them; nor do I believe such poor shifts will stand them nor you in any + stead in the awful day of account; and as for your saying that as bad as + you are yet you lie open to conviction,—for my part I find no reason + to think you do, seeing you are so free and full in denying plain matters + of fact.... I don’t think it worth my while to say anything further in the + affair, and as you began the controversy against rule or justice, so I + hope modesty will induce you to desist; and do assure you that if you see + cause to make any more replies, my purpose is, without reading of them, to + put them under the pot among my other thorns and there let one flame + quench the matter.... HEZ. GOLD. + </p> + <p> + STRATFORD, <i>July</i> 21, 1741. [Footnote: <i>Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson,</i> + p. 111.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + And so by an obvious sequence of cause and effect it came to pass that the + clergy were early ripe for rebellion, and only awaited their opportunity. + Nor could it have been otherwise. An autocratic priesthood had seen their + order stripped of its privileges one by one, until nothing remained but + their moral empire over their parishioners, and then at last not only did + an association of rival ecclesiastics send over emissaries to steal away + their people, but they proposed to establish a bishop in the land. The + thought was wormwood. He would be rich, he would live in a palace, he + would be supported by the patronage and pomp of the royal governors; the + imposing ceremonial would become fashionable; and in imagination they + already saw themselves reduced to the humble position of dissenters in + their own kingdom. Jonathan Mayhew was called a heretic by his more + conservative brethren, but he was one of the ablest and the most acrid of + the Boston ministers. He took little pains to disguise his feelings, and + so early as 1750 he preached a sermon, which was once famous, wherein he + told his hearers that it was their duty to oppose the encroachment of the + British prelates, if necessary, by force. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose, then, it was allowed, in general, that the clergy were a useful + order of men; that they ought to be esteemed very highly in love for their + work’s sake, and to be decently supported by those they serve, ‘the + laborer being worthy of his reward.’ Suppose, further, that a number of + reverend and right reverend drones, who worked not; who preached, perhaps, + but once a year, and then not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the divine + right of tithes, the dignity of their office as ambassadors of Christ, ... + suppose such men as these, spending their lives in effeminacy, luxury, and + idleness; ... suppose this should be the case, ... would not everybody be + astonished at such insolence, injustice, and impiety?” [Footnote: + “Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission,” Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton’s + <i>American Pulpit</i>, pp. 71, 72.] “Civil tyranny is usually small in + its beginning, like ‘the drop of a bucket,’ till at length, like a mighty + torrent... it bears down all before it.... Thus it is as to ecclesiastical + tyranny also—the most cruel, intolerable, and impious of any. From + small beginnings, ‘it exalts itself above all that is called God and that + is worshipped.’ People have no security against being unmercifully + priest-ridden but by keeping all imperious bishops, and other clergymen + who love to ‘lord it over God’s heritage,’ from getting their foot into + the stirrup at all.... For which reason it becomes every friend to truth + and human kind, every lover of God and the Christian religion, to bear a + part in opposing this hateful monster.” [Footnote: Preface to “A Discourse + concerning Unlimited Submission,” Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton’s <i>Amer. + Pulpit</i>, pp. 50, 51.] + </p> + <p> + Between these envenomed priests peace was impossible; each year brought + with it some new aggression which added fuel to the flame. In 1763, Mr. + Apthorp, missionary at Cambridge, published a pamphlet, in answer, as he + explained, to “some anonymous libels which appeared in our newspapers ... + grossly reflecting on the society & their missionaries, & in + particular on the mission at Cambridge.” [Footnote: East Apthorp to the + Secretary, June 25, 1763. Perry’s <i>Coll.</i> iii. 500.] + </p> + <p> + By this time the passions of the Congregationalist divines had reached a + point when words seemed hardly adequate to give them expression. The Rev. + Ezra Stiles wrote to Dr. Mayhew in these terms:— + </p> + <p> + “Shall we be hushed into silence, by those whose tender mercies are + cruelty; and who, notwithstanding their pretence of moderation, wish the + subversion of our churches, and are combined, in united, steady and + vigorous effort, by all the arts of subtlety and intreague, for our ruin?” + [Footnote: Dr. Ezra Stiles to Dr. Mayhew, 1763. <i>Life of Mayhew</i>, p. + 246.] + </p> + <p> + Mr. Stiles need have felt no anxiety, for, according to Mr. Apthorp, “this + occasion was greedily seized, ... by a dissenting minister of Boston, a + man of a singular character, of good abilities, but of a turbulent & + contentious disposition, at variance, not only with the Church of England, + but in the essential doctrines of religion, with most of his own party.” + [Footnote: East Apthorp to the Secretary. Perry’s <i>Coll.</i> iii. 500.] + He alluded to a tract written by Dr. Mayhew in answer to his pamphlet, in + which he reproduced the charge made by Mr. Stiles: “The society have long + had a formal design to dissolve and root out all our New-England churches; + or, in other words, to reduce them all to the Episcopal form.” [Footnote: + <i>Observations on the Charter, etc. of the Society</i>, p. 107.] And + withal he clothed his thoughts in language which angered Mr. Caner:— + </p> + <p> + “A few days after, Mr. Apthorpe published the enclosed pamphlet, in + vindication of the institution and conduct of the society, which + occasioned the ungenteel reflections which your grace will find in Dr. + Mayhew’s pamphlet, in which, not content with the personal abuse of Mr. + Apthorpe, he has insulted the missions in general, the society, the Church + of England, in short, the whole rational establishment, in so dirty a + manner, that it seems to be below the character of a gentleman to enter + into controversy with him. In most of his sermons, of which he published a + great number, he introduces some malicious invectives against the society + or the Church of England, and if at any time the most candid and gentle + remarks are made upon such abuse, he breaks forth into such bitter and + scurrilous personal reflections, that in truth no one cares to have + anything to do with him. His doctrinal principles, which seem chiefly + copied from Lord Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, &c., are so offensive to the + generalty of the dissenting ministers, that they refuse to admit him a + member of their association, yet they appear to be pleased with his + abusing the Church of England.” [Footnote: Rev. Mr. Caner to the + Archbishop of Canterbury, June 8, 1763. Perry’s <i>Coll.</i> iii. 497, + 498.] + </p> + <p> + The Archbishop of Canterbury himself now interfered, and tried to calm the + tumult by a candid and dignified reply to Dr. Mayhew, in which he labored + to show the harmlessness of the proposed bishopric. + </p> + <p> + “Therefore it is desired, that two or more bishops may be appointed for + them, to reside where his majesty shall think most convenient [not in New + England, but in one of the Episcopalian colonies]; that they may have no + concern in the least with any person who do not profess themselves to be + of the Church of England, but may ordain ministers for such as do; ... and + take such oversight of the Episcopal clergy, as the Bishop of London’s + commissaries in those parts have been empowered to take, and have taken, + without offence. But it is not desired in the least that they should hold + courts ... or be vested with any authority, now exercised either by + provincial governors or subordinate magistrates, or infringe or diminish + any privileges and liberties enjoyed by any of the laity, even of our own + communion.” [Footnote: <i>An Answer to Dr. Mayhew’s Observations</i>, etc. + Dr. Secker, p. 51.] + </p> + <p> + But the archbishop should have known that the passions of rival + ecclesiastics are not to be allayed. The Episcopalians had become so + exasperated as to want nothing less than the overthrow of popular + government. Dr. Johnson wrote in 1763: “Is there then nothing more that + can be done either for obtaining bishops or demolishing these pernicious + charter governments, and reducing them all to one form in immediate + dependence on the king? I cannot help calling them pernicious, for they + are indeed so as well for the best good of the people themselves as for + the interests of true religion.” [Footnote: <i>Life of Samuel Johnson</i>, + p. 279.] + </p> + <p> + The Congregationalists, on the other hand, inflamed with jealousy, were + ripe for rebellion. On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act became law, and the + clergy threw themselves into the combat with characteristic violence. + Oliver had been appointed distributor, but his house was attacked and he + was forced to resign. The next evening but one the rabble visited + Hutchinson, who was lieutenant-governor, and broke his windows; and there + was general fear of further rioting. In the midst of this crisis., on the + 25th of August, Dr. Mayhew preached a sermon in the West Meeting-house + from the text, “I would they were even cut off which trouble you.” + [Footnote: <i>Galatians</i> v. 12.] I That this discourse was in fact an + incendiary harangue is demonstrated by what followed. At nightfall on the + 26th a fierce mob forced the cellars of the comptroller of the customs, + and got drunk on the spirits stored within; then they went on to + Hutchinson’s dwelling: “The doors were immediately split to pieces with + broad axes, and a way made there, and at the windows, for the entry of the + mob; which poured in, and filled, in an instant, every room.... They + continued their possession until daylight; destroyed ... everything ... + except the walls, ... and had begun to break away the brick-work.” + [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> iii. 124.] His irreplaceable collection of + original papers was thrown into the street; and when a bystander + interfered in the hope of saving some of them, “answer was made, that it + had been resolved to destroy everything in the house; and such resolve + should be carried to effect.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 125, note.] + Malice so bitter bears the peculiar ecclesiastical tinge, and is explained + by the confession of one of the ring-leaders, who, when subsequently + arrested, said he had been excited by the sermon, “and that he thought he + was doing God service.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, p. 123.] + </p> + <p> + The outbreak met with general condemnation, and Dr. Mayhew, who saw he had + gone too far, tried to excuse himself:— + </p> + <p> + “SIR,—I take the freedom to write you a few lines, by way of + condolence, on account of the almost unparalleled outrages committed at + your house last evening; and the great damage which I understand you have + suffered thereby. God is my witness, that, from the bottom of my heart, I + detest these proceedings; that I am most sincerely grieved at them, and + have a deep sympathy with you and your distressed family on this + occasion.” [Footnote: Mayhew to Hutchinson. <i>Life of Mayhew</i>, p. + 420.] + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the repeal of the Stamp Act, which pacified the laity, left + the clergy as hot as ever; and so early as 1768, when no one outside of + the inmost ecclesiastical circle yet dreamed of independence, but when the + Rev. Andrew Eliot thought the erection of the bishopric was near, he + frankly told Hollis he anticipated war. + </p> + <p> + “You will see by this pamphlet, how we are cajoled. A colony bishop is to + be a more innocent creature than ever a bishop was, since diocesan bishops + were introduced to lord it over God’s heritage. ... Can the A-b-p, and his + tools, think to impose on the colonists by these artful + representations.... The people of New England are greatly alarmed; the + arrival of a bishop would raise them as much as any one thing.... Our + General Court is now sitting. I have hinted to some of the members, that + it will be proper for them to express their fears of the setting up an + hierarchy here. I am well assured a motion will be made to this + purpose.... I may be mistaken, but I am persuaded the dispute between + Great Britain and her colonies will never be <i>amicably</i> settled.... I + sent you a few hasty remarks on the A-b-p’s sermon. ... I am more and more + convinced of the meanness, art—if he was not in so high a station, I + should say, falsehood—of that Arch-Pr-l-te.” [Footnote: Thomas + Seeker. Andrew Eliot to Thomas Hollis, Jan. 5, 1768. <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> + fourth series, iv. 422.] An established priesthood is naturally the + firmest support of despotism; but the course of events made that of + Massachusetts revolutionary. This was a social factor whose importance it + is hard to overestimate; for though the influence of the elders had much + declined during the eighteenth century, their political power was still + immense; and it is impossible to measure the degree in which the drift of + feeling toward independence would have been arrested had they been + thoroughly loyal. At all events, the evidence tends to show that it is + most improbable the first blood would have been shed in the streets of + Boston had it been the policy of Great Britain to conciliate the + Congregational Church; if, for example, the liberals had been forced to + meet the issue of taxation upon a statute designed to raise a revenue for + the maintenance of the evangelical clergy. How potent an ally King George + lost by incurring their hatred may be judged by the devotion of the + Episcopalian pastors, many of whom were of the same blood as their + Calvinistic brethren, often, like Cutler and Johnson, converts. They all + showed the same intensity of feeling; all were Tories, not one wavered; + and they boasted that they were long able to hold their parishioners in + check. + </p> + <p> + In September, 1765, those of Connecticut wrote to the secretary, “although + the commotions and disaffection in this country are very great at present, + relative to what they call the imposition of stamp duties, yet ... the + people of the Church of England, in general, in this colony, as we hear, + ... and those, in particular, under our respective charges, are of a + contrary temper and conduct; esteeming it nothing short of rebellion to + speak evil of dignities, and to avow opposition to this last act of + Parliament.... + </p> + <p> + “We think it our incumbent duty to warn our hearers, in particular, of the + unreasonableness and wickedness of their taking the least part in any + tumult or opposition to his majesty’s acts, and we have obvious reasons + for the fullest persuasion, that they will steadily behave themselves as + true and faithful subjects to his majesty’s person and government.” + [Footnote: <i>Conn. Church Doc.</i> ii. 81.] + </p> + <p> + Even so late as April, 1775, Mr. Caner, at Boston, felt justified in + making a very similar report to the society: “Our clergy have in the midst + of these confusions behaved I think with remarkable prudence. None of them + have been hindered from exercising the duties of their office since Mr. + Peters, tho’ many of them have been much threat’ned; and as their people + have for the most part remained firm and steadfast in their loyalty and + attachment to goverment, the clergy feel themselves supported by a + conscious satisfaction that their labors have not been in vain.” + [Footnote: Perry’s <i>Coll.</i> iii. 579.] + </p> + <p> + Nor did they shrink because of danger from setting an example of passive + obedience to their congregations. The Rev. Dr. Beach graduated at Yale in + 1721 and became the Congregational pastor of Newtown. He was afterward + converted, and during the war was forbidden to read the prayers for the + royal family; but he replied, “that he would do his duty, preach and pray + for the king, till the rebels cut out his tongue.” [Footnote: <i>O’Callaghan + Documents</i>, iii. 1053, 8vo ed.] + </p> + <p> + In estimating the energy of a social force, such as ecclesiasticism, the + indirect are often more striking than the direct manifestations of power, + and this is eminently true of Massachusetts; for, notwithstanding her + ministers had always been astute and indefatigable politicians, their + greatest triumphs were invariably won by some layman whose mind they had + moulded and whom they put forward as their champion. From John Winthrop, + who was the first, an almost unbroken line of these redoubtable partisans + stretched down to the Revolution, where it ended with him who is perhaps + the most celebrated of all. + </p> + <p> + Samuel Adams has been called the last of the Puritans. He was indeed the + incarnation of those qualities which led to eminence under the theocracy. + A rigid Calvinist, reticent, cool, and brave, matchless in intrigue, and + tireless in purpose, his cause was always holy, and therefore sanctified + the means. + </p> + <p> + Professor Hosmer thus describes him: “It was, however, as a manager of men + that Samuel Adams was greatest. Such a master of the methods by which a + town-meeting may be swayed, the world has never seen. On the best of terms + with the people, the shipyard men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as + the merchants and ministers, he knew precisely what springs to touch. He + was the prince of canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which his + father was the inventor.... As to his tact, was it ever surpassed?” + [Footnote: Hosmer’s <i>Samuel Adams</i>, p. 363.] A bigot in religion, he + had the flexibility of a Jesuit; and though he abhorred Episcopalians, he + proposed that Mr. Duché should make the opening prayer for Congress, in + the hope of soothing the southern members. Strict in all ceremonial + observances, he was loose in money matters; yet even here he stood within + the pale, for Dr. Cotton Mather was looser, [Footnote: See Letter on + behalf of Dr. Cotton Mather to Sewall, <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fourth + series, ii. 122.] who was the most orthodox of divines. + </p> + <p> + The clergy instinctively clave to him, and gave him their fullest + confidence. When there was any important work to do they went to him, and + he never failed them. On January 5, 1768, the Rev. Dr. Eliot told Hollis + he had suggested to some of the members of the legislature to remonstrate + against the bishops. [Footnote: <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i> fourth series, + iv. 422.] A week later the celebrated letter of instructions of the house + to the agent, De Berdt, was reported, which, was written by Adams; and it + is interesting to observe how, in the midst of a most vigorous protest on + the subject, he broke out: “We hope in God such an establishment will + never take place in America, and we desire you would strenuously oppose + it.” [Footnote: <i>Mass. State Papers</i>, 1765-1775, p. 132.] + </p> + <p> + The subtle but unmistakable flavor of ecclesiasticism pervades his whole + long agitation. He handled the newspapers with infinite skill, and the way + in which he used the toleration granted the Canadian Catholics after the + conquest, as a goad wherewith to inflame the dying Puritan fanaticism, was + worthy of St. Ignatius. He moved for the committee who reported the + resolutions of the town of Boston in 1772; his spirit inspired them, and + in these also the grievance of Episcopacy plays a large part. How strong + his prejudices were may be gathered from a few words: “We think therefore + that every design for establishing ... a bishop in this province, is a + design both against our civil and religious rights.” [Footnote: <i>Votes + and Proceedings of Boston</i>, Nov. 20, 1772, p. 28.] + </p> + <p> + The liberals, as loyal subjects of Great Britain, grieved over her policy + as the direst of misfortunes, which indeed they might be driven to resist, + but which they strove to modify. + </p> + <p> + Washington wrote in 1774: “I am well satisfied, ... that it is the ardent + wish of the warmest advocates for liberty, that peace and tranquillity, + upon constitutional grounds, may be restored, and the horrors of civil + discord prevented.” [Footnote: Washington to Mackenzie. <i>Washington’s + Writings</i>, ii. 402.] Jefferson affirmed: “Before the commencement of + hostilities ... I never had heard a whisper of a disposition to separate + from Great Britain; and after that, its possibility was contemplated with + affliction by all.” While John Adams solemnly declared: “For my own part, + there was not a moment during the Revolution, when I would not have given + everything I possessed for a restoration to the state of things before the + contest began, provided we could have had a sufficient security for its + continuance.” [Footnote: Note of Sparks, <i>Washington’s Writings</i>, ii. + 501.] + </p> + <p> + In such feelings Samuel Adams had no share. In each renewed aggression he + saw the error of his natural enemy, which brought ever nearer the + realization of the dream of independence he had inherited from the past; + for the same fierce passion burned within him that had made Endicott + mutilate his flag, and Leverett read his king’s letter with his hat on; + and the guns of Lexington were music in his ears. + </p> + <p> + He was not a lawyer, nor a statesman, in the true meaning of the word, but + he was a consummate agitator; and if this be remembered, his career + becomes clear. When he conceived the idea of the possibility of + independence is uncertain; probably soon after the passage of the Stamp + Act, but the evidence is strong that so early as 1768 he had deliberately + resolved to precipitate some catastrophe which would make reconciliation + impossible, and obviously an armed collision would have suited his purpose + best. + </p> + <p> + Troops were then first ordered to Boston, and at one moment he was tempted + to cause their landing to be resisted. An old affidavit is still extant, + presumably truthful enough, which brings him vividly before the mind as he + went about the town lashing up the people. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Samuel Adams ... happened to join the same party ... trembling and in + great agitation.... The informant heard the said Samuel Adams then say ... + ‘If you are men, behave like men. Let us take up arms immediately, and be + free, and seize all the king’s officers. We shall have thirty thousand men + to join us from the country.’ ... And before the arrival of the troops ... + at the house of the informant ... the said Samuel Adams said: ‘We will not + submit to any tax, nor become slaves.... The country was first settled by + our ancestors, therefore we are free and want no king.’ ... The informant + further sayeth, that about a fortnight before the troops arrived, the + aforesaid Samuel Adams, being at the house of the informant, the informant + asked him what he thought of the times. The said Adams answered, with + great alertness, that, on lighting the beacon, we should be joined with + thirty thousand men from the country with their knapsacks and bayonets + fixed, and added, ‘We will destroy every soldier that dare put his foot on + shore. His majesty has no right to send troops here to invade the country, + and I look upon them as foreign enemies!’” [Footnote: Wells’s <i>Samuel + Adams</i>, i. 210, 211.] + </p> + <p> + Maturer reflection must have convinced him his design was impracticable, + for he certainly abandoned it, and the two regiments disembarked in peace; + but their position was unfortunate. Together they were barely a thousand + strong, and were completely at the mercy of the populous and hostile + province they had been sent to awe. + </p> + <p> + The temptation to a bold and unscrupulous revolutionary leader must have + been intense. Apparently it needed but a spark to cause an explosion; the + rabble of Boston could be fierce and dangerous when roused, as had been + proved by the sack of Hutchinson’s house; and if the soldiers could be + goaded into firing on the citizens, the chances were they would be + annihilated in the rising which would follow, when a rupture would be + inevitable. But even supposing the militia abstained from participating in + the outbreak, and the tumult were suppressed, the indignation at the + slaughter would be deep enough to sustain him in making demands which the + government could not grant. + </p> + <p> + Hutchinson and the English officers understood the danger, and for many + months the discipline was exemplary, but precautions were futile. Though + he knew full well how to be all things to all men, the natural + affiliations of Samuel Adams were with the clergy and the mob, and in the + ship-yards and rope-walks he reigned supreme. Nor was he of a temper to + shrink from using to the utmost the opportunity his adversaries had put in + his hands, and he forthwith began a series of inflammatory appeals in the + newspapers, whereof this is a specimen: “And are the inhabitants of this + town still to be affronted in the night as well as the day by soldiers + arm’d with muskets and fix’d bayonets?... Will the spirits of people, as + yet unsubdued by tyranny, unaw’d by the menaces of arbitary power, submit + to be govern’d by military force?” [Footnote: Vindex, <i>Boston Gazette</i>, + Dec. 5, 1768.] + </p> + <p> + In 1770 it was notorious that “endeavors had been systematically pursued + for many months, by certain busy characters, to excite quarrels, + rencounters, and combats, single or compound, in the night, between the + inhabitants of the lower class and the soldiers, and at all risks to + enkindle an immortal hatred between them.” [Footnote: Autobiography of + John Adams. <i>Works of J. Adams</i>, ii. 229.] And it is curious to + observe how the British always quarrelled with the laborers about the + wharves; and how these, the closest friends of Adams, were all imbued with + the theory he maintained, that the military could not use their weapons + without the order of a civil magistrate. Little by little the animosity + increased, until on the 2d of March there was a very serious fray at + Gray’s rope-walk, which was begun by one of the hands, who knocked down + two soldiers who spoke to him in the street. Although Adams afterward + labored to convince the public that the tragedy which happened three days + later was the result of a deliberately matured conspiracy to murder the + citizens for revenge, there is nothing whereon to base such a charge; on + the contrary, the evidence tends to exonerate the troops, and the verdicts + show the opinion of the juries. There was exasperation on both sides, but + the rabble were not restrained by discipline, and on the night of the 5th + of March James Crawford swore he he saw at Calf’s corner “about a dozen + with sticks, in Quaker Lane and Green’s Lane, met many going toward King + Street. Very great sticks, pretty large cudgells, not common walking + canes.... At Swing bridge the people were walking from all quarters with + sticks. I was afraid to go home, ... the streets in such commotion as I + hardly ever saw in my life. Uncommon sticks such as a man would pull out + of an hedge.... Thomas Knight at his own door, 8 or 10 passed with sticks + or clubs and one of them said ‘D—n their bloods, let us go and + attack the main guard first.’” [Footnote: Kidder’s <i>Massacre</i>, p. + 10.] The crown witnesses testified that the sentry was surrounded by a + crowd of thirty or forty, who pelted him with pieces of ice “hard and + large enough to hurt any man; as big as one’s fist.” And ha said “he was + afraid, if the boys did not disperse, there would be trouble.” [Footnote: + <i>Idem</i>, p. 138.] When the guard came to his help the mob grew still + more violent, yelling “bloody backs,” “lobster scoundrels,” “damn you, + fire! why don’t you fire?” striking them with sticks. + </p> + <p> + “Did you observe anybody strike Montgomery, or was a club thrown? The + stroke came from a stick or club that was in somebody’s hand, and the blow + struck his gun and his arm.” “Was he knocked down?... He fell, I am + sure.... His gun flew out of hand, and as he stooped to take it up, he + fell himself.... Was any number of people standing near the man that + struck his gun? Yes, a whole crowd, fifty or sixty.” [Footnote: Kidder’s + <i>Massacre</i>, pp. 138, 139.] When the volley came at last the rabble + fell back, and the 29th was rapidly formed before the main guard, the + front rank kneeling, that the fire might sweep the street. And now when + every bell was tolling, and the town was called to arms, and infuriated + men came pouring in by thousands, Hutchinson showed he had inherited the + blood of his great ancestress, who feared little upon earth; but then, + indeed, their adversaries have seldom charged the Puritans with cowardice + in fight. Coming quickly to the council chamber he passed into the + balcony, which overhung the kneeling regiment and the armed and maddened + crowd, and he spoke with such calmness and courage that even then he was + obeyed. He promised that justice should be done and he commanded the + people to disperse. Preston and his men were at once surrendered to the + authorities to await their trial. + </p> + <p> + The next day Adams was in his glory. The meeting in the morning was as wax + between his fingers, and his friend, the Rev. Dr. Cooper, opened it with + fervent prayer. A committee was at once appointed to demand the withdrawal + of the troops, but Hutchinson thought he had no power and that Gage alone + could give the order. Nevertheless, after a conference with Colonel + Dalrymple he was induced to propose that the 29th should be sent to the + Castle, and the 14th put under strict restraint. [Footnote: Kidder’s <i>Massacre</i>, + p. 43.] To the daring agitator it seemed at last his hour was come, for + the whole people were behind him, and Hutchinson himself says “their + spirit” was “as high as was the spirit of their ancestors when they + imprisoned Andros.” As the committee descended the steps of the State + House to go to the Old South where they were to report, the dense crowd + made way for them, and Samuel Adams as he walked bare-headed through their + lines continually bowed to right and left, repeating the catchword, “Both + regiments or none.” His touch on human passions was unerring, for when the + lieutenant-governor’s reply was read, the great assembly answered with a + mighty shout, “Both regiments or none,” and so instructed he returned. + Then the nature of the man shone out; the handful of troops were helpless, + and he was as inflexible as steel. The thin, strong, determined, gray-eyed + Puritan stood before Hutchinson, inwardly exulting as he marked his + features change under the torture. “A multitude highly incensed now wait + the result of this application. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands + that both regiments be forthwith removed.... Fail not then at your peril + to comply with this requisition!” [Footnote: Hosmer’s <i>Samuel Adams</i>, + p. 173.] It was the spirit of Norton and of Endicott alive again, and he + was flushed with the same stern triumph at the sight of his victim’s pain: + “It was then, if fancy deceived me not, I observed his knees to tremble. I + thought I saw his face grow pale (and I enjoyed the sight).” [Footnote: + Adams to Warren. Wells’s Samuel Adams, i. 324.] + </p> + <p> + Probably nothing prevented a complete rupture but the hopeless weakness of + the garrison, for Hutchinson, feeling the decisive moment had come, was + full of fight. He saw that to yield would destroy his authority, and he + opposed concession, but he stood alone, the officers knew their position + was untenable, and the council was unanimous against him. “The Lt G. + endeavoured to convince them of the ill consequence of this advice, and + kept them until late in the evening, the people remaining assembled; but + the council were resolute. Their advice, therefore, he communicated to Col + Dalrymple accompanied with a declaration, that he had no authority to + order the removal of the troops. This part Col. D. was dissatisfied with, + and urged the Lt G. to withdraw it, but he refused, and the regiments were + removed. He was much distressed, but he brought it all upon himself by his + offer to remove one of the regiments. No censure, however, was passed upon + him.” [Footnote: <i>Diary and Letters of T. Hutchinson</i>, p. 80.] + </p> + <p> + Had the pacification of his country been the object near his heart, Samuel + Adams, after his victory, would have abstained from any act however + remotely tending to influence the course of justice; for he must have + known that it was only by such conduct the colonists could inspire respect + for the motives which actuated them in their resistance. A capital + sentence would have been doubly unfortunate, for had it been executed it + would have roused all England; while had the king pardoned the soldiers, + as assuredly he would have done, a deep feeling of wrong would have + rankled in America. + </p> + <p> + A fanatical and revolutionary demagogue, on the other hand, would have + longed for a conviction, not only to compass his ends as a politician, but + to glut his hate as a zealot. + </p> + <p> + Samuel Adams was a taciturn, secretive man, whose tortuous course would + have been hard to follow a century ago; now the attempt is hopeless. Yet + there is one inference it seems permissible to draw: his admirers have + always boasted that he was the inspiration of the town meetings, + presumably, therefore, the votes passed at them may be attributed to his + manipulation. And starting from this point, with the help of Hutchinson + and his own writings, it is still possible to discern the outlines of a + policy well worthy of a theocratic statesman. + </p> + <p> + The March meeting began on the 12th. On the 13th it was resolved:— + </p> + <p> + “That —— He and they hereby are appointed a committee for and + in behalf of the town to find out who those persons are that were the + perpetrators of the horred murders and massacres done and committed in + King Street on several of the inhabitants in the evening of the 5th + instant and take such examinations and depositions as they can procure, + and lay the whole thereof before the grand inquest in order that such + perpetrators may be indicted and brought to tryal for the same, and upon + indictments being found, said committee are desired to prepare matters for + the king’s attorney, to attend at their tryals in the superior court, + subpoena all the witnesses, and do everything necessary for bringing those + murtherers to that punishment for such crimes, as the laws of God and man + require.” [Footnote: <i>Records of Boston</i>, v. 232.] + </p> + <p> + A day or two afterward a number of Adams’s friends, among whom were some + of the members of this committee, dined together, and Hutchinson tells + what he persuaded them to do. + </p> + <p> + “The time for holding the superior court for the county of Suffolk was the + next week after the tragical action in King Street. Although bills were + found by the grand jury, yet the court, considering the disordered state + of the town, had thought fit to continue the trials over to the next term, + when the minds of people would be more free from prejudice.” “A + considerable number of the most active persons in all publick measures of + the town, having dined together, went in a body from table to the superior + court then sitting, and Mr. Adams, at their head and in behalf of the + town, pressed the bringing on the trial the same term with so much spirit, + that the judges did not think it advisable to abide by their own order, + but appointed a day for the trials, and adjourned the court for that + purpose.” [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> iii. 285, 286 and note.] + </p> + <p> + The justices must afterward have grown ashamed of their cowardice, for Rex + <i>v.</i> Preston did not come on until the autumn, and altogether very + little was accomplished by these attempts to interfere with the due + administration of the law. “A committee had been appointed by the town to + assist in the prosecution of the soldiers ... but this was irregular. The + courts, according to the practice in the province, required no prosecutors + but the officers of the crown; much less would they have thought it proper + for the principal town in the province to have brought all its weight, + which was very great, into court against the prisoners.” [Footnote: <i>Idem</i>, + iii. 286, note.] + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, Adams had by no means exhausted his resources, for it was + possible so to inflame the public mind that dispassionate juries could + hardly be obtained. + </p> + <p> + At the same March meeting another committee was named, who were to obtain + a “particular account of all proceedings relative to the massacre in King + Street on Monday night last, that a full and just representation may be + made thereof?” [Footnote: Kidder’s <i>Massacre</i>, p. 23.] The reason + assigned for so unwonted a proceeding as the taking of <i>ex parte</i> + testimony by a popular assembly concerning alleged murders, for which men + were to be presently tried for their lives, was the necessity for + controverting the aspersions of the British officials; but the probable + truth of this explanation must be judged by the course actually pursued. + On the 19th the report was made, consisting of “A Short Narrative of the + Horrid Massacre in Boston,” together with a number of depositions; and + though perhaps it was natural, under the circumstances, for such a + pamphlet to have been highly partisan, it was unnatural for its authors to + have assumed the burden of proving that a deliberately planned conspiracy + had existed between the civilians and the military to murder the citizens; + especially as this tremendous charge rested upon no better foundation than + the fantastic falsehoods of “a French boy, whose evidence appeared to the + justice so improbable, and whose character was so infamous, that the + justice, who was one of the most zealous in the cause of liberty, refused + to issue a warrant to apprehend his master, against whom he swore.” + [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist</i>. iii. 279, 280.] “Then I went up to the + custom-house door and knocked, ... I saw my master and Mr. Munroe come + down-stairs, and go into a room; when four or five men went up stairs, + pulling and hauling me after them.... When I was carried into the chamber, + there was but one light in the room, and that in the corner of the + chamber, when I saw a tall man loading a gun (then I saw two guns in the + room) ... there was a number of gentlemen in the room. After the gun was + loaded, the tall man gave it to me, and told me to fire, and said he would + kill me if I did not; I told him I would not. He drawing a sword out of + his cane, told me, if I did not fire it, he would run it through my guts. + The man putting the gun out of the window, it being a little open, I fired + it side way up the street; the tall man then loaded the gun again.... I + told him I would not fire again; he told me again, he would run me through + the guts if I did not. Upon which I fired the same way up the street. + After I fired the second gun, I saw my master in the room; he took a gun + and pointed it out of the window; I heard the gun go off. Then a tall man + came and clapped me on the shoulders above and below stairs, and said, + that’s my good boy, I’ll give you some money to-morrow.... And I ran home + as fast as I could, and sat up all night in my master’s kitchen. And + further say, that my master licked me the next night for telling Mrs. + Waldron about his firing out of the custom-house. And for fear that I + should be licked again, I did deny all that I said before Justice Quincy, + which I am very sorry for. [Footnote: Kidder’s <i>Massacre</i>, p. 82. + Deposition 58.] + </p> + <p> + “CHARLOTTE BOURGATE + (his mark).” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + While it is inconceivable that a cool and sagacious politician, whose + object was to convince Parliament of the good faith of Massachusetts, + should have relied upon such incredible statements to sway the minds of + English statesmen and lawyers, it is equally inconceivable he should not + have known they were admirably adapted to still further exasperate an + already excited people; and that such was his purpose must be inferred + from the immediate publication of the substance of this affidavit in the + newspapers. [Footnote: <i>Boston Gazette</i>, March 19, 1770.] + </p> + <p> + Without doubt a vote was passed on the 26th of March, a week after the + committee had presented their report, desiring them to reserve all the + printed copies not sent to Europe, as their distribution might tend to + bias the juries; but even had this precaution been observed, it came too + late, for the damage was done when the Narrative was read in Faneuil Hall; + in fact, however, the order was eluded, for “many copies, notwithstanding, + got abroad, and some of a second edition were sent from England, long + before the trials of the officer and soldiers came on.” [Footnote: Hutch. + <i>Hist.</i> iii. 279.] And at this cheap rate a reputation for + magnanimity was earned. + </p> + <p> + How thoroughly the clergy sympathized with their champion appears from + their clamors for blood. As the time drew near it was rumored Hutchinson + would reprieve the prisoners, should they be convicted, till the king’s + pleasure could be known. Then Dr. Chauncy, the senior minister of Boston, + cried out in his pulpit: “Surely he would not counteract the operation of + the law, both of God and of man! Surely he would not suffer the town and + land to lie under the defilement of blood! Surely he would not make + himself a partaker in the guilt of murder, by putting a stop to the + shedding of their blood, who have murderously spilt the blood of others!” + [Footnote: Hutch. <i>Hist.</i> iii. 329, note.] Adams attended when the + causes were heard and took notes of the evidence; and one of the few + occasions in his long life on which his temper seems to have got beyond + control was when the accused were acquitted. His writings betray + unmistakable chagrin; and nothing is more typical of the man, or of the + clerical atmosphere wherein he had been bred, than his comments upon the + testimony on which the lives of his enemies hung. His piety caused him to + doubt those whose evidence was adverse to his wishes, though they appeared + to be trying to speak the truth. “The credibility of a witness perhaps + cannot be impeach’d in court, unless he has been convicted of perjury: but + an immoral man, for instance one who will commonly prophane the name of + his maker, certainly cannot be esteemed of equal credit by a jury, with + one who fears to take that sacred name in vain: It is impossible he should + in the mind of any man.” [Footnote: <i>Boston Gazette</i>, Jan. 21, 1771.] + </p> + <p> + And yet this rigid Calvinist, this incarnation of ecclesiasticism, had no + scruple in propagating the palpable and infamous lies of Charlotte + Bourgate, when by so doing he thought it possible to further his own ends. + He was bitterly mortified, for he had been foiled. Yet, though he had + failed in precipitating war, he had struck a telling blow, and he had no + reason to repine. Probably no single event, before fighting actually + began, left so deep a scar as the Boston massacre; and many years later + John Adams gave it as his deliberate opinion that, on the night of the 5th + of March, 1770, “the foundation of American independence was laid.” Nor + was the full realization of his hopes long delayed. Gage occupied Boston + in 1774. During the winter the tireless agitator, from his place in the + Provincial Congress, warned the people to fight any force sent more than + ten miles from the town; and so when Paul Revere galloped through + Middlesex on the night of the 18th of April he found the farmers ready. + Samuel Adams had slept at the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark. Before + sunrise the detachment sent to seize him was close at hand. While they + advanced, he escaped; and as he walked across the fields toward Woburn, to + the sound of the guns of Lexington, he exclaimed, in a burst of passionate + triumph, “What a glorious morning is this!” + </p> + <p> + Massachusetts became the hot-bed of rebellion because of this unwonted + alliance between liberality and sacerdotalism. Liberality was her + birthright; for liberalism is the offspring of intellectual variation, + which makes mutual toleration of opinion a necessity; but that her church + should have been radical at this crisis was due to the action of a long + chain of memorable causes. + </p> + <p> + The exiles of the Reformation were enthusiasts, for none would then have + dared defy the pains of heresy, in whom the instinct onward was feebler + than the fear of death; yet when the wanderers reached America the mental + growth of the majority had culminated, and they had passed into the age of + routine; and exactly in proportion as their youthful inspiration had been + fervid was their later formalism intense. But similar causes acting on the + human mechanism produce like results; hence bigotry and ambition fed by + power led to persecution. Then, as the despotism of the preachers + deepened, their victims groaning in their dungeons, or furrowed by their + lash, implored the aid of England, who, in defence of freedom and of law, + crushed the theocracy at a blow. And the clergy knew and hated their enemy + from the earliest days; it was this bitter theological jealousy which + flamed within Endicott when he mutilated his flag, and within Leverett + when he insulted Randolph; it was a rapacious lust for power and a furious + detestation of rival priests which maddened the Mathers in their onslaught + upon Dudley, which burned undimmed in Mayhew and Cooper, and in their + champion, Samuel Adams, and which at last made the hierarchy cast in its + lot with an ally more dangerous far than those prelates whom it deemed its + foe. For no church can preach liberality and not be liberalized. Of a + truth the momentary spasm may pass which made these conservatives + progressive, and they may once more manifest their reactionary nature, + but, nevertheless, the impulsion shall have been given to that automatic, + yet resistless, machinery which produces innovation; wherefore, in the + next generation, the great liberal secession from the Congregational + communion broke the ecclesiastical power forever. And so, through toil and + suffering, through martyrdoms and war, the Puritans wrought out the + ancient destiny which fated them to wander as outcasts to the desolate New + England shore; there, amidst hardship and apparent failure, they slowly + achieved their civil and religious liberty, and conceived that + constitutional system which is the root of our national life; and there in + another century the liberal commonwealth they had builded led the battle + against the spread of human oppression; and when the war of slavery burst + forth her soldiers rightly were the first to fall; for it is her + children’s heritage that, wheresoever on this continent blood shall flow + in defence of personal freedom, there must the sons of Massachusetts + surely be. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s The Emancipation of Massachusetts, by Brooks Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS *** + +***** This file should be named 6706-h.htm or 6706-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/7/0/6706/ + + +Text file produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Emancipation of Massachusetts + +Author: Brooks Adams + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6706] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 17, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS +THE DREAM AND THE REALITY + +BY +BROOKS ADAMS + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION. + + +I am under the deepest obligations to the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain and Mr. +Charles Deane. + +The generosity of my friend Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing in putting at my +disposal the unpublished results of his researches among the Zunis is in +keeping with the originality and power of his mind. Without his aid my +attempt would have been impossible. I have also to thank Prof. Henry C. +Chapman, J. A. Gordon, M. D., Prof. William James, and Alpheus Hyatt, +Esq., for the kindness with which they assisted me. I feel that any merit +this volume may possess is due to these gentlemen; its faults are all my +own. + +BROOKS ADAMS. +QUINCY, _September_ 17, 1886. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PREFACE + +CHAPTER I. THE COMMONWEALTH + +CHAPTER II. THE ANTINOMIANS + +CHAPTER III. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM + +CHAPTER IV. THE ANABAPTISTS + +CHAPTER V. THE QUAKERS + +CHAPTER VI. THE SCIRE FACIAS + +CHAPTER VII. THE WITCHCRAFT + +CHAPTER VIII. BRATTLE CHURCH + +CHAPTER IX. HARVARD COLLEGE + +CHAPTER X. THE LAWYERS + +CHAPTER XL. THE REVOLUTION + + + + +PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + + +CHAPTER I + + +I wrote this little volume more than thirty years ago, since when I have +hardly opened it. Therefore I now read it almost as if it were written by +another man, and I find to my relief that, on the whole, I think rather +better of it than I did when I published it. Indeed, as a criticism of +what were then the accepted views of Massachusetts history, as expounded +by her most authoritative historians, I see nothing in it to retract or +even to modify. I do, however, somewhat regret the rather acrimonious tone +which I occasionally adopted when speaking of the more conservative +section of the clergy. Not that I think that the Mathers, for example, and +their like, did not deserve all, or, indeed, more than all I ever said or +thought of them, but because I conceive that equally effective strictures +might have been conveyed in urbaner language; and, as I age, I shrink from +anything akin to invective, even in what amounts to controversy. + +Therefore I have now nothing to alter in the _Emancipation of +Massachusetts_, viewed as history, though I might soften its asperities +somewhat, here and there; but when I come to consider it as philosophy, I +am startled to observe the gap which separates the present epoch from my +early middle life. + +The last generation was strongly Darwinian in the sense that it accepted, +almost as a tenet of religious faith, the theory that human civilization +is a progressive evolution, moving on the whole steadily toward +perfection, from a lower to a higher intellectual plane, and, as a +necessary part of its progress, developing a higher degree of mental +vigor. I need hardly observe that all belief in democracy as a final +solution of social ills, all confidence in education as a means to +attaining to universal justice, and all hope of approximating to the rule +of moral right in the administration of law, was held to hinge on this +great fundamental dogma, which, it followed, it was almost impious to +deny, or even to doubt. Thus, on the first page of my book, I observe, as +if it were axiomatic, that, at a given moment, toward the opening of the +sixteenth century, "Europe burst from her mediaeval torpor into the +splendor of the Renaissance," and further on I assume, as an equally self- +evident axiom, that freedom of thought was the one great permanent advance +which western civilization made by all the agony and bloodshed of the +Reformation. Apart altogether from the fact that I should doubt whether, +in the year 1919, any intelligent and educated man would be inclined to +maintain that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were, as contrasted +with the nineteenth, ages of intellectual torpor, what startles me in +these paragraphs is the self-satisfied assumption of the finality of my +conclusions. I posit, as a fact not to be controverted, that our universe +is an expression of an universal law, which the nineteenth century had +discovered and could formulate. + +During the past thirty years I have given this subject my best attention, +and now I am so far from assenting to this proposition that my mind tends +in the opposite direction. Each day I live I am less able to withstand the +suspicion that the universe, far from being an expression of law +originating in a single primary cause, is a chaos which admits of reaching +no equilibrium, and with which man is doomed eternally and hopelessly to +contend. For human society, to deserve the name of civilization, must be +an embodiment of order, or must at least tend toward a social equilibrium. +I take, as an illustration of my meaning, the development of the domestic +relations of our race. + +I assume it to be generally admitted, that possibly man's first and +probably his greatest advance toward order--and, therefore, toward +civilization--was the creation of the family as the social nucleus. As +Napoleon said, when the lawyers were drafting his Civil Code, "Make the +family responsible to its head, and the head to me, and I will keep order +in France." And yet although our dependence on the family system has been +recognized in every age and in every land, there has been no restraint on +personal liberty which has been more resented, by both men and women +alike, than has been this bond which, when perfect, constrains one man and +one woman to live a joint life until death shall them part, for the +propagation, care, and defence of their children. + +The result is that no civilization has, as yet, ever succeeded, and none +promises in the immediate future to succeed, in enforcing this primary +obligation, and we are thus led to consider the cause, inherent in our +complex nature, which makes it impossible for us to establish an +equilibrium between mind and matter. A difficulty which never has been +even partially overcome, which wrecked the Roman Empire and the Christian +Church, which has wrecked all systems of law, and which has never been +more lucidly defined than by Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, +"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. +For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but +what I hate, that do I.... Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin +that dwelleth in me.... For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil +which I would not, that I do.... For I delight in the law of God after the +inward man: ... But I see another law in my members, warring against the +law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is +in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the +body of this death?" [Footnote: Romans vii, 14-24.] + +And so it has been since a time transcending the limits of imagination. +Here in a half-a-dozen sentences Saint Paul exposes the ceaseless conflict +between mind and matter, whose union, though seemingly the essence of +life, creates a condition which we cannot comprehend and to which we could +not hope to conform, even if we could comprehend it. In short, which +indicates chaos as being the probable core of an universe from which we +must evolve order, if ever we are to cope with violence, fraud, crime, +war, and general brutality. Wheresoever we turn the prospect is the same. +If we gaze upon the heavens we discern immeasurable spaces sprinkled with +globules of matter, to which our earth seems to be more or less akin, but +all plunging, apparently, both furiously and aimlessly, from out of an +infinite past to an equally immeasurable future. + +Whence this material mass comes, or what its wild flight portends, we +neither know nor could we, probably, comprehend even were its secret +divulged to us by a superior intelligence, always conceding that there be +such an intelligence, or any secret to disclose. These latter speculations +lie, however, beyond the scope of my present purpose. It suffices if +science permits me to postulate (a concession by science which I much +doubt if it could make) that matter, as we know it, has the semblance of +being what we call a substance, charged with a something which we define +as energy, but which at all events simulates a vital principle resembling +heat, seeking to escape into space, where it cools. Thus the stars, having +blazed until their vital principle is absorbed in space, sink into +relative torpor, or, as the astronomers say, die. The trees and plants +diffuse their energy in the infinite, and, at length, when nothing but a +shell remains, rot. Lastly, our fleshly bodies, when the union between +mind and matter is dissolved, crumble into dust. When the involuntary +partnership between mind and matter ceases through death, it is possible, +or at least conceivable, that the impalpable soul, admitting that such a +thing exists, may survive in some medium where it may be free from +material shackles, but, while life endures, the flesh has wants which must +be gratified, and which, therefore, take precedence of the yearnings of +the soul, just as Saint Paul points out was the case with himself; and +herein lies the inexorable conflict between the moral law and the law of +competition which favors the strong, and from whence comes all the +abominations of selfishness, of violence, of cruelty and crime. + +Approached thus, perhaps no historical fragment is more suggestive than +the exodus of the Jews from Egypt under Moses, who was the first great +optimist, nor one which is seldomer read with an eye to the contrast which +it discloses between Moses the law-giver, the idealist, the religious +prophet, and the visionary; and Moses the political adventurer and the +keen and unscrupulous man of the world. And yet it is here at the point at +which mind and matter clashed, that Moses merits most attention. For Moses +and the Mosaic civilization broke down at this point, which is, indeed, +the chasm which has engulfed every progressive civilization since the dawn +of time. And the value of the story as an illustration of scientific +history is its familiarity, for no Christian child lives who has not been +brought up on it. + +We have all forgotten when we first learned how the Jews came to migrate +to Egypt during the years of the famine, when Joseph had become the +minister of Pharaoh through his acuteness in reading dreams. Also how, +after their settlement in the land of Goshen,--which is the Egyptian +province lying at the end of the ancient caravan road, which Abraham +travelled, leading from Palestine to the banks of the Nile, and which had +been the trade route, or path of least resistance, between Asia and +Africa, probably for ages before the earliest of human traditions,--they +prospered exceedingly. But at length they fell into a species of bondage +which lasted several centuries, during which they multiplied so rapidly +that they finally raised in the Egyptian government a fear of their +domination. Nor, considering subsequent events, was this apprehension +unreasonable. At all events the Egyptian government is represented, as a +measure of self-protection, as proposing to kill male Jewish babies in +order to reduce the Jewish military strength; and it was precisely at this +juncture that Moses was born, Moses, indeed, escaped the fate which +menaced him, but only by a narrow chance, and he was nourished by his +mother in an atmosphere of hate which tinged his whole life, causing him +always to feel to the Egyptians as the slave feels to his master. After +birth the mother hid the child as long as possible, but when she could +conceal the infant no longer she platted a basket of reeds, smeared it +with pitch, and set it adrift in the Nile, where it was likely to be +found, leaving her eldest daughter, named Miriam, to watch over it. +Presently Pharaoh's daughter came, as was her habit, to the river to +bathe, as Moses's mother expected that she would, and there she noticed +the "ark" floating among the bulrushes. She had it brought her, and, +noticing Miriam, she caused the girl to engage her mother, whom Miriam +pointed out to her, as a nurse. Taking pity on the baby the kind-hearted +princess adopted it and brought it up as she would had it been her own, +and, as the child grew, she came to love the boy, and had him educated +with care, and this education must be kept in mind since the future of +Moses as a man turned upon it. For Moses was most peculiarly a creation of +his age and of his environment; if, indeed, he may not be considered as an +incarnation of Jewish thought gradually shaped during many centuries of +priestly development. + +According to tradition, Moses from childhood was of great personal beauty, +so much so that passers by would turn to look at him, and this early +promise was fulfilled as he grew to be a man. Tall and dignified, with +long, shaggy hair and beard, of a reddish hue tinged with gray, he is +described as "wise as beautiful." Educated by his foster-mother as a +priest at Heliopolis, he was taught the whole range of Chaldean and +Assyrian literature, as well as the Egyptian, and thus became acquainted +with all the traditions of oriental magic: which, just at that period, was +in its fullest development. Consequently, Moses must have been familiar +with the ancient doctrines of Zoroaster. + +Men who stood thus, and had such an education, were called Wise Men, Magi, +or Magicians, and had great influence, not so much as priests of a God, as +enchanters who dealt with the supernatural as a profession. Daniel, for +example, belonged to this class. He was one of three captive Jews whom +Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, gave in charge to the master of his +eunuchs, to whom he should teach the learning and the tongue of the +Chaldeans. Daniel, very shortly, by his natural ability, brought himself +and his comrades into favor with the chief eunuch, who finally presented +them to Nebuchadnezzar, who conversed with them and found them "ten times +better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." + +The end of it was, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream which he +forgot when he awoke and he summoned "the magicians, and the astrologers, +and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams," +but they could not unless he told it them. This vexed the king, who +declared that unless they should tell him his dream with the +interpretation thereof, they should be cut in pieces. So the decree went +forth that all "the wise men" of Babylon should be slain, and they sought +Daniel and his fellows to slay them. Therefore, it appears that together +with its privileges and advantages the profession of magic was dangerous +in those ages. Daniel, on this occasion, according to the tradition, +succeeded in revealing and interpreting the dream; and, in return, +Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel a great man, chief governor of the province of +Babylon. + +Precisely a similar tale is told of Joseph, who, having been sold by his +brethren to Midianitish merchantmen with camels, bearing spices and balm, +journeying along the ancient caravan road toward Egypt, was in turn sold +by them to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard. + +And Joseph rose in Potiphar's service, and after many alternations of +fortune was brought before Pharaoh, as Daniel had been before +Nebuchadnezzar, and because he interpreted Pharaoh's dream acceptably, he +was made "ruler over all the land of Egypt" and so ultimately became the +ancestor whom Moses most venerated and whose bones he took with him when +he set out upon the exodus. + +It is true also that Josephus has preserved an idle tale that Moses was +given command of an Egyptian army with which he made a successful campaign +against the Ethiopians, but it is unworthy of credit and may be neglected. +His bringing up was indeed the reverse of military. So much so that +probably far the most important part of his education lay in acquiring +those arts which conduce to the deception of others, such deceptions as +jugglers have always practised in snake-charming and the like, or in +gaining control of another's senses by processes akin to hypnotism;-- +processes which have been used by the priestly class and their familiars +from the dawn of time. In especial there was one miracle performed by the +Magi, on which not only they, but Moses himself, appear to have set great +store, and on which Moses seemed always inclined to fall back, when hard +pressed to assert his authority. They pretended to make fire descend onto +their altars by means of magical ceremonies. [Footnote: Lenormant, +_Chaldean Magic_, 226.] Nevertheless, amidst all these ancient eastern +civilizations, the strongest hold which the priests or sorcerers held +over, and the greatest influence which they exercised upon, others, +lay in their relations to disease, for there they were supposed to be +potent. For example, in Chaldea, diseases were held to be the work of +demons, to be feared in proportion as they were powerful and malignant, +and to be restrained by incantations and exorcisms. Among these demons the +one, perhaps most dreaded, was called Namtar, the genius of the plague. +Moses was, of course, thoroughly familiar with all these branches of +learning, for the relations of Egypt were then and for many centuries had +been, intimate with Mesopotamia. Whatever aspect the philosophy may have, +which Moses taught after middle life touching the theory of the religion +in which he believed, Moses had from early childhood been nurtured in +these Mesopotamian beliefs and traditions, and to them--or, at least, +toward them--he always tended to revert in moments of stress. Without +bearing this fundamental premise in mind, Moses in active life can hardly +be understood, for it was on this foundation that his theories of cause +and effect were based. + +As M. Lenormant has justly and truly observed, go back as far as we will +in Egyptian religion, we find there, as a foundation, or first cause, the +idea of a divine unity,--a single God, who had no beginning and was to +have no end of days,--the primary cause of all. [Footnote: _Chaldean +Magic_, 79.] It is true that this idea of unity was early obscured by +confounding the energy with its manifestations. Consequently a polytheism +was engendered which embraced all nature. Gods and demons struggled for +control and in turn were struggled with. In Egypt, in Media, in Chaldea, +in Persia, there were wise men, sorcerers, and magicians who sought to put +this science into practice, and among this fellowship Moses must always +rank foremost. Before, however, entering upon the consideration of Moses, +as a necromancer, as a scientist, as a statesman, as a priest, or as a +commander, we should first glance at the authorities which tell his +history. + +Scholars are now pretty well agreed that Moses and Aaron were men who +actually lived and worked probably about the time attributed to them by +tradition. That is to say, under the reign of Ramses II, of the Nineteenth +Egyptian dynasty who reigned, as it is computed, from 1348 to 1281 B.C., +and under whom the exodus occurred. Nevertheless, no very direct or +conclusive evidence having as yet been discovered touching these events +among Egyptian documents, we are obliged, in the main, to draw our +information from the Hebrew record, which, for the most part, is contained +in the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible. + +Possibly no historical documents have ever been subjected to a severer or +more minute criticism than have these books during the last two centuries. +It is safe to say that no important passage and perhaps no paragraph has +escaped the most searching and patient analysis by the acutest and most +highly trained of minds; but as yet, so far as the science of history is +concerned, the results have been disappointing. The order in which events +occurred may have been successfully questioned and the sequence of the +story rearranged hypothetically; but, in general, it has to be admitted +that the weight of all the evidence obtained from the monuments of +contemporary peoples has been to confirm the reliability of the Biblical +narrative. For example, no one longer doubts that Joseph was actually a +Hebrew, who rose, through merit, to the highest offices of state under an +Egyptian monarch, and who conceived and successfully carried into +execution a comprehensive agrarian policy which had the effect of +transferring the landed estates of the great feudal aristocracy to the +crown, and of completely changing Egyptian tenures. Nor does any one +question, at this day, the reality of the power which the Biblical writers +ascribed to the Empire of the Hittites. Under such conditions the course +of the commentator is clear. He should treat the Jewish record as +reliable, except where it frankly accepts the miracle as a demonstrated +fact, and even then regard the miracle as an important and most suggestive +part of the great Jewish epic, which always has had, and always must have, +a capital influence on human thought. + +The Pentateuch has, indeed, been demonstrated to be a compilation of +several chronicles arranged by different writers at different times, and +blended into a unity under different degrees of pressure, but now, as the +book stands, it is as authentic a record as could be wished of the +workings of the Mosaic mind and of the minds of those of his followers who +supported him in his pilgrimage, and who made so much of his task +possible, as he in fact accomplished. + +Moses, himself, but for the irascibility of his temper, might have lived +and died, contented and unknown, within the shadow of the Egyptian court. +The princess who befriended him as a baby would probably have been true to +him to the end, in which case he would have lived wealthy, contented, and +happy and would have died overfed and unknown. Destiny, however, had +planned it otherwise. + +The Hebrews were harshly treated after the death of Joseph, and fell into +a quasi-bondage in which they were forced to labor, and this species of +tyranny irritated Moses, who seems to have been brought up under his +mother's influence. At all events, one day Moses chanced to see an +Egyptian beating a Jew, which must have been a common enough sight, but a +sight which revolted him. Whereupon Moses, thinking himself alone, slew +the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. Moses, however, was not alone. +A day or so later he again happened to see two men fighting, whereupon he +again interfered, enjoining the one who was in the wrong to desist. +Whereupon the man whom he checked turned fiercely on him and said, "Who +made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou +killedst the Egyptian?" + +When Moses perceived by this act of treachery on the part of a countryman, +whom he had befriended, that nothing remained to him but flight, he +started in the direction of southern Arabia, toward what was called the +Land of Midian, and which, at the moment, seems to have lain beyond the +limits of the Egyptian administrative system, although it had once been +one of its most prized metallurgical regions. Just at that time it was +occupied by a race called the Kenites, who were more or less closely +related to the Amalekites, who were Bedouins and who relied for their +living upon their flocks, as the Israelites had done in the time of +Abraham. Although Arabia Patrea was then, in the main, a stony waste, as +it is now, it was not quite a desert. It was crossed by trade routes in +many directions along which merchants travelled to Egypt, as is described +in the story of Joseph, whose brethren seized him in Dothan, and as they +sat by the side of the pit in which they had thrown him, they saw a +company of Ishmaelites who came from Gilead and who journeyed straight +down from Damascus to Gilead and from thence to Hebron, along the old +caravan road, toward Egypt, with camels bearing spices and myrrh, as had +been their custom since long beyond human tradition, and which had been +the road along which Abraham had travelled before them, and which was +still watered by his wells. This was the famous track from Beersheba to +Hebron, where Hagar was abandoned with her baby Ishmael, and if the +experiences of Hagar do not prove that the wilderness of Shur was +altogether impracticable for women and children it does at least show that +for a mixed multitude without trustworthy guides or reliable sources of +supply, the country was not one to be lightly attempted. + +It was into a region similar to this, only somewhat further to the south, +that Moses penetrated after his homicide, travelling alone and as an +unknown adventurer, dressed like an Egyptian, and having nothing of the +nomad about him in his looks. As Moses approached Sinai, the country grew +wilder and more lonely, and Moses one day sat himself down, by the side of +a well whither shepherds were wont to drive their flocks to water. For +shepherds came there, and also shepherdesses; among others were the seven +daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, who came to water their +father's flocks. But the shepherds drove them away and took the water for +themselves. Whereupon Moses defended the girls and drew water for them and +watered their flocks. This naturally pleased the young women, and they +took Moses home with them to their father's tent, as Bedouins still would +do. And when they came to their father, he asked how it chanced that they +came home so early that day. "And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out +of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and +watered the flock." And Jethro said, "Where is he? Why is it that ye have +left the man? Call him that he may eat bread." + +"And Moses was content to dwell with" Jethro, who made him his chief +shepherd and gave him Zipporah, his daughter. And she bore him a son. +Seemingly, time passed rapidly and happily in this peaceful, pastoral +life, which, according to the tradition preserved by Saint Stephen, lasted +forty years, but be the time long or short, it is clear that Moses loved +and respected Jethro and was in return valued by him. Nor could anything +have been more natural, for Moses was a man who made a deep impression at +first sight--an impression which time strengthened. Intellectually he must +have been at least as notable as in personal appearance, for his education +at Heliopolis set him apart from men whom Jethro would have been apt to +meet in his nomad life. But if Moses had strong attractions for Jethro, +Jethro drew Moses toward himself at least as strongly in the position in +which Moses then stood. Jethro, though a child of the desert, was the +chief of a tribe or at least of a family, a man used to command, and to +administer the nomad law; for Jethro was the head of the Kenites, who were +akin to the Amalekites, with whom the Israelites were destined to wage +mortal war. And for Moses this was a most important connection, for Moses +after his exile never permitted his relations with his own people in Egypt +to lapse. The possibility of a Jewish revolt, of which his own banishment +was a precursor, was constantly in his mind. To Moses a Jewish exodus from +Egypt was always imminent. For centuries it had been a dream of the Jews. +Indeed it was an article of faith with them. Joseph, as he sank in death, +had called his descendants about him and made them solemnly swear to +"carry his bones hence." And to that end Joseph had caused his body to be +embalmed and put in a coffin that all might be ready when the day came. +Moses knew the tradition and felt himself bound by the oath and waited in +Midian with confidence until the moment of performance should come. +Presently it did come. Very probably before he either expected or could +have wished it, and actually, as almost his first act of leadership, Moses +did carry the bones of Joseph with him when he crossed the Red Sea. Moses +held the tradition to be a certainty. He never conceived it to be a matter +of possible doubt, nor probably was it so. There was in no one's mind a +question touching Joseph's promise nor about his expectation of its +fulfilment. What Moses did is related in Exodus XIII, 19: "And Moses took +the bones of Joseph with him; for he had straitly sworn the children of +Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones +away hence with you." + +In fine, Moses, in the solitude of the Arabian wilderness, in his +wanderings as the shepherd of Jethro, came to believe that his destiny was +linked with that of his countrymen in a revolution which was certain to +occur before they could accomplish the promise of Joseph and escape from +Egypt under the guidance of the god who had befriended and protected him. +Moreover, Moses was by no means exclusively a religious enthusiast. He was +also a scientific man, after the ideas of that age. Moses had a high +degree of education and he was familiar with the Egyptian and Chaldean +theory of a great and omnipotent prime motor, who had had no beginning and +should have no end. He was also aware that this theory was obscured by the +intrusion into men's minds of a multitude of lesser causes, in the shape +of gods and demons, who mixed themselves in earthly affairs and on whose +sympathy or malevolence the weal or woe of human life hinged. Pondering +deeply on these things as he roamed, he persuaded himself that he had +solved the riddle of the universe, by identifying the great first cause of +all with the deity who had been known to his ancestors, whose normal home +was in the promised land of Canaan, and who, beside being all-powerful, +was also a moral being whose service must tend toward the welfare of +mankind. For Moses was by temperament a moralist in whom such abominations +as those practised in the worship of Moloch created horror. He knew that +the god of Abraham would tolerate no such wickedness as this, because of +the fate of Sodom on much less provocation, and he believed that were he +to lead the Israelites, as he might lead them, he could propitiate such a +deity, could he but by an initial success induce his congregation to obey +the commands of a god strong enough to reward them for leading a life +which should be acceptable to him. All depended, therefore, should the +opportunity of leadership come to him, on his being able, in the first +place, to satisfy himself that the god who presented himself to him was +verily the god of Abraham, who burned Sodom, and not some demon, whose +object was to vex mankind: and, in the second place, assuming that he +himself were convinced of the identity of the god, that he could convince +his countrymen of the fact, and also of the absolute necessity of +obedience to the moral law which he should declare, since without absolute +obedience, they would certainly merit, and probably suffer, such a fate as +befell the inhabitants of Sodom, under the very eyes of Abraham, and in +spite of his prayers for mercy. + +There was one other apprehension which may have troubled, and probably did +trouble, Moses. The god of the primitive man, and certainly of the +Bedouin, is usually a local deity whose power and whose activity is +limited to some particular region, as, for instance, a mountain or a +plain. Thus the god of Abraham might have inhabited and absolutely ruled +the plain of Mamre and been impotent elsewhere. But this, had Moses for a +moment harbored such a notion, would have been dispelled when he thought +of Joseph. Joseph, when his brethren threw him into the pit, must have +been under the guardianship of the god of his fathers, and when he was +drawn out, and sold in the ordinary course of the slave-trade, he was +bought by Potiphar, the captain of the guard. "And the Lord was with +Joseph and he was a prosperous man." Thenceforward, Joseph had a wonderful +career. He received in a dream a revelation of what the weather was to be +for seven years to come. And by this dream he was able to formulate a +policy for establishing public graineries like those which were maintained +in Babylon, and by means of these graineries, ably administered, the crown +was enabled to acquire the estates of the great feudatories, and thus the +whole social system of Egypt was changed. And Joseph, from being a poor +waif, cast away by his brethren in the wilderness, became the foremost man +in Egypt and the means of settling his compatriots in the province of +Gotham, where they still lived when Moses fled from Egypt. Such facts had +made a profound impression upon the mind of Moses, who very reasonably +looked upon Joseph as one of the most wonderful men who had ever lived, +and one who could not have succeeded as he succeeded, without the divine +interposition. But if the god who did these things could work such +miracles in Egypt, his power was not confined by local boundaries, and his +power could be trusted in the desert as safely as it could be on the plain +of Mamre or elsewhere. The burning of Sodom was a miracle equally in point +to prove the stern morality of the god. And that also, was a fact, as +incontestable, to the mind of Moses, as was the rising of the sun upon the +morning of each day. He knew, as we know of the battle of Great Meadows, +that one day his ancestor Abraham, when sitting in the door of his tent +toward noon, "in the plain of Mamre," at a spot not far from Hebron and +perfectly familiar to every traveller along the old caravan road hither, +on looking up observed three men standing before him, one of whom he +recognized as the "Lord." Then it dawned on Abraham that the "Lord" had +not come without a purpose, but had dropped in for dinner, and Abraham ran +to meet them, "and bowed himself toward the ground." And he said, "Let a +little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the +tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; +after that you shall pass on." "And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht +a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to +dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, +and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did +eat." Meanwhile, Abraham asked no questions, but waited until the object +of the visit should be disclosed. In due time he succeeded in his purpose. +"And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in +the tent. And he [the Lord] said, ... Sarah thy wife shall have a son.... +Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age." At this time +Abraham was about one hundred years old, according to the tradition, and +Sarah was proportionately amused, and "laughed within herself." This mirth +vexed "the Lord," who did not treat his words as a joke, but asked, "Is +anything too hard for the Lord?" Then Sarah took refuge in a lie, and +denied that she had laughed. But the lie helped her not at all, for the +Lord insisted, "Nay, but thou didst laugh." And this incident broke up the +party. The men rose and "looked toward Sodom": and Abraham strolled with +them, to show them the way. And then the "Lord" debated with himself +whether to make a confidant of Abraham touching his resolution to destroy +Sodom utterly. And finally he decided that he would, "because the cry of +Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous." +Whereupon Abraham intervened, and an argument ensued, and at length God +admitted that he had been too hasty and promised to think the matter over. +And finally, when "the Lord" had reduced the number of righteous for whom +the city should be saved to ten, Abraham allowed him to go "his way ... +and Abraham returned to his place." + +In the evening of the same day two angels came to Sodom, who met Lot at +the gate, and Lot took them to his house and made them a feast and they +did eat. Then it happened that the mob surrounded Lot's house and demanded +that the strangers should be delivered up to them. But Lot successfully +defended them. And in the morning the angels warned Lot to escape, but Lot +hesitated, though finally he did escape to Zoar. + +"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from +the Lord out of heaven." + +"And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood +before the Lord: + +"And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the +plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke +of a furnace." + +We must always remember, in trying to reconstruct the past, that these +traditions were not matters of possible doubt to Moses, or indeed to any +Israelite. They were as well established facts to them as would be the +record of volcanic eruptions now. Therefore it would not have astonished +Moses more that the Lord should meet him on the slope of Horeb, than that +the Lord should have met his ancestor Abraham on the plain of Mamre. +Moses' doubts and perplexities lay in another direction. Moses did not +question, as did his great ancestress, that his god could do all he +promised, if he had the will. His anxiety lay in his doubt as to God's +steadiness of purpose supposing he promised; and this doubt was increased +by his lack of confidence in his own countrymen. The god of Abraham was a +requiring deity with a high moral standard, and the Hebrews were at least +in part somewhat akin to a horde of semi-barbarous nomads, much more +likely to fall into offences resembling those of Sodom than to render +obedience to a code which would strictly conform to the requirements which +alone would ensure Moses support, supposing he accepted a task which, +after all, without divine aid, might prove to be impossible to perform. + +When the proposition which Moses seems, more or less confidently, to have +expected to be made to him by the Lord, came, it came very suddenly and +very emphatically. "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, +the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, +and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. + +"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the +midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, +and the bush was not consumed." + +And Moses, not, apparently, very much excited, said, "I will now turn +aside, and see this great sight." But God called unto him out of the midst +of the bush, and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here am I." Then the +voice commanded him to put off his shoes from off his feet, for the place +he stood on was holy ground. + +"Moreover," said the voice, "I am the God of thy father, the God of +Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face; +for he was afraid to look upon God. + +And the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people ... and +have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their +sorrows. + +"And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and +to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a +land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and +the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites.... + +"Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest +bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. + +And Moses said unto God, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and +that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?..." And +Moses said unto God, "Behold, when I am come unto the children of Israel, +and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; +and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" + +And God said unto Moses, "_I am That I Am_;" and he said, "Thus shalt +thou say unto the children of Israel, _I Am_ hath sent me unto you." + +"And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children +of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of +Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name +forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." + +Then the denizen of the bush renewed his instructions and his promises, +assuring Moses that he would bring him and his following out of the land +of affliction of Egypt and into the land of the Canaanites, and the +Hittites, and the Amorites, and others, unto a land flowing with milk and +honey. In a word to Palestine. And he insisted to Moses that he should +gain an entrance to Pharaoh, and that he should tell him that "the Lord +God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, +three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord +our God." + +Also God did not pretend to Moses that the King of Egypt would forthwith +let them go; whereupon he would work his wonders in Egypt and after that +Pharaoh would let them go. + +Moreover, he promised, as an inducement to their avarice, that they should +not go empty away, for that the Lord God would give the Hebrews favor in +the sight of the Egyptians, "so that every woman should borrow of her +neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, +jewels of gold, and raiment," and that they should spoil the Egyptians. +But all this time God did not disclose his name; so Moses tried another +way about. If he would not tell his name he might at least enable Moses to +work some wonder which should bring conviction to those who saw it, even +if the god remained nameless. For Moses appreciated the difficulty of the +mission suggested to him. How was he, a stranger in Egypt, to gain the +confidence of that mixed and helpless multitude, whom he was trying to +persuade to trust to his guidance in so apparently desperate an enterprise +as crossing a broad and waterless waste, in the face of a well-armed and +vigorous foe. Moses apprehended that there was but one way in which he +could by possibility succeed. He might prevail by convincing the +Israelites that he was commissioned by the one deity whom they knew, who +was likely to have both the will and the power to aid them, and that was +the god who had visited Abraham on the plain of Mamre, who had destroyed +Sodom for its iniquity, and who had helped Joseph to become the ruler of +Egypt. Joseph above all was the man who had made to his descendants that +solemn promise on whose faith Moses was, at that very moment, basing his +hopes of deliverance; for Joseph had assured the Israelites in the most +solemn manner that the god who had aided him would surely visit them, and +that they should carry his bones away with them to the land he promised. +That land was the land to which Moses wished to guide them. Now Moses was +fully determined to attempt no such project as this unless the being who +spoke from the bush would first prove to him, Moses, that he was the god +he purported to be, and should beside give Moses credentials which should +be convincing, by which Moses could prove to the Jews in Egypt that he was +no impostor himself, nor had he been deceived by a demon. Therefore Moses +went on objecting as strongly as at first: + +"And Moses answered and said, But behold they will not believe me, nor +hearken to my voice; for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto +thee." + +Then the being in the bush proceeded to submit his method of proof, which +was of a truth feeble, and which Moses rejected as feeble. A form of proof +which never fully convinced him, and which, in his judgment could not be +expected to convince others, especially men so educated and intelligent as +the Egyptians. For the Lord had nothing better to suggest than the ancient +trick of the snake-charmer, and even the possessor of the voice seems +implicitly to have admitted that this could hardly be advanced as a +convincing miracle. So the Lord proposed two other tests: the first was +that Moses should have his hand smitten with leprous sores and restored +immediately by hiding it from sight in "his bosom." And in the event that +this test left his audience still sceptical, he was to dip Nile water out +of the river, and turn it into blood on land. + +Moses at all these three proposals remained cold as before. And with good +reason, for Moses had been educated as a priest in Egypt, and he knew that +Egyptian "wise men" could do as well, and even better, if it came to a +magical competition before Pharaoh. And Moses had evidently no relish for +a contest in the presence of his countrymen as to the relative quality of +his magic. Therefore, he objected once more on another ground: "I am not +eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: +but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." This continued hesitancy +put the Lord out of patience; who retorted sharply, "Who hath made man's +mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have +not I the Lord? + +"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou +shalt say." + +Then Moses made his last effort. "0 my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the +hand of him whom thou wilt send." Which was another way of saying, Send +whom you please, but leave me to tend Jethro's flock in Midian. + +"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses; and he said, Is not +Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, +behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be +glad in his heart. + +"And he shall be, ... to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him +instead of God." + +Then Moses, not seeming to care very much what Aaron might think about the +matter, went to Jethro, and related what had happened to him on the +mountain, and asked for leave to go home to Egypt, and see how matters +stood there. And Jethro listened, and seems to have thought the experiment +worth trying, for he answered, "Go in peace." + +"And the Lord said unto Moses,"--but where is not stated, probably in +Midian,--"Go, return into Egypt," which you may do safely, for all the men +are dead which sought thy life. + +"And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he +returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand." + +It was after this, apparently, that Aaron travelled to meet Moses in +Midian, and Moses told Aaron what had occurred, and performed his tests, +and, seemingly, convinced him; for then Moses and Aaron went together into +Egypt and called the elders of the children of Israel together, "and did +the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed: and ... +bowed their heads and worshipped." Meanwhile God had not, as yet, revealed +his name. But as presently matters came to a crisis between Moses and +Pharaoh, he did so. He said to Moses, "I am the Lord: + +"I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God +Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.... + +"Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord.... And I will +bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to +Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I +am the Lord. + +"And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not +unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.... + +"And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold the children of Israel +have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me?" And from this +form of complaint against his countrymen until his death Moses never +ceased. + +Certain modern critics have persuaded themselves to reject this whole +Biblical narrative as the product of a later age and of a maturer +civilization, contending that it would be childish to attribute the +reasoning of the Pentateuch to primitive Bedouins like the patriarchs or +like the Jews who followed Moses into the desert. Setting aside at once +the philological discussion as to whether the language of the Pentateuch +could have been used by Moses, and admitting for the sake of argument that +Moses did not either himself write, or dictate to another, any part of the +documents in question, it would seem that the application of a little +common sense would show pretty conclusively that Moses throughout his +whole administrative life acted upon a single scientific theory of the +application of a supreme energy to the affairs of life, and upon the +belief that he had discovered what that energy was and understood how to +control it. + +His syllogism amounted to this: + +Facts, which are admitted by all Hebrews, prove that the single dominant +power in the world is the being who revealed himself to our ancestors, and +who, in particular, guided Joseph into Egypt, protected him there, and +raised him to an eminence never before or since reached by a Jew. It can +also be proved, by incontrovertible facts, that this being is a moral +being, who can be placated by obedience and by attaining to a certain +moral standard in life, and by no other means. That this standard has been +disclosed to me, I can prove to you by sundry miraculous signs. Therefore, +be obedient and obey the law which I shall promulgate "that ye may prosper +in all that ye do." + +Indeed, the philosophy of Moses was of the sternly practical kind, +resembling that of Benjamin Franklin. He did not promise his people, as +did the Egyptians, felicity in a future life. He confined himself to +prosperity in this world. And to succeed in his end he set an attainable +standard. A standard no higher, certainly than that accepted by the +Egyptians, as it is set forth in the 125th chapter of the Book of the +Dead, a standard to which the soul of any dead man had to attain before he +could be admitted into Paradise. Nor did Moses, as Dr. Budde among others +assumes, have to deal with a tribe of fierce and barbarous Bedouins, like +the Amalekites, to whom indeed the Hebrews were antagonistic and with whom +they waged incessant war. + +The Jews, for the most part, differed widely from such barbarians. They +had become sedentary at the time of the exodus, whatever they may have +been when Abraham migrated from Babylon. They were accustomed in Egypt to +living in houses, they cultivated and cooked the cereals, and they fed on +vegetables and bread. They did not live on flesh and milk as do the +Bedouins; and, indeed, the chief difficulty Moses encountered in the +exodus was the ignorance of his followers of the habits of desert life, +and their dislike of desert fare. They were forever pining for the +delights of civilization. "Would to God we had died by the hand of the +Lord in the land of Egypt, when we eat by the flesh-pots, and when we did +eat bread to the full! for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, +to kill this whole assembly with hunger." [Footnote: Ex. XVI, 3.] + +"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, +and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." These +were the wants of sedentary and of civilized folk, not of barbarous nomads +who are content with goat's flesh and milk. And so it was with their +morality and their conceptions of law. Moses was, indeed, a highly +civilized and highly educated man. No one would probably pretend that +Moses represented the average Jew of the exodus, but Moses understood his +audience reasonably well, and would not have risked the success of his +whole experiment by preaching to them a doctrine which was altogether +beyond their understanding. If he told them that the favor of God could +only be gained by obeying the laws he taught, it was because he thought +such an appeal would be effective with a majority of them. + +Dr. Budde, who is a good example of the modern hypercritical school, takes +very nearly the opposite ground. His theory is that Moses was in search of +a war god, and that he discovered such a god, in the god of the Bedouin +tribe of the Kenites whose acquaintance he first made when dwelling with +his father-in-law Jethro at Sinai. The morality of such a god he insists +coincided with the morality which Moses may have at times countenanced, +but which was quite foreign to the spirit of the decalogue. + +Doubtless this is, in a degree, true. The religion of the pure Bedouin was +very often crude and shocking, not to say disgusting. But to argue thus is +to ignore the fact that all Bedouins did not, in the age of Moses, stand +on the same intellectual or moral level, and it is also to ignore the gap +that separated Moses and his congregation intellectually and morally from +such Bedouins as the Amalekites. + +Dr. Budde, in his _Religion of Israel to the Exile_, insists that the +Kenite god, Jehovah, demanded "The sacred ban by which conquered cities +with all their living beings were devoted to destruction, the slaughter of +human beings at sacred spots, animal sacrifices at which the entire +animal, wholly or half raw, was devoured, without leaving a remnant, +between sunset and sunrise,--these phenomena and many others of the same +kind harmonise but ill with an aspiring ethical religion." + +He also goes on to say: "We are further referred to the legislation of +Moses, ... comprising civil and criminal, ceremonial and ecclesiastical, +moral and social law in varying compass. This legislation, however, cannot +have come from Moses.... Such legislation can only have arisen after +Israel had lived a long time in the new home." + +To take these arguments in order,--for they must be so dealt with to +develop any reasonable theory of the Mosaic philosophy,--Moses, doubtless, +was a ruthless conqueror, as his dealings with Sihon and Og sufficiently +prove. "So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of +Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him +remaining.... + +"And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, +utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city." [Footnote: +Deut. III, 3-6.] + +There is nothing extraordinary, or essentially barbarous, in this attitude +of Moses. The same theory of duty or convenience has been held in every +age and in every land, by men of the ecclesiastical temperament, at the +very moment at which the extremest doctrines of charity, mercy, and love +were practised by their contemporaries, or even preached by themselves. +For example: + +At the beginning of the thirteenth century the two great convents of Cluny +and Citeau, together, formed the heart of monasticism, and Cluny and +Citeau were two of the richest and most powerful corporations in the +world, while the south of France had become, by reason of the eastern +trade, the wealthiest and most intelligent district in Europe. It suffices +to say here that, just about this time, the people of Languedoc had made +up their minds, because of the failure of the Crusades, the cost of such +magnificent establishments was not justified by their results, and +accordingly Count Raymond of Toulouse, in sympathy with his subjects, did +seriously contemplate secularization. To the abbots of these great +convents, it was clear that if this movement spread across the Rhone into +Burgundy, the Church would face losses which they could not contemplate +with equanimity. At this period one Arnold was Abbot of Citeau, +universally recognized as perhaps the ablest and certainly one of the most +unscrupulous men in Europe. Hence the crusade against the Albigenses which +Simon de Montfort commanded and Arnold conducted. Arnold's first exploit +was the sack of the undefended town of Beziers, where he slaughtered +twenty thousand men, women, and children, without distinction of religious +belief. When asked whether the orthodox might not at least be spared, he +replied, "Kill them all; God knows his own." + +This sack of Beziers occurred in 1209. Exactly contemporaneously Saint +Francis of Assisi was organizing his order whose purpose was to realize +Christ's kingdom upon earth, by the renunciation of worldly wealth and by +the practice of poverty, humility, and obedience. Soon after, Arnold was +created Archbishop of Narbonne and became probably the greatest and +richest prelate in France, or in the world. This was in 1225. In 1226 the +first friars settled in England. They multiplied rapidly because of their +rigorous discipline. Soon there were to be found among them some of the +most eminent men in England. Their chief house stood in London in a spot +called Stinking Lane, near the Shambles in Newgate, and there, amidst +poverty, hunger, cold, and filth, these men passed their lives in nursing +horrible lepers, so loathsome that they were rejected by all but +themselves, while Arnold lived in magnificence in his palace, upon the +spoil of those whom he had immolated to his greed. + +In the case of Moses the contrast between precept and practice in the race +for wealth and fortune was not nearly so violent. Moses, it is true, +according to Leviticus, declared it to be the will of the Lord that the +Israelites should love their neighbors as themselves, [Footnote: Lev. XIX, +18.] while on the other hand in Deuteronomy he insisted that obedience was +the chief end of life, and that if the Israelites were to thoroughly obey +the Lord's behests, they were to "consume all the people which the Lord +thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: +neither" should thou serve their gods, "for the Lord thy God is a jealous +God." [Footnote: Deut. VII, 16.] And the penalty for slackness was "lest +the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee +from off the face of the earth." [Footnote: Deut. VI, 15.] There is, +nevertheless, this much to be said in favor of the morality of Moses as +contrasted with that of thirteenth-century orthodox Christians like +Arnold; Moses led a crusade against a foreign and hostile people, while +Arnold slaughtered the Albigenses, who were his own flock, sheep to whom +he was the shepherd, communicants in his own church, and worshippers of +the God whom he served. What concerns us, however, is that the same +stimulant animated Moses and Arnold alike. The stimulant, pure and simple, +of greed. On these points Moses was as outspokenly, one may say as +brutally, frank as was Arnold. In the desert Moses commanded his followers +to exterminate the inhabitants of the kingdom of Bashan in order that they +might appropriate their possessions, which he enumerated, and Moses had no +other argument to urge but the profitableness of it by which to secure +obedience to his moral law. + +Arnold stood on precisely the same platform. He did not accuse Count +Raymond of heresy or any other crime, nor did Pope Innocent III consider +Raymond as morally guilty of a criminal offence, or worthy of punishment. +Indeed, the pope would have protected the Count had it been possible, and +summoned him before the Fourth Lateran Council for that purpose. But +Arnold told his audience that were Raymond allowed to escape there would +be an end of the Catholic faith in France. Or, in other words, monastic +property would be secularized. Perhaps he was right. At all events, this +argument prevailed, and Raymond and his family and people were sacrificed. + +Moses promised his congregation that, if they would spare nothing they +should enjoy abundance of good things, without working for them. He was +much more pitiless than such a man as King David thought it necessary to +be, but Moses was not a soldier like David. He could not promise to win +victories himself, he could but promise what he had in hand, and that was +the spoil of those they massacred. Moses never had but one appeal to make +for obedience, one incentive to offer to obey. In this he was perfectly +honest and perfectly logical. His congregation and he, finding Egypt +untenable, were engaged in a common land speculation to improve their +condition; a speculation in which Moses believed, but which could only be +brought to a successful end by obtaining control of the dominant energy of +the world. This energy, he held, could be handled by no one but himself, +and then only in case those who acted with him were absolutely obedient to +his commands, which, taken together, were equivalent to a magical exorcism +or spell. Then only could they hope that the Lord of Abraham and Isaac +would give them "great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And +houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, +which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst +not." [Footnote: Deut. VI, 10, 11.] + +Very obviously, if the theory which Moses propounded were sound the assets +which he offered as an inducement for docility could be obtained, at so +cheap a rate, in no other way. All Moses' moral teaching amounted, +therefore, to this--"It pays to be obedient and good." No argument could +have been better adapted to Babylonish society, and it seems to have +answered nearly as well with the Israelites, which proves that they stood +on nearly the same intellectual plane. The chief difficulty with which +Moses had to contend was that his countrymen did not thoroughly believe in +him, nor in the efficacy of his motor. They always were tempted to try +experiments with other motors which were operated by other prophets and by +other peoples who were, apparently, as prosperous as they, or even more +so. His trouble was not that his followers were nomads unprepared for a +sedentary life or a moral law like his, or unable to appreciate the value +of the property of a people further advanced in civilization than they +were. The Amalekites would have responded to no such system of bribery as +Moses offered the Israelites, who did respond with intelligence, if not +always with enthusiasm. + +The same is true of the Mosaic legislation which Dr. Budde curtly +dismisses as impossible to have come from Moses, [Footnote: _Religion of +Israel to the Exile_, 31.] as presupposing a knowledge of a settled +agricultural life, which "Israel did not reach until after Moses' death." + +All this is an assumption of fact unsupported by evidence; but quite the +contrary, as we can see by an examination of the law in question. Whatever +may have been the date of the establishment of the cities of refuge, I +suppose that it will not be seriously denied that the law of the covenant +as laid down in Exodus XX, 1, Numbers XXXV, 6, is at least as old as the +age of Moses, in principle, if not in words; and this legal principle is +quite inconsistent with, if not directly antagonistic to, all the +prejudices and regulations, moral, religious, or civil, of a pure nomadic +society, since it presupposes a social condition which, if adopted, would +be fatal to a nomad society. + +The true nomad knows no criminal law save the law of the blood feud, which +is the law of revenge, and which prevailed among the Hebrews much earlier. +In the early Saxon law it was expressed by the apothegm "_Factum +reputabitur pro volunte_." The act implies the intent. That is to say, +the tribe is an enlarged family who, since they have no collective system +of sovereignty which gives them common protection by an organized police, +and courts with power to enforce process, have no option but to protect +each other. Therefore, it is incumbent on each member of the tribe or +family to avenge an injury to any other member, whether the injury be +accidental or otherwise; and to be himself the judge of what amounts to an +injury. Such a condition prevailed among the Hebrews at a very early +period; "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them: ... at the +hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth +man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." [Footnote: Gen. IX, 1, 5, +6.] These customs and the type of thought which sustain them are very +tenacious and change slowly. Moses could not have altered the nomadic +customs of thought and of blood revenge, had he tried, more than could +Canute. It would have been impossible. The advent of a civilized +conception of the law is the work of centuries as the history of England +proves. + +We know not how long ago it was that the law of the blood feud was fully +recognized in England, but it had already been shaken at the conquest, and +its death-blow was given it by the Church, which had begun to tire of the +responsibility entailed by the trial by ordeal or miracle, and the obloquy +which it involved, at a relatively early date. For the purposes of the +Church and the uses of confession it was more convenient to regard crime +or tort, as did the Romans; as a mental condition, dependent altogether +upon the state of the mind or "animus." Malice in the eye of the Church +was the virus which poisoned the otherwise innocent act, and made the +thought alone punishable. Indeed, this conception is one which has not yet +been completely established even in the modern law. The first signs of +such a revolution in jurisprudence only began to appear in England some +seven centuries ago. As Mr. Maitland has observed in his _History of +English Law_, [Footnote: Vol. II, 476.] "We receive a shock of surprise +when we meet with a maxim which has troubled our modern lawyers, namely, +_Reum nonfacit nisi mens rea_, in the middle of the _Leges Henrici_." That +is to say somewhere about the year 1118 A.D. This maxim was taken bodily +out of a sermon of Saint Augustine, which accounts for it, but at that +time the Church had another process to suggest by which she asserted her +authority. She threw the responsibility for detecting guilt, in cases of +doubt, upon God. By the ordeal, if a homicide, for example, were +committed, and the accused denied his guilt, he was summoned to appear, +and then, after a solemn reference to God by the ecclesiastics in charge, +he was caused either to carry a red-hot iron bar a certain distance or to +plunge his arms in boiling water. If he were found, after a certain length +of time, during which his arms were bandaged, to have been injured, he was +held to have been guilty. If he had escaped unhurt he was innocent. +Gradually, however, the ordeal began to fall into ridicule. William Rufus +gibed at it, for of fifty men sent to the ordeal of iron, under the sacred +charge of the clerks, all escaped, which certainly, as Mr. Maitland +intimates, looks as if the officiating ecclesiastics had an interest in +the result. [Footnote: _History of English Law_, II, 599, note 2.] At +length, by the Lateran Council of 1215, the Church put an end to the +institution, but long afterward it found its upholders. For example, the +_Mirror_, written in the reign of Edward I (circa 1285) complained, "It is +an abuse that proofs and compurgations be not by the miracle of God where +other proof faileth." Nor was the principle that "attempts" to commit +indictable offences are crimes, established as law, until at least the +time of the Star Chamber, before its abolition in the seventeenth century. +Though doubtless it is the law to-day. [Footnote: Stephen, _Digest of the +Criminal Law_, 192.] And this, although the means used may have been +impossible. Moreover, the doctrine is still in process of enlargement. + +Very convincing conclusions may be drawn from these facts. The subject is +obscure and difficult, but if the inception of the process of breaking +down the right of enforcing the blood feud be fixed provisionally toward +the middle of the tenth century,--and this date is early enough,--the +movement of thought cannot be said to have attained anything like ultimate +results before at least the year 1321 when a case is cited wherein a man +was held guilty because he had attempted to kill his master, and the +"_volunias in isto casu reputabitur pro facto_." + +Measuring by this standard five hundred years is a short enough period to +estimate the time necessary for a community to pass from the stage when +the blood feud is recognized as unquestioned law, to the status involved +in the administration of the cities of refuge, for in these cities not +only the mental condition is provided for as a legitimate defence, but the +defence of negligence is made admissible in a secular court. + +"These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and +for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them; that every one that +killeth any person unawares may flee thither.... + +"If he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait that he die; + +"Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him +shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood +shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. + +"But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him +anything without laying of wait, + +"Or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it +upon him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm: + +"Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of +blood according to these judgments: + +"And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the +revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of +his refuge, whither he was fled."... [Footnote: Numbers XXXV, 15, 20-25.] + +Here we have a defendant in a case of homicide setting up the defence that +the killing happened through an accident, but an accident not caused by +criminal negligence, and this defence is to be tried by the congregation, +which is tantamount to trial by jury. It is not left to God, under the +oversight of the Church; and this is precisely our own system at the +present day. We now come to the inferences to be drawn from these facts. +Supposing that the Israelites when they migrated to Egypt, in the time of +Joseph, were in the condition of pure nomads among whom the blood feud was +fully recognized as law, an interval of four or five hundred years, such +as they are supposed to have passed in Goshen would bring them to the +exodus. Now, assuming that the Israelites during those four centuries, +when they lived among civilized neighbors and under civilized law, made an +intellectual movement corresponding in velocity to the movement the +English made after the conquest, they would have been, about the time when +the cities of refuge were created, in the position described in Numbers, +which is what we should expect assuming the Biblical tradition to be true. + +To us the important question is not whether a certain piece of the +supposed Mosaic legislation actually went into effect during the life of +Moses, for that is relatively immaterial, but whether the Biblical +narrative is, on the whole, worthy of credence, and this correlation of +dates gives the strongest possible evidence in its favor. Very possibly, +perhaps it may even be said certainly, the order in which events occurred +may have been transposed, but, taken as a whole, it is impossible to +resist the inference that the Bible story is excellent history and that, +due allowance being made for the prejudice of the various scribes who +wrote the Pentateuch in favor of the miraculous, where Moses was +concerned, the Biblical record is good and trustworthy history, and frank +at that;--much superior to quantities of modern documents which we accept +without question. + +Of all the achievements of Moses' life none equals the exodus itself, +either in brilliancy or success. How it was possible for Moses, with the +assistance he had at command, to marshal and move a column of a million or +a million and a half of men, women, and children, without discipline or +cohesion, and encumbered with their baggage, beside their cattle, is an +insoluble mystery. "And the children of Israel did according to the word +of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels +of gold, and raiment: ... And they spoiled the Egyptians. And the children +of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on +foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also +with them; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle." They started from +Ramses and Succoth. + +The position of Ramses has been identified; that of Succoth is more +questionable. Ramses and Pithom were fortified places, built by the +Israelites for Ramses II, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but apparently +Succoth was the last halting-place before coming to the difficult ground +which was overflowed by the sea. + +The crossing was made at night, but it is hard to understand how, even +under the most favorable conditions of weather, such a vast and confused +multitude of women and children could have made the march in darkness with +an active enemy pursuing, without loss of life or material. Indeed, even +at that day the movement seemed to the actors so unparalleled that it +always passed for a miracle, and its perfect success gave Moses more +reputation with the Israelites and more practical influence over them than +anything else he ever did, or indeed than all his other works together. +"And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and +the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses." + +"And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron; and all the women went +after her with timbrels and with dances." Now Miriam was in general none +too loyal a follower of her younger brother, but that day, or rather +night, she did proclaim Moses as a conqueror; which was a great concession +from her, and meant much. And Moses exulted openly, as he had good cause +to do, and gave vent to his exultation in a song which tradition has ever +since attributed to him, and has asserted to have been sung by him and his +congregation as they stood by the shore of the sea and watched the corpses +of the Egyptians lying in the sand. And, if ever man had, Moses then had, +cause for exultation, for he had seemingly proved by the test of war, +which is the ultimate test to which a man can subject such a theory as +his, that he had indeed discovered the motor which he sought, and, more +important still, that he knew how to handle it. Therefore, he was master +of supreme energy and held his right to command by the title of conquest. +This was the culminating moment of his life; he never again reached such +exaltation. From this moment his slow and gradual decline began. + +And, indeed, great as had been the momentary success of Moses, his +position was one of extreme difficulty, and probably he so understood it, +otherwise there would be no way to account for his choosing the long, +difficult, and perilous journey by Sinai, instead of approaching the +"Promised Land" directly by way of Kadesh-Barnea, which was, in any event, +to be his ultimate objective. It may well have been because Moses felt +himself unable alone to cope with the difficulties confronting him that he +decided at any cost to seek Jethro in Midian, who seems to have been the +only able, honest, and experienced man within reach. Joshua, indeed, might +be held to be an exception to this generalization, but Joshua, though a +good soldier, was a man of somewhat narrow understanding, and quite unfit +to grapple with questions involving jurisprudence and financial +topography. + +And at this juncture Moses must have felt his own deficiencies keenly. As +a captain he made no pretence to efficiency. The Amalekites were, as he +well knew, at this moment lying in wait for him, and forthwith he +recognized that he had no alternative but to retire into the background +himself and surrender the active command of the army to Joshua, a fatal +concession had Joshua been ambitious or unscrupulous. And this was but the +beginning. Before he could occupy Palestine he had to encounter and +overcome numbers of equally formidable foes, a defeat by any one of whom +might well be fatal. A man like Jethro, therefore, would be invaluable in +guiding the caravan to spots favorable for action, from whence retreat to +a place of safety would be open in case of a check. A reverse which +happened on a later occasion gave Moses a shock he never forgot. + +Furthermore, though Moses lived many years with Jethro, as his chief +servant, he never seems to have travelled extensively in Arabia, and to +have been ignorant of the chief trade routes along which wells were dug, +and of the oases where pasture was to be found; so that Moses was nearly +worthless as a guide, and this was a species of knowledge in which Jethro, +according to Moses' own statement, excelled. Meanwhile, the lives of all +his followers depended on such knowledge. And Moses, when he reached +Sinai, left no stone unturned to overcome Jethro's reluctance to join him +and to instruct him on the march north. + +More important and pressing than all, Moses was ignorant of how, +practically, to administer the law which he taught. His only idea was to +do all in person, but this, with so large a following, was impossible. And +here also his hope lay in Jethro. For when he got to Sinai, and Jethro +remonstrated with him upon his methods, pointing out that they were +impracticable, all Moses had to say in reply was that he sat all day to +hear disputes and "I judge between one and another; and I do make them +know the statutes of God, and his laws." Further than this he had nothing +to propose. It was Jethro who explained to him a constructive policy. + +On the whole, upon this analysis, it appears that in all those executive +departments in which Moses, by stress of the responsibilities which he had +assumed, was called upon, imperatively, to act, there was but one, that of +the magician or wise man, in which, by temperament and training, he was +fitted to excel, and the functions of this profession drove him into to +intolerably irksome and distressing position, yet a position from which +throughout his life he found it impossible to escape. No one who +attentively weighs the evidence can, I apprehend, escape the conviction +that Moses was at bottom an honest man who would have conformed to the +moral law he laid down in the name of the Lord had it been possible for +him to do so. Among these precepts none ranked higher than a regard for +truth and honesty. "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie +one to another." [Footnote: Leviticus XIX, 11.] And this text is but one +example of a general drift of thought. + +Whether these particular words of Leviticus, or any similar phrases, were +ever used by Moses is immaterial. No one can doubt that, in substance, +they contained the gist of his moral doctrine and that he enforced the +moral duty which they convey to the best of his power. And here the burden +lay, which crushed this man, from which he never thenceforward could, even +for an instant, free himself, and which Saint Paul avers to be the +heaviest burden man can bear. Moses, to fulfil what he conceived to be his +destiny and which at least certainly was his ambition, was condemned to +lead a life of deceit and to utter no word during his long subsequent +march which was not positively or inferentially a lie. And the bitterest +of his trials must have been the agony of anxiety in which he must have +lived lest some error in judgment on his part, some slackness in measuring +the exact credulity of his audience, should cause his exposure and lead to +his being cast out of the camp as an impostor and hunted to death as a +false prophet: a fate which more than once nearly overtook him. Indeed, as +he aged and his nerves lost their elasticity under the tension, he became +obsessed with the fixed idea that God had renounced him and that some +horror would overtake him should he attempt to cross the Jordan and enter +the "Promised Land." Defeated at Hormah, he dared not face another such +check and, therefore, dawdled away his time in the wilderness until +further dawdling became impossible. Then followed his mental collapse +which is told in Deuteronomy, together with his suicide on Mount Nebo. And +thus he died because he could not gratify at once his lust for power and +his instinct to live an honest man. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The interval during which Moses led the exodus falls, naturally, into +three parts of unequal length. The first consists of the months which +elapsed between the departure from Ramses and the arrival at Sinai. The +second comprises the halt at Sinai, while the third contains the story of +the rest of his life, ending with Mount Nebo. + +His trials began forthwith. The march was hardly a week old before the +column was in quasi-revolt because he had known so little of the country, +that he had led the caravan three days through a waterless wilderness +where they feared to perish from thirst. And matters grew steadily worse. +At Rephidim, "And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore +is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our +children and our cattle with thirst?" Not impossibly Moses may still, at +this stage of his experiences, have believed in himself, in the God he +pretended to serve, and in his mission. At least he made a feint of so +doing. Indeed, he had to. Not to have done so would have caused his +instant downfall. He always had to do so, in every emergency of his life. +A few days later he was at his wits' end. He cried unto the Lord, "What +shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me." In short, +long before the congregation reached Sinai, and indeed before Moses had +fought his first battle with Amalek, the people had come to disbelieve in +Moses and also to question whether there was such a god as he pretended. + +"And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the +chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, +saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" + +"Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim." [Footnote: Exodus +xvii, 7, 8.] + +Under such conditions it was vital to Moses to show resolution and +courage; but it was here that Moses, on the contrary, flinched; as he +usually did flinch when it came to war, for Moses was no soldier. + +"And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out, fight with +Amalek: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God +in mine hand." + +And Moses actually had the assurance to do as he proposed, nor did he even +have the endurance to stand. He made Aaron and Hur fetch a stone on which +he should sit and then hold up his hands for him, pretending the while +that when Moses held up his hands the Hebrews prevailed and when he +lowered them Amalek prevailed. Notwithstanding, Joshua won a victory. But +it may readily be believed that this performance of his functions as a +captain, did little to strengthen the credit of Moses among the fighting +men. Nor evidently was Moses satisfied with the figure that he cut, nor +was he confident that Joshua approved of him, for the Lord directed Moses +to make excuses, promising to do better the next time, by assuring Joshua +that "I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." +This was the best apology Moses could make for his weakness. However, the +time had now come when Moses was to realize his plan of meeting Jethro. + +"And Jethro ... came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the +wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: ... And Moses went out +to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they +asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. + +"And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh +and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come +upon them by the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.... + +"And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the +hand of the Egyptians.... Now I know that the Lord is greater than all +gods.... And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with +Moses' father-in-law before God." + +It is from all this very plain that Jethro had a controlling influence +over Moses, and was the proximate cause of much that followed. For the +next morning Moses, as was his custom, "sat to judge the people: and the +people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening." And when Jethro +saw how Moses proceeded he remonstrated, "Why sittest thou thyself alone, +and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?" + +And Moses replied: "Because the people come unto me to enquire of God." + +And Jethro protested, saying "The thing thou doest is not good. Thou wilt +surely wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee: for this +thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself +alone. + +"Hearken, ... I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee; Be +thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto +God." + +Then it was that Moses perceived that he must have a divinely promulgated +code. Accordingly, Moses made his preparations for a great dramatic +effect, and it is hard to see how he could have made them better. For, +whatever failings he may have had in his other capacities as a leader, he +understood his part as a magician. + +He told the people to be ready on the third day, for on the third day the +Lord would come down in the sight of all upon Mount Sinai. But, "Take heed +to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: +whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: + +"There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot +through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet +soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount." + +It must be admitted that Moses either had wonderful luck, or that he had +wonderful judgment in weather, for, as it happened in the passage of the +Red Sea, so it happened here. At the Red Sea he was aided by a gale of +wind which coincided with a low tide and made the passage practicable, and +at Sinai he had a thunder-storm. + +"And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were +thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice +of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp +trembled." Moses had undoubtedly sent some thoroughly trustworthy person, +probably Joshua, up the mountain to blow a ram's horn and to light a +bonfire, and the effect seems to have been excellent. + +"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended +upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, +and the whole mount quaked greatly. + +"And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and +louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. + +"And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and the +Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up." And the +first thing that Moses did on behalf of the Lord was to "charge the +people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them +perish." + +And Moses replied to God's enquiry, "The people cannot come up to Mount +Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount. + +"And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, +thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break +through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. + +"So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them." + +Whether the decalogue, as we know it, was a code of law actually delivered +upon Sinai, which German critics very much dispute as being inconsistent +with the stage of civilization at which the Israelites had arrived, but +which is altogether kindred to the Babylonish law with which Moses was +familiar, is immaterial for the present purpose. What is essential is that +beside the decalogue itself there is a considerable body of law chiefly +concerned with the position of servants or slaves, the difference between +assaults or torts committed with or without malice, theft, trespass, and +the regulation of the _lex talionis_. There are beside a variety of +other matters touched upon all of which may be found in the 21st, 22d, and +23d chapters of Exodus. + +Up to this point in his show Moses had behaved with discretion and had +obtained a complete success. The next day he went on to demand an +acceptance of his code, which he prepared to submit in form. But as a +preliminary he made ready to take Aaron and his two sons, together with +seventy elders of the congregation up the mountain, to be especially +impressed with a sacrifice and a feast which he had it in his mind to +organize. In the first place, "Moses ... rose up early in the morning, and +builded an altar, ... and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the +Lord.... + +"And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the +people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be +obedient." + +Had Moses been content to end his ceremony here and to return to the camp +with his book of the covenant duly accepted as law, all might have been +well. But success seems to have intoxicated him, and he conceived an undue +contempt for the intelligence of his audience, being, apparently, +convinced that there were no limits to their credulity, and that he could +do with them as he pleased. + +It was not enough for him that he should have them accept an ordinary book +admittedly written by himself. There was nothing overpoweringly impressive +in that. What he wanted was a stone tablet on which his code should be +engraved, as was the famous code of Hammurabi, which he probably knew +well, and this engraving must putatively be done by God himself, to give +it the proper solemnity. + +To have such a code as this engraved either by himself or by any workman +he could take into the mountain with him, would be a work of time and +would entail his absence from the camp, and this was a very serious risk. +But he was over-confident and determined to run it, rather than be baulked +of his purpose, + +"And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua; and Moses went up into the +mount of God. + +"And he said unto the elders, Tarry you here for us, until we come again +unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: and if any man have +matters to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went into the midst of +the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty +days and forty nights." + +But Moses had made the capital mistake of undervaluing the intelligence of +his audience. They had, doubtless, been impressed when Moses, as a +showman, had presented his spectacle, for Moses had a commanding presence +and he had chosen a wonderful locality for his performance. But once he +was gone the effect of what he had done evaporated and they began to value +the exhibition for what it really was. As men of common sense, said they +to one another, why should we linger here, if Moses has played this trick +upon us? Why not go back to Egypt, where at least we can get something to +eat? So they decided to bribe Aaron, who was venal and would do anything +for money. + +"And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, +the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, +make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man +that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of +him." + +When Aaron heard this proposition he showed no objection to accept, +provided the people made it worth his while to risk the wrath of Moses; so +he answered forthwith, "Break off the golden earrings, which are in the +ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them +unto me." + +These were the ornaments of which the departing Israelites had spoiled the +Egyptians and they must have been of very considerable value. At all +events, Aaron took them and melted them and made them into the image of a +calf, such as he had been used to see in Egypt. The calf was probably made +of wood and laminated with gold. Sir G. Wilkinson thinks that the calf was +made to represent Mnevis, with whose worship the Israelites had been +familiar in Egypt. Then Aaron proclaimed a feast for the next day in honor +of this calf and said, "To-morrow is a feast to the Lord," and they said, +"These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of +Egypt." + +"And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and +brought peace offerings: and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and +rose up to play." + +It was not very long before Moses became suspicious that all was not right +in the camp, and he prepared to go down, taking the two tables of +testimony in his hands. These stone tablets were covered with writing on +both sides, which must have taken a long time to engrave considering that +Moses was on a bare mountainside with probably nobody to help but Joshua. +Of course all that made this weary expedition worth the doing was that, as +the Bible says, "the tables were" to pass for "the work of God, and the +writing was the writing of God." Accordingly, it is not surprising that as +Moses "came nigh unto the camp," and he "saw the calf, and the dancing": +that his "anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and +brake them beneath the mount. + +"And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and +ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children +of Israel drink of it. + +"And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast +brought so great a sin upon them? + +"And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the +people, that they are set on mischief. + +"For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for +this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot +not what is become of him. + +"And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So +they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this +calf. + +"And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them +naked unto their shame among their enemies:)" that is to say, the people +had come to the feast unarmed, and without the slightest fear or suspicion +of a possible attack; then Moses saw his opportunity and placed himself in +a gate of the camp, and said: "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come +unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. + +"And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man +his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the +camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and +every man his neighbour. + +"And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there +fell of the people that day about three thousand men." + +There are few acts in all recorded history, including the awful massacres +of the Albigenses by Simon de Montfort and the Abbot Arnold, more +indefensible than this wholesale murder by Moses of several thousand +people who had trusted him, and whom he had entrusted to the care of his +own brother, who participated in their crime, supposing that they had +committed any crime saving the crime of tiring of his dictatorship. + +The effect of this massacre was to put Moses, for the rest of his life, in +the hands of the Levites with Aaron at their head, for only by having a +body of men stained with his own crimes and devoted to his fortunes could +Moses thenceforward hope to carry his adventure to a good end. Otherwise +he faced certain and ignominious failure. His preliminary task, therefore, +was to devise for the Levites a reward which would content them. His first +step in this direction was to go back to the mountain and seek a new +inspiration and a revelation more suited to the existing conditions than +the revelation conveyed before the golden calf incident. + +Up to this time there is nothing in Jewish history to show that the +priesthood was developing into a privileged and hereditary caste. With the +consecration of Aaron as high priest the process began. Moses spent +another six weeks in seclusion on the mount. And as soon as he returned to +the camp he proclaimed how the people should build and furnish a sanctuary +in which the priesthood should perform its functions. These directions +were very elaborate and detailed, and part of the furnishings of the +sanctuary consisted in the splendid and costly garments for Aaron and his +sons "for glory and for beauty." + +"And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and +sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And +thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: And thou shalt +anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister +unto me in the priest's office: for their anointing shall surely be an +everlasting priesthood, throughout their generations. + +"Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he." + +It followed automatically that, with the creation of a great vested +interest centred in an hereditary caste of priests, the pecuniary burden +on the people was correspondingly increased and that thenceforward Moses +became nothing but the representative of that vested interest: as +reactionary and selfish as all such representatives must be. How selfish +and how reactionary may readily be estimated by glancing at Numbers XVIII, +where God's directions are given to Aaron touching what he was to claim +for himself, and what the Levites were to take as their wages for service. +It was indeed liberal compensation. A good deal more than much of the +congregation thought such services worth. + +In the first place, Aaron and the Levites with him for their service "of +the tabernacle" were to have "all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance." +But this was a small part of their compensation. There were beside +perquisites, especially those connected with the sacrifices which the +people were constrained to make on the most trifling occasions; as, for +example, whenever they became _unclean_, through some accident, as +by touching a dead body: + +"This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: +every oblation of their's, every meat offering of their's, and every sin +offering of their's, and every trespass offering of their's, which they +shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and thy sons. + +"In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it; it +shall be holy unto thee. + +"And this is thine.... All the best of the oil, and all the best of the +wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they shall offer +unto the Lord, them have I given thee; ... every one that is clean in +thine house shall eat of it. + +"Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine.... + +"All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel +offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters +with thee, by a statute forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before +the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee." + +Also, on the taking of a census, such as occurred at Sinai, Aaron received +a most formidable perquisite. + +The Levites were not to be numbered; but there was to be a complicated +system of redemption at the rate of "five shekels by the poll, after the +shekel of the sanctuary." + +"And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them +that were redeemed by the Levites: Of the first-born of the children of +Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and three score and +five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; And Moses gave the money +of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons." + +Assuming the shekel of those days to have weighed two hundred and twenty- +four grains of silver, its value in our currency would have been about +fifty-five cents, but its purchasing power, twelve hundred years before +Christ, would have been, at the very most moderate estimate, at least ten +for one, which would have amounted to between six and seven thousand +dollars in hard cash for no service whatever, which, considering that the +Israelites were a wandering nomadic horde in the wilderness, was, it must +be admitted, a pretty heavy charge for the pleasure of observing the +performances of Aaron and his sons, in their gorgeous garments. + +Also, under any sedentary administration it followed that the high priest +must become the most considerable personage in the community, as well as +one of the richest. And thus as payment for the loyalty to himself of the +Levites during the massacre of the golden calf, Moses created a theocratic +aristocracy headed by Aaron and his sons, and comprising the whole tribe +of Levi, whose advancement in fortune could not fail to create discontent. +It did so: a discontent which culminated very shortly after in the +rebellion of Korah, which brought on a condition of things at Kadesh which +contributed to make the position of Moses intolerable. + +Moses was one of those administrators who were particularly reprobated by +Saint Paul; Men who "do evil," as in the slaughter of the feasters who set +up the golden calf, "that good may come," and "whose damnation," +therefore, "is just." [Footnote: Romans III, 8.] + +And Moses wrought thus through ambition, because, though personally +disinterested, he could not endure having his will thwarted. Aaron had +nearly the converse of such a temperament. Aaron appears to have had few +or no convictions; it mattered little to him whether he worshipped Jehovah +on Sinai or the golden calf at the foot of Sinai, provided he were paid at +his own price. And he took care to exact a liberal price. Also the +inference to be drawn from the way in which Moses behaved to him is that +Moses understood what manner of man he was. + +Jethro stood higher in the estimation of Moses, and Moses did his best to +keep Jethro with him, but, apparently, Jethro had watched Moses closely +and was not satisfied with his conduct of the exodus. On the eve of +departure from Sinai, just as the Israelites were breaking camp, Moses +sought out Jethro and said to him; "We are journeying unto the place of +which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will do +thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. + +"And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, +and to my kindred." + +Not discouraged, Moses kept on urging: "Leave us not, I pray thee; +forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou +mayest be to us instead of eyes. + +"And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness +the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee." It has been +inferred from a passage in Judges, [Footnote: Judges I, 16.] that Moses +induced Jethro to reconsider his refusal and that he did accompany the +congregation in its march to Kadesh, but, on the whole, the text of the +Bible fails to bear out such inference, for there is no subsequent mention +of Jethro in the books which treat directly of the trials of the journey, +although there would seem to have been abundant occasion for Moses to have +called upon Jethro for aid had Jethro been present. In his apparent +absence the march began, under the leadership of the Lord and Moses, very +much missing Jethro. + +They departed from the mount: "And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by +day," when they left the camp "to search out a resting-place." Certainly, +on this occasion, the Lord selected a poor spot for the purpose, quite +different from such an one as Jethro would have been expected to have +pointed out; for the children of Israel began complaining mightily, so +much so that it displeased the Lord who sent fire into the uttermost parts +of the camp, where it consumed them. + +"And the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the +fire was quenched." + +This suggestion of a divine fire under the control of Moses opens an +interesting speculation. + +The Magi, who were the priests of the Median religion, greatly developed +the practices of incantation and sorcery. Among these rites they +"pretended to have the power of making fire descend on to their altars by +means of magical ceremonies." [Footnote: Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, +226, 238.] Moses appears to have been very fond of this particular +miracle. It is mentioned as having been effective here at Taberah, and it +was the supposed weapon employed to suppress Korah's rebellion. Moses was +indeed a powerful enchanter. His relations with all the priestcraft of +central Asia were intimate, and if the Magi had secrets which were likely +to be of use to him in maintaining his position among the Jews, the +inference is that he would certainly have used them to the utmost; as he +did the brazen serpent, the ram's horns at Sinai, and the like. But in +spite of all his miracles Moses found his task too heavy, and he frankly +confessed that he wished himself dead. + +"Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families... and the +anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. + +"And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy +servant? ... that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? + +"Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou +shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father +beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their +fathers? + +"Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep +unto me saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. + +"I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for +me. + +"And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I +have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness." + +Leaving aside for the moment all our childish preventions, and considering +this evidence in the cold light of history, it becomes tolerably evident +that Moses had now reached the turning-point in his career, the point +whither he had inexorably tended since the day on which he bid good-bye to +Jethro to visit Egypt and attempt to gain control of the exodus, and the +point to which all optimists must come who resolve to base a religious or +a political movement on the manipulation of the supernatural. However pure +and disinterested the motives of such persons may be at the outset, and +however thoroughly they may believe in themselves and in their mission, +sooner or later, to compass their purpose, they must resort to deception +and thus become impostors who flourish on the credulity of their dupes. + +Moses, from the nature of the case, had to make such demands on the +credulity of his followers that even those who were bound to him by the +strongest ties of affection and self-interest were alienated, and those +without such commanding motives to submit to his claim to exact from them +absolute obedience, revolted, and demanded that he should be deposed. The +first serious trouble with which Moses had to contend came to a head at +Hazeroth, the second station after leaving Sinai. The supposed spot is +still used as a watering-place. There Miriam and Aaron attacked Moses +because they were jealous of his wife, whom they decried as an +"Ethiopian." And they said, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? +hath he not spoken also by us?" Instantly, it became evident to Moses that +if this denial of his superior intimacy with God were to be permitted, his +supremacy must end. Accordingly the Lord came down "in the pillar of the +cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and +Miriam: and they both came forth." And the Lord explained that he had no +objection to a prophet; if any one among the congregation had an ambition +to be a prophet he would communicate with him in a dream; but there must +always be a wide difference between such a man or woman and Moses with +whom he would "speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark +speeches." And then God demanded irritably, "Wherefore, then, were ye not +afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" "Afterward the cloud," +according to the Bible, departed and God with it. + +Ever since the dawn of time the infliction of or the cure of disease has +been the stronghold of the necromancer, the wise man, the magician, the +saint, the prophet and the priest, and Moses was no exception to the rule, +only hitherto he had had no occasion to display his powers of this kind. +Nevertheless, among the Hebrews of the exodus, the field for this form of +miracle was large. Leprosy was very prevalent, so much so that in Egypt +the Jews were called a nation of lepers. And in the camp the regulations +touching them were strict and numerous. But the Jews were always a dirty +race. + +In chapter XIII of Leviticus, elaborate directions are given as to how the +patient shall be brought before Aaron himself, or at least some other of +the priests, who was to examine the sore and, if it proved to be a +probable case of leprosy, the patient was to be excluded from the camp for +a week. At the end of that time the disease, if malignant, was supposed to +show signs of spreading, in which case there was no cure and the patient +was condemned to civil death. On the contrary, if no virulent symptoms +developed during the week, the patient was pronounced clean and returned +to ordinary life. + +The miracle in the case of Miriam was this: When the cloud departed from +off the tabernacle, Miriam was found to be "leprous, white as snow," just +as Moses' hand was found to be white with leprosy after his conversation +with the Lord at the burning bush. Upon this Aaron, who had been as guilty +as Miriam, and was proportionately nervous, made a prayer to Moses: "Alas, +my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done +foolishly.... Let her not be as one dead. + +"And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech +thee." + +But the Lord replied: "If her father had but spit in her face, should she +not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, +and after that let her be received in again." + +This was the Mosaic system of discipline. And it was serious for all +parties concerned. Evidently it was very serious for Miriam, who had to +leave her tent and be exiled to some spot in the desert, where she had to +shift for herself. We all know the almost intolerable situation of those +unfortunates who, in the East, are excluded from social intercourse, and +sit without the gate, and are permitted to approach no one. But it was +also a serious infliction for the congregation, since Miriam was a +personage of consequence, and had to be waited for. That is to say, a +million or two of people had to delay their pilgrimage until Moses had +determined how much punishment Miriam deserved for her insubordination, +and this was a question which lay altogether within the discretion of +Moses. In that age there were at least seven varieties of eruptions which +could hardly, if at all, be distinguished, in their early stages, from +leprosy, and it was left to Moses to say whether or not Miriam had been +attacked by true leprosy or not. There was no one, apparently, to question +his judgment, for, since Jethro had left the camp, there was no one to +controvert the Mosaic opinion on matters such as these. Doubtless Moses +was content to give Aaron and Miriam a fright; but also Moses intended to +make them understand that they lay absolutely at his mercy. + +After this outbreak of discontent had been thus summarily suppressed and +Miriam had been again received as "clean," the caravan resumed its march +and entered into the wilderness of Paran, which adjoined Palestine, and +from whence an invasion of Canaan, if one were to be attempted, would be +organized. Accordingly Moses appointed a reconnaissance, who in the +language of the Bible are called "spies," to examine the country, report +its condition, and decide whether an attack were feasible. + +On this occasion Moses seems to have remembered the lesson he learned at +Sinai. He did not undertake to leave the camp himself for a long interval. +He sent the men whom he supposed he could best trust, among whom were +Joshua and Caleb. These men, who corresponded to what, in a modern army, +would be called the general-staff, were not sent to manufacture a report +which they might have reason to suppose would be pleasing to Moses, but to +state precisely what they saw and heard together with their conclusions +thereon, that they might aid their commander in an arduous campaign; and +this duty they seem, honestly enough, to have performed. But this was very +far from satisfying Moses, who wanted to make a strenuous offensive, and +yet sought some one else to take the responsibility therefor. + +The spies were absent six weeks and when they returned were divided in +opinion. They all agreed that Canaan was a good land, and, in verity, +flowing with milk and honey. But the people, most of them thought, were +too strong to be successfully attacked. "The cities were walled and very +great," and moreover "we saw the children of Anak there." + +"The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the +Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites +dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. + +"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at +once, ... for we are well able to overcome it. + +"But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against +the people; for they are stronger than we. + +"And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched, +... saying, ... all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. + +"And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, ... and we were in our own +sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight." + +Had Moses been gifted with military talent, or with any of the higher +instincts of the soldier, he would have arranged to have received this +report in private and would then have acted as he thought best. Above all +he would have avoided anything like a council of war by the whole +congregation, for a vast popular meeting of that kind was certain to +become unmanageable the moment a division appeared in their command, upon +a difficult question of policy. + +Moses did just the opposite. He convened the people to hear the report of +the "spies." And immediately the majority became dangerously depressed, +not to say mutinous. + +"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people +wept that night. + +"And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: +and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in +the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness!... + +"And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return +into Egypt. + +"Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the +congregation of the children of Israel." + +But Joshua, who was a soldier, when Moses thus somewhat ignominiously +collapsed, retained his presence of mind and his energy. He and Caleb +"rent their clothes," and reiterated their advice. + +"And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, +The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. + +"If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give +it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. + +"Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the +land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them... +fear them not. + +"But all the congregation bade stone them with stones." + +By this time Moses seems to have recovered some composure. Enough, at +least, to repeat certain violent threats of the "Lord." + +Nothing is so impressive in all this history as the difference between +Moses when called upon to take responsibility as a military commander, and +Moses when, not to mince matters, he acted as a quack. On the one hand, he +was all vacillation, timidity, and irritability. On the other, all +temerity and effrontery. + +In this particular emergency, which touched his very life, Moses vented +his disappointment and vexation in a number of interviews which he +pretended to have had with the "Lord," and which he retailed to the +congregation, just at the moment when they needed, as Joshua perceived, to +be steadied and encouraged. + +"How long," vociferated the Lord, when Moses had got back his power of +speech, "will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they +believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? + +"I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make +of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." + +But when Moses had cooled a little and came to reflect upon what he had +made the "Lord" say, he fell into his ordinary condition of hesitancy. +Supposing some great disaster should happen to the Jews at Kadesh, which +lay not so very far from the Egyptian border, the Egyptians would +certainly hear of it, and in that case the Egyptian army might pursue and +capture Moses. Such a contingency was not to be contemplated, and +accordingly Moses began to make reservations. It must be remembered that +all these ostensible conversations with the "Lord" went on in public; that +is to say, Moses proffered his advice to the Lord aloud, and then retailed +his version of the answer he received. + +"Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which +have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, + +"Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he +sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.... + +"Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the +greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt +even until now. + +"And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word." + +Had Moses left the matter there it would not have been so bad, but he +could not contain his vexation, because his staff had not divined his +wishes. Those men, though they had done their strict duty only, must be +punished, so he thought, to maintain his ascendancy. + +Of the twelve "spies" whom Moses had sent into Canaan to report to him, +ten had incurred his bitter animosity because they failed to render him +such a report as would sustain him before the people in making the +campaign of invasion to which he felt himself pledged, and on the success +of which his reputation depended. Of these ten men, Moses, to judge by the +character of his demands upon the Lord, thought it incumbent on him to +make an example, in order to sustain his own credit. + +To simply exclude these ten spies from Palestine, as he proposed to do +with the rest of the congregation, would hardly be enough, for the rest of +the Hebrews were, at most, passive, but these ten had wilfully ignored the +will of Moses, or, as he expressed it, of the Lord. Therefore it was the +Lord's duty, as Moses saw it, to punish them. And this Moses proposed that +the Lord should do in a prompt and awful manner: the lesson being pointed +by the immunity of Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who had had the wit to +divine the will of Moses. Therefore, all ten of these men died of the +plague while the congregation lay encamped at Kadesh, though Joshua and +Caleb remained immune. + +Moses, as the commanding general of an attacking army, took a course +diametrically opposed to that of Joshua, and calculated to be fatal to +victory. He vented his irritation in a series of diatribes which he +attributed to the "Lord," and which discouraged and confused his men at +the moment when their morale was essential to success. + +Therefore, the Lord, according to Moses, went on: + +"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of +the Lord. + +"Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I +did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, +and have not hearkened to my voice; + +"Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, +neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: + +"But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath +followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went;..." + +Having said all this, and, as far as might be, disorganized the army, +Moses surrendered suddenly his point. He made the "Lord" go on to command: +"Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red +Sea." But, not even yet content, Moses assured them that this retreat +should profit them nothing. + +"And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I +bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard +the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me." +And the Lord continued: + +"Say unto them, As truly as I live, ... as ye have spoken in mine ears, so +will I do to you. + +"Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered +of you, ... from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against +me, + +"Doubtless ye shall not come into the land.... + +"But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.... + +"And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made +all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon +the land,-- + +"Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by +the plague before the Lord. + +"But Joshua ... and Caleb, ... which were of the men that went to search +the land, lived still. + +"And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel and the +people mourned greatly." + +The congregation were now completely out of hand. They knew not what Moses +wanted to do, nor did they comprehend what Moses was attempting to make +the Lord threaten: except that he had in mind some dire mischief. +Accordingly, the people decided that the best thing for them was to go +forward as Joshua and Caleb proposed. So, early in the morning, they went +up into the top of the mountain, saying, "We be here, and will go up unto +the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned." + +But Moses was more dissatisfied than ever. "Wherefore now do you +transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper." +Notwithstanding, "they presumed to go up unto the hilltop: nevertheless +the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the +camp. + +"Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites, which dwelt in that +hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah"; which was +at a very considerable distance,--perhaps not less than thirty miles, +though the positions are not very well established. + +This is the story as told by the priestly chronicler, who, of course, said +the best that could be said for Moses. But he makes a sorry tale of it. +According to him, Moses, having been disappointed with the report made by +his officers on the advisability of an immediate offensive, committed the +blunder of summoning the whole assembly of the people to listen to it, and +then, in the midst of the panic he had created, he lost his self- +possession and finally his temper. Whereupon his soldiers, not knowing +what to do or what he wanted, resolved to follow the advice of Joshua and +advance. + +But this angered Moses more than ever, who committed the unpardonable +crime in the eyes of the soldier; he abandoned his men in the presence of +the enemy and by this desertion so weakened them that they sustained the +worst defeat the Israelites suffered during the whole of their wanderings +in the wilderness. Such a disaster brought on a crisis. The only wonder is +that it had been so long delayed. Moses had had since the exodus a +wonderful opportunity to test the truth of his theories. He had asserted +that the universe was the expression of a single and supreme mind, which +operated according to a fixed moral law. That he alone, of all men, +understood this mind, and could explain and administer its law, and that +this he could and would do were he to obtain absolute obedience to the +commands which he uttered. Were he only obeyed, he would win for his +followers victory in battle, and a wonderful land to which they should +march under his guidance, which was the Promised Land, and thereafter all +was to be well with them. + +The disaster at Hormah had demonstrated that he was no general, and even +on that very day the people had proof before their eyes that he knew +nothing of the desert, and that the Lord knew no more than he, since there +was no water at Kadesh, and to ask the congregation to encamp in such a +spot was preposterous. Meanwhile Moses absorbed all the offices of honor +and profit for his family. Aaron and his descendants monopolized the +priesthood, and this was a bitter grievance to other equally ambitious +Levites. In short, the Mosaic leadership was vulnerable on every hand. +Attack on Moses was, therefore, inevitable, and it came from Korah, who +was leader of the opposition. + +Korah was a cousin of Moses, and one of the ablest and most influential +men in the camp, to whom Dathan and Abiram and "two hundred and fifty" +princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, joined +themselves. "And they gathered themselves together against Moses and +against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all +the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: +wherefore then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" + +Koran's grievance was that he had been, although a Levite, excluded from +the priesthood in favor of the demands of Aaron and his sons. + +"And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face." + +And yet something had to be done. Moses faced an extreme danger. His life +hung upon the issue. As between him and Korah he had to demonstrate which +was the better sorcerer or magician, and he could only do this by +challenging Korah to the test of the ordeal: the familiar test of the +second clause of the code of Hammurabi; "If the holy river makes that man +to be innocent, and has saved him, he who laid the spell upon him shall be +put to death. He who plunged into the holy river shall take to himself the +house of him who wove the spell upon him." [Footnote: Code of Laws +promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon. Translated by C. H. W. Johns, +M.A., Section 2.] And so with Elijah, to whom Ahaziah sent a captain of +fifty to arrest him. And Elijah said to the captain of fifty, "If I be a +man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy +fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his +fifty." [Footnote: 2 Kings I, 10.] + +In a word, the ordeal was the common form of test by which the enchanter, +the sorcerer, or the magician always was expected to prove himself. Moses +already had tried the test by fire at least once, and probably oftener. So +now Moses reproached Korah because he was jealous of Aaron; "and what is +Aaron, that ye murmur against him?... This do; Take you censers, Korah, +and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before +the Lord to-morrow; and ... whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: +ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." + +But it was not only about the priesthood that Moses had trouble on his +hands. He had undertaken, with the help of the Lord, to lead the +Israelites through the wilderness. But at every step of the way his +incompetence became more manifest. Even there, at that very camp of +Kadesh, there was no water, and all the people clamored. And, therefore, +Dathan and Abiram taunted him with failure, and with his injustice to +those who served him. And Moses had no reply, except that he denied having +abused his power. + +"And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, +We will not come up: + +"Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that +floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou +make thyself altogether a prince over us? + +"Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and +honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out +the eyes of these men [probably alluding to the "spies"]? We will not come +up." + +This was evidently an exceedingly sore spot. Moses had boasted that, +because the "spies" had rendered to the congregation what they believed to +be a true report instead of such a report as he had expected, the "Lord" +had destroyed them by the plague. And it is pretty evident that the +congregation believed him. It could hardly have been by pure accident that +out of twelve men, the ten who had offended Moses should have died by the +plague, and the other two alone should have escaped. Moses assumed to have +the power of destroying whom he pleased by the pestilence through prayer +to the "Lord," and he, indeed, probably had the power, in such a spot as +an ancient Jewish Nomad camp, not indeed by prayer, but by the very human +means of communicating so virulent a poison as the plague: means which he +very well understood. + +Therefore it is not astonishing that this insinuation should have stung +Moses to the quick. + +"And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their +offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of +them." + +Then Moses turned to Korah, "Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, +thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow: + +"And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye +before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers." + +And Korah, on the morrow, gathered all the congregation against them unto +the door of the tabernacle. And the "Lord" then as usual intervened and +advised Moses to "separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I +may consume them in a moment." And Moses did so. That is to say, he made +an effort to divide the opposition, who, when united, he seems to have +appreciated, were too strong for him. + +What happened next is not known. That Moses partially succeeded in his +attempt at division is admitted, for he persuaded Dathan and Abiram and +their following to "depart ... from the tents of these wicked men, and +touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins." + +Exactly what occurred after this is unknown. The chronicle, of course, +avers that "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their +houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods." +But it could not have been this or anything like it, for the descendants +of Korah, many generations after, were still doing service in the Temple, +and at the time of the miracle the spectators were not intimidated by the +sight, although all "Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of +them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. + +"And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and +fifty men that offered incense." + +Notwithstanding all which, the congregation next day were as hostile and +as threatening as ever. + +"On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured +against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the +Lord.... + +"And they fell upon their faces." + +In this crisis of his fate, when it seemed that nothing could save Moses +from a conflict with the mass of his followers, who had renounced him, +Moses showed that audacity and fertility of resource, which had hitherto +enabled him, and was destined until his death to enable him, to maintain +his position, at least as a prophet, among the Jewish people. + +The plague was always the most dreaded of visitations among the ancient +Jews: far more terrible than war. It was already working havoc in the +camp, as the death of the "spies" shows us. Moses always asserted his +ability to control it, and at this instant, when, apparently, he and Aaron +were lying on their faces before the angry people, he conceived the idea +that he would put his theurgetic powers to the proof. Suddenly he called +to Aaron to "take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and +put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an +atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague +is begun." + +"And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the +congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: ... and +made an atonement for the people. + +"And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. + +"Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven +hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah." + +Even this was not enough. The discontent continued, and Moses went on to +meet it by the miracle of Aaron's rod. + +Moses took a rod from each tribe, twelve rods in all and on Aaron's rod he +wrote the name of Levi, and Moses laid them out in the tabernacle. And the +next day Moses examined the rods and showed the congregation how Aaron's +rod had budded. And Moses declared that Aaron's rod should be kept for a +token against the rebels: and that they must stop their murmurings "that +they die not." + +This manipulation of the plague by Moses, upon what seems to have been a +sudden inspiration, was a stroke of genius in the way of quackery. He was, +indeed, in this way almost portentous. It had a great and terrifying +effect upon the people, who were completely subdued by it. Against +corporeal enemies they might hope to prevail, but they were helpless +against the plague. And they all cried out with one accord, "Behold we +die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the +tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?" + +As I have already pointed out, Moses was a very great theurgist, as many +saints and prophets have been. When in the actual presence of others he +evidently had the power of creating a belief in himself which approached +the miraculous, so far as disease was concerned. And he presumed on this +power and took correspondingly great risks. The case of the brazen serpent +is an example. The story is--and there is no reason to doubt its +substantial truth--that the Hebrews were attacked by venomous serpents +probably in the neighborhood of Mount Hor, where Aaron died, and thereupon +Moses set up a large brazen serpent on a pole, and declared that whoever +would look upon the serpent should live. Also, apparently, it did produce +an effect upon those who believed: which, of course, is not an +unprecedented phenomenon among faith healers. But what is interesting in +this historical anecdote is not that Moses performed certain faith cures +by the suggestion of a serpent, but that the Israelites themselves, when +out of the presence of Moses, recognized that he had perpetrated on them a +vulgar fraud. For example, King Hezekiah destroyed this relic, which had +been preserved in the Temple, calling it "Nehushtan," "a brazen thing," as +an expression of his contempt. And what is more remarkable still is that +although Hezekiah reigned four or five centuries after the exodus, yet +science had made no such advance in the interval as to justify this +contempt. Hezekiah seems to have been every whit as credulous as were the +pilgrims who looked on the brazen serpent and were healed. Hezekiah "was +sick unto death, and Isaiah came to see him, and told him to set his house +in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.... And Hezekiah wept sore." + +Then, like Moses, Isaiah had another revelation in which he was directed +to return to Hezekiah, and tell him that he was to live fifteen years +longer. And Isaiah told the attendants to take "a lump of figs." "And they +took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered." + +Afterward Hezekiah asked of Isaiah how he was to know that the Lord would +keep his word and give him fifteen additional years of life. Isaiah told +him that the shadow should go back ten degrees on the dial. And Isaiah +"cried unto the Lord," and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward "by +which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." [Footnote: 2 Kings xx, 11.] +And yet this man Hezekiah, who could believe in this marvellous cure of +Isaiah, repudiated with scorn the brazen serpent as an insult to +credulity. The contrast between Moses, who hesitated not to take all risks +in matters of disease with which he felt himself competent to cope, and +his timidity and hesitation in matters of war, is astounding. But it is a +common phenomenon with the worker of miracles and indicates the limit of +faith at which the saint or prophet has always betrayed the impostor. For +example: Saint Bernard, when he preached in 1146 the Second Crusade, made +miraculous cures by the thousand, so much so that there was danger of +being killed in the crowds which pressed upon him. And yet this same +saint, when chosen by the crusaders four years later, in 1150, to lead +them because of his power to constrain victory by the intervention of God, +wrote, after the crusaders' defeat, in terror to the pope to protect him, +because he was unfit to take such responsibility. + +But even with this reservation Moses could not gain the complete +confidence of the congregation and the insecurity of his position finally +broke him down. + +At this same place of Kadesh, Miriam died, "and the people chode with +Moses because there was no water for the congregation." [Footnote: Numbers +xx, 8.] Moses thereupon withdrew and, as usual, received a revelation. And +the Lord directed him to take his rod, "and speak ye unto the rock before +their eyes; and it shall give forth his water." + +And Moses gathered the congregation and said unto them, "Hear now, ye +rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?" + +"And he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly." + +But Moses felt that he had offended God, "Because ye believed me not, to +sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not +bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." + +Moses had become an old man, and he felt himself unequal to the burden he +had assumed. He recognized that his theory of cause and effect had broken +down, and that the "Lord" whom at the outset he had firmly believed to be +an actual and efficient power to be dominated by him, either could not or +would not support him in emergency. In short, he had learned that he was +an adventurer who must trust to himself. Hence, after Hormah he was a +changed man. Nothing could induce him to lead the Jews across the Jordan +to attack the peoples on the west bank, and though the congregation made a +couple of campaigns against Sihon and Og, whose ruthlessness has always +been a stain on Moses, the probability is that Moses did not meddle much +with the active command. Had he done so, the author of Deuteronomy would +have given the story in more detail and Moses more credit. All that is +attributed to Moses is a division of the conquests made together with +Joshua, and a fruitless prayer to the Lord that he might be permitted to +cross the Jordan. + +Meanwhile life was ending for him. His elder sister Miriam died at Kadesh, +and Aaron died somewhat later at Mount Hor, which is supposed to lie about +as far to the east of Kadesh as Hormah is to the west, but there are +circumstances about the death of Aaron which point to Moses as having had +more to do with it than of having been a mere passive spectator thereof. + +The whole congregation is represented as having "journeyed from Kadesh and +come unto Mount Hor ... by the coast of the land of Edom," and there the +"Lord" spoke unto Moses and Aaron, and explained that Aaron was to be +"gathered unto his people, ... because ye rebelled ... at the water of +Meribah." Therefore Moses was to "take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and +bring them up unto Mount Hor: and strip Aaron of his garments, and put +them upon Eleazar," ... and that Aaron ... shall die there. + +"And they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And +Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; +and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came +down from the mount." [Footnote: Numbers xx, 22-28.] + +Now it is incredible that all this happened as straightforwardly as the +chronicle would have us believe. Aaron was an old man and probably +failing, but his death was not imminent. On the contrary, he had strength +to climb Mount Hor with Moses, without aid, and there is no hint that he +suffered from any ailment likely to end his life suddenly. Moses took care +that he and Eleazar should be alone with Aaron so that there should be no +witness as to what occurred, and Moses alone knew what was expected. + +Moses had time to take off the priestly garments, which were the insignia +of office and to put them on Eleazar, and then, when all was ready, Aaron +simply ceased to breathe at the precise moment when it was convenient for +Moses to have him die, for the policy of Moses evidently demanded that +Aaron should live no longer. Under the conditions of the march Moses was +evidently preparing for his own death, and for a complete change in the +administration of affairs. Appreciating that his leadership had broken +down and that the system he had created was collapsing, he had dawdled as +long on the east side of the Jordan as the patience of the congregation +would permit. An advance had become inevitable, but Moses recognized his +own inability to lead it. The command had to be delegated to a younger man +and that man was Joshua. Eleazar, on the other hand, was the only +available candidate for the high priesthood, and Moses took the +opportunity of making the investiture on Mount Hor. So Aaron passed away, +a sacrifice to the optimism of Moses. Next came the turn of Moses himself. +The whole story is told in Deuteronomy. Within, probably, something less +than a year after Aaron's death the "Lord" made a like communication to +Moses. + +"Get thee up ... unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is +over against Jericho; + +"And die in the Mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy +people; as Aaron, thy brother died in Mount Hor; + +"Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the +waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified +me not in the midst of the children of Israel. + +"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, ... +And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan. + +"And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, +according to the word of the Lord.... But no man knoweth of his sepulchre +unto this day. + +"And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was +not dim, nor his natural force abated." + +The facts, as preserved by Josephus, appear to have been these: Moses +ascended the mountain with only the elders, the high priest Eleazar, and +Joshua. At the top of the mountain he dismissed the elders, and then, as +he was embracing Joshua and Eleazar and still speaking, a cloud covered +him, and he disappeared in a ravine. In other words, he killed himself. + +Such is the story of Moses, a fragment of history interesting enough in +itself, but especially material to us not only because of the development +of the thought dealt with in the following volumes, but of the inferences +which, at the present time, it permits us to draw touching our own +immediate future. + +Moses was the first great optimist of whom any record remains, and one of +the greatest. He was the prototype of all those who have followed. He was +a visionary. All optimists must be visionaries. Moses based the social +system which he tried to organize, not on observed facts, but on _a +priori_ theories evolved out of his own mind, and he met with the +failure that all men of that cast of mind must meet with when he sought to +realize his visions. His theory was that the universe about him was the +expression of an infinite mind which operated according to law. That this +mind, or consciousness, was intelligent and capable of communicating with +man. That it did, in fact, so communicate through him, as a medium, and +that other men had only to receive humbly and obey implicitly his +revelations to arrive at a condition nearly approaching, if not absolutely +reaching, perfection, while they should enjoy happiness and prosperity in +the land in which they should be permitted, by an infinite and +supernatural power and wisdom, to dwell. All this is not alien to the +attitude of scientific optimists at the present day, who anticipate +progressive perfection. + +Let us consider, for a moment, whither these _a priori_ theories led, +when put in practice upon human beings, including himself. And, in the +first place, it will probably be conceded that no optimist could have, or +ever hope to have, a fairer opportunity to try his experiment than had +Moses on that plastic Hebrew community which he undertook to lead through +Arabia. Also it must be admitted that Moses, as an expounder of a moral +code, achieved success. The moral principles which he laid down have been +accepted as sound from that day to this, and are still written up in our +churches, as a standard for men and women, however slackly they may be +observed. But when we come to mark the methods by which Moses obtained +acceptance of his code by his contemporaries, and, above all, sought to +constrain obedience to himself and to it, we find the prospect unalluring. +To begin with, Moses had only begun the exodus when he learned from his +practical father-in-law that the system he employed was fantastic and +certain to fail: his notion being that he should sit and judge causes +himself, as the mouthpiece of the infinite, and that therefore each +judgment he gave would demand a separate miracle or imposture. This could +not be contemplated. Therefore Moses was constrained to impose his code in +writing, once for all, by one gigantic fraud which he must perpetrate +himself. This he tried at Sinai, unblushingly declaring that the stone +tablets which he produced were "written with the finger of God"; +wherefore, as they must have been written by himself, or under his +personal supervision, he brazenly and deliberately lied. His good faith +was obviously suspected, and this suspicion caused disastrous results. To +support his lie Moses caused three thousand unsuspecting and trusting men +to be murdered in cold blood, whose only crime was that they would have +preferred another leadership to his, and because, had they been able to +effect their purpose, they would have disappointed his ambition. + +To follow Moses further in the course which optimism enforced upon him +would be tedious, as it would be to recapitulate the story which has +already been told. It suffices to say shortly that, at every camp, he had +to sink to deeper depths of fraud, deception, lying, and crime in order to +maintain his credit. It might be that, as at Meribah, it was only claiming +for himself a miracle which he knew he could not work, and for claiming +which, instead of giving the credit to God, he openly declared he deserved +and must receive punishment; or it might be some impudent quackery, like +the brazen serpent, which at least was harmless; or it might have been +complicated combinations which suggest a deeper shade; as, for example, +the outbreak of the plague, after Korah's rebellion, which bears the +aspect of a successful effort at intimidation to support his own wavering +credit. But the result was always the same. Moses had promised that the +supernatural power he pretended to control should sustain him and give +victory. Possibly, when he started on the exodus he verily believed that +such a power existed, was amenable and could be constrained to intervene. +He found that he had been mistaken on all these heads, and when he +accepted these facts as final, nothing remained for him but suicide, as +has been related. It only remains to glance, for a single moment, at what +befell, when he had gone, the society he had organized on the optimistic +principle of the approach of human beings toward perfection. During the +period of the Judges, when "there was no king in Israel, but every man did +that which was right in his own eyes," [Footnote: Judges xvii, 6.] anarchy +supervened, indeed, but also the whole Mosaic system broke down because of +the imbecility of the men on whom Moses relied to lift the people toward +perfection. + +Eli, a descendant of Aaron, was high priest, and a judge, being the +predecessor of Samuel, the last of the judges. Now Eli had two sons who +"were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord." + +Eli, being very old, "heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how +they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle...." +And Eli argued with them; "notwithstanding they harkened not unto the +voice of their father." + +Samuel succeeded Eli. He was not a descendant of Aaron, but became a +judge, apparently, upon his own merits. But as a judge he did not +constrain his sons any better than Eli had his, for "they took bribes, and +perverted judgment." So the elders of Israel came to Samuel and said, +"Give us a king to judge us." "And Samuel prayed unto the Lord," though he +disliked the idea. Yet the result was inevitable. The kingdom was set up, +and the Mosaic society perished. Nothing was left of Mosaic optimism but +the tradition. Also there was the Mosaic morality, and what that amounted +to may best, perhaps, be judged by David, who was the most perfect flower +of the perfection to which humanity was to attain under the Mosaic law, +and has always stood for what was best in Mosaic optimism. David's +morality is perhaps best illustrated by the story of Uriah the Hittite. + +One day David saw Uriah's wife taking a bath on her housetop and took a +fancy to her. The story is all told in the Second of Samuel. How David +sent for her, took her into the palace, and murdered Uriah by sending him +to Joab who commanded the army, and instructing Joab to set Uriah in the +forefront of the hottest battle, and "retire ye from him that he may be +smitten and die." And Uriah was killed. + +Then came the famous parable by Nathan of the ewe lamb. "And David's anger +was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord +liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die. + +"And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man." + +And Nathan threatened David with all kinds of disaster and even with +death, and David was very repentant and "he fasted and lay all night upon +the earth." But for all that, when assured that nothing worse was to +happen to him than the loss of the son Bathsheba had borne him, David +comforted Bathsheba. He by no means gave her up. On the contrary, "he went +in unto her ... and she bare him a son, and he called his name Solomon: +and the Lord loved him." + +Again the flesh had prevailed. And so it has always been with each new +movement which has been stimulated by an idealism inspired by a belief +that the spirit was capable of generating an impulse which would overcome +the flesh and which could cause men to move toward perfection along any +other path than the least resistant. And this because man is an automaton, +and can move no otherwise. In this point of view nothing can be more +instructive than to compare the Roman with the Mosaic civilization, for +the Romans were a sternly practical people and worshipped force as Moses +worshipped an ideal. + +As Moses dreamed of realizing the divine consciousness on earth by +introspection and by prayer, so the Romans supposed that they could attain +to prosperity and happiness on earth by the development of superior +physical force and the destruction of all rivals. Cato the Censor was the +typical Roman landowner, the type of the class which built up the great +vested interest in land which always moved and dominated Rome. He +expressed the Roman ideal in his famous declaration in the Senate, when he +gave his vote for the Third Punic War; "_Delenda est Carthago_," Carthage +must be destroyed. And Carthage was destroyed because to a Roman to +destroy Carthage was a logical competitive necessity. Subsequently, the +Romans took the next step in their social adjustment at home. They deified +the energy which had destroyed Carthage. The incarnation of physical force +became the head of the State;--the Emperor when living, the Divus, when +dead. And this conception gained expression in the law. This godlike +energy found vent in the Imperial will; "_Quod principi placuit, legis +habet vigorem_." [Footnote: Inst. l, 2, 6.] + +Nothing could be more antagonistic to the Mosaic philosophy, which invoked +the supernatural unity as authority for every police regulation. Moreover, +the Romans carried out their principle relentlessly, to their own +destruction. That great vested interest which had absorbed the land of +Italy, and had erected the administrative entity which policed it, could +not hold and cultivate its land profitably, in competition with other +lands such as Egypt, North Africa, or Assyria, which were worked by a +cheaper and more resistant people. Therefore the Roman landowners imported +this competitive population from their homes, having first seized them as +slaves, and cultivated their own Italian fields with them after the +eviction of the original native peasants, who could not survive on the +scanty nutriment on which the eastern races throve. [Footnote: I have +dealt with this subject at length in my _Law of Civilization and +Decay_, chapter II, to which I must refer the reader. More fully still +in the French translation. "This unceasing emigration gradually changed +the character of the rural population, and a similar alteration took place +in the army. As early as the time of Caesar, Italy was exhausted; his +legions were mainly raised in Gaul, and as the native farmers sank into +serfdom or slavery, and then at last vanished, recruits were drawn more +and more from beyond the limits of the empire." I cannot repeat my +arguments here, but I am not aware that they have been seriously +controverted.] + +The Roman law, the _Romana lex_, was as gigantic, as original, and as +comprehensive a structure as was the empire which gave to it expression. +Modern European law is but a dilution thereof. The Roman law attained +perfection, as I conceive, about the time of the Antonines, through the +great jurists who then flourished. If one might name a particular moment +at which so vast and complex a movement culminated, one would be tempted +to suggest the reign of Hadrian, who appointed Salvius Julianus to draw up +the _edictum perpetuum_, or permanent edict, in the year 132 A.D. +Thenceforward the magistrate had to use his discretion only when the edict +of Julianus did not apply. + +I am not aware that any capital principle of municipal law has been +evolved since that time, and the astonishing power of the Roman mind can +only be appreciated when it is remembered that the whole of this colossal +fabric was original. Modern European law has been only a servile copy. +But, regard being had to the position of the emperor in relation to the +people, and more especially in relation to the vast bureaucracy of Rome, +which was the embodiment of the vested interest which was Rome itself, the +adherence of Roman thought to the path of least resistance was absolute. +"So far as the cravings of Stoicism found historical and political +fulfilment, they did so in the sixty years of Hadrian and the Antonines, +and so far again as an individual can embody the spirit of an age, its +highest and most representative impersonation is unquestionably to be +found in the person of Marcus Antoninus.... Stoicism faced the whole +problem of existence, and devoted as searching an investigation to +processes of being and of thought, to physics and to dialectic, as to the +moral problems presented by the emotions and the will." [Footnote: +_Marcus Aurelius Antoninus_, in English, by Gerald H. Rendall, +Introduction, xxvii.] + +Such was stoicism, of which Marcus Aurelius was and still remains the +foremost expression. He admitted that as emperor his first duty was to +sacrifice himself for the public and he did his duty with a constancy +which ultimately cost him his life. Among these duties was the great duty +of naming his successor. The Roman Empire never became strictly +hereditary. It hinged, as perhaps no other equally developed system ever +hinged, upon the personality of the emperor, who incarnated the +administrative bureaucracy which gave effect to the _Pax Romana_ and +the _Romana lex_ from the Euphrates to the Atlantic and from Scotland +to the Tropic of Cancer. Of all men Marcus Aurelius was the most +conscientious and the most sincere, and he understood, as perhaps no other +man in like position ever understood, the responsibility which impinged on +him, to allow no private prevention to impose an unfit emperor upon the +empire But Marcus had a son Commodus, who was nineteen when his father +died, and who had already developed traits which caused foreboding. +Nevertheless, Marcus associated Commodus with himself in the empire when +Commodus was fourteen and Commodus attained to absolute power when Marcus +died. Subsequently, Commodus became the epitome of all that was basest and +worst in a ruler. He was murdered by the treachery of Marcia, his favorite +concubine, and the Senate decreed that "his body should be dragged with a +hook into the stripping room of the gladiators, to satiate the public +fury." [Footnote: _Decline and Fall_, chap. iv.] + +From that day Rome entered upon the acute stage of her decline, and she +did so very largely because Marcus Aurelius, the ideal stoic, was +incapable of violating the great law of nature which impelled him to +follow not reason, but the path of least resistance in choosing a +successor; or, in other words, the instinct of heredity. Moreover, this +instinct and not reason is or has been, among the strongest which operate +upon men, and makes them automata. It is the basis upon which the family +rests, and the family is the essence of social cohesion. Also the +hereditary instinct has been the prime motor which has created +constructive municipal jurisprudence and which has evolved religion. + +With the death of Marcus Aurelius individual competition may be judged to +have done its work, and presently, as the population changed its character +under the stress thereof, a new phase opened: a phase which is marked, as +such phases usually are, by victory in war. Marcus Aurelius died in 180 +A.D. Substantially a century later, in 312, Constantine won the battle of +the Milvian Bridge with his troops fighting under the Labarum, a standard +bearing a cross with the device "_In hoc signo vinces_"; By this sign +conquer. Probably Constantine had himself scanty faith in the Labarum, but +he speculated upon it as a means to arouse enthusiasm in his men. It +served his purpose, and finding the step he had taken on the whole +satisfactory, he followed it up by accepting baptism in 337 A.D. + +From this time forward the theory of the possibility of securing divine or +supernatural aid by various forms of incantation or prayer gained steadily +in power for about eight centuries, until at length it became a passion +and gave birth to a school of optimism, the most overwhelming and the most +brilliant which the world has ever known and which evolved an age whose +end we still await. + +The Germans of the fourth century were a very simple race, who +comprehended little of natural laws, and who therefore referred phenomena +they did not understand to supernatural intervention. This intervention +could only be controlled by priests, and thus the invasions caused a rapid +rise in the influence of the sacred class. The power of every +ecclesiastical organization has always rested on the miracle, and the +clergy have always proved their divine commission as did Moses. This was +eminently the case with the mediaeval Church. At the outset Christianity +was socialistic, and its spread among the poor was apparently caused by +the pressure of servile competition; for the sect only became of enough +importance to be persecuted under Nero, contemporaneously with the first +signs of distress which appeared through the debasement of the denarius. +But socialism was only a passing phase, and disappeared as the money value +of the miracle rose, and brought wealth to the Church. Under the Emperor +Decius, about 250, the magistrates thought the Christians opulent enough +to use gold and silver vessels in their service, and by the fourth century +the supernatural so possessed the popular mind that Constantine, as we +have seen, not only allowed himself to be converted by a miracle, but used +enchantment as an engine of war. + +The action of the Milvian Bridge, fought in 312, by which Constantine +established himself at Rome, was probably the point whence nature began to +discriminate decisively against the vested interest of Western Europe. +Capital had already abandoned Italy; Christianity was soon after +officially recognized, and during the next century the priest began to +rank with the soldier as a force in war. + +Meanwhile, as the population sank into exhaustion, it yielded less and +less revenue, the police deteriorated, and the guards became unable to +protect the frontier. In 376, the Goths, hard pressed by the Huns, came to +the Danube and implored to be taken as subjects by the emperor. After +mature deliberation the Council of Valens granted the prayer, and some +five hundred thousand Germans were cantoned in Moesia. The intention of +the government was to scatter this multitude through the provinces as +_coloni,_ or to draft them into the legions; but the detachment detailed +to handle them was too feeble, the Goths mutinied, cut the guard to +pieces, and having ravaged Thrace for two years, defeated and killed +Valens at Hadrianople. In another generation the disorganization of the +Roman army had become complete, and Alaric gave it its death-blow in his +campaign of 410. + +Alaric was not a Gothic king, but a barbarian deserter, who, in 392, was +in the service of Theodosius. Subsequently he sometimes held imperial +commands, and sometimes led bands of marauders on his own account, but was +always in difficulty about his pay. Finally, in the revolution in which +Stilicho was murdered, a corps of auxiliaries mutinied and chose him their +general. Alleging that his arrears were unpaid, Alaric accepted the +command, and with this army sacked Rome. + +During the campaign the attitude of the Christians was more interesting +than the strategy of the soldiers. Alaric was a robber, leading mutineers, +and yet the orthodox historians did not condemn him. They did not condemn +him because the sacred class instinctively loved the barbarians whom they +could overawe, whereas they could make little impression on the +materialistic intellect of the old centralized society. Under the empire +the priests, like all other individuals, had to obey the power which paid +the police; and as long as a revenue could be drawn from the provinces, +the Christian hierarchy were subordinate to the monied bureaucracy who had +the means to coerce them. + +Yet only very slowly, as the empire disintegrated, did the theocratic idea +take shape. As late as the ninth century the pope prostrated himself +before Charlemagne, and did homage as to a Roman emperor. [Footnote: Perz, +_Annales Lauressenses_, I, 188.] + +Saint Benedict founded Monte Cassino in 529, but centuries elapsed before +the Benedictine order rose to power. The early convents were isolated and +feeble, and much at the mercy of the laity, who invaded and debauched +them. Abbots, like bishops, were often soldiers, who lived within the +walls with their wives and children, their hawks, their hounds, and their +men-at-arms; and it has been said that, in all France, Corbie and Fleury +alone kept always something of their early discipline. + +Only in the early years of the most lurid century of the Middle Ages, when +decentralization culminated, and the imagination began to gain its fullest +intensity, did the period of monastic consolidation open with the +foundation of Cluny. In 910 William of Aquitaine draw a charter [Footnote: +Bruel, _Recueil des Chartes de l'Abbaye de Cluny_, I, 124.] which, so +far as possible, provided for the complete independence of his new +corporation. There was no episcopal visitation, and no interference with +the election of the abbot. The monks were put directly under the +protection of the pope, who was made their sole superior. John XI +confirmed this charter by his bull of 932, and authorized the affiliation +of all converts who wished to share in the reform. [Footnote: _Bull. +Clun._ p. 2, col. 1. Also Luchaire, _Manuel des Institutions Francaises_, +93, 95, where the authorities are collected.] + +The growth of Cluny was marvellous; by the twelfth century two thousand +houses obeyed its rule, and its wealth was so great, and its buildings so +vast, that in 1245 Innocent IV, the Emperor Baldwin, and Saint Louis were +all lodged together within its walls, and with them all the attendant +trains of prelates and nobles with their servants. + +In the eleventh century no other force of equal energy existed. The monks +were the most opulent, the ablest, and the best organized society in +Europe, and their effect upon mankind was proportioned to their strength. +They intuitively sought autocratic power, and during the centuries when +nature favored them, they passed from triumph to triumph. They first +seized upon the papacy and made it self-perpetuating; they then gave +battle to the laity for the possession of the secular hierarchy, which had +been under temporal control since the very foundation of the Church. + +According to the picturesque legend, Bruno, Bishop of Toul, seduced by the +flattery of courtiers and the allurements of ambition, accepted the tiara +from the emperor, and set out upon his journey to Italy with a splendid +retinue, and with his robe and crown. On his way he turned aside at Cluny, +where Hildebrand was prior. Hildebrand, filled with the spirit of God, +reproached him with having seized upon the seat of the vicar of Christ by +force, and accepted the holy office from the sacrilegious hand of a +layman. He exhorted Bruno to cast away his pomp, and to cross the Alps +humbly as a pilgrim, assuring him that the priests and people of Rome +would recognize him as their bishop, and elect him according to canonical +forms. Then he would taste the joys of a pure conscience, having entered +the fold of Christ as a shepherd and not as a robber. Inspired by these +words, Bruno dismissed his train, and left the convent gate as a pilgrim. +He walked barefoot, and when after two months of pious meditations he +stood before Saint Peter's, he spoke to the people and told them it was +their privilege to elect the pope, and since he had come unwillingly he +would return again, were he not their choice. + +He was answered with acclamations, and on February 2, 1049, he was +enthroned as Leo IX. His first act was to make Hildebrand his minister. + +The legend tells of the triumph of Cluny as no historical facts could do. +Ten years later, in the reign of Nicholas II, the theocracy made itself +self-perpetuating through the assumption of the election of the pope by +the college of cardinals, and in 1073 Hildebrand, the incarnation of +monasticism, was crowned under the name of Gregory VII. + +With Hildebrand's election, war began. The Council of Rome, held in 1075, +decreed that holy orders should not be recognized where investiture had +been granted by a layman, and that princes guilty of conferring +investiture should be excommunicated. The Council of the next year, which +excommunicated the emperor, also enunciated the famous propositions of +Baronius--the full expression of the theocratic idea. The priest had grown +to be a god on earth. + +"So strong in this confidence, for the honour and defence of your Church, +on behalf of the omnipotent God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, +by your power and authority, I forbid the government of the German and +Italian kingdoms, to King Henry, the son of the Emperor Henry, who, with +unheard-of arrogance, has rebelled against your Church. I absolve all +Christians from the oaths they have made or may make to him, and I forbid +that any one should obey him as king." [Footnote: Migne, CXLVIII, 790.] + +Henry marched on Italy, but in all European history there has been no +drama more tremendous than the expiation of his sacrilege. To his soldiers +the world was a vast space, peopled by those fantastic beings which are +still seen on Gothic towers. These demons obeyed the monk of Rome, and his +army, melting from about the emperor under a nameless horror, left him +helpless. + +Gregory lay like a magician in the fortress of Canossa: but he had no need +of carnal weapons, for when the emperor reached the Alps he was almost +alone. Then his imagination also took fire, the panic seized him, and he +sued for mercy. + +On August 7, 1106, Henry died at Liege, an outcast and a mendicant, and +for five long years his body lay at the church door, an accursed thing +which no man dared to bury. + +Gregory prevailed because, to the understanding of the eleventh century, +the evidence at hand indicated that he embodied in a high degree the +infinite energy. The eleventh century was intensely imaginative and the +evidence which appealed to it was those phenomena of trance, hypnotism, +and catalepsy which are as mysterious now as they were then, but whose +effect was then to create an overpowering demand for miracle-working +substances. The sale of these substances gradually drew the larger portion +of the wealth of the community into the hands of the clergy, and with +wealth went temporal power. No vested interest in any progressive +community has probably ever been relatively stronger, for the Church found +no difficulty, when embarrassed, in establishing and operating a thorough +system for exterminating her critics. + +Under such a pressure modern civilization must have sunk into some form of +caste had the mediaeval mind resembled any antecedent mind, but the middle +age, though superficially imaginative, was fundamentally materialistic, as +the history of the crusades showed. + +At Canossa the laity conceded as a probable hypothesis that the Church +could miraculously control nature; but they insisted that if the Church +possessed such power, she must use that power for the common good. Upon +this point they would not compromise, nor would they permit delay. During +the chaos of the ninth century turmoil and violence reached a stage at +which the aspirations of most Christians ended with self-preservation; but +when the discovery and working of the Harz silver had brought with it some +semblance of order, an intense yearning possessed both men and women to +ameliorate their lot. If relics could give protection against oppression, +disease, famine, and death, then relics must be obtained, and, if the +cross and the tomb were the most effective relics, then the cross and the +tomb must be conquered at any cost. In the north of Europe especially, +misery was so acute that the people gladly left their homes upon the +slenderest promise of betterment, even following a vagrant like Peter the +Hermit, who was neither soldier nor priest. There is a passage in William +of Tyre which has been often quoted to explain a frenzy which is otherwise +inexplicable, and in the old English of Caxton the words still glow with +the same agony which makes lurid the supplication of the litany,--"From +battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord deliver us": + +"Of charyte men spack not, debates, discordes, and warres were nyhe +oueral, in suche wyse, that it seemed, that thende of the world was nyghe, +by the signes that our lord sayth in the gospell, ffor pestylences and +famynes were grete on therthe, ferdfulness of heuen, tremblyng of therthe +in many places, and many other thinges there were that ought to fere the +hertes of men.... + +"The prynces and the barons brente and destroyed the contrees of theyr +neyghbours, yf ony man had saved ony thynge in theyr kepyng, theyr owne +lordes toke them and put them in prison and in greuous tormentis, for to +take fro them suche as they had, in suche qyse that the chyldren of them +that had ben riche men, men myght see them goo fro dore to dore, for to +begge and gete theyr brede, and some deye for hungre and mesease." +[Footnote: Godeffroy of Bologne, by William, Archbishop of Tyre, +translated from the French by William Caxton, London, 1893, 21, 22.] + +Throughout the eleventh century the excitement touching the virtues of the +holy places in Judea grew, until Gregory VII, about the time of Canossa, +perceived that a paroxysm was at hand, and considered leading it, but on +the whole nothing is so suggestive of the latent scepticism of the age as +the irresolution of the popes at this supreme moment. The laity were the +pilgrims and the agitators. The kings sought the relics and took the +cross; the clergy hung back. Robert, Duke of Normandy, for example, the +father of William the Conqueror, died in 1035 from hardship at Nicaea when +returning from Palestine, absorbed to the last in the relics which he had +collected, but the popes stayed at home. Whatever they may have said in +private, neither Hildebrand nor Victor nor Urban moved officially until +they were swept forward by the torrent. They shunned responsibility for a +war which they would have passionately promoted had they been sure of +victory. The man who finally kindled the conflagration was a half-mad +fanatic, a stranger to the hierarchy. No one knew the family of Peter the +Hermit, or whence he came, but he certainly was not an ecclesiastic in +good standing. Inflamed by fasting and penance, Peter followed the throng +of pilgrims to Jerusalem, and there, wrought upon by what he saw, he +sought the patriarch. Peter asked the patriarch if nothing could be done +to protect the pilgrims, and to retrieve the Holy Places. The patriarch +replied, "Nothing, unless God will touch the heart of the western princes, +and will send them to succor the Holy City." The patriarch did not propose +meddling himself, nor did it occur to him that the pope should intervene. +He took a rationalistic view of the Moslem military power. Peter, on the +contrary, was logical, arguing from eleventh-century premises. If he could +but receive a divine mandate, he would raise an invincible army. He +prayed. His prayer was answered. One day while prostrated before the +sepulchre he heard Christ charge him to announce in Europe that the +appointed hour had come. Furnished with letters from the patriarch, Peter +straightway embarked for Rome to obtain Urban's sanction for his design. +Urban listened and gave a consent which he could not prudently have +withheld, but he abstained from participating in the propaganda. In March, +1095, Urban called a Council at Piacenza, nominally to consider the +deliverance of Jerusalem, and this Council was attended by thirty thousand +impatient laymen, only waiting for the word to take the vow, but the pope +did nothing. Even at Clermont eight months later, he showed a disposition +to deal with private war, or church discipline, or with anything in fact +rather than with the one engrossing question of the day, but this time +there was no escape. A vast multitude of determined men filled not only +Clermont but the adjacent towns and villages, even sleeping in the fields, +although the weather was bitterly cold, who demanded to know the policy of +the Church. Urban seems to have procrastinated as long as he safely could, +but, at length, at the tenth session, he produced Peter on the platform, +clad as a pilgrim, and, after Peter had spoken, he proclaimed the war. +Urban declined, however, to command the army. The only effective force +which marched was a body of laymen, organized and led by laymen, who in +1099 carried Jerusalem by an ordinary assault. In Jerusalem they found the +cross and the sepulchre, and with these relics as the foundation of their +power, the laity began an experiment which lasted eighty-eight years, +ending in 1187 with the battle of Tiberias. At Tiberias the infidels +defeated the Christians, captured their king and their cross, and shortly +afterward seized the tomb. + +If the eleventh-century mind had been as rigid as the Roman mind of the +first century, mediaeval civilization could hardly, after the collapse of +the crusades, have failed to degenerate as Roman civilization degenerated +after the defeat of Varus. Being more elastic, it began, under an +increased tension, to develop new phases of thought. The effort was indeed +prodigious and the absolute movement possibly slow, but a change of +intellectual attitude may be detected almost contemporaneously with the +fall of the Latin kingdom in Palestine. It is doubtless true that the +thirteenth century was the century in which imaginative thought reached +its highest brilliancy, when Albertus Magnus and Saint Thomas Aquinas +taught, when Saint Francis and Saint Clara lived, and when Thomas of +Celano wrote the _Dies Irae_. It was then that Gothic architecture touched +its climax in the cathedrals of Chartres and Amiens, of Bourges and of +Paris; it was then also that Blanche of Castile ruled in France and that +Saint Louis bought the crown of thorns, but it is equally true that the +death of Saint Louis occurred in 1270, shortly after the thorough +organization of the Inquisition by Innocent IV in 1252, and within two +years or so of the production by Roger Bacon of his _Opus Majus_. + +The establishment of the Inquisition is decisive, because it proves that +sceptical thought had been spread far enough to goad the Church to general +and systematic repression, while the _Opus Majus_ is a scientific +exposition of the method by which the sceptical mind is trained. + +Roger Bacon was born about 1214, and going early to Oxford fell under the +influence of the most liberal teachers in Europe, at whose head stood +Robert Grosseteste, afterward Bishop of Lincoln. Bacon conceived a +veneration for Grosseteste, and even for Adam de Marisco his disciple, and +turning toward mathematics rather than toward metaphysics he eagerly +applied himself, when he went to Paris, to astrology and alchemy, which +were the progenitors of the modern exact sciences. In the thirteenth +century a young man like Bacon could hardly stand alone, and Bacon joined +the Franciscans, but before many years elapsed he embroiled himself with +his superiors. His friend, Grosseteste, died in 1253, the year after +Innocent IV issued the bull _Ad extirpanda_ establishing the +Inquisition, and Bacon felt the consequences. The general of his order, +Saint Bonaventura, withdrew him from Oxford where he was prominent, and +immured him in a Parisian convent, treating him rigorously, as Bacon +intimated to Pope Clement IV. There he remained, silenced, for some ten +years, until the election of Clement IV, in 1265. Bacon at once wrote to +Clement complaining of his imprisonment, and deploring to the pope the +plight into which scientific education had fallen. The pope replied +directing Bacon to explain his views in a treatise, but did not order his +release. In response Bacon composed the _Opus Majus_. + +The _Opus Majus_ deals among other things with experimental science, +and in the introductory chapter to the sixth part Bacon stated the theory +of inductive thought quite as lucidly as did Francis Bacon three and a +half centuries later in the _Novum Organum_. [Footnote: Positis radicibus +sapientiae Latinorum penes Linguas et Mathematicam et Perspectivam, nunc +volo revolvere radices a parte Scientiae Experimentalis, quia sine +experientia nihil sufficienter scire protest. Duo enim simt modi +cognoscendi, scilicet per argumentum et experimentum. Argumentum concludit +et facit nos concedere conclusionem, sed non certificat neque removet +dubitationem ut quiescat animus in intuitu veritatis, nisi eam inveniat +via experientiae; quia multi habent argumenta ad scibilia, sed quia non +habent experientiam, negligunt ea, nee vitant nociva nex persequuntue +bona. J. H. Bridges, _The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon_ (Oxford, 1897), II, +167.] + +Clement died in 1268. The papacy remained vacant for a couple of years, +but in 1271 Gregory X came in on a conservative reaction. Bacon passed +most of the rest of his life in prison, perhaps through his own +ungovernable temper, and ostensibly his writings seem to have had little +or no effect on his contemporaries, yet it is certain that he was not an +isolated specimen of a type of intelligence which suddenly bloomed during +the Reformation. Bacon constantly spoke of his friends, but his friends +evidently did not share his temperament. The scientific man has seldom +relished martyrdom, and Galileo's experience as late as 1633 shows what +risks men of science ran who even indirectly attacked the vested interests +of the Church. After the middle of the thirteenth century the danger was +real enough to account for any degree of secretiveness, and a striking +case of this timidity is related by Bacon himself. No one knows even the +name of the man to whom Bacon referred as "Master Peter," but according to +Bacon, "Master Peter" was the greatest and most original genius of the +age, only he shunned publicity. The "Dominus experimentorum," as Bacon +called him, lived in a safe retreat and devoted himself to mathematics, +chemistry, and the mechanical arts with such success that, Bacon insisted, +he could by his inventions have aided Saint Louis in his crusade more than +his whole army. [Footnote: Emile Charles, _Roger Bacon. Sa vie et ses +ouvrages_, 17.] Nor is this assertion altogether fantastic. Bacon +understood the formula for gunpowder, and if Saint Louis had been provided +with even a poor explosive he might have taken Cairo; not to speak of the +terror which Greek fire always inspired. Saint Louis met his decisive +defeat in a naval battle fought in 1250, for the command of the Nile, by +which he drew supplies from Damietta, and he met it, according to Matthew +Paris, because his ships could not withstand Greek fire. Gunpowder, even +in a very simple form, might have changed the fate of the war. + +Scepticism touching the value of relics as a means for controlling nature +was an effect of experiment, and, logically enough, scepticism advanced +fastest among certain ecclesiastics who dealt in relics. For example, in +1248 Saint Louis undertook to invade Egypt in defence of the cross. +Possibly Saint Louis may have been affected by economic considerations +also touching the eastern trade, but his ostensible object was a crusade. +The risk was very great, the cost enormous, and the responsibility the +king assumed of the most serious kind. Nothing that he could do was left +undone to ensure success. In 1249 he captured Damietta, and then stood in +need of every pound of money and of every man that Christendom could +raise; yet at this crisis the Church thought chiefly of making what it +could in cash out of the war, the inference being that the hierarchy +suspected that even if Saint Louis prevailed and occupied Jerusalem, +little would be gained from an ecclesiastical standpoint. At all events, +Matthew Paris has left an account, in his chronicle of the year 1249, of +how the pope and the Franciscans preached this crusade, which is one of +the most suggestive passages in thirteenth-century literature: + +"About the same time, by command of the pope, whom they obeyed implicitly, +the Preacher and Minorite brethren diligently employed themselves in +preaching; and to increase the devotion of the Christians, they went with +great solemnity to the places where their preaching was previously +indicated, and granted many days of indulgence to those who came to hear +them.... Preaching on behalf of the cross, they bestowed that symbol on +people of every age, sex and rank, whatever their property or worth, and +even on sick men and women, and those who were deprived of strength by +sickness or old age; and on the next day, or even directly afterwards, +receiving it back from them, they absolved them from their vow of +pilgrimage, for whatever sum they could obtain for the favour. What seemed +unsuitable and absurd was, that not many days afterwards, Earl Richard +collected all this money in his treasury, by the agency of Master Bernard, +an Italian clerk, who gathered in the fruit; whereby no slight scandal +arose in the Church of God, and amongst the people in general, and the +devotion of the faithful evidently cooled." [Footnote: Matthew Paris, +_English History_, translated by the Rev. J. A, Giles, II, 309.] + +When the unfortunate Baldwin II became Emperor of the East in 1237, the +relics of the passion were his best asset. In 1238, while Baldwin was in +France trying to obtain aid, the French barons who carried on the +government at Constantinople in his absence were obliged to pledge the +crown of thorns to an Italian syndicate for 13,134 perpera, which Gibbon +conjectures to have been besants. Baldwin was notified of the pledge and +urged to arrange for its redemption. He met with no difficulty. He +confidently addressed himself to Saint Louis and Queen Blanche, and +"Although the king felt keen displeasure at the deplorable condition of +Constantinople, he was well pleased, nevertheless, with the opportunity of +adorning France with the richest and most precious treasure in all +Christendom." More especially with "a relic, and a sacred object which was +not on the commercial market." [Footnote: Du Cange, _Histoire de L'empire +de Constantinople sous les empereurs Francais_, edition de Buchon, I, +259.] + +Louis, beside paying the loan and the cost of transportation which came to +two thousand French pounds (the mark being then coined into L2, 15 sous +and 6 pence), made Baldwin a present of ten thousand pounds for acting as +broker. Baldwin was so well contented with this sale which he closed in +1239, that a couple of years later he sent to Paris all the contents of +his private chapel which had any value. Part of the treasure was a +fragment of what purported to be the cross, but the authenticity of this +relic was doubtful; there was beside, however, the baby linen, the spear- +head, the sponge, and the chain, beside several miscellaneous articles +like the rod of Moses. + +Louis built the Sainte Chapelle at a cost of twenty thousand marks as a +shrine in which to deposit them. The Sainte Chapelle has usually ranked as +the most absolutely perfect specimen of mediaeval religious architecture. +[Footnote: On this whole subject of the inter-relation of mediaeval +theology with architecture and philosophy the reader is referred to +_Mont-Saint-Michel et Chartres_, by Henry Adams, which is the most +philosophical and thorough exposition of this subject which ever has been +attempted.] + +When Saint Louis bought the Crown of Thorns from Baldwin in 1239, the +commercial value of relics may, possibly, be said to have touched its +highest point, but, in fact, the adoration of them had culminated with the +collapse of the Second Crusade, and in another century and a half the +market had decisively broken and the Reformation had already begun, with +the advent of Wycliffe and the outbreak of Wat Tyler's Rebellion in 1381. +For these social movements have always a common cause and reach a +predetermined result. + +In the eleventh century the convent of Cluny, for example, had an enormous +and a perfectly justified hold upon the popular imagination, because of +the sanctity and unselfishness of its abbots. Saint Hugh won his sainthood +by a self-denial and effort which were impossible to ordinary men, but +with Louis IX the penitential life had already lost its attractions and +men like Arnold rapidly brought religion and religious thought into +contempt. The famous Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, born, probably, in +1175, died in 1253. He presided over the diocese of Lincoln at the precise +moment when Saint Louis was building the Sainte Chapelle, but Grosseteste +in 1250 denounced in a sermon at Lyons the scandals of the papal court +with a ferocity which hardly was surpassed at any later day. + +To attempt even an abstract of the thought of the English Reformation +would lead too far, however fascinating the subject might be. It must +suffice to say briefly that theology had little or nothing to do with it. +Wycliffe denounced the friars as lazy, profligate impostors, who wrung +money from the poor which they afterwards squandered in ways offensive to +God, and he would have stultified himself had he admitted, in the same +breath, that these reprobates, when united, formed a divinely illuminated +corporation, each member of which could and did work innumerable miracles +through the interposition of Christ. Ordinary miracles, indeed, could be +tested by the senses, but the essence of transubstantiation was that it +eluded the senses. Thus nothing could be more convenient to the government +than to make this invisible and intangible necromancy a test in capital +cases for heresy-Hence Wycliffe had no alternative but to deny +transubstantiation, for nothing could be more insulting to the +intelligence than to adore a morsel of bread which a priest held in his +hand. The pretension of the priests to make the flesh of Christ was, +according to Wycliffe, an impudent fraud, and their pretension to possess +this power was only an excuse by which they enforced their claim to +collect fees, and what amounted to extortionate taxes, from the people. +[Footnote: Nowhere, perhaps, does Wycliffe express himself more strongly +on this subject than in a little tract called _The Wicket_, written +in English, which he issued for popular consumption about this time.] But, +in the main, no dogma, however incomprehensible, ever troubled +Protestants, as a class. They easily accepted the Trinity, the double +procession, or the Holy Ghost itself, though no one had the slightest +notion what the Holy Ghost might be. Wycliffe roundly declared in the +first paragraph of his confession [Footnote: Fasciculi Zizaniorum, 115.] +that the body of Christ which was crucified was truly and really in the +consecrated host, and Huss, who inherited the Wycliffian tradition, +answered before the Council of Constance, "Verily, I do think that the +body of Christ is really and totally in the sacrament of the altar, which +was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, died, and rose again, and sitteth +on the right hand of God the Father Almighty." [Footnote: Foxe, _Acts +and Monuments_, III, 452.] That which has rent society in twain and has +caused blood to flow like water, has never been abstract opinions, but +that economic competition either between states or classes, that lust for +power and wealth, which makes a vested interest. Thus by 1382 the +eucharist had come to represent to the privileged classes power and +wealth, and they would have repudiated Wycliffe even had they felt strong +enough to support him. But they were threatened by an adversary equally +formidable with heresy in the person of the villeins whom the constantly +increasing momentum of the time had raised into a position in which they +undertook to compete for the ownership of the land which they still tilled +as technical serfs. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Now the courts may say what they will in support of the vested interests, +for to support vested interests is what lawyers are paid for and what +courts are made for. Only, unhappily, in the process of argument courts +and lawyers have caused blood to flow copiously, for in spite of all that +can be said to the contrary, men have practically proved that they do own +all the property they can defend, all the courts in Christendom +notwithstanding, and this is an issue of physical force and not at all of +words or of parchments. And so it proved to be in England in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, alike in Church and State. It was a +matter of rather slow development. After the conquest villeins could +neither in fact nor theory acquire or hold property as against their lord, +and the class of landlords stretched upwards from the owner of a knight's +fee to the king on his throne, who was the chief landlord of all, but by +so narrow a margin that he often had enough to do to maintain some vestige +of sovereignty. So, to help himself, it came to pass that the king +intrigued with the serfs against their restive masters, and the abler the +king, the more he intrigued, like Henry I, until the villeins gained very +substantial advantages. Thus it was that toward 1215, or pretty nearly +contemporaneously with the epoch when men like Grosseteste began to show +restlessness under the extortionate corruption of the Church, the villein +was discovered to be able to defend his claim to some portion of the +increment in the value of the land which he tilled and which was due to +his labor: and this title the manorial courts recognized, because they +could not help it, as a sort of tenant right, calling it a customary +tenancy by base service. A century later these services in kind had been +pretty frequently commuted into a fixed rent paid in money, and the serf +had become a freeman, and a rather formidable freeman, too. For it was +largely from among these technical serfs that Edward III recruited the +infantry who formed his line at Crecy in 1346, and the archers of Crecy +were not exactly the sort of men who take kindly to eviction, to say +nothing of slavery. As no one meddled much with the villeins before 1349, +all went well until after Crecy, but in 1348 the Black Death ravaged +England, and so many laborers died that the cost of farming property by +hired hands exceeded the value of the rent which the villeins paid. Then +the landlords, under the usual reactionary and dangerous legal advice, +tried coercion. Their first experiment was the famous Statute of Laborers, +which fixed wages at the rates which prevailed in 1347, but as this +statute accomplished nothing the landlords repudiated their contracts, and +undertook to force their villeins to render their ancient customary +services. Though the lay landlords were often hard masters, the +ecclesiastics, especially the monks, were harder still, and the +ecclesiastics were served by lawyers of their own cloth, whose sharp +practice became proverbial. Thus the law declined to recognize rights in +property existing in fact, with the inevitable result of the peasant +rising in 1381, known as Wat Tyler's Rebellion. Popular rage perfectly +logically ran highest against the monks and the lawyers. Both the +Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon de Sudbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the +Chief Justice were killed, and the insurgents wished to kill, as Capgrave +has related, "all the men that had learned ony law." Finally the rebellion +was suppressed, chiefly by the duplicity of Richard II. Richard promised +the people, by written charters, a permanent tenure as freemen at +reasonable rents, and so induced them to go home with his charters in +their hands; but they were no sooner gone than vengeance began. Though +Richard had been at the peasants' mercy, who might have killed him had +they wished, punitive expeditions were sent in various directions. One was +led by Richard himself, who travelled with Tresilian, the new Chief +Justice, the man who afterward was himself hanged at Tyburn. Tresilian +worked so well that he is said to have strung up a dozen villeins to a +single beam in Chelmsford because he had no time to have them executed +regularly. Stubbs has estimated that seven thousand victims hardly +satisfied the landlords' sense of outraged justice. What concerns us, +chiefly, is that this repression, however savage, failed altogether to +bring tranquillity. After 1381 a full century of social chaos supervened, +merging at times into actual civil war, until, in 1485, Henry Tudor came +in after his victory at Bosworth, pledged to destroy the whole reactionary +class which incarnated feudalism. For the feudal soldier was neither +flexible nor astute, and allowed himself to be caught between the upper +and the nether millstone. While industrial and commercial capital had been +increasing in the towns, capitalistic methods of farming had invaded the +country, and, as police improved, private and predatory warfare, as a +business, could no longer be made to pay. The importance of a feudal noble +lay in the body of retainers who followed his banner, and therefore the +feudal tendency always was to overcharge the estate with military +expenditure. Hence, to protect themselves from creditors, the landlords +passed the Statute _De Donis_ [Footnote: 13 Edw. I, c. I (A.D. +1284).] which made entails inalienable. Toward the end of the Wars of the +Roses, however, the pressure for money, which could only be raised by +pledging their land, became too strong for the feudal aristocracy. Edward +IV, who was a very able man, perceived, pretty early in his reign, that +his class could not maintain themselves unless their land were put upon a +commercial basis. Therefore he encouraged the judges, in the collusive +litigation known to us as Taltarum's Case, decided in 1472, to set aside +the Statute _De Donis_, by the fiction of the Common Recovery. The +concession, even so, came too late. The combination against them had grown +too strong for the soldiers to resist. Other classes evolved by +competition wanted their property, and these made Henry Tudor king of +England to seize it for them. + +Henry's work was simple enough. After Bosworth, with a competent police +force at hand to execute process, he had only to organize a political +court, and to ruin by confiscatory fines all the families strong enough, +or rash enough, to maintain garrisoned houses. So Henry remodelled the +Star Chamber, in 1486, [Footnote: 3 Henry 7, C 1.] to deal with the +martial gentry, and before long a new type of intelligence possessed the +kingdom. + +The feudal soldiers being disposed of, it remained to evict the monks, who +were thus left without their natural defenders. No matter of faith was +involved. Henry VIII boasted that in doctrine he was as orthodox as the +pope. There was, however, an enormous monastic landed property to be +redistributed This was confiscated, and appropriated, not to public +purposes, but, as usually happens in revolutions, to the use of the +astutest of the revolutionists. Among these, John Russell, afterward Earl +of Bedford, stood preeminent. Russell had no particular pedigree or +genius, save the acquisitive genius, but he made himself useful to Henry +in such judicial murders as that of Richard Whiting, Abbot of Glastonbury. +He received in payment, among much else, Woburn Abbey, which has since +remained the Bedford country seat, and Covent Garden or Convent Garden, +one of the most valuable parcels of real estate in London. Covent Garden +the present duke recently sold, anticipating, perhaps, some such +legislation as ruined the monks and made his ancestor's fortune. As for +the monks whom Henry evicted, they wandered forth from their homes +beggars, and Henry hanged all of them whom he could catch as vagrants. How +many perished as counterpoise for the peasant massacres and Lollard +burnings of the foregoing two centuries can never be known, nor to us is +it material. What is essential to mark, from the legal standpoint, is that +while this long and bloody revolution, of one hundred and fifty years, +displaced a favored class and confiscated its property, it raised up in +their stead another class of land monopolists, rather more greedy and +certainly quite as cruel as those whom they superseded. Also, in spite of +all opposition, labor did make good its claim to participate more or less +fully in the ownership of the property it cultivated, for while the +holding of the ancient villein grew to be well recognized in the royal +courts as a copyhold estate, villeinage itself disappeared. + +Yet, unless I profoundly err, in the revolution of the sixteenth century, +the law somewhat conspicuously failed in its function of moderating +competition, for I am persuaded that competition of another kind +sharpened, and shortly caused a second civil war bloodier than the Wars of +the Roses. + +Fifteen years before the convents were seized, Sir Thomas More wrote +_Utopia_, in whose opening chapter More has given an account of a +dinner at Cardinal Morton's, who, by the way, presided in the Star +Chamber. At this dinner one of the cardinal's guests reflected on the +thievish propensities of Englishmen, who were to be found throughout the +country hanged as felons, sometimes twenty together on a single gallows. +More protested that this was not the fault of the poor who were hanged, +but of rich land monopolists, who pastured sheep and left no fields for +tillage. According to More, these capitalists plucked down houses and even +towns, leaving nothing but the church for a sheep-house, so that "by covin +and fraud, or by violent oppression, ... or by wrongs and injuries," the +husbandmen "be thrust out of their own," and, "must needs depart away, +poor, wretched souls, men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless children, +widows." The dissolution of the convents accelerated the process, and more +and more of the weaker yeomanry were ruined and evicted. It is +demonstrated that the pauperization of the feebler rural population went +on apace by the passage of poor-laws under Elizabeth, which, in the Middle +Ages, had not been needed and, therefore, were unknown. This movement, +described by More, was the beginning of the system of enclosing common +lands which afterward wrought havoc among the English yeomen, and which, I +suppose, contributed more than any other single cause to the Great +Rebellion of the seventeenth century. In the mediaeval village the owners +of small farms enjoyed certain rights in the common land of the community, +affording them pasturage for their cattle and the like, rights without +which small farming could not be made profitable. These commons the land +monopolists appropriated, sometimes giving some shadow of compensation, +sometimes by undisguised force, but on the whole compensation amounted to +so little that the enclosure of the commons must rank as confiscation. +Also this seizure of property would doubtless have caused a convulsion as +lasting as that which followed the insurrection of 1381, or as did +actually occur in Ireland, had it not been for an unparalleled +contemporaneous territorial and industrial expansion. Thorold Rogers +always insisted that between 1563, the year of the passage of the Statute +of Apprentices, [Footnote: 5 Eliz. c. 4.] and 1824, a regular conspiracy +existed between the lawyers "and the parties interested in its success ... +to cheat the English workman of his wages, ... and to degrade him to +irremediable poverty." [Footnote: _Work and Wages_, 398.] Certainly +the land monopolists resorted to strong measures to accumulate land, for +something like six hundred and fifty Enclosure Acts were passed between +1760, the opening of the Industrial Revolution, and 1774, the outbreak of +the American War. But without insisting on Rogers's view, it is not denied +that the weakest of the small yeomen sank into utter misery, becoming +paupers or worse. On the other hand, of those stronger some emigrated to +America, others, who were among the ablest and the boldest, sought fortune +as adventurers over the whole earth, and, like the grandfather of Chatham, +brought home from India as smugglers or even as pirates, diamonds to be +sold to kings for their crowns, or, like Clive, became the greatest +generals and administrators of the nation. Probably, however, by far the +majority of those who were of average capacity found compensation for the +confiscated commons in domestic industry, owning their houses with lots of +land and the tools of their trade. Defoe has left a charming description +of the region about Halifax in Yorkshire, toward the year 1730, where he +found the whole population busy, prosperous, healthy, and, in the main, +self-sufficing. He did not see a beggar or an idle person in the whole +country. So, favored by circumstances, the landed oligarchy met with no +effective resistance after the death of Cromwell, and achieved what +amounted to being autocratic power in 1688. Their great triumph was the +conversion of the House of Commons into their own personal property, about +the beginning of the eighteenth century, with all the guaranties of law. +In the Middle Ages the chief towns of England had been summoned by the +king to send burgesses to Westminster to grant him money, but as time +elapsed the Commons acquired influence and, in 1642, became dominant. +Then, after the Restoration, the landlords conceived the idea of +appropriating the right of representation, as they had appropriated and +were appropriating the common lands. Lord John Russell one day observed in +the House of Commons that the burgesses were originally chosen from among +the inhabitants of the towns they represented, but that, in the reign of +Anne, the landlords, to depress the shipping interest, opened the borough +representation to all qualified persons without regard to domicile. +[Footnote: 36 Hansard, Third Series, 548.] Lord John was mistaken in his +date, for the change occurred earlier, but he described correctly enough +the persistent animus of the landlords. An important part of their policy +turned on the so-called Determination Acts of 1696 and 1729, which defined +the franchises and which had the effect of confirming the titles of +patrons to borough property, [Footnote: Porritt, _Unreformed House of +Commons_, I, 9, _et seq._] thus making a seat in the House of +Commons an incorporeal hereditament fully recognized by law. On this point +so high an authority as Lord Eldon was emphatic. [Footnote: 12 Hansard, +Third Series, 396.] By the time of the American War the oligarchy had +become so narrow that one hundred and fifty-four peers and commoners +returned three hundred and seven members, or much more than a majority of +the House as then organized. [Footnote: Grey's motion for Reform, 30 +_Parl. Hist._ 795 (A.D. 1793)] With the privileged class reduced to +these contemptible numbers a catastrophe necessarily followed. Almost +impregnable as the position of the oligarchy appeared, it yet had its +vulnerable point. As Burke told the Duke of Portland, a duke's power did +not come from his title, but from his wealth, and the landlords' wealth +rested on their ability to draw a double rent from their estates, one rent +for themselves, and another to provide for the farmer to whom they let +their acres. Evidently British land could not bear this burden if brought +in competition with other equally good land that paid only a single rent, +and from a pretty early period the landlords appear to have been alive to +this fact. Nevertheless, ocean freights afforded a fair protection, and as +long as the industrial population remained tolerably self-supporting, +England rather tended to export than to import grain. But toward 1760 +advances in applied science profoundly modified the equilibrium of English +society. The new inventions, stimulated by steam, could only be utilized +by costly machinery installed in large factories, which none but +considerable capitalists could build, but once in operation the product of +these factories undersold domestic labor, and ruined and evicted the +population of whole regions like Halifax. These unfortunate laborers were +thrust in abject destitution into filthy and dark alleys in cities, where +they herded in masses, in misery and crime. In consequence grain rose in +value, so much so that in 1766 prayers were offered touching its price. +Thenceforward England imported largely from America, and in 1773 +Parliament was constrained to reduce the duty on wheat to a point lower +than the gentry conceded again, until the total repeal of the Corn Laws in +1846. [Footnote: John Morley, _The Life of Richard Cobden_, 167, note +5.] The situation was well understood in London. Burke, Governor Pownall, +and others explained it in Parliament, while Chatham implored the +landlords not to alienate America, which they could not, he told them, +conquer, but which gave them a necessary market,--a market as he aptly +said, both of supply and demand. And Chatham was right, for America not +only supplied the grain to feed English labor, but bought from England at +least one third of all her surplus manufactures. + +This brings us to the eighteenth century, which directly concerns us, +because the religious superstition, which had previously caused men to +seek in a conscious supreme energy the effective motor in human affairs, +had waned, and the problem presented was reduced to the operation of that +acceleration of movement by the progress of applied science which always +has been, and always must be, the prime cause of the quickening of +economic competition either as between communities or as between +individuals. And this is the capital phenomenon of civilization. For it is +now generally admitted that war is nothing but economic competition in its +acutest form. When competition reaches a certain intensity it kindles into +war or revolution, precisely as when iron is raised to a certain heat it +kindles into flame. And, for the purposes of illustration, possibly the +best method of showing how competition was quickened, and how it affected +adjacent communities during the eighteenth century, is to take navigation, +not only because navigation was much improved during the first three +quarters of that period, but because both England and France competed for +control in America by means of ships. It suffices to mention, very +succinctly, a few of the more salient advances which were then made. + +Toward 1761 John Harrison produced the chronometer, by which longitude +could be determined at sea, making the ship independent in all parts of +the world. At the same time more ingenious rigging increased her power of +working to windward. With such advantages Captain Cook became a mighty +discoverer both in the southern and western oceans, charted New Zealand +and much else, and more important than all, in 1759 he surveyed the Saint +Lawrence and piloted ships up the river, of which he had established the +channel. Speaking of Cook naturally leads to the solution of the problem +of the transportation of men, sailors, soldiers, and emigrants, on long +voyages, thereby making population fluid. Cook, in his famous report, read +before the Royal Society in March, 1776, after his second voyage, +established forever the hygienic principles by observing which a ship's +company may safely be kept at sea for any length of time. Previously there +had always been a very high mortality from scurvy and kindred diseases, +which had, of course, operated as a very serious check to human movement. +On land the same class of phenomena were even more marked. In England the +Industrial Revolution is usually held to date from 1760, and, by common +consent, the Industrial Revolution is attributed altogether to applied +science, or, in other words, to mechanical inventions. In 1760 the flying- +shuttle appeared, and coal began to replace wood for smelting. In 1764 +Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny; in 1779 Crompton contrived the +mule; and in 1768 Watt brought the steam-engine to maturity. In 1761 the +first boat-load of coals sailed over the Barton viaduct, which James +Brindley built for the Duke of Bridgewater's canal, to connect Worsley +with Manchester, thus laying the foundation of British inland navigation, +which before the end of the century had covered England; while John +Metcalf, the blind road-builder, began his lifework in 1765. He was +destined to improve English highways, which up to that time had been +mostly impossible for wheeled traffic. In France the same advance went on. +Arthur Young described the impression made on him in 1789 by the +magnificence of the French roads which had been built since the +administration of Colbert, as well as by the canal which connected the +Mediterranean with the Atlantic. + +In the midst of this activity Washington grew up. Washington was a born +soldier, engineer, and surveyor with the topographical instinct peculiar +to that temperament. As early as 1748 he was chosen by Lord Fairfax, who +recognized his ability, though only sixteen years old, to survey his vast +estate west of the Blue Ridge, which was then a wilderness. He spent three +years in this work and did it well. In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie sent +Washington on a mission to the French commander on the Ohio, to warn him +to cease trespassing on English territory, a mission which Washington +fulfilled, under considerable hardship and some peril, with eminent +success. Thus early, for he was then only twenty-two, Washington gained +that thorough understanding of the North American river system which +enabled him, many years afterward, to construct the Republic of the United +States upon the lines of least resistant intercommunication. And +Washington's conception of the problem and his solution thereof were, in +substance, this: + +The American continent, west of the mountains and south of the Great +Lakes, is traversed in all directions by the Mississippi and its +tributaries, but we may confine our attention to two systems of +watercourses, the one to the west, forming by the Wisconsin and the main +arm of the Mississippi, a thoroughfare from Lake Michigan to the Gulf; and +the other by French Creek and the Allegheny, broken only by one easy +portage, affording a perfect means of access to the Ohio, a river which +has always operated as the line of cleavage between our northern and +southern States. The French starting from Quebec floated from Lake Erie +down the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, the English ascended the Potomac to +Cumberland, and thence, following the most practicable watercourses, +advanced on the French position at the junction of the Allegheny and the +Monongahela. There Washington met and fought them in 1754, and ever after +Washington maintained that the only method by which a stable union among +the colonies could be secured was by a main trunk system of transportation +along the line of the Ohio and the Potomac. This was to be his canal which +should bind north and south, east and west, together by a common interest, +and which should carry the produce of the west, north, and south, to the +Atlantic coast, where it should be discharged at the head of deep-water +navigation, and which should thus stimulate industry adjacent to the spot +he chose for the Federal City, or, in our language, for the City of +Washington. Thus the capital of the United States was to become the +capital of a true nation, not as a political compromise, but because it +lay at the central point of a community made cohesive by a social +circulation which should build it up, in his own words, into a capital, or +national heart, if not "as large as London, yet of a magnitude inferior to +few others in Europe." [Footnote: Washington to Mrs. Fairfax, 16 May, +1798; Sparks, xi, 233.] Maryland and Virginia abounded, as Washington well +knew, in coal and iron. His canal passing through this region would +stimulate industry, and these States would thus become the focus of +exchanges. Manufacturing is incompatible with slavery, hence slavery would +gradually and peacefully disappear, and the extremities of the Union would +be drawn together at what he described as "the great emporium of the +United States." To crown all, a national university was to make this +emporium powerful in collective thought. + +Doubtless Grenville and Townshend had not considered the American problem +as maturely as had Washington, but nevertheless, most well-informed +persons now agree that Englishmen in 1763 were quite alive to the +advantages which would accrue to Great Britain, by holding in absolute +control a rich but incoherent body of colonies whose administrative centre +lay in England, and were as anxious that London should serve as the heart +of America as Washington was that America should have its heart on the +Potomac. + +Accordingly, England attempted to isolate Massachusetts and pressed an +attack on her with energy, before the whole thirteen colonies should be +able to draw to a unity. On the other hand, Washington, and most sensible +Americans, resisted this attack as resolutely as might be under such +disadvantages, not wishing for independence, but hoping for some +compromise like that which Great Britain has since effected with her +remaining colonies. The situation, however, admitted of no peaceful +adjustment, chiefly because the imbecility of American administration +induced by her incapacity for collective thought, was so manifest, that +Englishmen could not believe that such a society could wage a successful +war. Nor could America have done so alone. She owed her ultimate victory +altogether to Washington and France. + +It would occupy too much space for me to undertake to analyze, even +superficially, the process by which, after the Seven Years' War, +competition between America and England reached an intensity which kindled +the American Revolution, but, shortly stated, the economic tension arose +thus: As England was then organized, the estates of the English landlords +had to pay two rents, one to the landlord himself, the other to the farmer +who leased his land, and this it could not do were it brought into direct +competition with equally good land which paid but one profit, and which +was not burdened by an excessive cost of transportation in reaching its +market. As freights between England and America fell because of improved +shipping and the greater safety of the seas, England had to have +protection for her food and she proposed to get it thus: If competing +Continental exports could be excluded from America, and, at the same time, +Americans could be prevented from manufacturing for themselves, the +colonists might be constrained to take what they needed from England, at +prices which would enable labor to buy food at a rate which would yield +the double profit, and thus America could be made to pay the cost of +supporting the landlords. As Cobden afterward observed, the fortunes of +England have turned on American competition. A part of these fortunes were +represented by the Parliamentary boroughs which the landlords owned and +which were confiscated by the Reform Bill, and these boroughs were held by +Lord Eldon to be incorporeal hereditaments: as truly a part of the private +property of the gentry who owned them as church advowsons, or the like. +And the gentry held to their law-making power which gave them such a +privilege with a tenacity which precipitated two wars before they yielded; +but this was naught compared to the social convulsion which rent France, +when a population which had been for centuries restrained from free +domestic movement, burst its bonds and insisted on levelling the barriers +which had immobilized it. + +The story of the French Revolution is too familiar to need recapitulation +here: indeed, I have already dealt with it in my _Social Revolutions_; but +the effects of that convulsion are only now beginning to appear, and these +effects, without the shadow of a doubt, have been in their ultimate +development the occasion of that great war whose conclusion we still +await. + +France, in 1792, having passed into a revolution which threatened the +vested interests of Prussia, was attacked by Prussia, who was defeated at +Valmy. Presently, France retaliated, under Napoleon, invaded Prussia, +crushed her army at Jena, in 1807, dismembered the kingdom and imposed on +her many hardships. To obtain their freedom the Prussians found it needful +to reorganize their social system from top to bottom, for this social +system had descended from Frederic William, the Great Elector of +Brandenburg (1640-1688), and from Frederic the Great (1740-1786), and was +effete and incapable of meeting the French onset, which amounted, in +substance, to a quickened competition. Accordingly, the new Prussian +constitution, conceived by Stein, put the community upon a relatively +democratic and highly developed educational basis. By the Emancipating +Edict of 1807, the peasantry came into possession of their land, while, +chiefly through the impulsion of Scharnhorst, who was the first chief of +staff of the modern army, the country adopted universal military service, +which proved to be popular throughout all ranks. Previous to Scharnhorst, +under Frederic the Great, the qualification of an officer had been birth. +Scharnhorst defined it as education, gallantry, and intelligence. +Similarly, Gneisenau's conception of a possible Prussian supremacy lay in +its army, its science, and its administration. But the civil service was +intended to incarnate science, and was the product of the modernized +university, exemplified in the University of Berlin organized by William +von Humboldt. Herein lay the initial advantage which Germany gained over +England, an advantage which she long maintained. And the advantage lay in +this: Germany conceived a system of technical education matured and put in +operation by the State. Hence, so far as in human affairs such things are +possible, the intelligence of Germans was liberated from the incubus of +vested interests, who always seek to use education to advance themselves. +It was so in England. The English entrusted education to the Church, and +the Church was, by the necessity of its being, reactionary and hostile to +science, whereas the army, in the main, was treated in England as a social +function, and the officers, speaking generally, were not technically +specially educated at all. Hence, in foreign countries, but especially in +Germany which was destined to be ultimately England's great competitor, +England laid herself open to rather more than a suspicion of weakness, and +indeed, when it came to a test, England found herself standing, for +several years of war, at a considerable disadvantage because of the lack +of education in those departments wherein Germany had, by the attack of +France, been forced to make herself proficient. This any one may see for +himself by reading the addresses of Fichte to the German nation, delivered +in 1807 and 1808, when Berlin was still occupied by the French. In fine, +it was with Prussia a question of competition, brought to its ultimate +tension by war. Prussia had no alternative as a conquered land but to +radically accelerate her momentum, or perish. And so, at the present day, +it may not improbably be with us. Competition must grow intenser. + +With England the situation in 1800 was very different. It was less +strenuous. Nothing is more notable in England than to observe how, after +the Industrial Revolution began, there was practically no means by which a +poor man could get an education, save by educating himself. For instance, +in February 1815, four months before Waterloo, George Stephenson took out +a patent for the locomotive engine which was to revolutionize the world. +But George Stephenson was a common laborer in the mines, who had no state +instruction available, nor had he even any private institution at hand in +which the workmen whom he employed in practical construction could be +taught. He and his son Robert, had to organize instruction for themselves +and their employees independently. So it was even with a man like Faraday, +who began life as an errand boy, and later on who actually went abroad as +a sort of valet to Sir Humphry Davy. Davy himself was a self-made man. In +short, England, as a community, did little or nothing by education for +those who had no means, and but little to draw any one toward science. It +was at this precise moment that Germany was cast into the furnace of +modern competition with England, who had, because of a series of causes, +chiefly geographical, topographical, and mineralogical, about a century +the start of her. Against this advantage Germany had to rely exclusively +upon civil and military education. At first this competition by Germany +took a military complexion, and very rapidly wrought the complete +consolidation of Germany by the Austrian and the French wars. But this +phase presently passed, and after the French campaign of 1870 the purely +economic aspect of the situation developed more strenuously still, so much +so that intelligent observers, among whom Lord Roberts was conspicuous, +perceived quite early in the present century that the heat generated in +the conflict must, probably, soon engender war. Nor could it either +theoretically or practically have been otherwise, for the relations +between the two countries had reached a point where they generated a +friction which caused incandescence automatically. And, moreover, the +inflammable material fit for combustion was, especially in Germany, +present in quantity. From the time of Fichte and Scharnhorst downward to +the end of the century, the whole nation had learned, as a sort of gospel, +that the German education produced a most superior engine of economic +competition, whereas the slack education and frivolous amusements of +English civil and military life alike, had gradually created a society apt +to crumble. And it is only needful for any person who has the curiosity, +to glance at the light literature of the Victorian age, which deals with +the army, to see how dominant a part such an amusement as hunting played +in the life of the younger officers, especially in the fashionable +regiments, to be impressed with the soundness of much of this German +criticism. + +Assuming, then, for the sake of argument, that these historical premises +are sound, I proceed to consider how they bear on our prospective +civilization. + +This is eminently a scientific age, and yet the scientific mind, as it is +now produced among us, is not without tendencies calculated to cause +uneasiness to those a little conversant with history or philosophy. For +whereas no one in these days would dream of utilizing prayer, as did Moses +or Saint Hugh, as a mechanical energy, nevertheless the search for a +universal prime motor goes on unabated, and yet it accomplishes nothing to +the purpose. On the contrary, the effect is one which could neither be +expected nor desired. Instead of being an aid to social coordination, it +stimulates disintegration to a high degree as the war has shown. It has +stimulated disintegration in two ways. First, it has enormously quickened +physical movement, which has already been discussed, and secondly, it has +stimulated the rapidity with which thought is diffused. The average human +being can only absorb and assimilate safely new forms of thought when +given enough time for digestion, as if he were assimilating food. If he be +plied with new thought too rapidly he fails to digest. He has a surfeit, +serious in proportion to its enormity. That is to say, his power of +drawing correct conclusions from the premises submitted to him fails, and +we have all sorts of crude experiments in sociology attempted, which end +in that form of chaos which we call a violent revolution. The ordinary +result is infinite waste fomented by fallacious hopes; in a word, +financial disaster, supplemented usually by loss of life. The experience +is an old one, and the result is almost invariable. + +For example, during the Middle Ages, men like Saint Hugh and Peter the +Venerable, and, most of all, Saint Francis, possessed by dreams of +attaining to perfection, by leading lives of inimitable purity, self- +devotion, and asceticism, inspired the community about them with the +conviction that they could work miracles. They thereby, as a reward, drew +to the Church they served what amounted to being, considering the age they +lived in, boundless wealth. But the effect of this economic phenomenon was +far from what they had hoped or expected. Instead of raising the moral +standard of men to a point where all the world would be improved, they so +debased the hierarchy, by making money the standard of ambition within it, +that, as a whole, the priesthood accepted, without any effective protest, +the fires of the Council of Constance which consumed Huss, and the +abominations of the Borgias at Rome. Perfectly logically, as a corollary +to this orgy of crime and bestiality, the wars of the Reformation swept +away many, many thousands of human beings, wasted half of Europe, and only +served to demonstrate the futility of ideals. + +And so it was with the Puritans, who were themselves the children of the +revolt against social corruption. They fondly believed that a new era was +to be ushered in by the rule of the Cromwellian saints. What the +Cromwellian saints did in truth usher in, was the carnival of debauchery +of Charles II, in its turn to be succeeded by the capitalistic competitive +age which we have known, and which has abutted in the recent war. + +Man can never hope to change his physical necessities, and therefore his +moral nature must always remain the same in essence, if not in form. As +Washington truly said, "The motives which predominate most in human +affairs are self-love and self-interest," and "nothing binds one country +or one state to another but interest." + +If, then, it be true, that man is an automatic animal moving always along +the paths of least resistance toward predetermined ends, it cannot fail to +be useful to us in the present emergency to mark, as distinctly as we can, +the causes which impelled Germany, at a certain point in her career, to +choose the paths which led to her destruction rather than those which, at +the first blush, promised as well, and which seemed to be equally as easy +and alluring. And we may possibly, by this process, expose certain +phenomena which may profit us, since such an examination may help us to +estimate what avenues are like to prove ultimately the least resistant. + +Throughout the Middle Ages North Germany, which is the region whereof +Berlin is the capital, enjoyed relatively little prosperity, because +Brandenburg, for example, lay beyond the zone of those main trade routes +which, before the advent of railways, served as the arteries of the +eastern trade. Not until after the opening of the Industrial Revolution in +England, did that condition alter. Nor even then did a change come rapidly +because of the inertia of the Russian people. Nevertheless, as the Russian +railway system developed, Berlin one day found herself standing, as it +were, at the apex of a vast triangle whose boundaries are, roughly, +indicated by the position of Berlin itself, Petersburg, Warsaw, Moscow, +Kiev, and the Ukraine. Beyond Berlin the stream of traffic flowed to +Hamburg and thence found vent in America, as a terminus. Great Britain, +more especially, demanded food, and food passed by sea from Odessa. Hence +Russia served as a natural base for Germany, taking German manufactures +and offering to Germany a reservoir capable of absorbing her redundant +population. Thus it had long been obvious that intimate relations with +Russia were of prime importance to Germany since all the world could +perceive that the monied interests of Russia must more and more fall into +German hands, because of the intellectual limitations of the Russians. +Also pacification to the eastward always was an integral part of +Bismarck's policy. Notwithstanding which other influences conflicted with, +and ultimately overbalanced, this eastern trend in Germany. + +For many thousand years before written history began, the economic capital +of the world, the seat for the time being of opulence and of splendor, and +at once the admiration and the envy of less favored rivals, has been a +certain ambulatory spot upon the earth's surface, at a point where the +lines of trade from east to west have converged. And always the marked +idiosyncrasy of this spot has been its unrest. It has constantly +oscillated from east to west according as the fortunes of war have +prevailed, or as the march of applied science has made one or another +route of transportation cheaper or more defensible. + +Thus Babylon was conquered and robbed by Rome, and Rome, after a long +heyday of prosperity, yielded to Constantinople, while Constantinople lost +her supremacy to Venice, Genoa, and North Italy, following the sack of +Constantinople by the Venetians in 1202 A.D. The Fairs of Champaign in +France, and the cities of the Rhine and Antwerp were the glory of the +Middle Ages, but these great markets faded when the discovery of the long +sea voyage to India threw the route by the Red Sea and Cairo into +eccentricity, and caused Spain and Portugal to bloom. Spain's prosperity +did not, however, last long. England used war during the sixteenth century +as an economic weapon, pretty easily conquering. And since the opening of +the Industrial Revolution, at least, London, with the exception of the few +years when England suffered from the American revolt of 1776, has assumed +steadily more the aspect of the great international centre of exchanges, +until with Waterloo her supremacy remained unchallenged. It was this +brilliant achievement of London, won chiefly by arms, which more than any +other cause impelled Germany to try her fortunes by war rather than by the +methods of peace. + +Nor was the German calculation of chances unreasonable or unwarranted. For +upwards of two centuries Germany had found war the most profitable of all +her economic ventures; especially had she found the French war of 1870 a +most lucrative speculation. And she felt unbounded confidence that she +could win as easy a triumph with her army, over the French, in the +twentieth as in the nineteenth century. But, could she penetrate to Paris +and at the same time occupy the littoral of the Channel and Antwerp, she +was persuaded that she could do to the commerce of England what England +had once done to the commerce of Spain, and that Hamburg and Berlin would +supplant London. And this calculation might have proved sound had it not +been for her oversight in ignoring one essential factor in the problem. +Ever since North America was colonized by the English, that portion of the +continent which is now comprised by the Republic of the United States, had +formed a part of the British economic system, even when the two fragments +of that system were competing in war, as has occurred more than once. And +as America has waxed great and rich these relations have grown closer, +until of recent years it has become hard to determine whether the centre +of gravity of this vast capitalistic mass lay to the east or to the west +of the Atlantic. One fact, however, from before the outset of this war had +been manifest, and that was that the currents of movement flowed with more +power from America to England than from America to Germany. And this had +from before the outbreak of hostilities affected the relations of the +parties. Should Germany prevail in her contest with England, the result +would certainly be to draw the centre of exchanges to the eastward, and +thereby to throw the United States, more or less, into eccentricity; but +were England to prevail the United States would tend to become the centre +toward which all else would gravitate. Hence, perfectly automatically, +from a time as long ago as the Spanish War, the balance, as indicated by +the weight of the United States, hung unevenly as between Germany and +England, Germany manifesting something approaching to repulsion toward the +attraction of the United States while Great Britain manifested favor. And +from subsequent evidence, this phenomenon would seem to have been thus +early developed, because the economic centre of gravity of our modern +civilization had already traversed the Atlantic, and by so doing had +decided the fortunes of Germany in advance, in the greater struggle about +to come. Consider attentively what has happened. In April, 1917, when the +United States entered the conflict, Germany, though it had suffered +severely in loss of men, was by no means exhausted. On the contrary, many +months subsequently she began her final offensive, which she pushed so +vigorously that she penetrated to within some sixty miles of Paris. But +there, at Chateau Thierry, on the Marne, she first felt the weight of the +economic shift. She suddenly encountered a division of American troops +advancing to oppose her. Otherwise the road to Paris lay apparently open. +The American troops were raw levies whom the Germans pretended to despise. +And yet, almost without making a serious effort at prolonged attack, the +Germans began their retreat, which only ended with their collapse and the +fall of the empire. + +A similar phenomenon occurred once before in German history, and it is not +an uncommon incident in human experience when nature has already made, or +is on the brink of making, a change in the seat of the economic centre of +the world. In the same way, when Constantine won the battle of the Milvian +Bridge, with his men fighting under the standard of the Labarum, it was +subsequently found that the economic capital of civilization had silently +migrated from the Tiber to the Bosphorus, where Constantine seated himself +at Constantinople, which was destined to be the new capital of the world +for about eight hundred years. So in 1792, when the Prussians and the +French refugees together invaded France, they never doubted for an instant +that they should easily disperse the mob, as they were pleased to call it, +of Kellermann's "vagabonds, cobblers, and tailors." Nevertheless the +Germans recoiled on the slope of Valmy from before the republican army, +almost without striking a blow, nor could they be brought again to the +attack, although the French royalists implored to be allowed to storm the +hill alone, provided they could be assured of support. Then the retreat of +the Duke of Brunswick began, and this retreat was the prelude to the +Napoleonic empire, to Austerlitz, to Jena, to the dismemberment and to the +reorganization of Prussia and to the evolution of modern Germany: in +short, to the conversion of the remnants of mediaeval civilization into the +capitalistic, industrial, competitive society which we have known. And all +this because of the accelerated movement caused by science. + +If it be, indeed, a fact that the victory of Chateau Thierry and the +subsequent retreat of the German army together with the collapse of the +German Empire indicate, as there is abundant reason to suppose that they +may, a shift in the world's social equilibrium, equivalent to the shift in +Europe presaged by Valmy, or to that which substituted Constantinople for +Rome and which was marked by the Milvian Bridge, it follows that we must +prepare ourselves for changes possibly greater than our world has seen +since it marched to Jerusalem under Godfrey de Bouillon. And the tendency +of those changes is not so very difficult, perhaps, roughly to estimate, +always premising that they are hardly compatible with undue optimism. +Supposing, for example, we consider, in certain of their simpler aspects, +some of the relations of Great Britain toward ourselves, since Great +Britain is not only our most important friend, assuming that she remain a +friend, but our most formidable competitor, should competition strain our +friendship. Also Great Britain has the social system nearest akin to our +own, and most likely to be influenced by the same so-called democratic +tendencies. For upwards of a hundred years Great Britain has been, and she +still is, absolutely dependent on her maritime supremacy for life. It was +on that issue she fought the Napoleonic wars, and when she prevailed at +Trafalgar and Waterloo she assumed economic supremacy, but only on the +condition that she should always be ready and willing to defend it, for it +is only on that condition that economic supremacy can be maintained. War +is the most potent engine of economic competition. Constantinople and +Antwerp survived and flourished on the same identical conditions long +before the day of London. She must keep her avenues of communication with +all the world open, and guard them against possible attack. So long as +America competed actively with England on the sea, even for her own trade, +her relations with Great Britain were troubled. The irritation of the +colonies with the restrictions which England put upon their commerce +materially contributed to foment the revolution, as abundantly appears in +the famous case of John Hancock's sloop Liberty, which was seized for +smuggling. So in the War of 1812, England could not endure the United +States as a competitor in her contest with France. She must be an ally, +or, in other words, she must function as a component part of the British +economic system, or she must be crushed. The crisis came with the attack +of the Leopard on the Chesapeake in 1807, after which the possibility of +maintaining peace, under such a pressure, appeared, in its true light, as +a phantasm. After the war, with more or less constant friction, the same +conditions continued until the outbreak of the Rebellion, and then Great +Britain manifested her true animus as a competitor. She waged an +unacknowledged campaign against the commerce of the United States, +building, equipping, arming, manning, and succoring a navy for the South, +which operated none the less effectively because its action was officially +repudiated. And in this secret warfare England prevailed, since when the +legislation of the United States has made American competition with +England on the sea impossible. Wherefore we have had peace with England. +We have supplied Great Britain with food and raw materials, abandoning to +England the carrying trade and an undisputed naval supremacy. Consequently +Great Britain feels secure and responds to the full force of that economic +attraction which makes America naturally, a component part of the British +economic system. But let American pretensions once again revive to the +point of causing her to attempt seriously to develop her sea power as of +yore, and the same friction would also revive which could hardly, were it +pushed to its legitimate end, eventuate otherwise than in the ultimate +form of all economic competition. + +If such a supposition seems now to be fanciful, it is only necessary to +reflect a moment on the rapidity with which national relations vary under +competition, to be assured that it is real. As Washington said, the only +force which binds one nation to another is interest. The rise of Germany, +which first created jealousy in England, began with the attack on Denmark +in 1864. Then Russia was the power which the British most feared and with +whom they were on the worst of terms. About that period nothing would have +seemed more improbable than that these relations would be reversed, and +that Russia and England would jointly, within a generation, wage fierce +war on Germany. We are very close to England now, but we may be certain +that, were we to press, as Germany pressed, on British maritime and +industrial supremacy, we should be hated too. It is vain to disguise the +fact that British fortunes in the past have hinged on American +competition, and that the wisest and most sagacious Englishmen have been +those who have been most alive to the fact. Richard Cobden, for example, +was one of the most liberal as he was one of the most eminent of British +economists and statesmen of the middle of the nineteenth century. He was a +democrat by birth and education, and a Quaker by religion. In 1835, just +before he entered public life, Cobden visited the United States and thus +recorded his impressions on his return: + +"America is once more the theatre upon which nations are contending for +mastery; it is not, however, a struggle for conquest, in which the victor +will acquire territorial dominion--the fight is for commercial supremacy, +and will be won by the cheapest.... It is from the silent and peaceful +rivalry of American commerce, the growth of its manufactures, its rapid +progress in internal improvements, ... it is from these, and not from the +barbarous policy or the impoverishing armaments of Russia, that the +grandeur of our commercial and national prosperity is endangered." +[Footnote: John Morley, _The Life of Richard Cobden_, 107, 108.] + +It is not, however, any part of my contention that nature should push her +love of competition so far as necessarily to involve us in war with Great +Britain, at least at present, for nature has various and most unlooked-for +ways of arriving at her ends, since men never can determine, certainly in +advance, what avenue will, to them, prove the least resistant. They very +often make an error, as did the Germans, which they can only correct by +enduring disaster, defeat, and infinite suffering. Nature might very well, +for example, prefer that consolidation should advance yet another step +before a reaction toward chaos should begin. + +This last war has, apparently, been won by a fusion of two economic +systems which together hold and administer a preponderating mass of fluid +capital, and which have partially pooled their resources to prevail. They +appear almost as would a gigantic lizard which, having been severed in an +ancient conflict, was now making a violent but only half-conscious effort +to cause the head and body to unite with the tail, so that the two might +function once more as a single organism, governed by a single will. Under +our present form of capitalistic life there would seem to be no reason why +this fluid capital should not fuse and by its energy furnish the motor +which should govern the world. Rome, for centuries, was governed by an +emperor, who represented the landed class of Italy, under the forms of a +republic. It is not by any means necessary that a plutocratic mass should +have a recognized political head. And America and England, like two +enormous banking houses, might in effect fuse and yet go on as separate +institutions with nominally separate boards of directors. + +But it is inconceivable that even such an expedient as this, however +successful at the outset, should permanently solve the problem, which +resolves itself once more into individual competition. It is not +imaginable that such an enormous plutocratic society as I have supposed +could conduct its complex affairs upon the basis of the average +intelligence. As in Rome, a civil service would inevitably be organized +which would contain a carefully selected body of ability. We have seen +such a process, in its initial stages, in the recent war. And such a civil +service, however selected and however trained, would, to succeed, have to +be composed of men who were the ablest in their calling, the best +educated, and the fittest: in a word, the representatives of what we call +"the big business" of the country. Such as they might handle the +railroads, the telegraph lines, the food supply, the question of +competitive shipping, and finally prices, as we have seen it done, but +only on condition that they belonged to the fortunate class by merit. + +But supposing, in the face of such a government, the unfortunate class +should protest, as they already do protest in Russia, in Germany, and even +in England and here at home, that a legal system which sanctions such a +civilization is iniquitous. Here, the discontented say, you insist on a +certain form of competition being carried to its limit. That is, you +demand intellectual and peaceful competition for which I am unfit both by +education, training, and mental ability. I am therefore excluded from +those walks in life which make a man a freeman. I become a slave to +capital. I must work, or fight, or starve according to another man's +convenience, caprice, or, in fine, according to his will. I could be no +worse off under any despot. To such a system I will not submit. But I can +at least fight. Put me on a competitive equality or I will blow your +civilization to atoms. To such an argument there is no logical answer +possible except the answer which all extreme socialists have always +advanced. The fortunate man should be taxed for all he earns above the +average wage, and the State should confiscate his accumulations at death. +Then, with a system of government education, obligatory on all, children +would start equal from birth. + +Here we come against the hereditary instinct, the creator and the +preserver of the family: the instinct which has made law and order +possible, so far as our ancestors or we have known order, as far back as +the Ice Age. If the coming world must strive with this question, or +abandon the "democratic ideal," the future promises to be stormy. + +But even assuming that this problem of individual competition be overcome, +we are as far as ever from creating a system of moral law which shall +avail us, for we at once come in conflict with the principle of abstract +justice which demands that free men shall be permitted to colonize or move +where they will. But supposing England and America to amalgamate; they now +hold or assume to control all or nearly all the vacant regions of the +earth which are suited to the white man's habitation. And the white man +cannot live and farm his land in competition with the Asiatic; that was +conclusively proved in the days of Rome. + +But it is not imaginable that Asiatics will submit to this discrimination +in silence. Nothing can probably constrain them to resignation but force, +and to apply force is to revert to the old argument of the savage or the +despot, who admits that he knows no law save that of the stronger, which +is the system, however much we have disguised it and, in short, lied about +it, under which we have lived and under which our ancestors have lived +ever since the family was organized, and under which it is probable that +we shall continue to live as long as any remnant of civilization shall +survive. + +Nevertheless, it seems to be far from improbable that the system of +industrial, capitalistic civilization, which came in, in substance, with +the "free thought" of the Reformation, is nearing an end. Very probably it +may have attained to its ultimate stages and may dissolve presently in the +chaos which, since the Reformation, has been visibly impending. Democracy +in America has conspicuously and decisively failed, in the collective +administration of the common public property. Granting thus much, it +becomes simply a question of relative inefficiency, or degradation of +type, culminating in the exhaustion of resources by waste; unless the +democratic man can supernaturally raise himself to some level more nearly +approaching perfection than that on which he stands. For it has become +self-evident that the democrat cannot change himself from a competitive to +a non-competitive animal by talking about it, or by pretending to be +already or to be about to become other than he is,--the victim of infinite +conflicting forces. + +BROOKS ADAMS, +QUINCY, _July_ 20, 1919. + + + + +THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COMMONWEALTH. + + +The mysteries of the Holy Catholic Church had been venerated for ages when +Europe burst from her mediaeval torpor into the splendor of the +Renaissance. Political schemes and papal abuses may have precipitated the +inevitable outbreak, but in the dawn of modern thought the darkness faded +amidst which mankind had so long cowered in the abject terrors of +superstition. Already in the beginning of the fifteenth century many of +the ancient dogmas had begun to awaken incredulity, and sceptics learned +to mock at that claim to infallibility upon which the priesthood based +their right to command the blind obedience of the Christian world. Between +such adversaries compromise was impossible; and those who afterward +revolted against the authority of the traditions of Rome sought refuge +under the shelter of the Bible, which they grew to reverence with a +passionate devotion, believing it to have been not only directly and +verbally inspired by God, but the only channel through which he had made +known his will to men. + +Thus the movement was not toward new doctrines; on the contrary, it was +the rejection of what could no longer be believed. Calvin was no less +orthodox than St. Augustine in what he accepted; his heresy lay in the +denial of enigmas from which his understanding recoiled. The mighty +convulsion of the Reformation, therefore, was but the supreme effort of +the race to tear itself from the toils of a hierarchy whose life hung upon +its success in forcing the children to worship the myths of their +ancestral religion. + +Three hundred years after Luther nailed his theses to the church door the +logical deduction had been drawn from his great act, and Christendom had +been driven to admit that any concession of the right to reason upon +matters of faith involved the recognition of the freedom of individual +thought. But though this noble principle has been at length established, +long years of bloodshed passed before the victory was won; and from the +outset the attitude of the clergy formed the chief obstacle to the triumph +of a more liberal civilization; for howsoever bitterly Catholic and +Protestant divines have hated and persecuted each other, they have united +like true brethren in their hatred and their persecution of heretics; for +such was their inexorable destiny. + +Men who firmly believe that salvation lies within their creed alone, and +that doubters suffer endless torments, never can be tolerant. They feel +that duty commands them to defend their homes against a deadly peril, and +even pity for the sinner urges them to wring from him a recantation before +it is too late; and then, moreover, dissent must lessen the power and +influence of a hierarchy and may endanger its very existence; therefore +the priests of every church have been stimulated to crush out schism by +the two strongest passions that can inflame the mind--by bigotry and by +ambition. + +In England the Reformation was controlled by statesmen, whose object was +to invest the crown with ecclesiastical power, and who made no changes +except such as they thought necessary for their purpose. They repudiated +the papal supremacy, and adopted articles of religion sufficiently +evangelical in form, but they retained episcopacy, the liturgy, and the +surplice; the cross was still used in baptism, the people bowed at the +name of Jesus, and knelt at the communion. Such a compromise with what +they deemed idolatry was offensive to the stricter Protestants, and so +early as 1550 John Hooper refused the see of Gloucester because he would +not wear the robes of office; thus almost from its foundation the church +was divided into factions, and those who demanded a more radical reform +were nicknamed Puritans. As time elapsed large numbers who could no longer +bring themselves to conform withdrew from the orthodox communion, and +began to worship by themselves; persecution followed, and many fled to +Holland, where they formed congregations in the larger towns, the most +celebrated of them being that of John Robinson at Leyden, which afterward +founded Plymouth. But the intellectual ferment was universal, and the same +upheaval that was rending the church was shaking the foundations of the +state: power was passing into the hands of the people, but a century was +to elapse before the relations of the sovereign to the House of Commons +were fully adjusted. During this interval the Stuarts reigned and three of +the four kings suffered exile or death in the fierce contest for mastery. + +The fixed determination of Charles I. was to establish a despotism and +enforce conformity with ritualism; and the result was the Great Rebellion. + +Among the statesmen who advised him, none has met with such scant mercy +from posterity as Laud, who has been gibbeted as the impersonification of +narrowness, of bigotry, and of cruelty. The judgment is unscientific, for +whatever may be thought of the humanity or wisdom of his policy, he only +did what all have done who have attempted to impose a creed on men. + +The real grievance has never been that an observance has been required, or +an indulgence refused, but that the right to think has been denied. +Provided a boundary be fixed within which the reason must be chained, the +line drawn by Laud is as reasonable as that of Calvin; Geneva is no more +infallible than Canterbury or Rome. Comprehension is the dream of +visionaries, for some will always differ from any confession of faith, +however broad; and where there are dogmas there will be heretics till all +have perished. But in their fear and hatred of individual free thought +regarding the mysteries of religion, Laud, Calvin, and the Pope agreed. + +With the progress of the war, the Puritans, who had at first been united +in their opposition to the crown, themselves divided; one party, to which +most of the peers and of the non-conforming clergy belonged, being anxious +to reestablish the monarchy, and set up a rigid Presbyterianism; the +other, of whose spirit Cromwell was the incarnation, resolving each day +more firmly to crush the king and proclaim freedom of conscience; and it +was this doctrine of toleration which was the snare and the abomination in +the eyes of evangelical divines. + +Robert Baillie, the Scotch commissioner, while in London, anxiously +watching the rise of the power of the Independents in Parliament, with +each victory of their armies in the field wrote, "Liberty of conscience, +and toleration of all and any religion, is so prodigious an impiety that +this religious parliament cannot but abhor the very meaning of it." Nor +did his reverend brethren of the Westminster Assembly fall any whit behind +him when they rose to expound the word. In a letter of 17th May, 1644, he +thus described their doctrine: "This day was the best that I have seen +since I came to England.... After D. Twisse had begun with a brief prayer, +Mr. Marshall prayed large two hours, most divinely, confessing the sins of +the members of the assembly, in a wonderful, pathetick, and prudent way. +After, Mr. Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a psalm; thereafter, Mr. +Vines prayed near two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached an hour, and Mr. +Seaman prayed near two hours, then a psalm; after, Mr. Henderson brought +them to a sweet conference of the heat confessed in the assembly, and +other seen faults to be remedied, and the conveniency to preach against +all sects, especially Anabaptists and Antinomians. Dr. Twisse closed with +a short prayer and blessing." [Footnote: Baillie's _Letters and Journals_, +ii. 18.] + +But Cromwell, gifted with noble instincts and transcendent political +genius, a layman, a statesman, and a soldier, was a liberal from birth +till death. + +"Those that were sound in the faith, how proper was it for them to labor +for liberty, ... that men might not be trampled upon for their +consciences! Had not they labored but lately under the weight of +persecution? And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others? Is it +ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it? What greater hypocrisy than +for those who were oppressed by the bishops to become the greatest +oppressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed? I could wish +that they who call for liberty now also had not too much of that spirit, +if the power were in their hands." [Footnote: Speech at dissolution of +first Parliment, Jan. 22, 1655. Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iv. 107.] + +"If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another form, if +an Independent, for example, will despise him under Baptism, and will +revile him and reproach him and provoke him,--I will not suffer it in him. +If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist shall be censuring the +godly ministers of the nation who profess under that of Independency; or +if those that profess under Presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking +evil of them, traducing and censuring of them, as I would not be willing +to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to +impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ,--so I +will not endure any reproach to them." [Footnote: Speech made September, +1656. Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iv. 234.] + +The number of clergymen among the emigrants to Massachusetts was very +large, and the character of the class who formed the colony was influenced +by them to an extraordinary degree. Many able pastors had been deprived in +England for non-conformity, and they had to choose between silence or +exile. To men of their temperament silence would have been intolerable; +and most must have depended upon their profession for support. America, +therefore, offered a convenient refuge. The motives are less obvious which +induced the leading laymen, some of whom were of fortune and consequence +at home, to face the hardships of the wilderness. Persecution cannot be +the explanation, for a government under which Hampden and Cromwell could +live and be returned to Parliament was not intolerable; nor does it appear +that any of them had been severely dealt with. The wish of the Puritan +party to have a place of retreat, should the worst befall, may have had +its weight with individuals, but probably the influence which swayed the +larger number was the personal ascendancy of their pastors, for that +ascendancy was complete. In a community so selected, men of the type of +Baillie must have vastly outnumbered those of the stamp of Cromwell, and +in point of fact their minds were generally cast in the ecclesiastical +mould and imbued with the ecclesiastical feeling. Governor Dudley +represented them well, and at his death some lines were found in his +pocket in which their spirit yet glows in all the fierceness of its +bigotry. + + "Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch + O're such as do a Toleration hatch, + Lest that Ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice, + To poison all with heresie and vice." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 2, ch. v. section 1.] + +In former ages churches had been comprehensive to this extent: infants +had been baptized, and, when the child had become a man, he had been +admitted to the communion as a matter of course, unless his life had given +scandal; but to this system the Congregationalist was utterly opposed. He +believed that, human nature being totally depraved, some became regenerate +through grace; that the signs of grace were as palpable as any other +traits of character, and could be discerned by all the world; therefore, +none should be admitted to the sacrament who had not the marks of the +elect; and as in a well-ordered community the godly ought to rule, it +followed that none should be enfranchised but members of the church. + +To suppose such a government could be maintained in England was beyond the +dreams even of an enthusiast, and there can be little doubt that the +controlling incentive with many of those who sailed was the hope, with the +aid of their divines, of founding a religious commonwealth in the +wilderness which should harmonize with their interpretation of the +Scriptures. + +The execution of such a project was, however, far from easy. It would have +been most unsafe for the emigrants to have divulged their true designs, +since these were not only unlawful, but would have been highly offensive +to the king, and yet they were too feeble to exist without the protection +of Great Britain, therefore it was necessary to secure for themselves the +rights of English subjects, and to throw some semblance at least of the +sanction of law over the organization of their new state. Accordingly, a +patent [Footnote: March 4, 1629.] was obtained from the crown, by which +twenty-five persons were incorporated under the name of the Governor and +Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England; and as the extent of the +powers therein granted has given rise to a controversy which is not yet +closed, it is necessary to understand the nature of that instrument in +order to comprehend the bearings of the bitter strife which darkens the +history of the first fifty years of the colony. + +The germ of the written charter is so ancient as to be lost in obscurity. +During the Middle Ages, oppression was, speaking generally, the accepted +condition of society, no man not noble having the right in theory, or the +power in practice, to control his own actions without interference from +his feudal superior. Under such circumstances the only hope for the weak +was to combine, and most of the early triumphs of freedom were won by +combinations of commons against some noble, or of nobles against a king. +Organization is difficult for a peasantry, but easy for burghers, and from +the outset these seem to have united for their common defense against the +neighboring barons; and thus was born the mediaeval guild. + +The ancient townsmen were not usually strong enough to fight for their +liberties, so they generally resorted to purchase; they agreed with their +lord upon a price to be paid for a privilege, and were given for their +money a grant, which, because it was written, was called a charter. + +The following charter of the Merchants' Guild of Leicester is very early +and very simple. It presupposes that there could be no doubt about the +local customs, which are therefore not enumerated, and it shows that the +guild of Leicester existed as a corporation at the Conquest, and must +already have held property in succession and been liable to suit through +two reigns:-- + +"Robert, Earl of Mellent, to Ralph, and all his barons, French and +English, of all his land in England, greeting: Know ye, that I have +granted to my merchants of Leicester their Guild Merchant, with all +customs which they held in the time of King William, of King William his +son, and now hold in the time of Henry the king. + +"Witness: R., the son of Alcitil." + +The object of these ancient writings was only to record the fact of +corporate existence; the popular custom by which the guilds were regulated +was taken for granted; but obviously they must have had succession, been +liable to suit, able to contract, and, in a word, to do all those acts +which were afterward set forth. And such has uniformly been the process by +which English jurisprudence has been shaped; a usage grows up that courts +recognize, and, by their decisions, establish as the common law; but +judicial decisions are inflexible, and, as they become antiquated, they +are themselves modified by legislation. Lawyers observed these customary +companies for some centuries before they learned what functions were +universal; but, with the lapse of time, the patents became more elaborate, +until at length a voluminous grant of each particular power was held +necessary to create a new corporation. + +A merchants' guild, like the one of Leicester, was an association of the +townsmen for their common welfare. Every trader was then called a +merchant, and as almost every burgher lived by trade, and was also a +landowner, to the extent at least of his dwelling, it followed that the +guild practically included all free male inhabitants; the guild hall was +used as the town hall, the guild ordinances were the town ordinances, and +the corporation became the government of the borough, and as such chose +persons to represent it in Parliament, when summoned by the king's writ to +send burgesses to Westminster. + +London is a corporation by prescription and not by virtue of any +particular charter, and to this day its city hall is called by the ancient +name, Guild Hall. But with the growth of wealth and population the +original fraternity divided into craft organizations (so long ago, indeed, +that no record of its existence remains), and each trade organized a +guild, with a hall of its own; and thus it came to pass that the twelve +livery companies--the Mercers, the Grocers, the Goldsmiths, the Drapers, +the Fishmongers, and the rest--became the government of the capital of +England. + +All mediaeval institutions tended to aristocracy and monopoly, and, +accordingly, after the merchant guilds had split into these corporate +trade unions, boroughs waxed exclusive, and membership, instead of being +an incident of citizenship, grew to confer citizenship itself; thus the +franchise, being confined to freemen, and freedom or membership having +come to depend on birth, marriage, election, or purchase, the +constituencies which returned a majority of the House of Commons grew so +petty and corrupt as to threaten the existence of parliamentary government +itself, and the abuse at last culminated in the agitation which produced +the Reform Bill. + +When legal forms had taken shape, the land upon which a town stood was not +unusually granted to the mayor and commonalty by metes and bounds, +[Footnote: See Charter of Plymouth, granted 1439. _History of +Plymouth_, p. 50. The incorporation was by statute.] to them and their +successors forever, upon payment of a rent; and the mayor and common +council were empowered to make laws and ordinances for the local +government, and to fine, imprison, and sometimes whip and otherwise punish +offenders, so as their statutes, fines, pains, and penalties were +reasonable and not repugnant to law. [Footnote: _History of +Tiverton_, App. 5.] The foreign trading company was an offshoot of the +guild, and was intended to protect commerce. Obviously some such +organization must have been necessary, for, if property was insecure +within the realm, it was far more exposed without; and, indeed, in the +fourteenth century, English merchants domiciled on the Continent could +hardly have been safer than Europeans are now who garrison the so-called +factories upon the coast of Africa. + +At the Conquest, the Hanse merchants had a house in London, which was +afterward famous as the Steel Yard. They lived a strange life,--a +combination of that of the trader, the soldier, and the monk. Their +fortified warehouse, exposed to the attacks of the ferocious mob, was +occasionally taken and sacked; and the garrison shut up within was subject +to an iron discipline. They were forbidden to marry, no woman passed the +gates, nor did they ever sleep a night without the walls; but, always on +the watch, they lay in their cells ready to repulse a storm. For many +years these Germans seem to have monopolized the carrying trade, for it +was not till the thirteenth century that Englishmen appear to have made an +effort at competition. However, about 1296 certain London mercers are said +to have obtained a grant of privileges from John, Duke of Brabant, and to +have established a wool market at Antwerp. [Footnote: Andersen's +_History of Commerce_.] The recognition of the Flemish government was +of course necessary; but they could hardly have maintained themselves +without some support at home; for, although their warehouse was abroad, +they were English merchants, and they must have relied upon English +protection. No very early documents remain; but an elaborate charter, +granted by Edward IV. in 1463, proves that the corporation had then had a +long legal existence. [Footnote: Hakluyt's _Voyages_, i. 230.] The +crown thereby confirmed one Obrey, the governor, in his office during +pleasure, with the wages theretofore enjoyed; existing laws were approved; +the governor and merchants were empowered to elect twelve Justicers, who +were to hold courts for all merchants and mariners in those parts; and the +company was authorized to regulate the trade and control the traders, +provided no laws were passed contrary to the intent of that charter. + +Here, as in the Merchant Guild, the inevitable aristocratic revolution +took place, and the old democratic brotherhood became a strict monopoly. +The oppression was so flagrant that a petition was presented to Parliament +in 1497 against the exactions of the Merchant Adventurers, as the +association was then called, by which it appeared that interlopers, +trading to Holland and Flanders, were fined L40, whereas any subject might +have become a freeman in earlier times for an old noble, or about 6s. 8d.; +[Footnote: 12 Henry VII. ch. vi.] and the scandal was so great that the +fine was fixed at 10 marks, or L6 l3s. 4d., by statute. During the +stagnation of the Middle Ages few traces of such commercial enterprises +are to be found, but with the sixteenth century Europe awoke to a new life +and thrilled with a new energy. Trade shared in the impulse. In 1554 +Philip and Mary incorporated the Russia Company in regular modern form; in +1581 the Turkey Company was organized; in 1600 the East India Company +received its charter; and, to come directly to what is material, in 1629 +Charles I. signed the patent of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts +Bay in New England. + +Stripped of its verbiage, the provisions are simple. The stockholders, or +"freemen," as they were then called, were to meet once a quarter in a +"General Court." This General Court, or stockholders' meeting, chose the +officers, of which there were twenty, the governor, deputy governor, and +eighteen assistants or directors, on the last Wednesday in each Easter +Term. The assistants were intrusted with the business management, and were +to meet once a month or oftener; while the General Court was empowered to +admit freemen, and "to make laws and ordinances for the good and welfare +of the said company, and for the government and ordering of the said lands +and plantation, and the people inhabiting and to inhabit the same, as to +them from time to time shall be thought meet,--so as such laws and +ordinances be not contrary or repugnant to the laws and statutes of this +our realm of England." The criminal jurisdiction was limited to the +"imposition of lawful fines, mulcts, imprisonment, or other lawful +correction, according to the course of other corporations in this our +realm of England." + +The "course of corporations" referred to was well established. The Master +and Wardens of the Guild of Drapers in London, for example, could make +"such ... pains, punishments, and penalties, by corporal punishment, or +fines and amercements," ... "as shall seem ... necessary," provided their +statutes were reasonable and not contrary to the laws of the kingdom. +[Footnote: Herbert's _Livery Companies_, i. 489.] In like manner, +boroughs such as Tiverton might "impose and assess punishments by +imprisonments, etc., and reasonable fines upon offenders." [Footnote: See +_History of Tiverton_, App. 5.] + +But all lawyers knew that such grants did not convey full civil or +criminal jurisdiction, which, when thought needful, was specially +conferred, as was done in the case of the East India Company upon their +petition in 1624, [Footnote: Bruce, _Annals_, i. 252.] and in that of +Massachusetts by the charter of William and Mary. + +Such was the undoubted theory, and evidently there must always have been +some practical means of checking the abuse of power by these strong +organizations. In semi-barbarous ages the sovereign took matters into his +own hands by seizing the franchise, and even the Plantagenets repeatedly +suspended or revoked the liberties of London,--often, no doubt, for cause, +but sometimes also to make money by a resale; and a succession of these +arbitrary forfeitures demonstrated that charters to be of value must be +beyond the grantor's control. Resort was had to the courts, as a matter of +course, and finally it was settled that relief should be given by a writ +of _quo warranto_, upon which the question of the violation of +privileges could be tried; and curious records still remain of ancient +litigations of this nature. + +In 1321 complaint was made against the London Weavers for injuring the +public by passing regulations tending to raise the price of cloth. +[Footnote: _Liber Customarum_, i. 416-424.] It was alleged that the +guild, with this intent, had limited the working hours in the day, the +working days in the year, and the number of apprentices the freemen might +employ; and the prayer was that for these abuses the charter should be +annulled. + +The cause was tried before a jury, who found the truth of some of the +charges; but the judgment is lost, as the roll is imperfect. + +There was danger, moreover, to the citizen from the oppression of these +powerful bodies, as well as to the public from their usurpations; and were +authority wholly wanting, argument would be almost unnecessary to prove +that some appellate tribunal must always have had jurisdiction to pass +upon the validity of corporate legislation; for otherwise any summary +punishment might have been inflicted upon an individual, though +notoriously unlawful, and the only redress possible would have been +subsequent proceedings to vacate the charter. + +Through appeals, corporations could be controlled; and by none was this +control so stubbornly disputed, or its necessity so clearly demonstrated, +as by the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. A good +illustration is the trial of the Quaker, Wenlock Christison, for his life +in 1661. + +"William Leddra being thus dispatch'd, it was resolved to make an end also +of Wenlock Christison. He therefore was brought from the prison to the +court at Boston, where the governor John Indicot, and the deputy governor +Richard Billingham, being both present, it was told him, 'Unless you will +renounce your religion, you shall surely die.' But instead of shrinking, +he said with an undaunted courage, 'Nay, I shall not change my religion, +nor seek to save my life; neither do I intend to deny my Master; but if I +lose my life for Christ's sake, and the preaching of the gospel, I shall +save my life.' ... John Indicot asked him 'what he had to say for himself, +why he should not die?' ... Then Wenlock asked, 'By what law will you put +me to death?' The answer was, 'We have a law, and by our law you are to +die.' 'So said the Jews of Christ,' (reply'd Wenlock) 'we have a law, and +by our law he ought to die. Who empowered you to make that law?' To which +one of the board answered, 'We have a patent, and are the patentees; judge +whether we have not power to make laws.' Hereupon Wenlock asked again, +'How, have you power to make laws repugnant to the laws of England?' 'No,' +said the governor. 'Then,' (reply'd Wenlock,) 'you are gone beyond your +bounds, and have forfeited your patent; and that is more than you can +answer.' 'Are you,' ask'd he, 'subjects to the king, yea or nay?' ... To +which one said, 'Yea, we are so.' 'Well,' said Wenlock, 'so am I.' ... +'Therefore seeing that you and I are subjects to the king, I demand to be +tried by the laws of my own nation.' It was answered, 'You shall be tried +by a bench and a jury.' For it seems they began to be afraid to go on in +the former course, of trial without a jury ... But Wenlock said, 'That is +not the law, but the manner of it; for I never heard nor read of any law +that was in England to hang Quakers.' To this the governor reply'd 'that +there was a law to hang Jesuits.' To which Wenlock return'd, 'If you put +me to death, it is not because I go under the name of a Jesuit, but of a +Quaker. Therefore, I appeal to the laws of my own nation.' But instead of +taking notice of this, one said 'that he was in their hands, and had +broken their law, and they would try him.'" [Footnote: Sewel, pp. 278, +279.] + +Yet, though the ecclesiastical party in Massachusetts obstinately refused +to admit appeals to the British judiciary up to the last moment of their +power, for the obvious reason that the existence of the theocracy depended +upon the enforcement of such legislation as that under which the Quakers +suffered, there was no principle in the whole range of English +jurisprudence more firmly established. By a statute of Henry VI. passed in +1436, corporate enactments were to be submitted to the judges for +approval; and the Court of King's Bench always set aside such as were bad, +whenever the question of their validity was presented for adjudication. +[Footnote: Stat. 15 H. VI. ch. 6. Stat 19 H. VII. ch. 7. Clark's Case, 5 +Coke, 633, decided A. D. 1596. See Kyd on Corporations, ii. 107-110, where +authorities are collected. Child v. Hudson Bay Co., 2 P. W. 207.] + +But discussion is futile; the proposition is self-evident, that an +association endowed with the capacity of acting like a single man, for +certain defined objects, which shall attempt other objects, or shall seek +to compass its ends by unlawful means, violates the condition upon which +its life has been granted, transcends the limits of its existence, and +forfeits its privileges; and that under such circumstances its ordinances +are void, and none are bound to yield them their obedience. + +Approached thus from the standpoint of legal history, no doubt can exist +concerning the scope of the franchise secured by the Puritans for the +Massachusetts colony. The instrument obtained from Charles I. embodied +certain of their number in an English corporation, whose only lawful +business was the American trade, as the business of the East India Company +was trade in Hindostan. To enable them to act effectively, a tract of land +in New England, between the Merrimack and the Charles, was conveyed to +them, as the soil upon which a town stood was conveyed to the mayor and +commonalty. Within this territory they were authorized to established +their plantations and forts, which they were empowered to defend against +attack, as the Hanse merchants defended the Steel Yard in London. They +were also permitted to govern the country within their grant by reasonable +regulations calculated to preserve the peace, and of much the same +character as the municipal ordinances of towns, subject, of course, to +judicial supervision. The corporation itself was created subject to the +municipal laws of England, and could have no existence without the realm; +and though perhaps even then the American wilderness might have been held +to belong to the British empire, it formed no part of the kingdom, +[Footnote: Blackstone's _Commentaries_, i. 109.] and was altogether +beyond the limits of that jurisdiction from whose customs and statutes the +life of this imaginary being sprang. Therefore, the governing body could +legally exercise its functions only when domiciled in some English town. +[Footnote: On this subject see the able paper of Mr. Deane, in +_Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings_, December, 1869, p. +166.] + +Sir Richard Sheldon, the solicitor-general, advised the king that he was +signing a charter containing "such ... clauses for ye electing of +Governors and Officers here in England, ... and powers to make lawes and +ordinances for setling ye governement and magistracye for ye plantacon +there, ... as ... are usuallie allowed to Corporacons in England." +[Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._ 1869-70, p. 173.] And there can +be no question that his opinion was sound. + +Nothing can be imagined more ill-suited to serve as the organic law of a +new commonwealth than this instrument. No provision was made for superior +or probate courts, for a representative assembly, for the incorporation of +counties and towns, for police or taxation. In short, hardly a step could +be taken toward founding a territorial government based upon popular +suffrage without working a forfeiture of the charter by abuse of the +franchise. The colonists, it is true, afterward advanced very different +theories of construction; but that they were well aware of their legal +position is demonstrated by the fact that after some hesitation from +apprehension of consequences, they ventured on the singularly bold and +lawless measure of secretly removing their charter to America and +establishing their corporation in a land which they thought would be +beyond the process of Westminster Hall. [Footnote: 1629, Aug. 29.] The +details of the settlement are related in many books, and require only the +briefest mention here. In 1628 an association of gentlemen bought the +tract of country lying between the Merrimack and Charles from the Council +of Plymouth, and sent Endicott to take charge of their purchase. A royal +patent was, however, thought necessary for the protection of a large +colony, and one having been obtained, the Company of Massachusetts Bay was +at once organized in England, Endicott was appointed governor in America, +and six vessels sailed during the spring of 1629, taking out several +hundred persons and a "plentiful provision of godly ministers." In August +the church of Salem was gathered and Mr. Higginson was consecrated as +their teacher. In that same month Winthrop, Saltonstall, and others met at +Cambridge and signed an agreement binding themselves upon the faith of +Christians to embark for the plantation by the following March; "Provided +always that before the last of September next, the whole government, +together with the patent, ... be first by an order of court legally +transferred and established to remain with us and others which shall +inhabite upon the said plantation." [Footnote: _Hutch. Coll._, Prince +Soc. ed. i. 28.] The Company accepted the proposition, Winthrop was chosen +governor, and he anchored in Salem harbor in June. [Footnote: 1630] More +than a thousand settlers landed before winter, and the first General Court +was held at Boston in October; nor did the emigration thus begun entirely +cease until the meeting of the Long Parliament. + +From the beginning the colonists took what measures they thought proper, +without regarding the limitations of the law. Counties and towns had to be +practically incorporated, taxes were levied upon inhabitants, and in 1634 +all pretence of a General Court of freemen was dropped, and the towns +chose delegates to represent them, though the legislature was not divided +into two branches until ten years later. When the government had become +fully organized supreme power was vested in the General Court, a +legislature composed of two houses; the assistants, or magistrates, as +they were called, and the deputies. The governor, deputy governor, and +assistants were elected by a general vote; but each town sent two deputies +to Boston. + +For some years justice was dispensed by the magistrates according to the +Word of God, but gradually a judicial system was established; the +magistrate's local court was the lowest, from whence causes went by appeal +to the county courts, one of whose judges was always an assistant, and +probate jurisdiction was given to the two held at Ipswich and at Salem. +From the judgments entered here an appeal lay to the Court of Assistants, +and then to the General Court, which was the tribunal of last resort. The +clergy and gentry pertinaciously resisted the enactment of a series of +general statutes, upon which the people as steadily insisted, until at +length, in 1641, "The Body of Liberties" was approved by the legislature. +This compilation was the work of the Rev. Mr. Ward, pastor of Ipswich, and +contained a criminal code copied almost word for word from the Pentateuch, +but apart from matters touching religion, the legislation was such as +English colonists have always adopted. A major-general was elected who +commanded the militia, and in 1652 money was coined. + +The social institutions, however, have a keener interest, for they reflect +that strong cast of thought which has stamped its imprint deep into the +character of so much of the American people. The seventeenth century was +aristocratic, and the inhabitants of the larger part of New England were +divided into three classes, the commonalty, the gentry, and the clergy. +Little need be said of the first, except that they were a brave and +determined race, as ready to fight as Cromwell's saints, who made Rupert's +troopers "as stubble to their swords;" that they were intelligent, and +would not brook injustice; and that they were resolute, and would not +endure oppression. All know that they were energetic and shrewd. + +The gentry had the weight in the community that comes with wealth and +education, and they received the deference then paid to birth, for they +were for the most part the descendants of English country-gentlemen. As a +matter of course they monopolized the chief offices; and they were not +sentenced by the courts to degrading punishments, like whipping, for their +offences, as other criminals were. They even showed some wish at the +outset to create legal distinctions, such as a magistracy for life, and a +disposition to magnify the jurisdiction of the Court of Assistants, whose +seats they filled; but the action of the people was determined though +quiet, a chamber of deputies was chosen, and such schemes were heard of no +more. + +Yet notwithstanding the existence of this aristocratic element, the real +substance of influence and power lay with the clergy. It has been taught +as an axiom of Massachusetts history, that from the outset the town was +the social and political unit; but an analysis of the evidence tends to +show that the organization of the Puritan Commonwealth was ecclesiastical, +and the congregation, not the town, the basis upon which the fabric +rested. By the constitution of the corporation the franchise went with the +freedom of the company; but in order to form a constituency which would +support a sacerdotal oligarchy, it was enacted in 1631 "that for time to +come noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but +such as are members of some of the churches within ... the same." +[Footnote: _Mass. Records_, i. 87.] Thus though communicants were not +necessarily voters, no one could be a voter who was not a communicant; +therefore the town-meeting was in fact nothing but the church meeting, +possibly somewhat attenuated, and called by a different name. By this +insidious statute the clergy seized the temporal power, which they held +till the charter fell. The minister stood at the head of the congregation +and moulded it to suit his purposes and to do his will; for though he +could not when opposed admit an inhabitant to the sacrament, he could +peremptorily exclude therefrom all those of whom he disapproved, for "none +are propounded to the congregation, except they be first allowed by the +elders." [Footnote: Winthrop's reply to Vane, _Hutch. Coll._, Prince +Soc. ed. i. 101.] In such a community the influence of the priesthood must +have been overwhelming. Not only in an age without newspapers or tolerable +roads were their sermons, preached several times each week to every voter, +the most effective of political harangues; but, unlike other party +orators, they were not forced to stimulate the sluggish, or to convince +the hostile, for from a people glowing with fanaticism, each elder picked +his band of devoted servants of the church, men passionately longing to do +the will of Christ, whose commands concerning earth and heaven their +pastor had been ordained to declare. Nor was their power bounded by local +limits; though seldom holding office themselves, they were solemnly +consulted by the government on every important question that arose, +whether of war or peace, and their counsel was rarely disregarded. They +gave their opinion, no matter how foreign the subject might be to their +profession or their education; and they had no hesitation in passing upon +the technical construction of the charter with the authority of a bench of +judges. An amusing example is given by Winthrop: "The General Court +assembled again, and all the elders were sent for, to reconcile the +differences between the magistrates and deputies. When they were come the +first question put to them was, ... whether the magistrates are, by patent +and election of the people, the standing council of this commonwealth in +the vacancy of the General Court, and have power accordingly to act in all +cases subject to government, according to the said patent and the laws of +this jurisdiction; and when any necessary occasions call for action from +authority, in cases where there is no particular express law provided, +there to be guided by the word of God, till the General Court give +particular rules in such cases. The elders, having received the question, +withdrew themselves for consultation about it, and the next day sent to +know, when we would appoint a time that they might attend the court with +their answer. The magistrates and deputies agreed upon an hour "and ... +their answer was affirmative, on the magistrates behalf, in the very +words of the question, with some reasons thereof. It was delivered in +writing by Mr. Cotton in the name of them all, they being all present, and +not one dissentient." Then the magistrates propounded four more questions, +the last of which is as follows: "Whether a judge be bound to pronounce +such sentence as a positive law prescribes, in case it be apparently above +or beneath the merit of the offence?" To which the elders replied at great +length, saying that the penalty must vary with the gravity of the crime, +and added examples: "So any sin committed with an high hand, as the +gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day, may be punished with death when a +lesser punishment may serve for gathering sticks privily and in some +need." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 204, 205.] Yet though the clerical +influence was so unbounded the theocracy itself was exposed to constant +peril. In monarchies such as France or Spain the priests who rule the king +have the force of the nation at command to dispose of at their will; but +in Massachusetts a more difficult problem was presented, for the voters +had to be controlled. By the law requiring freemen to be church-members +the elders meant to grasp the key to the suffrage, but experience soon +proved that more stringent regulation was needed. + +According to the original Congregational theory each church was complete +and independent, and elected its own officers and conducted its own +worship, free from interference from without, except that others of the +same communion might offer advice or admonition. Under the theocracy no +such loose system was possible, for heresy might enter in three different +ways; first, under the early law, "blasphemers" might form a congregation +and from thence creep into the company; second, an established church +might fall into error; third, an unsound minister might be chosen, who +would debauch his flock by securing the admission of sectaries to the +sacrament. Above all, a creed was necessary by means of which false +doctrine might be instantly detected and condemned. Accordingly, one by +one, as the need for vigilance increased, laws were passed to guard these +points of danger. + +First, in 1635 it was enacted, [Footnote: 1635-6, March 3.] "Forasmuch as +it hath bene found by sad experience, that much trouble and disturbance +hath happened both to the church & civill state by the officers & members +of some churches, which have bene gathered ... in an vndue manner ... it +is ... ordered that ... this Court doeth not, nor will hereafter, approue +of any such companyes of men as shall henceforthe ioyne in any pretended +way of church fellowshipp, without they shall first acquainte the +magistrates, & the elders of the greater parte of the churches in this +jurisdiction, with their intenctions, and have their approbaction herein. +And ffurther, it is ordered, that noe person, being a member of any +churche which shall hereafter be gathered without the approbaction of the +magistrates, & the greater parte of the said churches, shallbe admitted to +the ffreedome of this commonwealthe." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ i. 168.] + +In 1648 all the elders met in a synod at Cambridge; they adopted the +Westminster Confession of Faith and an elaborate "Platform of Church +Discipline," the last clause of which is as follows: "If any church ... +shall grow schismatical, rending itself from the communion of other +churches, or shall walk incorrigibly and obstinately in any corrupt way of +their own contrary to the rule of the word; in such case the magistrate, +... is to put forth his coercive power, as the matter shall require." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 5, ch. xvii. Section 9.] + +In 1658 the General Court declared: "Whereas it is the duty of the +Christian magistrate to take care the people be fed with wholesome & sound +doctrine, & in this houre of temptation, ... it is therefore ordered, that +henceforth no person shall ... preach to any company of people, whither in +church society or not, or be ordeyned to the office of a teaching elder, +where any two organnick churches, councill of state, or Generall Court +shall declare theire dissatisfaction thereat, either in refference to +doctrine or practize... and in case of ordination... timely notice thereof +shall be given unto three or fower of the neighbouring organicke churches +for theire approbation." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iv. pt. 1, p. 328.] And +lastly, in 1679, the building of meeting-houses was forbidden, without +leave from the freemen of the town or the General Court. [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 213.] + +But legislation has never yet controlled the action of human thought. All +experience shows that every age, and every western nation, produces men +whose nature it is to follow the guidance of their reason in the face of +every danger. To exterminate these is the task of religious persecution, +for they can be silenced only by death. Thus is a dominant priesthood +brought face to face with the alternative, of surrendering its power or of +killing the heretic, and those bloody deeds that cast their sombre shadow +across the history of the Puritan Commonwealth cannot be seen in their +true bearing unless the position of the clergy is vividly before the mind. + +Cromwell said that ministers were "helpers of, not lords over, God's +people," [Footnote: Cromwell to Dundass, letter cxlviii. Carlyle's +_Cromwell_, iii. 72.] but the orthodox New Englander was the vassal +of his priest. Winthrop was the ablest and the most enlightened magistrate +the ecclesiastical party ever had, and he tells us that "I honoured a +faithful minister in my heart and could have kissed his feet." [Footnote: +_Life and Letters of Winthrop_, i. 61.] If the governor of +Massachusetts and the leader of the emigration could thus describe his +moral growth,--a man of birth, education, and fortune, who had had wide +experience of life, and was a lawyer by profession,--the awe and terror +felt by the mass of the communicants can be imagined. + +Jonathan Mitchel, one of the most famous of the earlier divines, thus +describes his flock: "They were a gracious, savoury-spirited people, +principled by Mr. Shepard, liking an humbling, mourning, heart-breaking +ministry and spirit; living in religion, praying men and women." And "he +would speak with such a transcendent majesty and liveliness, that the +people ... would often shake under his dispensations, as if they had heard +the sound of the trumpets from the burning mountain, and yet they would +mourn to think, that they were going presently to be dismissed from such +an heaven upon earth." ... "When a publick admonition was to be dispensed +unto any one that had offended scandalously... the hearers would be all +drowned in tears, as if the admonition had been, as indeed he would with +much artifice make it be directed unto them all; but such would be the +compassion, and yet the gravity, the majesty, the scriptural and awful +pungency of these his dispensations, that the conscience of the offender +himself, could make no resistance thereunto." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, +bk. 4, ch. iv. Sub-section 9, 10.] + +Their arrogance was fed by the submission of the people, and they would +not tolerate the slightest opposition even from their most devoted +retainers. The Reforming Synod was held in 1679. "When the report of a +committee on 'the evils that had provoked the Lord' came up for +consideration, 'Mr. Wheelock declared that there was a cry of injustice in +that magistrates and ministers were not rated' (taxed), 'which occasioned +a very warm discourse. Mr. Stodder' (minister of Northampton) 'charged the +deputy with saying what was not true, and the deputy governor' (Danforth) +'told him he deserved to be laid by the heels, etc.' + +"'After we broke up, the deputy and several others went home with Mr. +Stodder, and the deputy asked forgiveness of him and told him he freely +forgave him, but Mr. Stodder was high.' The next day 'the deputy owned his +being in too great a heat, and desired the Lord to forgive it, and Mr. +Stodder did something, though very little, by the deputy.'" [Footnote: +Palfrey's _History of New England_, in. 330, note 2. Extract from +_Journal_ of Rev. Peter Thacher.] Wheelock was lucky in not having to +smart more severely for his temerity, for the unfortunate Ursula Cole was +sentenced to pay L5 [Footnote: Five pounds was equivalent to a sum between +one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty dollars now. Ursula +was of course poor, or she would not have been sentenced to be whipped. +The fine was therefore extremely heavy.] or be whipped for the lighter +crime of saying "she had as lief hear a cat mew" [Footnote: Frothingham, +_History of Charlestown_, p. 208.] as Mr. Shepard preach. The daily +services in the churches consumed so much time that they became a +grievance with which the government was unable to cope. + +In 1633 the Court of Assistants, thinking "the keepeing of lectures att +the ordinary howres nowe obserued in the forenoone, to be dyvers wayes +preiudiciall to the common good, both in the losse of a whole day, & +bringing other charges & troubles to the place where the lecture is kept," +ordered that they should not begin before one o'clock. [Footnote: _Mass. +Rec._ i. 110.] The evil still continued, for only the next year it was +found that so many lectures "did spend too much time and proved +overburdensome," and they were reduced to two a week. [Footnote: Felt's +_Eccl. Hist._ i. 201.] Notwithstanding these measures, relief was not +obtained, because, as the legislature complained in 1639, lectures "were +held till night, and sometimes within the night, so as such as dwelt far +off could not get home in due season, and many weak bodies could not +endure so long, in the extremity of the heat or cold, without great +trouble and hazard of their health," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 324.] and a +consultation between the elders and magistrates was suggested. + +But to have the delights of the pulpit abridged was more than the divines +could bear. They declared roundly that their privileges were invaded; +[Footnote: _Idem_, i. 325.] and the General Court had to give way. A +few lines in Winthrop's Journal give an idea of the tax this loquacity +must have been upon the time of a poor and scattered people. "Mr. Hooker +being to preach at Cambridge, the governor and many others went to hear +him.... He preached in the afternoon, and having gone on, with much +strength of voice and intention of spirit, about a quarter of an hour, he +was at a stand, and told the people that God had deprived him both of his +strength and matter, &c. and so went forth, and about half an hour after +returned again, and went on to very good purpose about two hours." +[Footnote: Winthrop, i. 304.] Common men could not have kept this hold +upon the inhabitants of New England, but the clergy were learned, +resolute, and able, and their strong but narrow minds burned with +fanaticism and love of power; with their beliefs and under their +temptations persecution seemed to them not only their most potent weapon, +but a duty they owed to Christ--and that duty they unflinchingly +performed. John Cotton, the most gifted among them, taught it as a holy +work: "But the good that is brought to princes and subjects by the due +punishment of apostate seducers and idolaters and blasphemers is manifold. + +"First, it putteth away evill from the people and cutteth off a gangreene, +which would spread to further ungodlinesse.... + +"Secondly, it driveth away wolves from worrying and scattering the sheep +of Christ. For false teachers be wolves, ... and the very name of wolves +holdeth forth what benefit will redound to the sheep, by either killing +them or driving them away. + +"Thirdly, such executions upon such evill doers causeth all the country to +heare and feare, and doe no more such wickednesse.... Yea as these +punishments are preventions of like wickednesse in some, so are they +wholesome medicines, to heale such as are curable of these eviles.... + +"Fourthly, the punishments executed upon false prophets and seducing +teachers, doe bring downe showers of God's blessings upon the civill +state.... + +"Fifthly, it is an honour to God's Justice that such judgments are +executed...." [Footnote: _Bloody Tenent Washed_, pp. 137, 138.] + +All motives combined to drive them headlong into cruelty; for in the +breasts of the larger number, even the passion of bigotry was cool beside +the malignant hate they felt for those whose opinions menaced their +earthly power and dominion; and they never wearied of exhorting the +magistrates to destroy the enemies of the church. "Men's lusts are sweet +to them, and they would not be disturbed or disquieted in their sin. Hence +there be so many such as cry up tolleration boundless and libertinism so +as (if it were in their power) to order a total and perpetual confinement +of the sword of the civil magistrate unto its scabbard; (a notion that is +evidently distructive to this people, and to the publick liberty, peace, +and prosperity of any instituted churches under heaven.)" [Footnote: +_Eye Salve_, Election Sermon, by Mr. Shepard of Charlestown, p. 21.] +"Let the magistrates coercive power in matters of religion (therefore) be +still asserted, seing he is one who is bound to God more than any other +men to cherish his true religion; ... and how wofull would the state of +things soon be among us, if men might have liberty without controll to +profess, or preach, or print, or publish what they list, tending to the +seduction of others." [Footnote: _Eye Salve_, p. 38.] Such feelings +found their fit expression in savage laws against dissenting sects; these, +however, will be dealt with hereafter; only those which illustrate the +fundamental principles of the theocracy need be mentioned here. One chief +cause of schism was the hearing of false doctrine; and in order that the +people might not be led into temptation, but might on the contrary hear +true exposition of the word, every inhabitant was obliged to attend the +services of the established church upon the Lord's day under a penalty of +fine or imprisonment; the fine not to exceed 5s. (equal to about $5 now) +for every absence. [Footnote: 1634-35, 4 March. _Mass. Rec._ i. 140.] + +"If any Christian so called ... shall contemptuously behave himselfe +toward ye word preached, or ye messengers thereof called to dispence ye +same in any congregation, ... or like a sonn of Corah cast upon his true +doctrine or himselfe any reproach ... shall for ye first scandole be +convented ... and bound to their good behaviour; and if a second time they +breake forth into ye like contemptuous carriages, either to pay L5 to ye +publike treasury or to stand two houres openly upon a block 4 foote high, +on a lecture day, with a pap fixed on his breast with this, A Wanton +Gospeller, written in capitall letters ye others may fear & be ashamed of +breaking out into the like wickednes." [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. _Mass. +Rec._ ii. 179.] + +"Though no humane power be Lord over ye faith & consciences of men and +therefore may not constraine ym to beleeve or profes against their +conscience, yet because such as bring in damnable heresies tending to ye +subversion of ye Christian faith ... ought duely to be restrained from +such notorious impiety, if any Christian ... shall go about to subvert ... +ye Christian faith, by broaching ... any damnable heresy, as deniing ye +immortality of ye soule, or ye resurrection of ye body, or any sinn to be +repented of in ye regenerate, or any evill done by ye outward man to be +accounted sinn, or deniing yt Christ gave himselfe a ransome for or sinns +... or any other heresy of such nature & degree ... shall pay to ye common +treasury during ye first six months 20s. a month and for ye next six +months 40s. p. m., and so to continue dureing his obstinacy; and if any +such person shall endeavour to seduce others ... he shall forfeit ... for +every severall offence ... five pounds." [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. _Mass. +Rec._ ii. 177.] + +"For ye honnor of ye aetaernall God, whome only wee worshippp and serve," +(it is ordered that) "no person within this jurisdiction, whether +Christian or pagan, shall wittingly and willingly presume to blaspheme his +holy name either by wilfull or obstinate denying ye true God, or reproach +ye holy religion of God, as if it were but a polliticke devise to keepe +ignorant men in awe, ... or deny his creation or gouvernment of ye world, +or shall curse God, or shall vtter any other eminent kind of blasphemy, of +ye like nature and degree; if any person or persons whatsoeuer within our +jurisdiction shall breake this lawe they shall be putt to death." +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iii.98.] + +The special punishments for Antinomians, Baptists, Quakers, and other +sectaries were fine and imprisonment, branding, whipping, mutilation, +banishment, and hanging. Nor were the elders men to shrink from executing +these laws with the same ferocious spirit in which they were enacted. +Remonstrance and command were alike neglected. The Long Parliament warned +them to beware; Charles II. repeatedly ordered them to desist; their +trusted and dearest friend, Sir Richard Saltonstall, wrote from London to +Cotton: "It doth not a little grieve my spirit to heare what sadd things +are reported dayly of your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that +you fyne, whip, and imprison men for their consciences," [Footnote: +_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 127.] and told them their "rigid +wayes have laid you very lowe in the hearts of the saynts." Thirteen of +the most learned and eminent nonconforming ministers in England wrote to +the governor of Massachusetts imploring him that he and the General Court +would not by their violence "put an advantage into the hands of some who +seek pretences and occasions against our liberty." [Footnote: +_Magnalia_, bk. 7, ch. iv. section 4.] Winthrop, the wisest and +ablest champion the clergy ever had, hung back. Like many another +political leader, he was forced by his party into measures from which his +judgment and his heart recoiled. He tells us how, on a question arising +between him and Mr. Haynes, the elders "delivered their several reasons +which all sorted to this conclusion, that strict discipline, both in +criminal offences and in martial affairs, was more needful in plantations +than in a settled state, as tending to the honor and safety of the gospel. +Whereupon Mr. Winthrop acknowledged that he was convinced that he had +failed in over much lenity and remissness, and would endeavor (by God's +assistance) to take a more strict course thereafter." [Footnote: Winthrop, +i. 178.] But his better nature revolted from the foul task and once more +regained ascendancy just as he sunk in death. For while he was lying very +sick, Dudley came to his bedside with an order to banish a heretic: "No," +said the dying man, "I have done too much of that work already," and he +would not sign the warrant. [Footnote: _Life and Letters of Winthrop_, ii. +393.] + +Nothing could avail, for the clergy held the state within their grasp, and +shrank from no deed of blood to guard the interests of their order. + +The case of Gorton may serve as an example of a rigor that shocked even +the Presbyterian Baillie; it must be said in explanation of his story that +the magistrates condemned Gorton and his friends to death for the crime of +heresy in obedience to the unanimous decision of the elders, [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 146.] but the deputies refusing to concur, the sentence of +imprisonment in irons during the pleasure of the General Court was agreed +upon as a compromise. "Only they in New England are more strict and rigid +than we, or any church, to suppress, by the power of the magistrate, all +who are not of their way, to banishment ordinarily and presently even to +death lately, or perpetual slavery; for one Jortin, sometime a famous +citizen here for piety, having taught a number in New England to cast oft +the word and sacrament, and deny angels and devils, and teach a gross kind +of union with Christ in this life, by force of arms was brought to New +Boston, and there with ten of the chief of his followers, by the civil +court was discerned perpetual slaves, but the votes of many were for their +execution. They lie in irons, though gentlemen; and out of their prison +write to the admiral here, to deal with the parliament for their +deliverance." [Footnote: Baillie's Letters, ii. 17, 18.] + +Like all phenomena of nature, the action of the mind is obedient to law; +the cause is followed by the consequence with the precision that the earth +moves round the sun, and impelled by this resistless power his destiny is +wrought out by man. To the ecclesiastic a deep debt of gratitude is due, +for it was by his effort that the first step from barbarism was made. In +the world's childhood, knowledge seems divine, and those who first acquire +its rudiments claim, and are believed, to have received it by revelation +from the gods. In an archaic age the priest is likewise the law-giver and +the physician, for all erudition is concentrated in one supremely favored +class--the sacred caste. Their discoveries are kept profoundly secret, and +yet to perpetuate their mysteries among their descendants they found +schools which are the only repositories of learning; but the time must +inevitably come when this order is transformed into the deadliest enemy of +the civilization which it has brought into being. The power of the +spiritual oligarchy rests upon superstitious terrors which dwindle before +advancing enlightenment; hence the clergy have become reactionary, have +sought to stifle the spirit of free inquiry, and have used the schools +which they have builded as instruments to keep alive unreasoning +prejudice, or to serve their selfish ends. This, then, has been the +fiercest battle of mankind; the heroic struggle to break down the +sacerdotal barrier, to popularize knowledge, and to liberate the mind, +began ages before the crucifixion upon Calvary; it still goes on. In this +cause the noblest and the bravest have poured forth their blood like +water, and the path to freedom has been heaped with the corpses of her +martyrs. + +In that tremendous drama Massachusetts has played her part; it may be said +to have made her intellectual life; and it is the passion of the combat +which gives an interest at once so sombre and so romantic to her story. + +In the tempest of the Reformation a handful of the sternest rebels were +cast upon the bleak New England coast, and the fervor of that devotion +which led them into the wilderness inspired them with the dream of +reproducing the institutions of God's chosen people, a picture of which +they believed was divinely preserved for their guidance in the Bible. What +they did in reality was to surrender their new commonwealth to their +priests. Yet they were a race in whose bone and blood the spirit of free +thought was bred; the impulse which had goaded them to reject the Roman +dogmas was quick within them still, and revolt against the ecclesiastical +yoke was certain. The clergy upon their side trod their appointed path +with the precision of machines, and, constrained by an inexorable destiny, +they took that position of antagonism to liberal thought which has become +typical of their order. And the struggles and the agony by which this poor +and isolated community freed itself from its gloomy bondage, the means by +which it secularized its education and its government, won for itself the +blessing of free thought and speech, and matured a system of +constitutional liberty which has been the foundation of the American +Union, rise in dignity to one of the supreme efforts of mankind. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ANTINOMIANS. + + +Habit may be defined with enough accuracy for ordinary purposes as the +result of reflex action, or the immediate response of the nerves to a +stimulus, without the intervention of consciousness. Many bodily functions +are naturally reflex, and most movements may be made so by constant +repetition; they are then executed independently of the will. It is no +exaggeration to say that the social fabric rests on the control this +tendency exerts over the actions of men; and its strength is strikingly +exemplified in armies, which, when well organized, are machines, wherein +subjection to command is instinctive, and insubordination, therefore, +practically impossible. + +An analogous phenomenon is presented by the church, whose priests have +intuitively exhausted their ingenuity in weaving webs of ceremonial, as +soldiers have directed their energies to perfecting manuals of arms; and +the evidence leads to the conclusion that increasing complexity of ritual +indicates a densening ignorance and a deepening despotism. The Hindoos, +the Spaniards, and the English are types of the progression. + +Within the historic ages unnumbered methods of sacerdotal discipline have +been evolved, but whether the means used to compass the end has been the +bewildering maze of a Levitical code, or the rosary and the confessional +of Rome, the object has always been to reduce the devotee to the implicit +obedience of the trooper. And the stupendous power of these amazingly +perfect systems for destroying the capacity for original thought cannot be +fully realized until the mind has been brought to dwell upon the fact that +the greatest eras of human progress have begun with the advent of those +who have led successful insurrection; nor can the dazzling genius of these +brilliant exceptions be appreciated, unless it be remembered how +infinitely small has been the number of those among mankind who, having +been once drilled to rigid conformity, have not lapsed into automatism, +but have been endowed with the mental energy to revolt. On the other hand, +though ecclesiastics have differed widely in the details of the training +they have enforced upon the faithful, they have agreed upon this cardinal +principle: they have uniformly seized upon the education of the young, and +taught the child to revere the rites in which he was made to partake +before he could reason upon their meaning, for they understood well that +the habit of abject submission to authority, when firmly rooted in +infancy, would ripen into a second nature in after years, and would almost +invariably last till death. + +But this manual of religion, this deadening of the soul by making +mechanical prayers and genuflexions the gauge of piety, has always roused +the deepest indignation in the great reformers; and, un-appalled by the +most ghastly perils, they have never ceased to exhort mankind to cast off +the slavery of custom and emancipate the mind. Christ rebuked the +Pharisees because they rejected the commandment of God to keep their own +tradition; Paul proclaimed that men should be justified by faith without +the deeds of the law; and Luther preached that the Christian was free, +that the soul did not live because the body wore vestments or prayed with +the lips, and he denounced the tyranny of the clergy, who arrogated to +themselves a higher position than others who were Christian in the spirit. +On their side priesthoods know these leaders of rebellion by an unerring +instinct and pursue them to the death. + +The ministers of New England were formalists to the core, and the society +over which they dominated was organized upon the avowed basis of the +manifestation of godliness in the outward man. The sad countenance, the +Biblical speech, the sombre garb, the austere life, the attendance at +worship, and, above all, the unfailing deference paid to themselves, were +the marks of sanctification by which the elders knew the saints on earth, +for whom they were to open the path to fortune by making them members of +the church. + +Happily for Massachusetts, there has never been a time when all her +children could be docile under such a rule; and, among her champions of +freedom, none have been braver than those who have sprung from the ranks +of her ministry, as the fate of Roger Williams had already proved. In such +a community, before the ecclesiastical power had been solidified by time, +only a spark was needed to kindle a conflagration, and that spark was +struck by a woman. + +So early as 1634 a restless spirit was abroad, for Winthrop was then set +aside, and now, in 1636, young Henry Vane was enthusiastically elected +governor, though he was only twenty-four, and had been but a few months in +the colony. The future seemed bright and serene, yet he had hardly taken +office before the storm burst, which not only overthrew him, but was +destined to destroy that unhappy lady whom the Rev. Thomas Welde called +the American Jezebel. [Footnote: Opinions are divided as to the authorship +of the _Short Story_, but I conclude from internal evidence that the +ending at least was written by Mr. Welde.] + +John Cotton, the former rector of St. Botolph's, was the teacher of the +Boston church. By common consent the leader of the clergy, he was the most +brilliant, and, in some respects, the most powerful man in the colony. Two +years before, Anne Hutchinson, with all her family, had followed him from +her home in Lincolnshire into the wilderness, for, "when our teacher came +to New England, it was a great trouble unto me, my brother, Wheelwright, +being put by also." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist_. ii. 440.] A gentlewoman +of spotless life, with a kind and charitable heart, a vigorous +understanding and dauntless courage, her failings were vanity and a bitter +tongue toward those whom she disliked. [Footnote: Cotton, _Way of New +England Churches_, p. 52.] Unfortunately also for herself, she was one +of the enthusiasts who believe themselves subject to divine revelations, +for this pretension would probably in any event have brought upon her the +displeasure of the church. It is worth while to attempt some logical +explanation of the dislike felt by the Massachusetts elders to any +suggestion of such supernatural interposition. The half-unconscious train +of reasoning on which they based their claim to exact implicit obedience +from the people seems, when analyzed, to yield this syllogism: All +revelation is contained in the Bible; but to interpret the ancient sacred +writings with authority, a technical training is essential, which is +confined to priests; therefore no one can define God's will who is not of +the ministry. Had the possibility of direct revelation been admitted this +reasoning must have fallen; for then, obviously, the word of an inspired +peasant would have outweighed the sermon of an uninspired divine; it +follows, necessarily, that ecclesiastics so situated would have been +jealous of lay preaching, and absolutely intolerant of the inner light. + +In May, 1636, the month of Vane's election, Mrs. Hutchinson had been +joined by her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, the deprived vicar of +Bilsby. Her social influence was then at its height; her amiable +disposition had made her popular, and for some time past she had held +religious meetings for women at her house. The ostensible object of these +gatherings was to recapitulate the sermons of the week; but the step from +discussion to criticism was short, and it soon began to be said that she +cast reproach "upon the ministers, ... saying that none of them did preach +the covenant of free grace, but Master Cotton, and that they have not the +seale of the Spirit, and so were not able ministers of the New Testament." +[Footnote: _Short Story_, p. 36.] Or, to use colloquial language, she +accused the clergy of being teachers of forms, and said that, of them all, +Cotton alone appealed to the animating spirit like Luther or St. Paul. + +"A company of legall professors," quoth she, "lie poring on the law which +Christ hath abolished." [Footnote: _Wonder-Working Providence_, Poole's +ed. p. 102.] + +Such freedom of speech was, of course, intolerable; and so, as Cotton was +implicated by her imprudent talk, the elders went to Boston in a body in +October to take him to task. In the hope of adjusting the difficulty, he +suggested a friendly meeting at his house, and an interview took place. At +first Mrs. Hutchinson, with much prudence, declined to commit herself; but +the Rev. Hugh Peters besought her so earnestly to deal frankly and openly +with them that she, confiding in the sacred character of a confidential +conversation with clergymen in the house of her own religious teacher, +committed the fatal error of admitting that she saw a wide difference +between Mr. Cotton's ministry and theirs, and that they could not preach a +covenant of grace so clearly as he, because they had not the seal of the +Spirit. The progress of the new opinion was rapid, and it is clear Mrs. +Hutchinson had only given expression to a feeling of discontent which was +both wide-spread and deep. Before winter her adherents, or those who +condemned the covenant of works,--in modern language, the liberals,--had +become an organized political party, of which Vane was the leader; and +here lay their first danger. + +Notwithstanding his eminent ability, he was then but a boy, and the task +was beyond his strength. The stronghold of his party was Boston, where, +except some half-dozen, [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 212.] the whole +congregation followed him and Cotton: yet even here he met with the +powerful opposition of Winthrop and the pastor, John Wilson. In the +country he was confronted by the solid body of the clergy, whose influence +proved sufficient to hold together a majority of the voters in +substantially all the towns, so that the conservatives never lost control +of the legislature. + +The position was harassing, and his nerves gave way under the strain. In +December he called a court and one day suddenly announced that he had +received letters from England requiring his immediate return; but when +some of his friends remonstrated he "brake forth into tears and professed +that, howsoever the causes propounded for his departure were such as did +concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he would rather have +hazarded all" ... "but for the danger he saw of God's judgment to come +upon us for these differences and dissensions which he saw amongst us, and +the scandalous imputations brought upon himself, as if he should be the +cause of all." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 207.] + +Such a flight was out of the question. The weight of his name and the +protection given his supporters by the power of his family in England +could not be dispensed with, and therefore the Boston congregation +intervened. After a day's reflection he seems himself to have become +convinced that he had gone too far to recede, so he "expressed himself to +be an obedient child to the church and therefore ... durst not go away." +[Footnote: _Idem_, i. 208.] + +That a young and untried man like Vane should have grown weary of his +office and longed to escape will astonish no one who is familiar with the +character and the mode of warfare of his adversaries. + +In that society a layman could not retort upon a minister who insulted +him, nor could Vane employ the arguments with which Cromwell so +effectually silenced the Scotch divines. The following is a specimen of +the treatment to which he was probably almost daily subjected, and the +scene in this instance was the more mortifying because it took place +before the assembled legislature. + +"The ministers had met a little before and had drawn into heads all the +points wherein they suspected Mr. Cotton did differ from them, and had +propounded them to him, and pressed him to a direct answer ... to every +one; which he had promised. ... This meeting being spoke of in the court +the day before, the governour took great offence at it, as being without +his privity, &c., which this day Mr. Peter told him as plainly of (with +all due reverence), and how it had sadded the ministers' spirits, that he +should be jealous of their meetings, or seem to restrain their liberty, +&c. The governour excused his speech as sudden and upon a mistake. Mr. +Peter told him also, that before he came, within less than two years +since, the churches were in peace.... Mr. Peter also besought him humbly +to consider his youth and short experience in the things of God, and to +beware of peremptory conclusions which he perceived him to be very apt +unto." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 209.] This coarse bully was the same Hugh +Peters of whom Whitelock afterward complained that he often advised him, +though he "understood little of the law, but was very opinionative," +[Footnote: Memorials, p. 521.] and who was so terrified at the approach of +death that on his way to the scaffold he had to drink liquor to keep from +fainting. [Footnote: Burnet, i. 162.] + +"Mr. Wilson" also "made a very sad speech to the General Court of the +condition of our churches, and the inevitable danger of separation, if +these differences ... were not speedily remedied, and laid the blame upon +these new opinions ... which all the magistrates except the governour and +two others did confirm and all the ministers but two." [Footnote: +Winthrop, i. 209.] Those two were John Cotton and John Wheelwright, the +preachers of the covenant of grace. + +Their brethren might well make sad speeches, for their cup of bitterness +was full; but they must be left to describe for themselves the tempest of +fear and wrath that raged within them. "Yea, some that had beene begotten +to Christ by some of their faithfull labours in this land" (England, where +the tract was published,) "for whom they could have laid downe their +lives, and not being able to beare their absence followed after them +thither to New England to enjoy their labours, yet these falling +acquainted with those seducers, were suddenly so altered in their +affections toward those their spirituall fathers, that they would neither +heare them, nor willingly come in their company, professing they had never +received any good from them." ... "Now the faithfull ministers of Christ +must have dung cast on their faces ... must be pointed at as it were with +the finger, and reproached by name, such a church officer is an ignorant +man, and knows not Christ; such an one is under a covenant of works: such +a pastor is a proud man, and would make a good persecutor ... so that +through these reproaches occasion was given to men, to abhorre the +offerings of the Lord." [Footnote: Welde's _Short Story_, Pref. Sections +7-11.] + +"Now, one of them in a solemne convention of ministers dared to say to +their faces, that they did not preach the Covenant of Free Grace, and that +they themselves had not the seale of the Spirit.... Now, after our sermons +were ended at our publike lectures, you might have seene halfe a dozen +pistols discharged at the face of the preacher (I meane) so many +objections made by the opinionists in the open assembly against our +doctrine ... to the marvellous weakening of holy truths delivered ... in +the hearts of all the weaker sort." [Footnote: Welde's _Short Story_, +Pref. Sections 7-11.] + +John Wheelwright was a man whose character extorts our admiration, if it +does not win our love. The personal friend of Cromwell and of Vane, with a +mind vigorous and masculine, and a courage stern and determined even above +the Puritan standard of resolution and of daring, he spoke the truth which +was within him, and could neither be intimidated nor cajoled. In October +an attempt had been made to have him settled as a teacher of the Boston +church in conjunction with Wilson and Cotton, but it had miscarried +through Winthrop's opposition, and he had afterward taken charge of a +congregation that had been gathered at Mount Wollaston, in what is now +Quincy. + +On the 19th of January a fast was held on account of the public +dissensions, and on that day Wheelwright preached a great sermon in Boston +which brought on the crisis. He was afterward accused of sedition: the +charge was false, for he did not utter one seditious word; but he did that +which was harder to forgive, he struck at what he deemed the wrong with +his whole might, and those who will patiently pore over his pages until +they see the fire glowing through his rugged sentences will feel the power +of his blow. And what he told his hearers was in substance this: It maketh +no matter how seemingly holy men be according to the law, if ... they are +such as trust to their own righteousness they shall die, saith the Lord. +Do ye not after their works; for they say and do not. They make broad +their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the +uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues; and +greetings in the market place and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But +believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved, for being +justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. +And the way we must take if so be we will not have the Lord Jesus Christ +taken from us is this, we must all prepare a spiritual combat, we must put +on the whole armor of God, and must have our loins girt up and be ready to +fight, ... because of fear in the night if we will not fight the Lord +Jesus Christ may come to be surprised. + +And when his brethren heard it they sought how they might destroy him; for +they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. + +In March the legislature met, and Wheelwright was arraigned before a court +composed, according to the account of the Quaker Groom, of Henry Vane, +"twelve magistrates, twelve priests, & thirty-three deputies." [Footnote: +Groom's Glass for New England, p. 6.] His sermon was produced, and an +attempt was made to obtain an admission that by those under a covenant of +works he meant his brethren. But the accused was one whom it was hard to +entrap and impossible to frighten. He defied his judges to controvert his +doctrine, offering to prove it by the Scriptures, and as for the +application he answered that "if he were shown any that walked in such a +way as he had described to be a covenant of works, them did he mean." +[Footnote: Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 17, note 27.] Then the rest of +the elders were asked if they "did walk in such a way, and they all +acknowledged they did," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 215. Wheelwright, p. 18.] +excepting John Cotton, who declared that "brother Wheelwright's doctrine +was according to God in the parts controverted, and wholly and +altogether." [Footnote: Groom's _Glass for New England_, p. 7.] He +received ecclesiastical justice. There was no jury, and the popular +assembly that decided law and fact by a partisan vote was controlled by +his adversaries. Yet even so, a verdict of sedition was such a flagrant +outrage that the clergy found it impossible to command prompt obedience. +For two days the issue was in doubt, but at length "the priests got two of +the magistrates on their side, and so got the major part with them." +[Footnote: Felt's _Eccl. Hist._ ii. 611.] They appear, however, to +have felt too weak to proceed to sentence, for the prisoner was remanded +until the next session. + +No sooner was the judgment made known than more than sixty of the most +respected citizens of Boston signed a petition to the court in +Wheelwright's behalf, In respectful and even submissive language they +pointed out the danger of meddling with the right of free speech. "Paul +was counted a pestilent fellow, or a moover of sedition, and a ringleader +of a sect, ... and Christ himselfe, as well as Paul, was charged to bee a +teacher of New Doctrine.... Now wee beseech you, consider whether that old +serpent work not after his old method, even in our daies." [Footnote: +Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 21.] + +The charge of sedition made against them they repudiated in emphatic +words, which deserve attention, as they were afterwards held to be +criminal. + +"Thirdly, if you look at the effects of his doctrine upon the hearers, it +hath not stirred up sedition in us, not so much as by accident; wee have +not drawn the sword, as sometimes Peter did, rashly, neither have wee +rescued our innocent brother, as sometimes the Israelites did Jonathan, +and yet they did not seditiously. The covenant of free grace held forth by +our brother hath taught us rather to become humble suppliants to your +worships, and if wee should not prevaile, wee would rather with patience +give our cheekes to the smiters." [Footnote: _Idem_.] + +The liberal feeling ran so strongly in Boston that the conservatives +thought it prudent to remove the government temporarily to Cambridge, that +they might more easily control the election which was to come in May. +Vane, with some petulance, refused to entertain the motion; but Endicott +put the question, and it was carried. As the time drew near the excitement +increased, the clergy straining every nerve to bring up their voters from +the country; and on the morning of the day the feeling was so intense that +the Rev. Mr. Wilson, forgetting his dignity and his age, scrambled up a +tree and harangued the people from its branches. [Footnote: Hutch. +_Hist_. i. 62, note.] + +Yet, though the freemen were so deeply moved, there was no violence, and +Winthrop was peaceably elected governor, with a strong conservative +majority in the legislature. It so happened that just at this time a +number of the friends of Wheelwright and the Hutchinsons were on their way +from England to settle in Massachusetts. The first act of the new +government was to exclude these new-comers by passing a law forbidding any +town to entertain strangers for more than three weeks without the consent +of two of the magistrates. + +This oppressive statute caused such discontent that Winthrop thought it +necessary to publish a defence, to which Vane replied and Winthrop +rejoined. The controversy would long since have lost its interest had it +not been for the theory then first advanced by Winthrop, that the +corporation of Massachusetts, having bought its land, held it as though it +were a private estate, and might exclude whom they pleased therefrom; and +ever since this plea has been set up in justification of every excess +committed by the theocracy. + +Winthrop was a lawyer, and it is but justice to his reputation to presume +that he spoke as a partisan, knowing his argument to be fallacious. As a +legal proposition he must have been aware that it was unsound. + +Although during the reign of Charles I. monopolies were a standing +grievance with the House of Commons, yet they had been granted and +enforced for centuries; and had Massachusetts claimed the right to exclude +strangers as interlopers in trade, she would have stood upon good +precedent. Such, however, was not her contention. The legislation against +the friends of Wheelwright was passed avowedly upon grounds of religious +difference of opinion, and a monopoly in religion was unknown. + +Her commercial privileges alone were exclusive, and, provided he respected +them, a British subject had the same right to dwell in Massachusetts as in +any of the other dominions of the crown, or, indeed, in any borough which +held its land by grant, like Plymouth. To subject Englishmen to +restriction or punishment unknown to English law was as outrageous as the +same act would have been had it been perpetrated by the city of London,-- +both corporations having a like power to preserve the peace by local +ordinances, and both being controlled by the law of the land as +administered by the courts. Such arguments as those advanced by Winthrop +were only solemn quibbling to cloak an indefensible policy. To banish +freemen for demanding liberty of conscience was a still more flagrant +wrong. A precisely parallel case would have been presented had the +directors of the East India Company declared the membership of a +proprietor to be forfeited, and ordered his stock to be sold, because he +disapproved of enforcing conformity in worship among inhabitants of the +factories in Hindostan. + +Vane sailed early in August, and his departure cleared the last barrier +from the way of vengeance. Proceedings were at once begun by a synod of +all the ministers, which was held at Cambridge, for the purpose of +restoring peace to the churches. "There were about eighty opinions, some +blasphemous, others erroneous, and all unsafe, condemned by the whole +assembly.... Some of the church of Boston ... were offended at the +producing of so many errors, ... and called to have the persons named +which held those errors." To which the elders answered that all those +opinions could be proved to be held by some, but it was not thought fit to +name the parties. "Yet this would not satisfy some but they oft called for +witnesses; and because some of the magistrates declared to them ... that +if they would not forbear it would prove a civil disturbance ... they +objected.... So as he" (probably meaning Winthrop) "was forced to tell one +of them that if he would not forbear ... he might see it executed. Upon +this some of Boston departed from the assembly and came no more." +[Footnote: Winthrop, i. 238.] Once freed from their repinings all went +well, and their pastor, Mr. Wilson, soon had the satisfaction of sending +their reputed heresies "to the devil of hell from whence they came." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 3, ch. ii. Section 13.] Cotton, seeing +that all was lost, hastened to make his peace by a submission which the +Rev. Mr. Hubbard of Ipswich describes with unconscious cynicism. "If he +were not convinced, yet he was persuaded to an amicable compliance with +the other ministers; ... for, although it was thought he did still retain +his own sense and enjoy his own apprehension in all or most of the things +then controverted (as is manifest by some expressions of his ... since +that time published,"...) yet. "By that means did that reverend and worthy +minister of the gospel recover his former splendour throughout ... New +England." [Footnote: Hubbard, p. 302.] + +He was not a sensitive man, and having once determined to do penance, he +was far too astute a politician to do it by halves; he not only gave +himself up to the task of detecting the heterodoxy of his old friends, +[Footnote: Winthrop, i. 253.] but on a day of solemn fasting he publicly +professed repentance with many tears, and told how, "God leaving him for a +time, he fell into a spirituall slumber; and had it not been for the +watchfulnesse of his brethren, the elders, &c., hee might have slept on, +... and was very thankfull to his brethren for their watchfulnesse over +him." [Footnote: _Hypocrisie Unmasked_, p. 76.] Nor to the end of his +life did he feel quite at ease; "yea, such was his ingenuity and piety as +that his soul was not satisfied without often breaking forth into +affectionate bewailing of his infirmity herein, in the publick assembly, +sometimes in his prayer, sometimes in his sermon, and that with tears." +[Footnote: Norton's _Funeral Sermon_, p. 37.] + +Wheelwright was made of sterner stuff, and was inflexible. In fact, +however, the difference of dogma, if any existed, was trivial. The clergy +used the cry of heresy to excite odium, just as they called their +opponents Antinomians, or dangerous fanatics. To support these accusations +the synod gravely accepted every unsavory inference which ingenuity could +wring from the tenets of their adversaries; and these, together with the +fables invented by idle gossip, made up the long list of errors they +condemned. Though the scheme was unprincipled, it met with complete +success, and the Antinomians have come down to posterity branded as deadly +enemies of Christ and the commonwealth; yet nothing is more certain than +that they were not only good citizens, but substantially orthodox. On such +a point there is no one among the conservatives whose testimony has the +weight of Winthrop's, who says: "Mr. Cotton ... stated the differences in +a very narrow scantling; and Mr. Shepherd, preaching at the day of +election, brought them yet nearer, so as, except men of good +understanding, and such as knew the bottom of the tenents of those of the +other party, few could see where the difference was." [Footnote: Winthrop, +i. 221.] While Cotton himself complains bitterly of the falsehoods spread +about him and his friends: "But when some of ... the elders of neighbour +churches advertised me of the evill report ... I ... dealt with Mrs. +Hutchinson and others of them, declaring to them the erroneousnesse of +those tenents, and the injury done to myself in fathering them upon mee. +Both shee and they utterly denyed that they held such tenents, or that +they had fathered them upon mee. I returned their answer to the elders.... +They answered me they had but one witnesse, ... and that one both to be +known." ... [Footnote: Cotton, _Way of New England Churches_, pp. 39, 40.] +Moreover, it is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the advantage it +would have given the reactionists to have been able to fix subversive +opinions upon their prominent opponents, it was found impossible to prove +heresy in a single case which was brought to trial. The legislature chosen +in May was apparently unfit for the work now to be done, for the +extraordinary step of a dissolution was decided on, and a new election +held, under circumstances in which it was easy to secure the return of +suitable candidates. The session opened on November 2, and Wheelwright was +summoned to appear. He was ordered to submit, or prepare for sentence. He +replied that he was guilty of neither sedition nor contempt; that he had +preached only the truth of Christ, the application of which was for +others, not for him. "To which it was answered by the court that they had +not censured his doctrine, but left it as it was; but his application, by +which hee laid the magistrates and ministers and most of the people of God +in these churches under a covenant of works." [Footnote: _Short Story_, p. +24.] The prisoner was then sentenced to be disfranchised and banished. He +demanded an appeal to the king; it was refused; and he was given fourteen +days to leave Massachusetts. So he went forth alone in the bitter winter +weather and journeyed to the Piscataqua,--yet "it was marvellous he got +thither at that time, when they expelled him, by reason of the deep snow +in which he might have perished." [Footnote: Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. +_Mercurius Americanus_, p. 24.] Nor was banishment by any means the +trivial penalty it has been described. On the contrary, it was a +punishment of the utmost rigor. The exiles were forced suddenly to dispose +of their property, which, in those times, was mostly in houses and land, +and go forth among the savages with helpless women and children. Such an +ordeal might well appall even a brave man; but Wheelwright was sacrificing +his intellectual life. He was leaving books, friends, and the mental +activity, which made the world to him, to settle in the forests among +backwoodsmen; and yet even in this desolate solitude the theocracy +continued to pursue him with persevering hate. + +But there were others beside Wheelwright who had sinned, and some pretext +had to be devised by which to reach them. The names of most of his friends +were upon the petition that had been drawn up after his trial. It is true +it was a proceeding with which the existing legislature was not concerned, +since it had been presented to one of its predecessors; it is also true +that probably never, before or since, have men who have protested they +have not drawn the sword rashly, but have come as humble suppliants to +offer their cheeks to the smiters, been held to be public enemies. Such +scruples, however, never hampered the theocracy. Their justice was +trammelled neither by judges, by juries, nor by laws; the petition was +declared to be a seditious libel, and the petitioners were given their +choice of disavowing their act and making humble submission, or exile. + +Aspinwall was at once disfranchised and banished. [Footnote: _Mass. +Rec._ i. 207.] Coddington, Coggeshall, and nine more were given leave +to depart within three months, or abide the action of the court; others +were disfranchised; and fifty-eight of the less prominent of the party +were disarmed in Boston alone. [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 223.] + +Thus were the early liberals crushed in Massachusetts; the bold were +exiled, the timid were terrified; as a political organization they moved +no more till the theocracy was tottering to its fall; and for forty years +the power of the clergy was absolute in the land. + +The fate of Anne Hutchinson makes a fit ending to this sad tale of +oppression and of wrong. In November, 1637, when her friends were crushed, +and the triumphant priests felt that their victim's doom was sure, she was +brought to trial before that ghastliest den of human iniquity, an +ecclesiastical criminal court. The ministers were her accusers, who came +burning with hate to testify to the words she had spoken to them at their +own request, in the belief that the confidence she reposed was to be held +sacred. She had no jury to whose manhood she could appeal, and John +Winthrop, to his lasting shame, was to prosecute her from the judgment +seat. She was soon to become a mother, and her health was feeble, but she +was made to stand till she was exhausted; and yet, abandoned and forlorn, +before those merciless judges, through two long, weary days of hunger and +of cold, the intrepid woman defended her cause with a skill and courage +which even now, after two hundred and fifty years, kindles the heart with +admiration. The case for the government was opened by John Winthrop, the +presiding justice, the attorney-general, the foreman of the jury, and the +chief magistrate of Massachusetts Bay. He upbraided the prisoner with her +many evil courses, with having spoken things prejudicial to the honor of +the ministers, with holding an assembly in her house, and with divulging +the opinions held by those who had been censured by that court; closing in +these words, which sound strangely in the mouth of a New England judge:-- + + * * * * * + +We have thought good to send for you ... that if you be in an erroneous +way we may reduce you that so you may become a profitable member here +among us, otherwise if you be obstinate ... that then the court may take +such course that you may trouble us no further, therefore I would entreat +you ... whether you do not justify Mr. Wheelwright's sermon and the +petition. + +_Mrs. H._ I am called here to answer before you, but I hear no things +laid to my charge. + +_Gov._ I have told you some already, and more I can tell you. + +_Mrs. H._ Name one, sir. + +_Gov._ Have I not named some already? + +_Mrs. H._ What have I said or done?... + +_Gov._ You have joined with them in the faction. + +_Mrs. H._ In what faction have I joined with them? + +_Gov._ In presenting the petition.... + +_Mrs. H._ But I had not my hand to the petition. + +_Gov._ You have counselled them. + +_Mrs. H._ Wherein? + +_Gov._ Why, in entertaining them. + +_Mrs. H._ What breach of law is that, sir? + +_Gov._ Why, dishonoring of parents.... + +_Mrs. H._ I may put honor upon them as the children of God and as they do +honor the Lord. + +_Gov._ We do not mean to discourse with those of your sex but only this; +you do adhere unto them, and do endeavor to set forward this faction, and +so you do dishonor us. + +_Mrs. H._ I do acknowledge no such thing, neither do I think that I ever +put any dishonor upon you. + + * * * * * + +And, on the whole, the chief justice broke down so hopelessly in his +examination, that the deputy governor, or his senior associate upon the +bench, thought it necessary to interfere. + + * * * * * + +_Dep. Gov._ I would go a little higher with Mrs. Hutchinson. Now ... if +she in particular hath disparaged all our ministers in the land that they +have preached a covenant of works, and only Mr. Cotton a covenant of +grace, why this is not to be suffered... + +_Mrs. H._ I pray, sir, prove it, that I said they preached nothing but a +covenant of works.... + +_Dep. Gov._ If they do not preach a covenant of grace, clearly, then, they +preach a covenant of works. + +_Mrs. H._ No, sir, one may preach a covenant of grace more clearly than +another, so I said. + + * * * * * + +Dudley was faring worse than Winthrop, and the divines, who had been +bursting with impatience, could hold no longer. The Rev. Hugh Peters broke +in: "That which concerns us to speak unto, as yet we are sparing in, +unless the court command us to speak, then we shall answer to Mrs. +Hutchinson, notwithstanding our brethren are very unwilling to answer." +And without further urging, that meek servant of Christ went on to tell +how he and others had heard that the prisoner said they taught a covenant +of works, how they had sent for her, and though she was "very tender" at +first, yet upon being begged to speak plainly, she had explained that +there "was a broad difference between our Brother Mr. Cotton and +ourselves. I desired to know the difference. She answered 'that he +preaches the covenant of grace and you the covenant of works, and that you +are not able ministers of the New Testament, and know no more than the +apostles did before the resurrection.'"... + + * * * * * + +_Mrs. H._ If our pastor would show his writings you should see what I +said, and that many things are not so as is reported. + +_Mr. Wilson._ Sister Hutchinson, for the writings you speak of I have them +not.... + + * * * * * + +Five more divines followed, who, though they were "loth to speak in that +assembly concerning that gentlewoman," yet to ease their consciences in +"the relation wherein" they stood "to the Commonwealth and... unto God," +felt constrained to state that the prisoner had said they were not able +ministers of the New Testament, and that the whole of the evidence of Hugh +Peters was true, and in so doing they came to an issue of veracity with +Cotton. + +An adjournment soon followed till next day, and the presiding justice +seems to have considered his case against his prisoner as closed. + +In the morning Mrs. Hutchinson opened her defence by calling three +witnesses, Leverett, Coggeshall, and John Cotton. + + * * * * * + +_Gov._ Mr. Coggeshall was not present. + +_Mr. C._ Yes, but I was, only I desired to be silent till I should be +called. + +_Gov._ Will you ... say that she did not say so? + +_Mr. C._ Yes, I dare say that she did not say all that which they lay +against her. + +_Mr. Peters._ How dare you look into the court to say such a word? + +_Mr. C._ Mr. Peters takes upon him to forbid me. I shall be silent.... + +_Gov._ Well, Mr. Leverett, what were the words? I pray speak. + +_Mr. L._ To my best remembrance ... Mr. Peters did with much vehemency and +entreaty urge her to tell what difference there was between Mr. Cotton and +them, and upon his urging of her she said: "The fear of man is a snare, +but they that trust upon the Lord shall be safe." And ... that they did +not preach a covenant of grace so clearly as Mr. Cotton did, and she gave +this reason of it, because that as the apostles were for a time without +the Spirit so until they had received the witness of the Spirit they could +not preach a covenant of grace so clearly. + + * * * * * + +The Rev. John Cotton was then called. He was much embarrassed in giving +his evidence, but, if he is to be believed, his brethren, in their anxiety +to make out a case, had colored material facts. He closed his account of +the interview in these words: "I must say that I did not find her saying +they were under a covenant of works, nor that she said they did preach a +covenant of works." + + * * * * * + +_Gov._ You say you do not remember, but can you say she did not speak so? + +_Mr. C._ I do remember that she looked at them as the apostles before the +ascension.... + +_Dep. Gov._ They affirm that Mrs. Hutchinson did say they were not able +ministers of the New Testament. + +_Mr. C._ I do not remember it. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Hutchinson had shattered the case of the government in a style worthy +of a leader of the bar, but she now ventured on a step for which she has +been generally condemned. She herself approached the subject of her +revelations. To criticise the introduction of evidence is always simpler +than to conduct a cause, but an analysis of her position tends to show not +only that her course was the result of mature reflection, but that her +judgment was in this instance correct. She probably assumed that when the +more easily proved charges had broken down she would be attacked here; and +in this assumption she was undoubtedly right. The alternative presented to +her, therefore, was to go on herself, or wait for Winthrop to move. If she +waited she knew she should give the government the advantage of choosing +the ground, and she would thus be subjected to the danger of having fatal +charges proved against her by hearsay or distorted evidence. If she took +the bolder course, she could explain her revelations as monitions coming +to her through texts in Scripture, and here she was certain of Cotton's +support. Before that tribunal she could hardly have hoped for an +acquittal; but if anything could have saved her it would have been the +sanction given to her doctrines by the approval of John Cotton. At all +events, she saw the danger, for she closed her little speech in these +touching words: "Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my +conscience I know to be truth, I must commit myself unto the Lord." + +_Mr. Nowell._ How do you know that that was the Spirit? + +_Mrs. H._ How did Abraham know that it was God?... + +_Dep. Gov._ By an immediate voice. + +_Mrs. H._ So to me by an immediate revelation. + + * * * * * + +Then she proceeded to state how, through various texts which she cited, +the Lord showed her what He would do; and she particularly dwelt on one +from Daniel. So far all was well; she had planted herself on ground upon +which orthodox opinion was at least divided; but she now committed the one +grave error of her long and able defence. As she went on her excitement +gained upon her, and she ended by something like a defiance and +denunciation: "You have power over my body, but the Lord Jesus hath power +over my body and soul; and assure yourselves thus much, you do as much as +in you lies to put the Lord Jesus Christ from you, and if you go on in +this course you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your posterity, +and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." + + * * * * * + +_Gov._ Daniel was delivered by miracle. Do you think to be delivered so +too? + +_Mrs. H._ I do here speak it before the court. I look that the Lord should +deliver me by his providence.... + +_Dep. Gov._ I desire Mr. Cotton to tell us whether you do approve of Mrs. +Hutchinson's revelations as she hath laid them down. + +_Mr. C._ I know not whether I do understand her, but this I say, if she +doth expect a deliverance in a way of providence, then I cannot deny it. + +_Gov._ ... I see a marvellous providence of God to bring things to this +pass.... God by a providence hath answered our desires, and made her to +lay open herself and the ground of all these disturbances to be by +revelations. . . . + +_Court._ We all consent with you. + +_Gov._ Ey, it is the most desperate enthusiasm in the world.... + +_Mr. Endicott._ I speak in reference to Mr. Cotton.... Whether do you +witness for her or against her. + +_Mr. C._ This is that I said, sir, and my answer is plain, that if she +doth look for deliverance from the hand of God by his providence, and the +revelation be ... according to a word [of Scripture] that I cannot deny. + +_Mr. Endicott._ You give me satisfaction. + +_Dep. Gov._ No, no, he gives me none at all.... + +_Mr. C._ I pray, sir, give me leave to express myself. In that sense that +she speaks I dare not bear witness against it. + +_Mr. Nowell._ I think it is a devilish delusion. + +_Gov._ Of all the revelations that ever I read of I never read the like +ground laid as is for this. The enthusiasts and Anabaptists had never the +like.... + +_Mr. Peters._ I can say the same ... and I think that is very disputable +which our brother Cotton hath spoken.... + +_Gov._ I am persuaded that the revelation she brings forth is delusion. + +All the court but some two or three ministers cry out, We all believe it, +we all believe it.... + + * * * * * + +And then Coddington stood up before that angry meeting like the brave man +he was, and said, "I beseech you do not speak so to force things along, +for I do not for my own part see any equity in the court in all your +proceedings. Here is no law of God that she hath broken, nor any law of +the country that she hath broke, and therefore deserves no censure; and if +she say that the elders preach as the apostles did, why they preached a +covenant of grace and what wrong is that to them, ... therefore I pray +consider, what you do, for here is no law of God or man broken." + + * * * * * + +_Mr. Peters._ I profess I thought Mr. Cotton would never have took her +part. + +_Gov._ The court hath already declared themselves satisfied ... concerning +the troublesomeness of her spirit and the danger of her course amongst us +which is not to be suffered. Therefore if it be the mind of the court that +Mrs. Hutchinson ... shall be banished out of our liberties and imprisoned +till she be sent away let them hold up their hands. + +All but three consented. + +Those contrary minded hold up yours. Mr. Coddington and Colburn only. + +_Gov._ Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are +banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our +society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away. + +_Mrs. H._ I desire to know wherefore I am banished. + +_Gov._ Say no more, the court knows wherefore and is satisfied. +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ vol. ii. App. 2.] + + * * * * * + +With refined malice she was committed to the custody of Joseph Welde of +Roxbury, the brother of the Rev. Thomas Welde who thought her a Jezebel. +Here "divers of the elders resorted to her," and under this daily torment +rapid progress was made. Probably during that terrible interval her reason +was tottering, for her talk came to resemble ravings. [Footnote: _Brief +Apologie_, p. 59.] When this point was reached the divines saw their +object attained, and that "with sad hearts" they could give her up to +Satan. [Footnote: _Brief Apologie_, p. 59.] Accordingly they "wrote to the +church at Boston, offering to make proof of the same," whereupon she was +summoned and the lecture appointed to begin at ten o'clock. [Footnote: +Winthrop, i. 254.] + +"When she was come one of the ruling elders called her forth before the +assembly," and read to her the twenty-nine errors of which she was +accused, all of which she admitted she had maintained. "Then she asked by +what rule such an elder would come to her pretending to desire light and +indeede to entrappe her." He answered that he came not to "entrap her but +in compassion to her soule...." + +"Then presently she grew into passion ... professing withall that she held +none of these things ... before her imprisonment." [Footnote: _Brief +Apol._ pp. 59-61.] + +The court sat till eight at night, when "Mr. Cotton pronounced the +sentence of admonition ... with much zeal and detestation of her errors +and pride of spirit." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 256.] An adjournment was +then agreed on for a week and she was ordered to return to Roxbury; but +this was more than she could bear, and her distress was such that the +congregation seem to have felt some touch of compassion, for she was +committed to the charge of Cotton till the next lecture day, when the +trial was to be resumed. [Footnote: _Brief Apol._ p. 62.] At his house +her mind recovered its tone and when she again appeared she not only +retracted the wild opinions she had broached while at Joseph Welde's, but +admitted "that what she had spoken against the magistrates at the court +(by way of revelation) was rash and ungrounded." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. +258.] + +But nothing could avail her. She was in the hands of men determined to +make her expiation of her crimes a by-word of terror; her fate was sealed. +The doctrines she now professed were less objectionable, so she was +examined as to former errors, among others "that she had denied inherent +righteousness;" she "affirmed that it was never her judgment; and though +it was proved by many testimonies ... yet she impudently persisted in her +affirmation to the astonishment of all the assembly. So that ... the +church with one consent cast her out.... After she was excommunicated her +spirit, which seemed before to be somewhat dejected, revived again and she +gloried in her sufferings." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 258.] And all this +time she had been alone; her friends were far away. + +That no circumstances of horror might be lost, she and one of her most +devoted followers, Mary Dyer, were nearing their confinements during this +time of misery. Both cases ended in misfortunes over whose sickening +details Thomas Welde and his reverend brethren gloated with a savage joy, +declaring that "God himselfe was pleased to step in with his casting vote +... as clearly as if he had pointed with his finger." [Footnote: _Short +Story_, Preface, Section 5.] Let posterity draw a veil over the shocking +scene. + +Two or three days after her condemnation "the governor sent [her] a +warrant ... to depart ... she went by water to her farm at the Mount ... +and so to the island in the Narragansett Bay which her husband and the +rest of that sect had purchased of the Indians." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. +259.] + +This pure and noble but most unhappy woman had sinned against the clergy, +past forgiveness here or hereafter. They gibbeted her as Jezebel, and her +name became a reproach in Massachusetts through two hundred years. But her +crimes and the awful ending of her life are best read in the Christian +words of the Rev. Thomas Welde, whose gentle spirit so adorned his holy +office. + +"For the servants of God who came over into New England ... seeing their +ministery was a most precious sweete savour to all the saints before she +came hither, it is easie to discerne from what sinke that ill vapour hath +risen which hath made so many of her seduced party to loath now the smell +of those flowers which they were wont to find sweetnesse in. [Footnote: +_Short Story_, p. 40.] ... The Indians set upon them, and slew her and all +the family. [Footnote: Mrs. Hutchinson and her family were killed in a +general massacre of the Dutch and English by the Indians on Long Island. +Winthrop, ii. 136.] ... Some write that the Indians did burne her to death +with fire, her house and all the rest named that belonged to her; but I am +not able to affirme by what kind of death they slew her, but slaine it +seemes she is, according to all reports. I never heard that the Indians in +those parts did ever before this, commit the like outrage ...; and +therefore God's hand is the more apparently seene herein, to pick out this +wofull woman, to make her and those belonging to her, an unheard of heavie +example of their cruelty above al others." [Footnote: _Short Story_, +Preface.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. + + +With the ruin of the Antinomians, opposition to the clergy ceased within +the church itself, but many causes combined to prevent the bulk of the +people from participating in the communion. Of those who were excluded, +perhaps even the majority might have found it impossible to have secured +their pastor's approbation, but numbers who would have been gladly +received were restrained by conscientious scruples; and more shrank from +undergoing the ordeal to which they would have been obliged to submit. It +was no light matter for a pious but a sincerely honest man to profess his +conversion, and how God had been pleased to work "in the inward parts of +his soul," when he was not absolutely certain that he had indeed been +visited by the Spirit. And it is no exaggeration to say that to sensitive +natures the initiation was appalling. The applicant had first to convince +the minister of his worthiness, then his name was openly propounded, and +those who knew of any objection to his character, either moral or +religious, were asked to give notice to the presbytery of elders. If the +candidate succeeded in passing this private examination as to his fitness +the following scene took place in church:-- + +"The party appearing in the midst of the assembly ... the ruling elder +speaketh in this manner: Brethren of this congregation, this man or woman +... hath beene heretofore propounded to you, desiring to enter into church +fellowship with us, and we have not since that heard anything from any of +you to the contrary of the parties admittance but that we may goe on to +receive him: therefore now, if any of you know anything against him, why +he may not be admitted, you may yet speak.... Whereupon, sometimes men do +speak to the contrary ... and so stay the party for that time also till +this new offence be heard before the elders, so that sometimes there is a +space of divers moneths between a parties first propounding and receiving, +and some are so bashfull as that they choose rather to goe without the +communion than undergoe such publique confessions and tryals, but that is +held their fault." [Footnote: Lechford, _Plain Dealing_, pp. 6, 7.] + +Those who were thus disfranchised, Lechford, who knew what he was talking +about, goes on to say, soon began to complain that they were "ruled like +slaves;" and there can be no doubt that they had to submit to very +substantial grievances. The administration of justice especially seems to +have been defective. "Now the most of the persons at New England are not +admitted of their church, and therefore are not freemen, and when they +come to be tryed there, be it for life or limb, name or estate, or +whatsoever, they must bee tryed and judged too by those of the church, who +are in a sort their adversaries: how equall that hath been, or may be, +some by experience doe know, others may judge." [Footnote: _Plain +Dealing_, p. 23.] + +The government was in fact in the hands of a small oligarchy of saints, +[Footnote: "Three parts of the people of the country remaine out of the +church." _Plain Dealing_, p. 73. A. D. 1642.] who were, in their turn, +ruled by their priests, and as the repression of thought inevitable under +such a system had roused the Antinomians, who were voters, to demand a +larger intellectual freedom, so the denial of ordinary political rights +to the majority led to discontent. + +Since under the theocracy there was no department of human affairs in +which the clergy did not meddle, they undertook as a matter of course to +interfere with the militia, and the following curious letter written to +the magistrates by the ministers of Rowley shows how far they carried +their supervision even so late as 1689. + + * * * * * + +ROWLEY, _July_ 24th, 1689. + +_May it please your honors,_ + +The occasion of these lines is to inform you that whereas our military +company have nominated Abel Platts, for ensign, we conceive that it is our +duty to declare that we cannot approve of their choice in that he is +corrupt in his judgment with reference to the Lord's Supper, declaring +against Christ's words of justification, and hereupon hath withdrawn +himself from communion with the church in that holy ordinance some years, +besides some other things wherein he hath shown no little vanity in his +conversation and hath demeaned himself unbecomingly toward the word and +toward the dispensers of it.... + +SAMUEL PHILLIPS. +EDWARD PAISON. [Footnote: _History of Newbury_, p. 80.] + + * * * * * + +A somewhat similar difficulty, which happened in Hingham in 1645, produced +very serious consequences. A new captain had been chosen for their +company; but a dispute having arisen, the magistrates, on the question +being submitted to them, set the election aside and directed the old +officers to keep their places until the General Court should meet. +Notwithstanding this order the commotion continued to increase, and the +pastor, Mr. Peter Hubbert, "was very forward to have excommunicated the +lieutenant," who was the candidate the magistrates favored. [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 222, 223.] Winthrop happened to be deputy governor that +year, and the aggrieved officer applied to him for protection; whereupon, +as the defendants seemed inclined to be recalcitrant, several were +committed in open court, among whom were three of Mr. Hubbert's brothers. + +Forthwith the clergyman in great wrath headed a petition to which he +obtained a large number of signatures, in which he prayed the General +Court to take cognizance of the cause, since it concerned the public +liberty and the liberty of the church. + +At its next session, the legislature proceeded to examine the whole case, +and Winthrop was brought to trial for exceeding his jurisdiction as a +magistrate. A contest ensued between the deputies and assistants, which +was finally decided by the influence of the elders. The result was that +Winthrop was acquitted and Mr. Hubbert and the chief petitioners were +fined. [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 227.] + +In March the constable went to Hingham to collect the money, [Footnote: +1645-46, 18 March.] but he found the minister indisposed to submit in +silence. About thirty people had collected, and before them all Mr. +Hubbert demanded the warrant; when it was produced he declared it +worthless because not in the king's name, and then went on to add that the +government "was not more then a corporation in England, and ... had not +power to put men to death ... that for himself he had neither horn nor +hoofe of his own, nor anything wherewith to buy his children cloaths ... +if he must pay the fine he would pay it in books, but that he knew not for +what they were fined, unlesse it were for petitioning: and if they were so +waspish they might not be petitioned, then he could not tell what to say." +[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. p. 5.] + +Unluckily for Mr. Hubbert he had taken the popular side in this dispute +and had thus been sundered from his brethren, who sustained Winthrop, and +in the end carried him through in triumph; and not only this, but he was +suspected of Presbyterian tendencies, and a committee of the elders who +had visited Hingham to reconcile some differences in the congregation had +found him in grave fault. The government was not sorry, therefore, to make +him a public example, as appeared not only by these proceedings, but by +the way he was treated in the General Court the next autumn. He was +accordingly indicted for sedition, tried and convicted in June, fined +twenty pounds, and bound over to good behavior in forty pounds more. +[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, p. 6., 2 June, 1646.] Such a disturbance +as this seems to have been all that was needed to bring the latent +discontent to a focus. + +William Vassal had been an original patentee and was a member of the first +Board of Assistants, who were appointed by the king. Being, however, a man +of liberal views he had not found Massachusetts congenial; he had returned +to England after a stay of only a month, and when he came again to America +in 1635, he had settled at Scituate, the town adjoining Hingham, but in +the Plymouth jurisdiction. Having both wealth and social position he +possessed great influence, and he now determined to lead an agitation for +equal rights and liberty of conscience in both colonies at once, by +petitioning the legislatures, and in case of failure there, presenting +similar petitions to Parliament. + +Bradford was this year [Footnote: 1645.] governor of Plymouth, and Edward +Winslow was an assistant. Winslow himself had been governor repeatedly, +was a thorough-going churchman, and deep in all the councils of the +conservative party. There was, however, no religious qualification for the +suffrage in the old colony, and the complexion of its politics was +therefore far more liberal than in Massachusetts; so Vassal was able to +command a strong support when he brought forward his proposition. Winslow, +writing to his friend Winthrop at Boston, gives an amusing account of his +own and Bradford's consternation, and the expedients to which they were +forced to resort in the legislature to stave off a vote upon the petition, +when Vassal made his motion in October, 1645. + +"After this, the first excepter [Vassal] having been observed to tender +the view of a scroule from man to man, it came at length to be tendered to +myself, and withall, said he, it may be you will not like this. Having +read it, I told him I utterly abhorred it as such as would make us odious +to all Christian commonweales: But at length he told the governor +[Bradford] he had a written proposition to be propounded to the court, +which he desired the court to take into consideration, and according to +order, if thought meet, to be allowed: To this the deputies were most made +beforehand, and the other three assistants, who applauded it as their +Diana; and the sum of it was, to allow and maintaine full and free +tollerance of religion to all men that would preserve the civill peace and +submit unto government; and there was no limitation or exception against +Turke, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicholaytan, Familist, or any other, +&c. But our governor and divers of us having expressed the sad +consequences would follow, especially myselfe and Mr. Prence, yet +notwithstanding it was required, according to order, to be voted: But the +governor would not suffer it to come to vote, as being that indeed would +eate out the power of Godlines, &c.... You would have admired to have seen +how sweet this carrion relished to the pallate of most of the deputies! +What will be the issue of these things, our all ordering God onely +knows.... But if he have such a judgment for this place, I trust we shall +finde (I speake for many of us that groane under these things) a resting +place among you for the soales of our feet." [Footnote: _Hutch. +Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. i. 174.] + +As just then nothing more could be done in Plymouth, proceedings were +transferred to Massachusetts. Samuel Maverick is a bright patch of color +on the sad Puritan background. He had a dwelling at Winnisime, that "in +the yeare 1625 I fortified with a pillizado and fflankers and gunnes both +belowe and above in them which awed the Indians who at that time had a +mind to cutt off the English." [Footnote: Mass. _Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, +Oct. 1884, p. 236.] When Winthrop landed, he found him keeping open house, +so kindly and freehanded that even the grim Johnson relaxes when he speaks +of him: "a man of very loving and curteous behaviour, very ready to +entertaine strangers, yet an enemy to the reformation in hand, being +strong for the lordly prelatical power." [Footnote: _Wonder-Working +Providence_, Poole's ed. p. 37.] + +This genial English churchman entertained every one at his home on +Noddle's Island, which is now East Boston: Vane and Lord Ley, and La Tour +when he came to Boston ruined, and even Owen when he ran off with another +man's wife, and so brought a fine of L100 on his host. Josselyn says with +much feeling: "I went a shore upon Noddles Island to Mr. Samuel Maverick, +... the only hospitable man in the whole countrey." He was charitable +also, and Winthrop relates how, when the Indians were dying of the +smallpox, he, "his wife and servants, went daily to them, ministered to +their necessities, and buried their dead, and took home many of their +children." He was generous, too, with his wealth; and when the town had to +rebuild the fort on Castle Island much of the money came from him. + +But, as Endicott told the Browns, when he shipped them to England, because +their practice in adhering to their Episcopal orders tended to "mutiny," +"New England was no place for such as they." One by one they had gone,-- +the Browns first, and afterward William Blackstone, who had found it best +to leave Boston because he could not join the church; and now the pressure +on Maverick began to make him restive. Though he had been admitted a +freeman in the early days, he was excluded from all offices of importance; +he was taxed to support a church of which he disapproved, yet was forced +to attend, though it would not baptize his children; and he was so +suspected that, in March, 1635, he had been ordered to remove to Boston, +and was forbidden to lodge strangers for more than one night without leave +from a magistrate. Under such circumstances he could not but sympathize +with Vassal in his effort to win for all men equal rights before the law. +Next after him in consequence was Dr. Robert Childe, who had taken a +degree at Padua, and who, though not a freeman, had considerable interests +in the country,--a man of property and standing. There were five more +signers of the petition: Thomas Burton, John Smith, David Yale, Thomas +Fowle, and John Dand, but they do not require particular notice. They +prayed that "civil liberty and freedome be forthwith granted to all truly +English, equall to the rest of their countrymen, as in all plantations is +accustomed to be done, and as all free-borne enjoy in our native +country.... Further that none of the English nation ... be banished +unlesse they break the known lawes of England.... We therefore humbly +intreat you, in whose hands it is to help ... for the glory of God ... to +give liberty to the members of the churches of England not scandalous in +their lives ... to be taken into your congregations, and to enjoy with you +all those liberties and ordinances Christ hath purchased for them, and +into whose name they are baptized... or otherwise to grant liberty to +settle themselves here in a church way according to the best reformations +of England and Scotland. If not, we and they shall be necessitated to +apply our humble desires to the Honorable Houses of Parliament." +[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. pp. 13-15.] + +This petition was presented to the court on May 19, 1646; but the session +was near its close, and it was thought best to take no immediate steps. +The elders, however, became satisfied that the moment had come for a +thorough organization of the church, and they therefore caused the +legislature to issue a general invitation to all the congregations to send +representatives to a synod to be held at Cambridge. But notwithstanding +the inaction of the authorities, the clergy were perfectly aware of the +danger, and they passed the summer in creating the necessary indignation +among the voters: they bitterly denounced from their pulpits "the sons of +Belial, Judasses, sons of Corah," "with sundry appellations of that nature +... which seemed not to arise from a gospel spirit." Sometimes they +devoted "a whole sermon, and that not very short," to describing the +impending ruin and exhorting the magistrates "to lay hold upon" the +offenders. [Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. p. 19.] Winthrop +had been chosen governor in May, and, when the legislature met in October, +he was made chairman of a committee to draft an answer to Childe. This +document may be found in Hutchinson's Collection. As a state paper devoted +to the discussion of questions of constitutional law it has little merit, +but it may have been effective as a party manifesto. A short adjournment +followed till November, when, on reassembling, the elders were asked for +their advice upon this absorbing topic. + +"Mr. Hubbard of Hingham came with the rest, but the court being informed +that he had an hand in a petition, which Mr. Vassall carried into England +against the country in general, the governour propounded, that if any +elder present had any such hand, &c., he would withdraw himself." Mr. +Hubbert sitting still a good space, one of the deputies stated that he was +suspected, whereupon he rose and said he knew nothing of such a petition. + +Then Winthrop replied that he "must needs deliver his mind about him," and +though he had no proof about the petition, "yet in regard he had so much +opposed authority and offered such contempt to it, ... he thought he would +(in discretion) withdraw himself, &c., whereupon he went out." [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 278.] + +The ministers who remained then proceeded to define the relations of +Massachusetts toward England, and the position they assumed was very +simple. + +"I. We depend upon the state of England for protection and immunities of +Englishmen.... II. We conceive ... we have granted by patent such full and +ample power ... of making all laws and rules of our obedience, and of a +full and final determination of all cases in the administration of +justice, that no appeals or other ways of interrupting our proceedings do +lie against us." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 282.] + +In other words, they were to enjoy the privileges and safeguards of +British subjects without yielding obedience to British law. + +Under popular governments the remedy for discontent is free discussion; +under despotisms it is repression. In Massachusetts energetic steps were +promptly taken to punish the ring-leaders in what the court now declared +to be a conspiracy. The petitioners were summoned, and on being questioned +refused to answer until some charge was made. A hot altercation followed, +which ended in the defendants tendering an appeal, which was refused; and +they were committed for trial. [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 285.] A species of +indictment was then prepared in which they were charged with publishing +seditious libels against the Church of Christ and the civil government. +The gravamen of the offence was the attempt to persuade the people "that +the liberties and privileges in our charter belong to all freeborn +Englishmen inhabitants here, whereas they are granted only to such as the +governour and company shall think fit to receive into that fellowship." +[Footnote: _Idem_.] The appeal was held criminal because a denial of +the jurisdiction of the government. The trial resembled Wheelwright's. +Like him the defendants refused to make submission, but persisted +"obstinately and proudly in their evil practice;" that is to say, they +maintained the right of petition and the legality of their course. They +were therefore fined: Childe L50; Smith L40; Maverick, because he had not +yet appealed, L10; and the others L30 each; three magistrates dissented. + +Childe at once began hasty preparations to sail. To prevent him Winthrop +called the assistants together, without, however, giving the dissenting +magistrates notice, and arranged to have him arrested and searched. + +One striking characteristic of the theocracy was its love for inflicting +mental suffering upon its victims. The same malicious vindictiveness which +sent Morton to sea in sight of his blazing home, and which imprisoned Anne +Hutchinson in the house of her bitterest enemy, now suggested a scheme for +making Childe endure the pangs of disappointment, by allowing him to +embark, and then seizing him as the ship was setting sail. And though the +plan miscarried, and the arrest had to be made the night before, yet even +as it was the prisoner took his confinement very "grievously, but he could +not help it." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 294.] + +Nothing criminating was found in his possession, but in Dand's study, +which was ransacked, copies of two petitions were discovered, with a +number of queries relating to certain legal aspects of the charter, and +intended to be submitted to the Commissioners for the Plantations at +London. + +These petitions were substantially those already presented, except that, +by way of preamble, the story of the trial was told; and how the ministers +"did revile them, &c., as far as the wit or malice of man could, and that +they meddled in civil affaires beyond their calling, and were masters +rather than ministers, and ofttimes judges, and that they had stirred up +the magistrates against them, and that a day of humiliation was appointed, +wherein they were to pray against them." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 293.] + +Such words had never been heard in Massachusetts. The saints were aghast. +Winthrop speaks of the offence as "being in nature capital," and Johnson +thought the Lord's gracious goodness alone quelled this malice against his +people. + +Of course no mercy was shown. It is true that the writings were lawful +petitions by English subjects to Parliament; that, moreover, they had +never been published, but were found in a private room by means of a +despotic search. Several of the signers were imprisoned for six months and +then were punished in May:-- + + Doctor Childe, (imprisonment till paid,) L200 + John Smith, " " " 100 + John Dand, " " " 200 + Tho. Burton, " " " 100 + Samuel Maverick, for his offence in being party + to ye conspiracy, (imprisonment + till paid,) 100 + Samuel Maverick, for his offence in breaking his + oath and in appealing against ye + intent of his oath of a freeman, 50 +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iii, 113. May 26, 1647. L200 was the equivalent of +about $5,000.] + +The conspirators of the poorer class were treated with scant ceremony. A +carpenter named Joy was in Dand's study when the officers entered. He +asked if the warrant was in the king's name. "He was laid hold on, and +kept in irons about four or five days, and then he humbled himself...for +meddling in matters belonging not to him, and blessed God for these irons +upon his legs, hoping they should do him good while he lived." [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 294.] + +But though the government could oppress the men, they could not make their +principles unpopular, and the next December after Vassal and his friends +had left the colony, the orthodox Samuel Symonds of Ipswich wrote +mournfully to Winthrop: "I am informed that coppies of the petition are +spreading here, and divers (specially young men and women) are taken with +it, and are apt to wonder why such men should be troubled that speake as +they doe: not being able suddenly to discerne the poyson in the sweet +wine, nor the fire wrapped up in the straw." [Footnote: Felt's _Eccl. +Hist._ i. 593.] The petitioners, however, never found redress. Edward +Winslow had been sent to London as agent, and in 1648 he was able to write +that their "hopes and endeavours ... had been blasted by the special +providence of the Lord who still wrought for us." And Winthrop piously +adds: "As for those who went over to procure us trouble, God met with them +all. Mr. Vassall, finding no entertainment for his petitions, went to +Barbadoes," [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 321.] ... "God had brought" Thomas +Fowle "very low, both in his estate and in his reputation, since he joined +in the first petition." And "God had so blasted" Childe's "estate as he +was quite broken." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 322.] + +Maverick remained some years in Boston, being probably unable to abandon +his property; during this interval he made several efforts to have his +fine remitted, and he did finally secure an abatement of one half. He then +went to England and long afterward came back as a royal commissioner to +try his fortune once again in a contest with the theocracy. + +Dr. Palfrey has described this movement as a plot to introduce a direct +government by England by inducing Parliament to establish Presbyterianism. +By other than theological reasoning this inference cannot be deduced from +the evidence. All that is certainly known about the leaders is that they +were not of any one denomination. Maverick was an Episcopalian; Vassal was +probably an Independent like Cromwell or Milton; and though the elders +accused Childe of being a Jesuit, there is some ground to suppose that he +inclined toward Geneva. So far as the testimony goes, everything tends to +prove that the petitioners were perfectly sincere in their effort to gain +some small measure of civil and religious liberty for themselves and for +the disfranchised majority. + +Viewed from the standpoint of history and not of prejudice, the events of +these early years present themselves in a striking and unmistakable +sequence. + +They are the phenomena that regularly attend a certain stage of human +development,--the absorption of power by an aristocracy. The clergy's rule +was rigid, and met with resistance, which was crushed with an iron hand. +Was it defection from their own ranks, the deserters met the fate of +Wheelwright, of Williams, of Cotton, or of Hubbert; were politicians +contumacious, they were defeated or exiled, like Vane, or Aspinwall, or +Coddington; were citizens discontented, they were coerced like Maverick +and Childe. The process had been uninterrupted alike in church and state. +The congregations, which in theory should have included all the +inhabitants of the towns, had shrunk until they contained only a third or +a quarter of the people; while the churches themselves, which were +supposed to be independent of external interference and to regulate their +affairs by the will of the majority, had become little more than the +chattels of the priests, and subject to the control of the magistrates who +were their representatives. This system has generally prevailed; in like +manner the Inquisition made use of the secular arm. The condition of +ecclesiastical affairs is thus described by the highest living authority +on Congregationalism:-- + +"Our fathers laid it down--and with perfect truth--that the will of +Christ, and not the will of the major or minor part of a church, ought to +govern that church. But somebody must interpret that will. And they +quietly assumed that Christ would reveal his will to the elders, but would +not reveal it to the church-members; so that when there arose a difference +of opinion as to what the Master's will might be touching any particular +matter, the judgment of the elders, rather than the judgment even of a +majority of the membership, must be taken as conclusive. To all intents +and purposes, then, this was precisely the aristocracy which they affirmed +that it was not. For the elders were to order business in the assurance +that every truly humble and sincere member would consent thereto. If any +did not consent, and after patient debate remained of another judgment, he +was 'partial' and 'factious,' and continuing 'obstinate,' he was +'admonished' and his vote 'nullified;' so that the elders could have their +way in the end by merely adding the insult of the apparent but illusive +offer of cooperation to the injury of their absolute control. As Samuel +Stone of Hartford no more tersely than truly put it, this kind of +Congregationalism was simply a 'speaking Aristocracy in the face of a +silent Democracy.'" [Footnote: _Early New England Congregationalism, as +seen in its Literature_, p. 429. Dr. Dexter.] + +It is true that Vassal's petition was the event which made the ministers +decide to call a synod [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 264.] by means of an +invitation of the General Court; but it is also certain that under no +circumstances would the meeting of some such council have been long +delayed. For sixteen years the well-known process had been going on, of +the creation of institutions by custom, having the force of law; the stage +of development had now been reached when it was necessary that those +usages should take the shape of formal enactments. The Cambridge platform +therefore marks the completion of an organization, and as such is the +central point in the history of the Puritan Commonwealth. The work was +done in August, 1648: the Westminster Confession was promulgated as the +creed; the powers of the clergy were minutely defined, and the duty of the +laity stated to be "obeying their elders and submitting themselves unto +them in the Lord." [Footnote: _Cambridge Platform,_ ch. x. section 7.] The +magistrate was enjoined to punish "idolatry, blasphemy, heresy," and to +coerce any church becoming "schismatical." + +In October, 1649, the court commended the platform to the consideration of +the congregations; in October, 1651, it was adopted; and when church and +state were thus united by statute the theocracy was complete. + +The close of the era of construction is also marked by the death of those +two remarkable men whose influence has left the deepest imprint upon the +institutions they helped to mould: John Winthrop, who died in 1649, and +John Cotton in 1652. + +Winthrop's letters to his wife show him to have been tender and gentle, +and that his disposition was one to inspire love is proved by the +affection those bore him who had suffered most at his hands. Williams and +Vane and Coddington kept their friendship for him to the end. But these +very qualities, so amiable in themselves, made him subject to the +influence of men of inflexible will. His dream was to create on earth a +commonwealth of saints whose joy would be to walk in the ways of God. But +in practice he had to deal with the strongest of human passions. In 1634, +though supported by Cotton, he was defeated by Dudley, and there can be no +doubt that this was caused by the defection of the body of the clergy. The +evidence seems conclusive, for the next year Vane brought about an +interview between the two at which Haynes was present, and there Haynes +upbraided him with remissness in administering justice. [Footnote: +Winthrop, i. 178.] Winthrop agreed to leave the question to the ministers, +who the next morning gave an emphatic opinion in favor of strict +discipline. Thenceforward he was pliant in their hands, and with that day +opened the dark epoch of his life. By leading the crusade against the +Antinomians he regained the confidence of the elders and they never again +failed him; but in return they exacted obedience to their will; and the +rancor with which he pursued Anne Hutchinson, Gorton, and Childe cannot be +extenuated, and must ever be a stain upon his fame. + +As Hutchinson points out, in early life his tendencies were liberal, but +in America he steadily grew narrow. The reason is obvious. The leader of +an intolerant party has himself to be intolerant. His claim to eminence as +a statesman must rest upon the purity of his moral character, his calm +temper, and his good judgment; for his mind was not original or brilliant, +nor was his thought in advance of his age. Herein he differed from his +celebrated contemporary, for among the long list of famous men, who are +the pride of Massachusetts, there are few who in mere intellectual +capacity outrank Cotton. He was not only a profound scholar, an eloquent +preacher, and a famous controversialist, but a great organizer, and a +natural politician. He it was who constructed the Congregational +hierarchy; his publications were the accepted authority both abroad and at +home; and the system which he developed in his books was that which was +made law by the Cambridge Platform. + +Of medium height, florid complexion, and as he grew old some tendency to +be stout, but with snowy hair and much personal dignity, he seems to have +had an irresistible charm of manner toward those whom he wished to +attract. + +Comprehending thoroughly the feelings and prejudices of the clergy, he +influenced them even more by his exquisite tact than by his commanding +ability; and of easy fortune and hospitable alike from inclination and +from interest, he entertained every elder who went to Boston. He +understood the art of flattery to perfection; or, as Norton expressed it, +"he was a man of ingenuous and pious candor, rejoicing (as opportunity +served) to take notice of and testifie unto the gifts of God in his +brethren, thereby drawing the hearts of them to him...." [Footnote: +Norton's _Funeral Sermon_, p. 37.] No other clergyman has ever been able +to reach the position he held with apparent ease, which amounted to a +sort of primacy of New England. His dangers lay in the very fecundity of +his mind. Though hampered by his education and profession, he was +naturally liberal; and his first miscalculation was when, almost +immediately on landing, he supported Winthrop, who was in disgrace for the +mildness of his administration, against the austerer Dudley. + +The consciousness of his intellectual superiority seems to have given him +an almost overweening confidence in his ability to induce his brethren to +accept the broader theology he loved to preach; nor did he apparently +realize that comprehension was incompatible with a theocratic government, +and that his success would have undermined the organization he was +laboring to perfect. He thus committed the error of his life in +undertaking to preach a religious reformation, without having the +resolution to face a martyrdom. But when he saw his mistake, the way in +which he retrieved himself showed a consummate knowledge of human nature +and of the men with whom he had to deal. Nor did he ever forget the +lesson. From that time forward he took care that no one should be able to +pick a flaw in his orthodoxy; and whatever he may have thought of much of +the policy of his party, he was always ready to defend it without +flinching. + +Neither he nor Winthrop died too soon, for with the completion of the task +of organization the work that suited them was finished, and they were +unfit for that which remained to be done. An oligarchy, whose power rests +on faith and not on force, can only exist by extirpating all who openly +question their pretensions to preeminent sanctity; and neither of these +men belonged to the class of natural persecutors,--the one was too gentle, +the other too liberal. An example will show better than much argument how +little in accord either really was with that spirit which, in the regular +course of social development, had thenceforward to dominate over +Massachusetts. + +Captain Partridge had fought for the Parliament, and reached Boston at the +beginning of the winter of 1645. He was arrested and examined as a +heretic. The magistrates referred the case to Cotton, who reported that +"he found him corrupt in judgment," but "had good hope to reclaim him." +[Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 251.] An instant recantation was demanded; it was +of course refused, and, in spite of all remonstrance, the family was +banished in the snow. Winthrop's sad words were: "But sure, the rule of +hospitality to strangers, and of seeking to pluck out of the fire such as +there may be hope of, ... do seem to require more moderation and +indulgence of human infirmity where there appears not obstinacy against +the clear truth." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 251.] + +But in the savage and bloody struggle that was now at hand there was no +place for leaders capable of pity or remorse, and the theocracy found +supremely gifted chieftains in John Norton and John Endicott. + +Norton approaches the ideal of the sterner orders of the priesthood. A +gentleman by birth and breeding, a ripe scholar, with a keen though +polished wit, his sombre temper was deeply tinged with fanaticism. Unlike +so many of his brethren, temporal concerns were to him of but little +moment, for every passion of his gloomy soul was intensely concentrated on +the warfare he believed himself waging with the fiend. Doubt or compassion +was impossible, for he was commissioned by the Lord. He was Christ's +elected minister, and misbelievers were children of the devil whom it was +his sacred duty to destroy. He knew by the Word of God that all save the +orthodox were lost, and that heretics not only perished, but were the +hirelings of Satan, who tempted the innocent to their doom; he therefore +hated and feared them more than robbers or murderers. Words seemed to fail +him when he tried to express his horror: "The face of death, the King of +Terrours, the living man by instinct turneth his face from. An unusual +shape, a satanical phantasm, a ghost, or apparition, affrights the +disciples. But the face of heresie is of a more horrid aspect than all ... +put together, as arguing some signal inlargement of the power of darkness +as being diabolical, prodigeous, portentous." [Footnote: _Heart of New +Eng. Rent_, p. 46.] By nature, moreover, he had in their fullest measure +the three attributes of a preacher of a persecution,--eloquence, +resolution, and a heart callous to human suffering. To this formidable +churchman was joined a no less formidable magistrate. + +No figure in our early history looms out of the past like Endicott's. The +harsh face still looks down from under the black skull-cap, the gray +moustache and pointed beard shading the determined mouth, but throwing +into relief the lines of the massive jaw. He is almost heroic in his +ferocious bigotry and daring,--a perfect champion of the church. + +The grim Puritan soldier is almost visible as, standing at the head of his +men, he tears the red cross from the flag, and defies the power of +England; or, in that tremendous moment, when the people were hanging +breathless on the fate of Christison, when insurrection seemed bursting +out beneath his feet, and his judges shrunk aghast before the peril, we +yet hear the savage old man furiously strike the table, and, thanking God +that he at least dares to do his duty, we see him rise alone before that +threatening multitude to condemn the heretic to death. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ANABAPTISTS. + + +The Rev. Thomas Shepard, pastor of Charlestown, was such an example, "in +word, in conversation, in civility, in spirit, in faith, in purity, that +he did let no man despise his youth;" [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, +ch. ix. Section 6.] and yet, preaching an election sermon before the +governor and magistrates, he told them that "anabaptisme ... hath ever +been lookt at by the godly leaders of this people as a scab." [Footnote: +_Eye Salve_, p. 24.] While the Rev. Samuel Willard, president of Harvard, +declared that "such a rough thing as a New England Anabaptist is not to be +handled over tenderly." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 10.] + +So early as 1644, therefore, the General Court "Ordered and agreed, yt if +any person or persons within ye iurisdiction shall either openly condemne +or oppose ye baptizing of infants, or go about secretly to seduce others +from ye app'bation or use thereof, or shall purposely depart ye +congregation at ye administration of ye ordinance, ... and shall appear to +ye Co't willfully and obstinately to continue therein after due time and +meanes of conviction, every such person or persons shallbe sentenced to +banishment." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ ii. 85. 13 November, 1644.] + +The legislation, however, was unpopular, for Winthrop relates that in +October, 1645, divers merchants and others petitioned to have the act +repealed, because of the offense taken thereat by the godly in England, +and the court seemed inclined to accede, "but many of the elders ... +entreated that the law might continue still in force, and the execution of +it not suspended, though they disliked not that all lenity and patience +should be used for convincing and reclaiming such erroneous persons. +Whereupon the court refused to make any further order." [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 251.] And Edward Winslow assured Parliament in 1646, when +sent to England to represent the colony, that, some mitigation being +desired, "it was answered in my hearing. 'T is true we have a severe law, +but wee never did or will execute the rigor of it upon any.... But the +reason wherefore wee are loath either to repeale or alter the law is, +because wee would have it ... to beare witnesse against their judgment, +... which we conceive ... to bee erroneous." [Footnote: _Hypocrisie +Unmasked_, 101.] + +Unquestionably, at that time no one had been banished; but in 1644 "one +Painter, for refusing to let his child be baptized, ... was brought before +the court, where he declared their baptism to be anti-Christian. He was +sentenced to be whipped, which he bore without flinching, and boasted that +God had assisted him." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 208, note.] Nor was +his a solitary instance of severity. Yet, notwithstanding the scorn and +hatred which the orthodox divines felt for these sectaries, many very +eminent Puritans fell into the errors of that persuasion. Roger Williams +was a Baptist, and Henry Dunster, for the same heresy, was removed from +the presidency of Harvard, and found it prudent to end his days within the +Plymouth jurisdiction. Even that great champion of infant baptism, +Jonathan Mitchell, when thrown into intimate relations with Dunster, had +doubts. + +"That day ... after I came from him I had a strange experience; I found +hurrying and pressing suggestions against Paedobaptism, and injected +scruples and thoughts whether the other way might not be right, and infant +baptism an invention of men; and whether I might with good conscience +baptize children and the like. And these thoughts were darted in with some +impression, and left a strange confusion and sickliness upon my spirit. +Yet, methought, it was not hard to discern that they were from the _Evil +One_; ... And it made me fearful to go needlessly to Mr. D.; for methought +I found a venom and poison in his insinuations and discourses against +Paedobaptism." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 10.] + +Henry Dunster was an uncommon man. Famed for piety in an age of +fanaticism, learned, modest, and brave, by the unremitting toil of +thirteen years he raised Harvard from a school to the position which it +has since held; and though very poor, and starving on a wretched and ill- +paid pittance, he gave his beloved college one hundred acres of land at +the moment of its sorest need. [Footnote: Quincy's _History of Harvard_, +i. 15.] Yet he was a criminal, for he would not baptize infants, and he +met with the "lenity and patience" which the elders were not unwilling +should be used toward the erring. + +He was indicted and convicted of disturbing church ordinances, and +deprived of his office in October, 1654. He asked for leave to stay in the +house he had built for a few months, and his petition in November ought to +be read to understand how heretics were made to suffer:-- + +"1st. The time of the year is unseasonable, being now very near the +shortest day, and the depth of winter. + +"2d. The place unto which I go is unknown to me and my family, and the +ways and means of subsistance.... + +"3d. The place from which I go hath fire, fuel, and all provisions for man +and beast, laid in for the winter.... The house I have builded upon very +damageful conditions to myself, out of love for the college, taking +country pay in lieu of bills of exchange on England, or the house would +not have been built.... + +"4th. The persons, all beside myself, are women and children, on whom +little help, now their minds lie under the actual stroke of affliction and +grief. My wife is sick, and my youngest child extremely so, and hath been +for months, so that we dare not carry him out of doors, yet much worse now +than before.... Myself will willingly bow my neck to any yoke of personal +denial, for I know for what and for whom, by grace I suffer." [Footnote: +_History of Harvard_, i. 18.] + +He had before asked Winthrop to cause the government to pay him what it +owed, and he ended his prayer in these words: "Considering the poverty of +the country, I am willing to descend to the lowest step; and if nothing +can comfortably be allowed, I sit still appeased; desiring nothing more +than to supply me and mine with food and raiment." [Footnote: _Idem_, +i. 20.] He received that mercy which the church has ever shown to those +who wander from her fold; he was given till March, and then, with dues +unpaid, was driven forth a broken man, to die in poverty and neglect. + +But Jonathan Mitchell, pondering deeply upon the wages he saw paid at his +very hearthstone, to the sin of his miserable old friend, snatched his own +soul from Satan's jaws. And thenceforward his path lay in pleasant places, +and he prospered exceedingly in the world, so that "of extream lean he +grew extream fat; and at last, in an extream hot season, a fever arrested +him, just after he had been preaching.... Wonderful were the lamentations +which this deplorable death fill'd the churches of New England withal.... +Yea ... all New England shook when that pillar fell to the ground." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 16.] + +Notwithstanding, therefore, clerical promises of gentleness, Massachusetts +was not a comfortable place of residence for Baptists, who, for the most +part, went to Rhode Island; and John Clark [Footnote: For sketch of +Clark's life see _Allen's Biographical Dictionary_.] became the +pastor of the church which they formed at Newport about 1644. He had been +born about 1610, and had been educated in London as a physician. In 1637 +he landed at Boston, where he seems to have become embroiled in the +Antinomian controversy; at all events, he fared so ill that, with several +others, he left Massachusetts 'resolving, through the help of Christ, to +get clear of all [chartered companies] and be of ourselves.' In the course +of their wanderings they fell in with Williams, and settled near him. + +Clark was perhaps the most prominent man in the Plantations, filled many +public offices, and was the commissioner who afterward secured for the +colony the famous charter that served as the State Constitution till 1842. + +Obediah Holmes, who succeeded him as Baptist minister of Newport, is less +well known. He was educated at Oxford, and when he emigrated he settled at +Salem; from thence he went to Seaconk, where he joined the church under +Mr. Newman. Here he soon fell into trouble for resisting what he +maintained was an "unrighteous act" of his pastor's; in consequence he and +several more renounced the communion, and began to worship by themselves; +they were baptized and thereafter they were excommunicated; the inevitable +indictment followed, and they, too, took refuge in Rhode Island. +[Footnote: Holmes's Narrative, Backus, i. 213.] + +William Witter [Footnote: For the following events, see "_Ill Newes from +New England" Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, vol. ii.] of Lynn was an +aged Baptist, who had already been prosecuted, but, in 1651, being blind +and infirm, he asked the Newport church to send some of the brethren to +him, to administer the communion, for he found himself alone in +Massachusetts. [Footnote: Backus, i. 215.] Accordingly Clark undertook the +mission, with Obediah Holmes and John Crandall. + +They reached Lynn on Saturday, July 19, 1651, and on Sunday stayed within +doors in order not to disturb the congregation. A few friends were +present, and Clark was in the midst of a sermon, when the house was +entered by two constables with a warrant signed by Robert Bridges, +commanding them to arrest certain "erroneous persons being strangers." The +travellers were at once seized and carried to the tavern, and after dinner +they were told that they must go to church. + +Gorton, like many another, had to go through this ordeal, and he speaks of +his Sundays with much feeling: "Only some part of those dayes they brought +us forth into their congregations, to hear their sermons ... which was +meat to be digested, but only by the heart or stomacke of an ostrich." +[Footnote: _Simplicitie's Defence_, p. 57.] + +The unfortunate Baptists remonstrated, saying that were they forced into +the meeting-house, they should be obliged to dissent from the service, but +this, the constable said, was nothing to him, and so he carried them away. +On entering, during the prayer, the prisoners took off their hats, but +presently put them on again and began reading in their seats. Whereupon +Bridges ordered the officers to uncover their heads, which was done, and +the service was then quietly finished. When all was over, Clark asked +leave to speak, which, after some hesitation, was granted, on condition he +would not discuss what he had heard. He began to explain how he had put on +his hat because he could not judge that they were gathered according to +the visible order of the Lord; but here he was silenced, and the three +were committed to custody for the night. On Tuesday they were taken to +Boston, and on the 31st were brought before Governor Endicott. Their trial +was of the kind reserved by priests for heretics. No jury was impanelled, +no indictment was read, no evidence was heard, but the prisoners were +reviled by the bench as Anabaptists, and when they repudiated the name +were asked if they did not deny infant baptism. The theological argument +which followed was cut short by a recommitment to await sentence. + +That afternoon John Cotton exhorted the judges from the pulpit. He +expounded the law, and commanded them to do their duty; he told them that +the rejection of infant baptism would overthrow the church; that this was +a capital crime, and therefore the captives were "foul murtherers." +[Footnote: _Ill Newes_, p. 56.] Thus inspired, the court came in toward +evening. + +The record recites a number of misdemeanors, such as wearing the hat in +church, administering the communion to the excommunicated, and the like, +but no attempt was made to prove a single charge. [Footnote: _Ill Newes_, +pp. 31-44.] The reason is obvious: the only penalty provided by statute +for the offence of being a Baptist was banishment, hence the only legal +course would have been to dismiss the accused. Endicott condemned them to +fines of twenty, thirty, and five pounds, respectively, or to be whipped. +Clark understood his position perfectly, and from the first had demanded +to be shown the law under which he was being tried. He now, after +sentence, renewed the request. Endicott well knew that in acting as the +mouthpiece of the clergy he was violating alike justice, his oath of +office, and his honor as a judge; and, being goaded to fury, he broke out: +You have deserved death; I will not have such trash brought into our +jurisdiction. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 33.] Holmes tells the rest: "As I +went from the bar, I exprest myself in these words,--I blesse God I am +counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus; whereupon John Wilson +(their pastor, as they call him) strook me before the judgement seat, and +cursed me, saying, The curse of God ... goe with thee; so we were carried +to the prison." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 47.] + +All the convicts maintained that their liberty as English subjects had +been violated, and they refused to pay their fines. Clark's friends, +however, alarmed for his safety, settled his for him, and he was +discharged. + +Crandall was admitted to bail, but being misinformed as to the time of +surrender, he did not appear, his bond was forfeited, and on his return to +Boston he found himself free. + +Thus Holmes was left to face his punishment alone. Actuated apparently by +a deep sense of duty toward himself and his God, he refused the help of +friends, and steadfastly awaited his fate. As he lay in prison he suffered +keenly as he thought of his birth and breeding, his name, his worldly +credit, and the humiliation which must come to his wife and children from +his public shame; then, too, he began to fear lest he might not be able to +bear the lash, might flinch or shed tears, and bring contempt on himself +and his religion. Yet when the morning came he was calm and resolute; +refusing food and drink, that he might not be said to be sustained by +liquor, he betook himself to prayer, and when his keeper called him, with +his Bible in his hand, he walked cheerfully to the post. He would have +spoken a few words, but the magistrate ordered the executioner to do his +office quickly, for this fellow would delude the people; then he was +seized and stripped, and as he cried, "Lord, lay not this sin unto their +charge," he received the first blow. [Footnote: _Ill Newes_, pp. 48, 56.] + +They gave him thirty lashes with a three-thonged whip, of such horrible +severity that it was many days before he could endure to have his +lacerated body touch the bed, and he rested propped upon his hands and +knees. [Footnote: Backus, i. 237, note. MS. of Gov. Jos. Jencks.] Yet, in +spite of his torture, he stood firm and calm, showing neither pain nor +fear, breaking out at intervals into praise to God; and his dignity and +courage so impressed the people that, in spite of the danger, numbers +flocked about him when he was set free, in sympathy and admiration. John +Spur, being inwardly affected by what he saw and heard, took him by the +hand, and, with a joyful countenance, said: "Praised be the Lord," and so +went back with him. That same day Spur was arrested, charged with the +crime of succoring a heretic. Then said the undaunted Spur: "Obediah +Holmes I do look upon as a godly man: and do affirm that he carried +himself as did become a Christian, under so sad an affliction." "We will +deal with you as we have dealt with him," said Endicott. "I am in the +hands of God," answered Spur; and then his keeper took him to his prison. +[Footnote: _Ill Newes_, p. 57.] + +Perhaps no persecutor ever lived who was actuated by a single motive: +Saint Dominic probably had some trace of worldliness; Henry VIII. some +touch of bigotry; and this was preeminently true of the Massachusetts +elders. Doubtless there were among them men like Norton, whose fanaticism +was so fierce that they would have destroyed the heretic like the wild +beast, as a child of the devil, and an abomination to God. But with the +majority worldly motives predominated: they were always protesting that +they did not constrain men's consciences, but only enforced orderly +living. Increase Mather declared: in "the same church there have been +Presbyterians, Independents, Episcopalians, and Antipaedobaptists, all +welcome to the same table of the Lord when they have manifested to the +judgment of Christian charity a work of regeneration in their souls." +[Footnote: _Vindication of New Eng._ p. 19.] And Winslow solemnly +assured Parliament, "Nay, some in our churches" are "of that judgment, and +as long as they [Baptists] carry themselves peaceably as hitherto they +doe, wee will leave them to God." [Footnote: _Hypocrisie Unmasked_, p. +101. A. D. 1646.] + +Such statements, although intended to convey a false impression, contained +this much truth: provided a man conformed to all the regulations of the +church, paid his taxes, and held his tongue, he would not, in ordinary +circumstances, have been molested under the Puritan Commonwealth. But the +moment he refused implicit obedience, or, above all, if he withdrew from +his congregation, he was shown no mercy, because such acts tended to shake +the temporal power. John Wilson, pastor of Boston, was a good example of +the average of his order. On his death-bed he was asked to declare what he +thought to be the worst sins of the country. "'I have long feared several +sins, whereof one,' he said, 'was Corahism: that is, when people rise up +as Corah against their ministers, as if they took too much upon them, when +indeed they do but rule for Christ, and according to Christ.'" [Footnote: +_Magnalia_, bk. 3, ch. iii. Section 17.] Permeated with this love of +power, and possessed of a superb organization, the clergy never failed to +act on public opinion with decisive effect whenever they saw their worldly +interests endangered. Childe has described the attack which overwhelmed +him, and Gorton gives a striking account of their process of inciting a +crusade:-- + +"These things concluded to be heresies and blasphemies.... The ministers +did zealously preach unto the people the great danger of such things, and +the guilt such lay under that held them, stirring the people up to labour +to find such persons out and to execute death upon them, making persons so +execrable in the eyes of the people, whom they intimated should hold such +things, yea some of them naming some of us in their pulpits, that the +people that had not seen us thought us to be worse by far in any respect +then those barbarous Indians are in the country.... Whereupon we heard a +rumor that the Massachusets was sending out an army of men to cut us off." +[Footnote: _Simplicitie's Defence_, p. 32.] + +The persecution of the Baptists lays bare this selfish clerical policy. +The theory of the suppression of heresy as a sacred duty breaks down when +it is conceded that the heretic may be admitted to the orthodox communion +without sin; therefore the motives for cruelty were sordid. The ministers +felt instinctively that an open toleration would impair their power; not +only because the congregations would divide, but because these sectaries +listened to "John Russell the shoemaker." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 26.] +Obviously, were cobblers to usurp the sacerdotal functions, the +superstitious reverence of the people for the priestly office would not +long endure: and it was his crime in upholding this sacrilegious practice +which made the Rev. Thomas Cobbett cry out in his pulpit "against Gorton, +that arch-heretick, who would have al men to be preachers." [Footnote: +_Simplicities Defence_, p. 32. See _Ne Sutor_, p. 26.] + +Therefore, though Winslow solemnly protested before the Commissioners at +London that Baptists who lived peaceably would be left unmolested, yet +such of them as listened to "foul-murtherers" [Footnote: "_Ill Newes_," +_Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, vol. ii. p. 56.] were denounced by the +divines as dangerous fanatics who threatened to overthrow the government, +and were hunted through the country like wolves. + +Thomas Gould was an esteemed citizen of Charles-town, but, unfortunately +for himself, he had long felt doubt concerning infant baptism; so when, in +1655, a child was born to him, he "durst not" have it christened. "The +elder pressed the church to lay me under admonition, which the church was +backward to do. Afterward I went out at the sprinkling of children, which +was a great trouble to some honest hearts, and they told me of it. But I +told them I could not stay, for I lookt upon it as no ordinance of Christ. +They told me that now I had made known my judgment I might stay.... So I +stayed and sat down in my seat when they were at prayer and administring +the service to infants. Then they dealt with me for my unreverent +carriage." [Footnote: Gould's Narrative, Backus, i. 364-366.] That is to +say, his pastor, Mr. Symmes, caused him to be admonished and excluded from +the communion. In October, 1656, he was presented to the county court for +"denying baptism to his child," convicted, admonished, and given till the +next term to consider of his error; and gradually his position at +Charlestown became so unpleasant that he went to church at Cambridge, +which was a cause of fresh offence to Mr. Symmes. [Footnote: _History of +Charlestown_, Frothingham, p. 164.] + +From this time forward for several years, though no actual punishment +seems to have been inflicted, Gould was subjected to perpetual annoyance, +and was repeatedly summoned and admonished, both by the courts and the +church, until at length he brought matters to a crisis by withdrawing, and +with eight others forming a church, on May 28, 1665. + +He thus tells his story: "We sought the Lord to direct us, and taking +counsel of other friends who dwelt among us, who were able and godly, they +gave us counsel to congregate ourselves together; and so we did, ... to +walk in the order of the gospel according to the rule of Christ, yet +knowing it was a breach of the law of this country.... After we had been +called into one or two courts, the church understanding that we were +gathered into church order, they sent three messengers from the church to +me, telling me the church required me to come before them the next Lord's +day." [Footnote: Gould's Narrative, Backus, i. 369.] That Sunday he could +not go, but he promised to attend on the one following; [Footnote: Gould's +Narrative, Backus, i. 371.] and his wife relates what was then done: "The +word was carried to the elder, that if they were alive and well they would +come the next day, yet they were so hot upon it that they could not stay, +but master Sims, when he was laying out the sins of these men, before he +had propounded it to the church, to know their mind, the church having no +liberty to speak, he wound it up in his discourse, and delivered them up +to Satan, to the amazement of the people, that ever such an ordinance of +Christ should be so abused, that many of the people went out; and these +were the excommunicated persons." [Footnote: Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, +i. 384.] The sequence is complete: so long as Gould confined his heresy to +pure speculation upon dogma he was little heeded; when he withheld his +child from baptism and went out during the ceremony he was admonished, +denied the sacrament, and treated as a social outcast; but when he +separated, he was excommunicated and given to the magistrate to be +crushed. + +Passing from one tribunal to another the sectaries came before the General +Court in October, 1665: such as were freemen were disfranchised, and all +were sentenced, upon conviction before a single magistrate of continued +schism, to be imprisoned until further order. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 291.] The following April they were fined four pounds +and put in confinement, where they lay till the 11th of September, when +the legislature, after a hearing, ordered them to be discharged upon +payment of fines and costs. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, +p. 316.] + +How many Baptists were prosecuted, and what they suffered, is not known, +as only an imperfect record remains of the fortunes of even the leaders of +the movement; this much, however, is certain, they not only continued +contumacious, but persecution added to their numbers. So at length the +clergy decided to try what effect a public refutation of these heretics +would have on popular opinion. Accordingly the governor and council, +actuated by "Christian candor," ordered the Baptists to appear at the +meeting-house, at nine o'clock in the morning, on the 14th of April, 1668; +and six ministers were deputed to conduct the disputation. [Footnote: +Backus, i. 375.] + +During the immolation of Dunster the Rev. Mr. Mitchell had made up his +mind that he "would have an argument able to remove a mountain" before he +would swerve from his orthodoxy; he had since confirmed his faith by +preaching "more than half a score ungainsayable sermons" "in defence of +this comfortable truth," and he was now prepared to maintain it against +all comers. Accordingly this "worthy man was he who did most service in +this disputation; whereof the effect was, that although the erring +brethren, as is usual in such cases, made this their last answer to the +arguments which had cast them into much confusion: 'Say what you will we +will hold our mind.' Yet others were happily established in the right ways +of the Lord." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 10.] + +Such is the account of Cotton Mather: but the story of the Baptists +presents a somewhat different view of the proceedings. "It is true there +were seven elders appointed to discourse with them.... and when they were +met, there was a long speech made by one of them of what vile persons they +were, and how they acted against the churches and government here, and +stood condemned by the court. The others desiring liberty to speak, they +would not suffer them, but told them they stood there as delinquents and +ought not to have liberty to speak.... Two days were spent to little +purpose; in the close, master Jonathan Mitchel pronounced that dreadful +sentence against them in Deut. xvii. 8, to the end of the 12th, and this +was the way they took to convince them, and you may see what a good effect +it had." [Footnote: Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, i. 384, 385.] + +The sentence pronounced by Mitchell was this: "And the man that will do +presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to +minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man +shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel." [Footnote: +_Deut._ xvii. 12.] + +On the 27th of May, 1668, Gould, Turner, and Farnum, "obstinate & +turbulent Annabaptists," were banished under pain of perpetual +imprisonment. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. ii, pp. 373-375.] +They determined to stay and face their fate: afterward they wrote to the +magistrates:-- + + * * * * * + +HONOURED SIRS: ... After the tenders of our service according to Christ, +his command to your selves and the country, wee thought it our duty and +concernment to present your honours with these few lines to put you in +remembrance of our bonds: and this being the twelfth week of our +imprisonment, wee should be glad if it might be thought to stand with the +honour and safety of the country, and the present government thereof, to +be now at liberty. For wee doe hereby seriously profess, that as farre as +wee are sensible or know anything of our own hearts, wee do prefer their +peace and safety above our own, however wee have been resented otherwise: +and wherein wee differ in point of judgment wee humbly beeseech you, let +there be a bearing with us, till god shal reveale otherwise to us; for +there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them +understanding, therefore if wee are in the dark, wee dare not say that wee +doe see or understand, till the Lord shall cleare things up to us. And to +him wee can appeale to cleare up our innocency as touching the government, +both in your civil and church affaires. That it never was in our hearts to +thinke of doing the least wrong to either: but have and wee hope, by your +assistance, shal alwaies indeavour to keepe a conscience void of offence +towards god and men. And if it shal be thought meete to afforde us our +liberty, that wee may take that care, as becomes us, for our families, wee +shal engage ourselves to be alwayes in a readines to resigne up our +persons to your pleasure. Hoping your honours will be pleased seriously to +consider our condition, wee shall commend both you and it to the wise +disposing and blessing of the Almighty, and remaine your honours faithful +servants in what we may. + +THO: GOLD +WILL: TURNER +JOHN FARNUM. [Footnote: _Mass. Archives_, x. 220.] + + * * * * * + +Such were the men whom the clergy daily warned their congregations "would +certainly undermine the churches, ruine order, destroy piety, and +introduce prophaneness." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 11.] And when they +appealed to their spotless lives and their patience under affliction, they +were told "that the vilest hereticks and grossest blasphemers have +resolutely and cheerfully (at least sullenly and boastingly) suffered as +well as the people of God." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 9.] + +The feeling of indignation and of sympathy was, notwithstanding, strong; +and in spite of the danger of succoring heretics, sixty-six inhabitants, +among whom were some of the most respected citizens of Charlestown, +petitioned the legislature for mercy: "They being aged and weakly men; ... +the sense of this their ... most deplorable and afflicted condition hath +sadly affected the hearts of many ... Christians, and such as neither +approve of their judgment or practice; especially considering that the men +are reputed godly, and of a blameless conversation.... We therefore most +humbly beseech this honored court, in their Christian mercy and bowels of +compassion, to pity and relieve these poor prisoners." [Footnote: Backus, +i. 380, 381.] On November 7, 1668, the petition was voted "scandalous & +reproachful," the two chief promoters were censured, admonished, and fined +ten and five pounds respectively; the others were made, under their own +hands, to express their sorrow, "for giving the court such just ground of +offence." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 413.] + +The shock was felt even in England. In March, 1669, thirteen of the most +influential dissenting ministers wrote from London earnestly begging for +moderation lest they should be made to suffer from retaliation; but their +remonstrance was disregarded. [Footnote: Backus, i. 395.] What followed is +not exactly known; the convicts would seem to have lain in jail about a +year, and they are next mentioned in a letter to Clark written in +November, 1670, in which he was told that Turner had been again arrested, +but that Gould had eluded the officers, who were waiting for him in +Boston; and was on Noddle's Island. Subsequently all were taken and +treated with the extremest rigor; for in June, 1672, Russell was so +reduced that it was supposed he could not live, and he was reported to +have died in prison. Six months before Gould and Turner had been thought +past hope; their sufferings had brought them all to the brink of the +grave. [Footnote: Backus, i. 398-404, 405.] But relief was at hand: the +victory for freedom had been won by the blood of heretics, as devoted, as +fearless, but even unhappier than they; and the election of Leverett, in +1673, who was opposed to persecution, marks the moment when the hierarchy +admitted their defeat. During his administration the sectaries usually met +in private undisturbed; and soon every energy of the theocracy became +concentrated on the effort to repulse the ever contracting circle of +enemies who encompassed it. + +During the next few years events moved fast. In 1678 the ecclesiastical +power was so shattered that the Baptists felt strong enough to build a +church; but the old despotic spirit lived even in the throes of death, and +the legislature passed an act forbidding the erection of unlicensed +meeting-houses under penalty of confiscation. Nevertheless it was +finished, but on the Sunday on which it was to have been opened the +marshal nailed the doors fast and posted notices forbidding all persons to +enter, by order of the court. After a time the doors were broken open, and +services were held; a number of the congregation were summoned before the +court, admonished, and forbidden to meet in any public place; [Footnote: +June 11, 1680. _Mass. Rec._ v. 271.] but the handwriting was now glowing +on the wall, priestly threats had lost their terror; the order was +disregarded; and now for almost two hundred years Massachusetts has been +foremost in defending the equal rights of men before the law. + +The old world was passing away, a new era was opening, and a few words are +due to that singular aristocracy which so long ruled New England. For two +centuries Increase Mather has been extolled as an eminent example of the +abilities and virtues which then adorned his order. In 1681, when all was +over, he published a solemn statement of the attitude the clergy had held +toward the Baptists, and from his words posterity may judge of their +standard of morality and of truth. + +"The Annabaptists in New England have in their narrative lately published, +endeavoured to ... make themselves the innocent persons and the Lord's +servants here no better than persecutors.... I have been a poor labourer +in the Lord's Vineyard in this place upward of twenty years; and it is +more than I know, if in all that time, any of those that scruple infant +baptism, have met with molestation from the magistrate merely on account +of their opinion." [Footnote: Preface to _Ne Sutor_.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE QUAKERS. + + +The lower the organism, the less would seem to be the capacity for +physical adaptation to changed conditions of life; the jelly-fish dies in +the aquarium, the dog has wandered throughout the world with his master. +The same principle apparently holds true in the evolution of the +intellect; for while the oyster lacks consciousness, the bee modifies the +structure of its comb, and the swallow of her nest, to suit unforeseen +contingencies, while the dog, the horse, and the elephant are capable of a +high degree of education. [Footnote: _Menial Evolution in Animals_, +Romanes, Am. ed. pp. 203-210.] + +Applying this law to man, it will be found to be a fact that, whereas the +barbarian is most tenacious of custom, the European can adopt new fashions +with comparative ease. The obvious inference is, that in proportion as the +brain is feeble it is incapable of the effort of origination; therefore, +savages are the slaves of routine. Probably a stronger nervous system, or +a peculiarity of environment, or both combined, served to excite +impatience with their surroundings among the more favored races, from +whence came a desire for innovation. And the mental flexibility thus +slowly developed has passed by inheritance, and has been strengthened by +use, until the tendency to vary, or think independently, has become an +irrepressible instinct among some modern nations. Conservatism is the +converse of variation, and as it springs from mental inertia it is always +a progressively salient characteristic of each group in the descending +scale. The Spaniard is less mutable than the Englishman, the Hindoo than +the Spaniard, the Hottentot than the Hindoo, and the ape than the +Hottentot. Therefore, a power whose existence depends upon the fixity of +custom must be inimical to progress, but the authority of a sacred caste +is altogether based upon an unreasoning reverence for tradition,--in +short, on superstition; and as free inquiry is fatal to a belief in those +fables which awed the childhood of the race, it has followed that +established priesthoods have been almost uniformly the most conservative +of social forces, and that clergymen have seldom failed to slay their +variable brethren when opportunity has offered. History teems with such +slaughters, some of the most instructive of which are related in the Old +Testament, whose code of morals is purely theological. + +Though there may be some question as to the strict veracity of the author +of the Book of Kings, yet, as he was evidently a thorough churchman, there +can be no doubt that he has faithfully preserved the traditions of the +hierarchy; his chronicle therefore presents, as it were, a perfect mirror, +wherein are reflected the workings of the ecclesiastical mind through many +generations. According to his account, the theocracy only triumphed after +a long and doubtful struggle. Samuel must have been an exceptionally able +man, for, though he failed to control Saul, it was through his intrigues +that David was enthroned, who was profoundly orthodox; yet Solomon lapsed +again into heresy, and Jeroboam added to schism the even blacker crime of +making "priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of +Levi," [Footnote: I Kings xii. 31.] and in consequence he has come down to +posterity as the man who made Israel to sin. Ahab married Jezebel, who +introduced the worship of Baal, and gave the support of government to a +rival church. She therefore roused a hate which has made her immortal; but +it was not until the reign of her son Jehoram that Elisha apparently felt +strong enough to execute a plot he had made with one of the generals to +precipitate a revolution, in which the whole of the house of Ahab should +be murdered and the heretics exterminated. The awful story is told with +wonderful power in the Bible. + +"And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and +said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, +and go to Ramoth-gilead: and when thou comest thither, look out there +Jehu, ... and make him arise up ... and carry him to an inner chamber; +then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the +Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.... + +"So the young man ... went to Ramoth-gilead.... And he said, I have an +errand to thee, O captain.... + +"And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, +and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee +king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. + +"And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the +blood of my servants the prophets.... + +"For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: ... and I will make the house +of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ... and the dogs +shall eat Jezebel.... + +"Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: ... And he said, Thus +spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king +over Israel. + +"Then they hasted, ... and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king. So +Jehu ... conspired against Joram.... + +"But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which +the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.... + +"So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there.... + +"And Joram ... went out ... in his chariot, ... against Jehu.... And it +came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he +answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and +her witchcrafts are so many? + +"And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is +treachery, O Ahaziah. + +"And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his +arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his +chariot.... + +"But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the +garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the +chariot. And they did so.... + +"And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted +her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. + +"And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew +his master?... + +"And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her +blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trod her under +foot.... + +"And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, ... to the +elders, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying, ... If ye be +mine, ... take ye the heads of ... your master's sons, and come to me to +Jezreel by to-morrow this time.... And it came to pass, when the letter +came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, +and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.... + +"And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate +until the morning.... + +"So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all +his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none +remaining. + +"And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the +shearing house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of +Judah.... + +"And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at +the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any +of them.... + +"And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in +Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, +which he spake to Elijah. + +"And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab +served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call +unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; +let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever +shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the +intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.... + +"And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, +so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the +house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another.... + +"And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt +offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay +them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; +and the guard and the captains cast them out.... + +"Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel." [Footnote: 2 _Kings_ ix., x.] + +Viewed from the standpoint of comparative history, the policy of +theocratic Massachusetts toward the Quakers was the necessary consequence +of antecedent causes, and is exactly parallel with the massacre of the +house of Ahab by Elisha and Jehu. The power of a dominant priesthood +depended on conformity, and the Quakers absolutely refused to conform; nor +was this the blackest of their crimes: they believed that the Deity +communicated directly with men, and that these revelations were the +highest rule of conduct. Manifestly such a doctrine was revolutionary. The +influence of all ecclesiastics must ultimately rest upon the popular +belief that they are endowed with attributes which are denied to common +men. The syllogism of the New England elders was this: all revelation is +contained in the Bible; we alone, from our peculiar education, are capable +of interpreting the meaning of the Scriptures: therefore we only can +declare the will of God. But it was evident that, were the dogma of "the +inner light" once accepted, this reasoning must fall to the ground, and +the authority of the ministry be overthrown. Necessarily those who held so +subversive a doctrine would be pursued with greater hate than less harmful +heretics, and thus contemplating the situation there is no difficulty in +understanding why the Rev. John Wilson, pastor of Boston, should have +vociferated in his pulpit, that "he would carry fire in one hand and +faggots in the other, to burn all the Quakers in the world;" [Footnote: +_New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 124.] why the Rev. John Higginson +should have denounced the "inner light" as "a stinking vapour from hell;" +[Footnote: _Truth and Innocency Defended_, ed. 1703, p. 80.] why the +astute Norton should have taught that "the justice of God was the devil's +armour;" [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 9.] and why +Endicott sternly warned the first comers, "Take heed you break not our +ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure to stretch by a halter." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] + +Nevertheless, this view has not commended itself to those learned +clergymen who have been the chief historians of the Puritan commonwealth. +They have, on the contrary, steadily maintained that the sectaries were +the persecutors, since the company had exclusive ownership of the soil, +and acted in self-defence. + +The case of Roger Williams is thus summed up by Dr. Dexter: "In all +strictness and honesty he persecuted them--not they him; just as the +modern 'Come-outer,' who persistently intrudes his bad manners and +pestering presence upon some private company, making himself, upon +pretence of conscience, a nuisance there; is--if sane--the persecutor, +rather than the man who forcibly assists, as well as courteously requires, +his desired departure." [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 90.] + +Dr. Ellis makes a similar argument regarding the Quakers: "It might appear +as if good manners, and generosity and magnanimity of spirit, would have +kept the Quakers away. Certainly, by every rule of right and reason, they +ought to have kept away. They had no rights or business here.... Most +clearly they courted persecution, suffering, and death; and, as the +magistrates affirmed, 'they rushed upon the sword.' Those magistrates +never intended them harm, ... except as they believed that all their +successive measures and sharper penalties were positively necessary to +secure their jurisdiction from the wildest lawlessness and absolute +anarchy." [Footnote: _Mass. and its Early History_, p. 110] His conclusion +is: "It is to be as frankly and positively affirmed that their Quaker +tormentors were the aggressive party; that they wantonly initiated the +strife, and with a dogged pertinacity persisted in outrages which drove +the authorities almost to frenzy...." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 104] + +The proposition that the Congregationalists owned the territory granted by +the charter of Charles I. as though it were a private estate, has been +considered in an earlier chapter; and if the legal views there advanced +are sound, it is incontrovertible, that all peaceful British subjects had +a right to dwell in Massachusetts, provided they did not infringe the +monopoly in trade. The only remaining question, therefore, is whether the +Quakers were peaceful. Dr. Ellis, Dr. Palfrey, and Dr. Dexter have +carefully collected a certain number of cases of misconduct, with the view +of proving that the Friends were turbulent, and the government had +reasonable grounds for apprehending such another outbreak as one which +occurred a century before in Germany and is known as the Peasants' War. +Before, however, it is possible to enter upon a consideration of the +evidence intelligently, it is necessary to fix the chronological order of +the leading events of the persecution. + +The twenty-one years over which it extended may be conveniently divided +into three periods, of which the first began in July, 1656, when Mary +Fisher and Anne Austin came to Boston, and lasted till December, 1661, +when Charles II. interfered by commanding Endicott to send those under +arrest to England for trial. Hitherto John Norton had been preeminent, but +in that same December he was appointed on a mission to London, and as he +died soon after his return, his direct influence on affairs then probably +ceased. He had been chiefly responsible for the hangings of 1659 and 1660, +but under no circumstances could they have been continued, for after four +heretics had perished, it was found impossible to execute Wenlock +Christison, who had been condemned, because of popular indignation. + +Nevertheless, the respite was brief. In June, 1662, the king, in a letter +confirming the charter, excluded the Quakers from the general toleration +which he demanded for other sects, and the old legislation was forthwith +revived; only as it was found impossible to kill the schismatics openly, +the inference, from what occurred subsequently, is unavoidable, that the +elders sought to attain their purpose by what their reverend historians +call "a humaner policy," [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 134.] +or, in plain English, by murdering them by flogging and starvation. Nor +was the device new, for the same stratagem had already been resorted to by +the East India Company, in Hindostan, before they were granted full +criminal jurisdiction. [Footnote: Mill's _British India_, i. 48, note.] + +The Vagabond Act was too well contrived for compassing such an end, to +have been an accident, and portions of it strongly suggest the hand of +Norton. It was passed in May, 1661, when it was becoming evident that +hanging must be abandoned, and its provisions can only be explained on the +supposition that it was the intention to make the infliction of death +discretionary with each magistrate. It provided that any foreign Quaker, +or any native upon a second conviction, might be ordered to receive an +unlimited number of stripes. It is important also to observe that the whip +was a two-handed implement, armed with lashes made of twisted and knotted +cord or catgut. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 357, note.] +There can be no doubt, moreover, that sundry of the judgments afterward +pronounced would have resulted fatally had the people permitted their +execution. During the autumn following its enactment this statute was +suspended, but it was revived in about ten months. + +Endicott's death in 1665 marks the close of the second epoch, and ten +comparatively tranquil years followed. Bellingham's moderation may have +been in part due to the interference of the royal commissioners, but a +more potent reason was the popular disgust, which had become so strong +that the penal laws could not be enforced. + +A last effort was made to rekindle the dying flame in 1675, by fining +constables who failed in their duty to break up Quaker meetings, and +offering one third of the penalty to the informer. Magistrates were +required to sentence those apprehended to the House of Correction, where +they were to be kept three days on bread and water, and whipped. +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 60.] Several suffered during this revival, +the last of whom was Margaret Brewster. At the end of twenty-one years the +policy of cruelty had become thoroughly discredited and a general +toleration could no longer be postponed; but this great liberal triumph +was only won by heroic courage and by the endurance of excruciating +torments. Marmaduke Stevenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer, and William +Leddra were hanged, several were mutilated or branded, two at least are +known to have died from starvation and whipping, and it is probable that +others were killed whose fate cannot be traced. The number tortured under +the Vagabond Act is unknown, nor can any estimate be made of the misery +inflicted upon children by the ruin and exile of parents. + +The early Quakers were enthusiasts, and therefore occasionally spoke and +acted extravagantly; they also adopted some offensive customs, the most +objectionable of which was wearing the hat; all this is immaterial. The +question at issue is not their social attractiveness, but the cause whose +consequence was a virulent persecution. This can only be determined by an +analysis of the evidence. If, upon an impartial review of the cases of +outrage which have been collected, it shall appear probable that the +conduct of the Friends was sufficiently violent to make it credible that +the legislature spoke the truth, when it declared that "the prudence of +this court was exercised onely in making provission to secure the peace & +order heere established against theire attempts, whose designe (wee were +well assured by our oune experjence, as well as by the example of theire +predecessors in Munster) was to vndermine & ruine the same;" [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 385.] then the reverend historians of +the theocracy must be considered to have established their proposition. +But if, on the other hand, it shall seem apparent that the intense +vindictiveness of this onslaught was due to the bigotry and greed of power +of a despotic priesthood, who saw in the spread of independent thought a +menace to the ascendency of their order, then it must be held to be +demonstrated that the clergy of New England acted in obedience to those +natural laws, which have always regulated the conduct of mankind. + + +CHRONOLOGY. + + +1656, July. First Quakers came to Boston. + +1656, 14 Oct. First act against Quakers passed. Providing that ship- +masters bringing Quakers should be fined L100. Quakers to be whipped and +imprisoned till expelled. Importers of Quaker books to be fined. Any +defending Quaker opinions to be fined, first offence, 40s.; second, L4; +third, banishment. + +1657, 14 Oct. By a supplementary act; Quakers returning after one +conviction for first offence, for men, loss of one ear; imprisonment till +exile. Second offence, loss other ear, like imprisonment. For females; +first offence, whipping, imprisonment. Second offence, idem. Third +offence, men and women alike; tongue to be bored with a hot iron, +imprisonment, exile. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 309.] + +1658. In this year Rev. John Norton actively exerted himself to secure +more stringent legislation; procured petition to that effect to be +presented to court. + +1658, 19 Oct. Enacted that undomiciled Quakers returning from banishment +should be hanged. Domiciled Quakers upon conviction, refusing to +apostatize, to be banished, under pain of death on return. [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 346.] + +Under this act the following persons were hanged: + +1659, 27 Oct. Robinson and Stevenson hanged. + +1660, 1 June. Mary Dyer hanged. (Previously condemned, reprieved, and +executed for returning.) + +1660-1661, 14 Mar. William Leddra hanged. + +1661, June. Wenlock Christison condemned to death; released. + +1661, 22 May. Vagabond Act. Any person convicted before a county +magistrate of being an undomiciled or vagabond Quaker to be stripped naked +to the middle, tied to the cart's tail, and flogged from town to town to +the border. Domiciled Quakers to be proceeded against under Act of 1658 to +banishment, and then treated as vagabond Quakers. The death penalty was +still preserved but not enforced. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, +p. 3.] + +1661, 9 Sept. King Charles II. wrote to Governor Endicott directing the +cessation of corporal punishment in regard to Quakers, and ordering the +accused to be sent to England for trial. + +1661. 27 Nov. Vagabond Act suspended. + +1662. 28 June. The company's agents, Bradstreet and Norton, received from +the king his letter of pardon, etc., wherein, however, Quakers are +excepted from the demand made for religious toleration. + +1662, 8 Oct. Encouraged by the above letter the Vagabond law revived. + +1664-5, 15 March. Death of John Endicott. Bellingham governor. +Commissioners interfere on behalf of Quakers in May. The persecution +subsides. + +1672, 3 Nov. Persecution revived by passage of law punishing persons found +at Quaker meeting by fine or imprisonment and flogging. Also fining +constables for neglect in making arrests and giving one third the fine to +informers. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 60.] + +1677, Aug. 9. Margaret Brewster whipped for entering the Old South in +sackcloth. + + +TURBULENT QUAKERS. + + +1656, Mary Prince. 1662, Deborah Wilson. +1658, Sarah Gibbons. 1663, Thomas Newhouse. + " Dorothy Waugh. " Edward Wharton. +1660, John Smith. 1664, Hannah Wright. [Footnote: Uncertain.] +1661, Katherine Chatham. " Mary Tomkins. + " George Wilson. 1665, Lydia Wardwell. +1662, Elizabeth Hooton. 1677, Margaret Brewster. + +"It was in the month called July, of this present year [1656] when Mary +Fisher and Ann Austin arrived in the road before Boston, before ever a law +was made there against the Quakers; and yet they were very ill treated; +for before they came ashore, the deputy governor, Richard Bellingham (the +governor himself being out of town) sent officers aboard, who searched +their trunks and chests, and took away the books they found there, which +were about one hundred, and carried them ashore, after having commanded +the said women to be kept prisoners aboard; and the said books were, by an +order of the council, burnt in the market-place by the hangman.... And +then they were shut up close prisoners, and command was given that none +should come to them without leave; a fine of five pounds being laid on any +that should otherwise come at, or speak with them, tho' but at the window. +Their pens, ink, and paper were taken from them, and they not suffered to +have any candle-light in the night season; nay, what is more, they were +stript naked, under pretence to know whether they were witches [a true +touch of sacerdotal malignity] tho' in searching no token was found upon +them but of innocence. And in this search they were so barbarously misused +that modesty forbids to mention it: And that none might have communication +with them a board was nailed up before the window of the jail. And seeing +they were not provided with victuals, Nicholas Upshal, one who had lived +long in Boston, and was a member of the church there, was so concerned +about it, (liberty being denied to send them provision) that he purchased +it of the jailor at the rate of five shillings a week, lest they should +have starved. And after having been about five weeks prisoners, William +Chichester, master of a vessel, was bound in one hundred pound bond to +carry them back, and not suffer any to speak with them, after they were +put on board; and the jailor kept their beds ... and their Bible, for his +fees." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 160.] + +Endicott was much dissatisfied with the forbearance of Bellingham, and +declared that had he "been there ... he would have had them well whipp'd." +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 10.] No exertion was spared, +nevertheless, to get some hold upon them, the elders examining them as to +matters of faith, with a view to ensnare them as heretics. In this, +however, they were foiled. + +On the authority of Hutchinson, Dr. Dexter [Footnote: _As to Roger +Williams_, p. 127.] and r. Palfrey complain [Footnote: Palfrey, ii. +464.] that Mary Prince reviled two of the ministers, who "with much +moderation and tenderness endeavored to convince her of her errors." +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 181.] A visitation of the clergy was a +form of torment from which even the boldest recoiled; Vane, Gorton, +Childe, and Anne Hutchinson quailed under it, and though the Quakers +abundantly proved that they could bear stripes with patience, they could +not endure this. She called them "Baal's priests, the seed of the +serpent." Dr. Ellis also speaks of "stinging objurgations screamed out ... +from between the bars of their prisons." [Footnote: _Mem. Hist. of +Boston_, i. 182.] He cites no cases, but he probably refers to the same +woman who called to Endicott one Sunday on his way from church: "Woe unto +thee, thou art an oppressor." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 181.] If +she said so she spoke the truth, for she was illegally imprisoned, was +deprived of her property, and subjected to great hardship. + +In October, 1656, the first of the repressive acts was passed, by which +the "cursed" and "blasphemous" intruders were condemned to be "comitted to +the house of correction, and at theire entrance to be seuerely whipt and +by the master thereof to be kept constantly to worke, and none suffered to +converse or speak with them;" [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, +p. 278.] and any captain knowingly bringing them within the jurisdiction +to be fined one hundred pounds, with imprisonment till payment. + +"When this law was published at the door of the aforenamed Nicholas +Upshall, the good old man, grieved in spirit, publickly testified against +it; for which he was the next morning sent for to the General Court, where +he told them that: 'The execution of that law would be a forerunner of a +judgment upon their country, and therefore in love and tenderness which he +bare to the people and place, desired them to take heed, lest they were +found fighters against God.' For this, he, though one of their church- +members, and of a blameless conversation, was fined L20 and L3 more for +not coming to church, whence the sense of their wickedness had induced him +to absent himself. They also banished him out of their jurisdiction, +allowing him but one month for his departure, though in the winter season, +and he a weakly ancient man: Endicott the governor, when applied to on his +behalf for a mitigation of his fine, churlishly answered, 'I will not bate +him a groat.'" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 181.] + +Although, after the autumn of 1656, whippings, fines, and banishments +became frequent, no case of misconduct is alleged until the 13th of the +second month, 1658, when Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh broke two bottles +in Mr. Norton's church, after lecture, to testify to his emptiness; +[Footnote: This charge is unproved.] both had previously been imprisoned +and banished, but the ferocity with which Norton at that moment was +forcing on the persecution was the probable incentive to the trespass. +"They were sent to the house of correction, where, after being kept three +days without any food, they were cruelly whipt, and kept three days longer +without victuals, though they had offered to buy some, but were not +suffered." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 184.] + +In 1661 Katharine Chatham walked through Boston, in sackcloth. This was +during the trial of Christison for his life, when the terror culminated, +and hardly needs comment. + +George Wilson is charged with having "rushed through the streets of +Boston, shouting: 'The Lord is coming with fire and sword!'" [Footnote: +_As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] The facts appear to be these: in 1661, +just before Christison's trial, he was arrested, without any apparent +reason, and, as he was led to prison, he cried, that the Lord was coming +with fire and sword to plead with Boston. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, +ed. 1703, p. 351.] At the general jail delivery [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 19. Order passed 28 May, 1661.] in anticipation of the +king's order, he was liberated, but soon rearrested, "sentenced to be tied +to the cart's tail," and flogged with so severe a whip that the Quakers +wanted to buy it "to send to England for the novelty of the cruelty, but +that was not permitted." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 224.] + +Elizabeth Hooton coming from England in 1661, with Joan Brooksup, "they +were soon clapt up in prison, and, upon their discharge thence, being +driven with the rest two days' journey into the vast, howling wilderness, +and there left ... without necessary provisions." [Footnote: Besse, ii. +228, 229.] They escaped to Barbadoes. "Upon their coming again to Boston, +they were presently apprehended by a constable, an ignorant and furious +zealot, who declared, 'It was his delight, and he could rejoice in +following the Quakers to their execution as much as ever.'" Wishing to +return once more, she obtained a license from the king to buy a house in +any plantation. Though about sixty, she was seized at Dover, where the +Rev. Mr. Rayner was settled, put into the stocks, and imprisoned four days +in the dead of winter, where she nearly perished from cold. [Footnote: +Besse, ii. 229.] Afterward, at Cambridge, she exhorted the people to +repentance in the streets, [Footnote: "Repentance! Repentance! A day of +howling and sad lamentation is coming upon you all from the Lord."] and +for this crime, which is cited as an outrage to Puritan decorum, +[Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] she was once more apprehended +and "imprisoned in a close, stinking dungeon, where there was nothing +either to lie down or sit on, where she was kept two days and two nights +without bread or water," and then sentenced to be whipped through three +towns. "At Cambridge she was tied to the whipping-post, and lashed with +ten stripes with a three-stringed whip, with three knots at the end: At +Watertown she was laid on with ten stripes more with rods of willow: At +Dedham, in a cold frosty morning, they tortured her aged body with ten +stripes more at a cart's tail." The peculiar atrocity of flogging from +town to town lay in this: that the victim's wounds became cold between the +times of punishment, and in winter sometimes frozen, which made the +torture intolerably agonizing. Then, as hanging was impossible, other +means were tried to make an end of her: "Thus miserably torn and beaten, +they carried her a weary journey on horseback many miles into the +wilderness, and toward night left her there among wolves, bears, and other +wild beasts, who, though they did sometimes seize on living persons, were +yet to her less cruel than the savage-professors of that country. When +those who conveyed her thither left her, they said, 'They thought they +should never see her more.'" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 229. See _New England +Judged_, p. 413.] + +The intent to kill is obvious, and yet Elizabeth Hooton suffered less than +many of those convicted and sentenced after public indignation had forced +the theocracy to adopt what their reverend successors are pleased to call +the "humaner policy" of the Vagabond Act. [Footnote: _As to Roger +Williams_, p. 134.] + +Any want of deference to a clergyman is sure to be given a prominent place +in the annals of Massachusetts; and, accordingly, the breaking of bottles +in church, which happened twice in twenty-one years, is never omitted. + +In 1663 "John Liddal, and Thomas Newhouse, having been at meeting" (at +Salem), "were apprehended and ... sentenced to be whipt through three +towns as vagabonds," which was accordingly done. + +"Not long after this, the aforesaid Thomas Newhouse was again whipt +through the jurisdiction of Boston for testifying against the persecutors +in their meeting-house there; at which time he, in a prophetick manner, +having two glass bottles in his hands, threw them down, saying, 'so shall +you be dashed in pieces.'" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 232.] + +The next turbulent Quaker is mentioned in this way by Dr. Dexter: "Edward +Wharton was 'pressed in spirit' to repair to Dover and proclaim 'Wo, +vengeance, and the indignation of the Lord' upon the court in session +there." [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] This happened in +the summer of 1663, and long ere then he had seen and suffered the +oppression that makes men mad. He was a peaceable and industrious +inhabitant of Salem; in 1659 he had seen Robinson and Stevenson done to +death, and, being deeply moved, he said, "the guilt of [their] blood was +so great that he could not bear it;" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 205.] he was +taken from his home, given twenty lashes and fined twenty pounds; the next +year, just at the time of Christison's trial, he was again seized, led +through the country like a notorious offender, and thrown into prison, +"where he was kept close, night and day, with William Leddra, sometimes in +a very little room, little bigger than a saw-pit, having no liberty +granted them." + +"Being brought before their court, he again asked, 'What is the cause, and +wherefore have I been fetcht from my habitation, where I was following my +honest calling, and here laid up as an evil-doer?' They told him, that +'his hair was too long, and that he had disobeyed that commandment which +saith, Honour thy father and mother.' He asked, 'Wherein?' 'In that you +will not,' said they, 'put off your hat to magistrates.' Edward replied, +'I love and own all magistrates and rulers, who are for the punishment of +evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.'" [Footnote: Besse, +ii. 220.] + +Then Rawson pronounced the sentence: "You are upon pain of death to depart +this jurisdiction, it being the 11th of this instant March, by the one and +twentieth of the same, on the pain of death.... 'Nay [said Wharton], I +shall not go away; therefore be careful what you do.'" [Footnote: Besse, +ii. 221.] + +And he did not go, but was with Leddra when he died upon the tree. On the +day Leddra suffered, Christison was brought before Endicott, and commanded +to renounce his religion; but he answered: "Nay, I shall not change my +religion, nor seek to save my life; ... but if I lose my life for Christ's +sake and the preaching of the gospel, I shall save it." They then sent him +back to prison to await his doom. At the next court he was brought to the +bar, where he demanded an appeal to England; but in the midst a letter was +brought in from Wharton, signifying, "That whereas they had banished him +on pain of death, yet he was at home in his own house at Salem, and +therefore proposing, 'That they would take off their wicked sentence from +him, that he might go about his occasions out of their jurisdiction.'" +[Footnote: Besse, ii. 222, 223.] + +Endicott was exasperated to frenzy, for he felt the ground crumbling +beneath him; he put the fate of Christison to the vote, and failed to +carry a condemnation. "The governor seeing this division, said, 'I could +find it in my heart to go home;' being in such a rage, that he flung +something furiously on the table. ...Then the governor put the court to +vote again; but this was done confusedly, which so incensed the governor +that he stood up and said, 'You that will not consent record it: I thank +God I am not afraid to give judgment...Wenlock Christison, hearken to your +sentence: You must return unto the place from whence you came, and from +thence to the place of execution, and there you must be hang'd until you +are dead, dead, dead.'" [Footnote: Sewel, p. 279.] Thereafter Wharton +invoked the wrath of God against the theocracy. + +To none of the enormities committed, during these years are the divines +more keenly alive than to the crime of disturbing what they call "public +Sabbath worship;" [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 139.] and since +their language conveys the impression that such acts were not only very +common, but also unprovoked, whereas the truth is that they were rare, it +cannot fail to be instructive to relate the causes which led to the +interruption of the ordination of that Mr. Higginson, who called the +"inner light" "a stinking vapour from hell." [Footnote: Ordained July 8, +1660. _Annals of Salem_.] + +John and Margaret Smith were members of the Salem church, and John was a +freeman. In 1658, Margaret became a Quaker, and though in feeble health, +she was cast into prison, and endured the extremities of privation; her +sufferings and her patience so wrought upon her husband that he too became +a convert, and a few weeks before the ceremony wrote to Endicott: + +"O governour, governour, do not think that my love to my wife is at all +abated, because I sit still silent, and do not seek her ... freedom, which +if I did would not avail.... Upon examination of her, there being nothing +justly laid to her charge, yet to fulfil your wills, it was determined, +that she must have ten stripes in the open market place, it being very +cold, the snow lying by the walls, and the wind blowing cold.... My love +is much more increased to her, because I see your cruelty so much enlarged +to her." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 208, 209.] + +Yet, though laboring under such intense excitement, the only act of +insubordination wherewith this man is charged was saying in a loud voice +during the service, "What you are going about to set up, our God is +pulling down." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 187.] + +Dr. Dexter also speaks with pathos of the youth of some of the criminals. + +"Hannah Wright, a mere girl of less than fifteen summers, toiled ... from +Oyster Bay ... to Boston, that she might pipe in the ears of the court 'a +warning in the name of the Lord.'" [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams,_ p. +133.] This appears to have happened in 1664, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 234. +_New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 461.] yet the name of Hannah Wright is +recorded among those who were released in the general jail delivery in +1661, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 224.] when she was only twelve; and her sister +had been banished. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 461.] + +But of all the scandals which have been dwelt on for two centuries with +such unction, none have been made more notorious than certain +extravagances committed by three women; and regarding them, the reasoning +of Dr. Dexter should be read in full. + +"The Quaker of the seventeenth century ... was essentially a coarse, +blustering, conceited, disagreeable, impudent fanatic; whose religion +gained subjective comfort in exact proportion to the objective comfort of +which it was able to deprive others; and which broke out into its choicest +exhibitions in acts which were not only at that time in the nature of a +public scandal and nuisance, but which even in the brightest light of this +nineteenth century ... would subject those who should be guilty of them to +the immediate and stringent attention of the police court. The disturbance +of public Sabbath worship, and the indecent exposure of the person-- +whether conscience be pleaded for them or not--are punished, and rightly +punished, as crimes by every civilized government." [Footnote: _As to +Roger Williams_, pp. 138, 139.] + +This paragraph undoubtedly refers to Mary Tomkins, who "on the First Day +of the week at Oyster River, broke up the service of God's house ... the +scene ending in deplorable confusion;" [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, +p. 133.] and to Lydia Wardwell and Deborah Wilson, who appeared in public +naked. + +Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose came to Massachusetts in 1662; landing at +Dover, they began preaching at the inn, to which a number of people +resorted. Mr. Rayner, hearing the news, hurried to the spot, and in much +irritation asked them what they were doing there? This led to an argument +about the Trinity, and the authority of ministers, and at last the +clergyman "in a rage flung away, calling to his people, at the window, to +go from amongst them." [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 362.] +Nothing was done at the moment, but toward winter the two came back from +Maine, whither they had gone, and then Mr. Rayner saw his opportunity. He +caused Richard Walden to prosecute them, and as the magistrate was +ignorant of the technicalities of the law, the elder acted as clerk, and +drew up for him the following warrant:-- + + * * * * * + +To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, +Wenham, Linn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vagabond Quakers +are carried out of this jurisdiction. You and every of you are required, +in the King's Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anne +Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart's +tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip them on +their backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them in each +town, and so to convey them from constable to constable, till they come +out of this jurisdiction, as you will answer it at your peril: and this +shall be your warrant. + +Per me RICHARD WALDEN. +At Dover, dated December the 22d, 1662. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 227.] + + * * * * * + +The Rev. John Rayner pronounced judgment of death by flogging, for the +weather was bitter, the distance to be walked was eighty miles, and the +lashes were given with a whip, whose three twisted, knotted thongs cut to +the bone. + +"So, in a very cold day, your deputy, Walden, caused these women to be +stripp'd naked from the middle upward, and tyed to a cart, and after a +while cruelly whipp'd them, whilst the priest stood and looked, and +laughed at it.... They went with the executioner to Hampton, and through +dirt and snow at Salisbury, half way the leg deep, the constable forced +them after the cart's tayl at which he whipp'd them." [Footnote: _New +England Judged_, pp. 366, 367.] + +Had the Reverend John Rayner but followed the cart, to see that his three +hundred and thirty lashes were all given with the same ferocity which +warmed his heart to mirth at Dover, before his journey's end he would +certainly have joyed in giving thanks to God over the women's gory +corpses, freezing amid the snow. His negligence saved their lives, for +when the ghastly pilgrims passed through Salisbury, the people to their +eternal honor set the captives free. + +Soon after, on Sunday,--"Whilst Alice Ambrose was at prayer, two +constables ... came ... and taking her ... dragged her out of doors, and +then with her face toward the snow, which was knee deep, over stumps and +old trees near a mile; when they had wearied themselves they ... left the +prisoner in an house ... and fetched Mary Tomkins, whom in like manner +they dragged with her face toward the snow....On the next morning, which +was excessive cold, they got a canoe ... and so carried them to the +harbour's mouth, threatning, that 'They would now so do with them, as that +they would be troubled with them no more.' The women being unwilling to +go, they forced them down a very steep place in the snow, dragging Mary +Tomkins over the stumps of trees to the water side, so that she was much +bruised, and fainted under their hands: They plucked Alice Ambrose into +the water, and kept her swimming by the canoe in great danger of drowning, +or being frozen to death. They would in all probability have proceeded in +their wicked purpose to the murthering of those three women, had they not +been prevented by a sudden storm, which drove them back to the house +again. They kept the women there till near midnight, and then cruelly +turned them out of doors in the frost and snow, Alice Ambrose's clothes +being frozen hard as boards.... It was observable that those constables, +though wicked enough of themselves, were animated by a ruling elder of +their church, whose name corresponded not with his actions, for he was +called Hate-evil Nutter, he put those men forward, and by his presence +encouraged them." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 228.] + +Subsequently, Mary Tomkins committed the breach of the peace complained +of, which was an interruption of a sermon against Quaker preaching. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 386.] + +Deborah Wilson, one of the women who went abroad naked, was insane, the +fact appearing of record subsequently as the judgment of the court. She +was flogged. [Footnote: _Quaker Invasion_, p. 104.] + +Lydia Wardwell was the daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman. She married +Eliakim Wardwell, son of Thomas Wardwell, who was also a citizen. They +became Quakers; and the story begins when the poor young woman had been a +wife just three years. "At Hampton, Priest Seaborn Cotton, understanding +that one Eliakim Wardel had entertained Wenlock Christison, went with some +of his herd to Eliakim's house, having like a sturdy herdsman put himself +at the head of his followers, with a truncheon in his hand." Eliakim was +fined for harboring Christison, and "a pretty beast for the saddle, worth +about fourteen pound, was taken ... the overplus of [Footnote: Sewel, p. +340.] which to make up to him, your officers plundred old William Marston +of a vessel of green ginger, which for some fine was taken from him, and +forc'd it into Eliakim's house, where he let it lie and touched it not; +... and notwithstanding he came not to your invented worship, but was +fined ten shillings a day's absence, for him and his wife, yet was he +often rated for priest's hire; and the priest (Seaborn Cotton, old John +Cotton's son) to obtain his end and to cover himself, sold his rate to a +man almost as bad as himself, ... who coming in pretence of borrowing a +little corn for himself, which the harmless honest man willingly lent him; +and he finding thereby that he had corn, which was his design, Judas-like, +he went ... and measured it away as he pleased." + +"Another time, the said Eliakim being rated to the said priest, Seaborn +Cotton, the said Seaborn having a mind to a pied heifer Eliakim had, as +Ahab had to Naboth's vineyard, sent his servant nigh two miles to fetch +her; who having robb'd Eliakim of her, brought her to his master."... + +"Again the said Eliakim was had to your court, and being by them fined, +they took almost all his marsh and meadow-ground from him to satisfie it, +which was for the keeping his cattle alive in winter ... and [so] seized +and took his estate, that they plucked from him most of that he had." +[Footnote: _New England Judged,_ ed. 1703, pp. 374-376.] Lydia Wardwell, +thus reduced to penury, and shaken by the daily scenes of unutterable +horror through which she had to pass, was totally unequal to endure the +strain under which the masculine intellect of Anne Hutchinson had reeled. +She was pursued by her pastor, who repeatedly commanded her to come to +church and explain her absence from communion. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 235.] +The miserable creature, brooding over her blighted life and the torments +of her friends, became possessed with the delusion that it was her duty to +testify against the barbarity of flogging naked women; so she herself went +in among them naked for a sign. There could be no clearer proof of +insanity, for it is admitted that in every other respect her conduct was +exemplary. + +Her judges at Ipswich had her bound to a rough post of the tavern, in +which they sat, and then, while the splinters tore her bare breasts, they +had her flesh cut from her back with the lash. [Footnote: _New England +Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 377.] + +"Thus they served the wife, and the husband escaped not free; ... he +taxing Simon Broadstreet, ... for upbraiding his wife ... and telling +Simon of his malitious reproaching of his wife who was an honest woman ... +and of that report that went abroad of the known dishonesty of Simon's +daughter, Seaborn Cotton's wife; Simon in a fierce rage, told the court, +'That if such fellows should be suffered to speak so in the court, he +would sit there no more:' So to please Simon, Eliakim was sentenc'd to be +stripp'd from his waste upward, and to be bound to an oak-tree that stood +by their worship-house, and to be whipped fifteen lashes; ... as they were +having him out ... he called to Seaborn Cotton ... to come and see the +work done (so far was he from being daunted by their cruelty), who hastned +out and followed him thither, and so did old Wiggins, one of the +magistrates, who when Eliakim was tyed to the tree and stripp'd, said ... +to the whipper... 'Whip him a good;' which the executioner cruelly +performed with cords near as big as a man's little finger;... Priest +Cotton standing near him ... Eliakim ... when he was loosed from the tree, +said to him, amongst the people, 'Seaborn, hath my py'd heifer calv'd +yet?' Which Seaborn, the priest, hearing stole away like a thief." +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 377-379.] + +As Margaret Brewster was the last who is known to have been whipped, so is +she one of the most famous, for she has been immortalized by Samuel +Sewall, an honest, though a dull man. + +"July 8, 1677. New Meeting House Mane: In sermon time there came in a +female Quaker, in a canvas frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a +Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two +other followed. It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I +ever saw. Isaiah 1. 12, 14." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, +v. 43.] + +In 1675 the persecution had been revived, and the stories the woman heard +of the cruelties that were perpetrated on those of her own faith inspired +her with the craving to go to New England to protest against the wrong; so +she journeyed thither, and entered the Old South one Sunday morning +clothed in sackcloth, with ashes on her head. + +At her trial she asked for leave to speak: "Governour, I desire thee to +hear me a little, for I have something to say in behalf of my friends in +this place: ... Oh governour! I cannot but press thee again and again, to +put an end to these cruel laws that you have made to fetch my friends from +their peaceable meetings, and keep them three days in the house of +correction, and then whip them for worshipping the true and living God: +Governour! Let me entreat thee to put an end to these laws, for the desire +of my soul is, that you may act for God, and then would you prosper, but +if you act against the Lord and his blessed truth, you will assuredly come +to nothing, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." ... + +"Margaret Brewster, You are to have your clothes stript off to the middle, +and to be tied to a cart's tail at the South Meeting House, and to be +drawn through the town, and to receive twenty stripes upon your naked +body." + +"The will of the Lord be done: I am contented." ... + +_Governour._ "Take her away." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 263, 264.] + +So ends the sacerdotal list of Quaker outrages, for, after Margaret +Brewster had expiated her crime of protesting against the repression of +free thought, there came a toleration, and with toleration a deep +tranquillity, so that the very name of Quaker has become synonymous with +quietude. The issue between them and the Congregationalists must be left +to be decided upon the legal question of their right as English subjects +to inhabit Massachusetts; and secondarily upon the opinion which shall be +formed of their conduct as citizens, upon the testimony of those witnesses +whom the church herself has called. But regarding the great fundamental +struggle for liberty of individual opinion, no presentation of the +evidence could be historically correct which did not include at least one +example of the fate that awaited peaceful families, under this +ecclesiastical government, who roused the ire of the priests. + +Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick were an aged couple, members of the Salem +church, and Lawrence was a freeman. Josiah, their eldest son, was a man; +but they had beside a younger boy and girl named Daniel and Provided. + +The father and mother were first arrested in 1657 for harboring two +Quakers; Lawrence was soon released, but a Quaker tract was found upon +Cassandra. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 183.] Although no attempt seems to have +been made to prove heresy to bring the case within the letter of the law, +the paper was treated as a heretical writing, and she was imprisoned for +seven weeks and fined forty shillings. + +Persecution made converts fast, and in Salem particularly a number +withdrew from the church and began to worship by themselves. All were soon +arrested, and the three Southwicks were again sent to Boston, this time to +serve as an example. They arrived on the 3d of February, 1657; without +form of trial they were whipped in the extreme cold weather and imprisoned +eleven days. Their cattle were also seized and sold to pay a fine of L4 +l3s. for six weeks' absence from worship on the Lord's day. + +The next summer, Leddra, who was afterwards hanged, and William Brend went +to Salem, and several persons were seized for meeting with them, among +whom were the Southwicks. A room was prepared for the criminals in the +Boston prison by boarding up the windows and stopping ventilation. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 64.] They were refused +food unless they worked to pay for it; but to work when wrongfully +confined was against the Quaker's conscience, so they did not eat for five +days. On the second day of fasting they were flogged, and then, with +wounds undressed, the men and women together were once more locked in the +dark, close room, to lie upon the bare boards, in the stifling July heat; +for they were not given beds. On the fourth day they were told they might +go if they would pay the jail fees and the constables; but they refused, +and so were kept in prison. On the morrow the jailer, thinking to bring +them to terms, put Brend in irons, neck and heels, and he lay without food +for sixteen hours upon his back lacerated with flogging. + +The next day the miserable man was ordered to work, but he lacked the +strength, had he been willing, for he was weak from starvation and pain, +and stiffened by the irons. And now the climax came. The jailer seized a +tarred rope and beat him till it broke; then, foaming with fury, he +dragged the old man down stairs, and, with a new rope, gave him ninety- +seven blows, when his strength failed; and Brend, his flesh black and +beaten to jelly, and his bruised skin hanging in bags full of clotted +blood, was thrust into his cell. There, upon the floor of that dark and +fetid den, the victim fainted. But help was at hand; an outcry was raised, +the people could bear no more, the doors were opened, and he was rescued. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 66.] + +The indignation was deep, and the government was afraid. Endicott sent his +own doctor, but the surgeon said that Brend's flesh would "rot from off +his bones," and he must die. And now the mob grew fierce and demanded +justice on the ruffian who had done this deed, and the magistrates nailed +a paper on the church door promising to bring him to trial. + +Then it was that the true spirit of his order blazed forth in Norton, for +the jailer was fashioned in his own image, and he threw over him the +mantle of the holy church. He made the magistrates take the paper down, +rebuking them for their faintness of heart, saying to them:-- + +William "Brend endeavoured to beat our gospel ordinances black and blue, +if he then be beaten black and blue, it is but just upon him, and I will +appear in his behalf that did so." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 186.] And the man +was justified, and commanded to whip "the Quakers in prison ... twice a +week, if they refused to work, and the first time to add five stripes to +the former ten, and each time to add three to them.... Which order ye sent +to the jaylor, to strengthen his hands to do yet more cruelly; being +somewhat weakened by the fright of his former doings." [Footnote: _New +England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 67.] + +After this the Southwicks, being still unable to obtain their freedom, +sent the following letter to the magistrates, which is a good example of +the writings of these "coarse, blustering, ... impudent fanatics:"-- +[Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 138.] + + * * * * * + +_This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem._ + +FRIENDS, + +Whereas it was your pleasures to commit us, whose names are under-written, +to the house of correction in Boston, altho' the Lord, the righteous Judge +of heaven and earth, is our witness, that we had done nothing worthy of +stripes or of bonds; and we being committed by your court, to be dealt +withal as the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term us; +and having some of us, suffered your law and pleasures, now that which we +do expect, is, that whereas we have suffered your law, so now to be set +free by the same law, as your manner is with strangers, and not to put us +in upon the account of one law, and execute another law upon us, of which, +according to your own manner, we were never convicted as the law +expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of your new law, we should +have expected the jaylor's order to have been on that account, which that +it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the punishment which +we bare, as four of us were whipp'd, among whom was one that had formerly +been whipp'd, so now also according to your former law. Friends, let it +not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in you lies, +our families to ruine. It's not unknown to you the season, and the time of +the year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and +families may be exposed unto; and also such as live on trade; we know if +the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you, these things would take +impression on your spirits. What our lives and conversations have been in +that place, is well known; and what we now suffer for, is much for false +reports, and ungrounded jealousies of heresie and sedition. These thing +lie upon us to lay before you. As for our parts, we have true peace and +rest in the Lord in all our sufferings, and are made willing in the power +and strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in this cause of God, +for which we suffer; Yea and we do find (through grace) the enlargements +of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves and +families, for the disposing of us according to his infinite wisdom and +pleasure, in whose love is our rest and life. + +From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made captives by the +wills of men, although made free by the Son, John 8, 36. In which we +quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th month, 1658. + +LAWRENCE | +CASSANDRA | SOUTHWICK +JOSIAH | +SAMUEL SHATTOCK +JOSHUA BUFFUM. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 74.] + + * * * * * + +What the prisoners apprehended was being kept in prison and punished under +an _ex post facto_ law, and this was precisely what was done. When +brought into court they demanded to be told the crime wherewith they were +charged. They were answered: "It was 'Entertaining the Quakers who were +their enemies; not coming to their meetings; and meeting by themselves.' +They adjoyned, 'That as to those things they had already fastned their law +upon them.' ... So ye had nothing left but the hat, for which (then) ye +had no law. They answered--that they intended no offence to ye in coming +thither ... for it was not their manner to have to do with courts. And as +for withdrawing from their meetings, or keeping on their hats, or doing +anything in contempt of them, or their laws, they said, the Lord was their +witness ... that they did it not. So ye rose up, and bid the jaylor take +them away." [Footnote: _New England Judged,_ ed. 1703, p. 85.] + +An acquittal seemed certain; yet it was intolerable to the clergy that +these accursed blasphemers should elude them when they held them in their +grasp; wherefore, the next day, the Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching at +Thursday lecture, thus taught Christ's love for men: "Suppose ye should +catch six wolves in a trap ... [there were six Salem Quakers] and ye +cannot prove that they killed either sheep or lambs; and now ye have them +they will neither bark nor bite: yet they have the plain marks of wolves. +Now I leave it to your consideration whether ye will let them go alive, +yea or nay." [Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 85, 86.] + +Then the divines had a consultation, "and your priests were put to it, how +to prove them as your law had said: and ye had them before you again, and +your priests were with you, every one by his side (so came ye to your +court) and John Norton must ask them questions, on purpose to ensnare +them, that by your standing law for hereticks, ye might condemn them (as +your priests before consulted) and when this would not do (for the Lord +was with them, and made them wiser than your teachers) ye made a law to +banish them, upon pain of death...." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 87.] + +After a violent struggle, the ministers, under Norton's lead, succeeded, +on the 19th of October, 1658, in forcing the capital act through the +legislature, which contained a clause making the denial of reverence to +superiors, or in other words, the wearing the hat, evidence of Quakerism. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 100, 101; _Mass. Rec._ vol. +iv. pt. 1, p. 346.] + +On that very day the bench ordered the prisoners at Ipswich to be brought +to the bar, and the Southwicks were bidden to depart before the spring +elections. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 349.] They did +not go, and in May were once more in the felon's dock. They asked what +wrong they had done. The judges told them they were rebellious for not +going as they had been commanded. The old man and woman piteously pleaded +"that they had no otherwhere to go," nor had they done anything to deserve +banishment or death, though L100 (all they had in the world) had been +taken from them for meeting together. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. +1703, p. 106.] + +"Major-General Dennison replied, that 'they stood against the authority of +the country, in not submitting to their laws: that he should not go about +to speak much concerning the error of their judgments: but,' added he, +'you and we are not able well to live together, and at present the power +is in our hand, and therefore the stronger must send off.'" [Footnote: +Besse, ii. 198.] + +The father, mother, and son were banished under pain of death. The aged +couple were sent to Shelter Island, but their misery was well-nigh done; +they perished within a few days of each other, tortured to death by +flogging and starvation. + +Josiah was shipped to England, but afterward returned, was seized, and in +the "seventh month, 1661, you had him before you, and at which according +to your former law, he should have been tried for his life." + +"But the great occasion you took against him, was his hat, which you +commanded him to pull off: 'He told your governour he could not.' You +said, 'He would not.' He told you, 'It was a cross to his will to keep it +on; ... and that he could not do it for conscience sake.' ... But your +governour told him, 'That he was to have been tryed for his life, but that +you had made your late law to save his life, which, you said, was mercy to +him.' Then he asked you, 'Whether you were not as good to take his life +now, as to whip him after your manner, twelve or fourteen times at the +cart's tail, through your towns, and then put him to death afterward?'" He +was condemned to be flogged through Boston, Roxbury, and Dedham; but he, +when he heard the judgment, "with arms stretched out, and hands spread +before you, said, 'Here is my body, if you want a further testimony of the +truth I profess, take it and tear it in pieces ... it is freely given up, +and as for your sentence I matter it not.'" [Footnote: _New England +Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 354-356.] + +This coarse, blustering, impudent fanatic had, indeed, "with a dogged +pertinacity persisted in outrages which "had driven" the authorities +almost to frenzy; "therefore they tied him to a cart and lashed him for +fifteen miles, and while he "sang to the praise of God," his tormentor +swung with all his might a tremendous two-handed whip, whose knotted +thongs were made of twisted cat-gut; [Footnote: _New England Judged_, +ed. 1703, p. 357, note.] thence he was carried fifteen miles from any +town into the wilderness." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 225.] + +An end had been made of the grown members of the family, but the two +children were still left. To reach them, the device was conceived of +enforcing the penalty for not attending church, since "it was well known +they had no estate, their parents being already brought to poverty by +their rapacious persecutors." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 223.] + +Accordingly, they were summoned and asked to account for their absence +from worship. Daniel answered "that if they had not so persecuted his +father and mother perhaps he might have come." [Footnote: _New England +Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 381.] They were fined; and on the day on which +they lost their parents forever, the sale as slaves of this helpless boy +and girl was authorized to satisfy the debt. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 366.] + +Edmund Batter, treasurer of Salem, brought the children to the town, and +went to a shipmaster who was about to sail, to engage a passage to +Barbadoes. The captain made the excuse that they would corrupt his ship's +company. "Oh, no," said Batter, "you need not fear that, for they are poor +harmless creatures, and will not hurt any body." ... "Will they not so?" +broke out the sailor, "and will ye offer to make slaves of so harmless +creatures?" [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 112.] + +Thus were free-born English subjects and citizens of Massachusetts dealt +with by the priesthood that ruled the Puritan Commonwealth. + +None but ecclesiastical partisans can doubt the bearing of such evidence. +It was the mortal struggle between conservatism and liberality, between +repression and free thought. The elders felt it in the marrow of their +bones, and so declared it in their laws, denouncing banishment under pain +of death against those "adhering to or approoving of any knoune Quaker, or +the tenetts & practices of the Quakers, ... manifesting thereby theire +compliance with those whose designe it is to ouerthrow the order +established in church and commonwealth." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. +pt. 1, p. 346.] + +Dennison spoke with an unerring instinct when he said they could not live +together, for the faith of the Friends was subversive of a theocracy. +Their belief that God revealed himself directly to man led with logical +certainty to the substitution of individual judgment for the rules of +conduct dictated by a sacred class, whether they claimed to derive their +authority from their skill in interpreting the Scriptures, or from +traditions preserved by Apostolic Succession. Each man, therefore, became, +as it were, a priest unto himself, and they repudiated an ordained +ministry. Hence, their crime resembled that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, +who "made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons +of Levi;" [Footnote: Jeroboam's sin is discussed in _Ne Sutor_, p. +25; _Divine Right of Infant Baptism_, p. 26.] and it was for this +reason that John Norton and John Endicott resolved upon their +extermination, even as Elisha and Jehu conspired to exterminate the house +of Ahab. + +That they failed was due to no mercy for their victims, nor remorse for +the blood they made to flow, but to their inability to control the people. +Nothing is plainer upon the evidence, than that popular sympathy was never +with the ecclesiastics in their ferocious policy; and nowhere does the +contrast of feeling shine out more clearly than in the story of the +hanging of Robinson and Stevenson. + +The figure of Norton towers above his contemporaries. He held the +administration in the hollow of his hand, for Endicott was his mouthpiece; +yet even he, backed by the whole power of the clergy, barely succeeded in +forcing through the Chamber of Deputies the statute inflicting death. + +"The priests and rulers were all for blood, and they pursued it.... This +the deputies withstood, and it could not pass, and the opposition grew +strong, for the thing came near. Deacon Wozel was a man much affected +therewith; and being not well at that time that he supposed the vote might +pass, he earnestly desired the speaker ... to send for him when it was to +be, lest by his absence it might miscarry. The deputies that were against +the ... law, thinking themselves strong enough to cast it out, forbore to +send for him. The vote was put and carried in the affirmative,--the +speaker and eleven being in the negative and thirteen in the affirmative: +so one vote carried it; which troubled Wozel so ... that he got to the +court, ... and wept for grief, ... and said 'If he had not been able to +go, he would have crept upon his hands and knees, rather than it should +have been.'" [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 101, 102.] + +After the accused had been condemned, the people, being strongly moved, +flocked about the prison, so that the magistrates feared a rescue, and a +guard was set. + +As the day approached the murmurs grew, and on the morning of the +execution the troops were under arms and the streets patrolled. Stevenson +and Robinson were loosed from their fetters, and Mary Dyer, who also was +to die, walked between them; and so they went bravely hand in hand to the +scaffold. The prisoners were put behind the drums, and their voices +drowned when they tried to speak; for a great multitude was about them, +and at a word, in their deep excitement, would have risen. [Footnote: +_Idem_, pp. 122, 123.] + +As the solemn procession moved along, they came to where the Reverend John +Wilson, the Boston pastor, stood with others of the clergy. Then Wilson +"fell a taunting at Robinson, and, shaking his hand in a light, scoffing +manner, said, 'Shall such Jacks as you come in before authority with your +hats on?' with many other taunting words." Then Robinson replied, "Mind +you, mind you, it is for the not putting off the hat we are put to death." +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 124.] + +When they reached the gallows, Robinson calmly climbed the ladder and +spoke a few words. He told the people they did not suffer as evil-doers, +but as those who manifested the truth. He besought them to mind the light +of Christ within them, of which he testified and was to seal with his +blood. + +He had said so much when Wilson broke in upon him: "Hold thy tongue, be +silent; thou art going to dye with a lye in thy mouth." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 125.] Then they seized him and bound him, and so he died; +and his body was "cast into a hole of the earth," where it lay uncovered. + +Even the voters, the picked retainers of the church, were almost equally +divided, and beyond that narrow circle the tide of sympathy ran strong. + +The Rev. John Rayner stood laughing with joy to see Mary Tomkins and Alice +Ambrose flogged through Dover, on that bitter winter day; but the men of +Salisbury cut those naked, bleeding women from the cart, and saved them +from their awful death. + +The Rev. John Norton sneered at the tortures of Brend, and brazenly +defended his tormentor; but the Boston mob succored the victim as lie lay +fainting on the boards of his dark cell. + +The Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching the word of God, told his hearers to +kill the Southwicks like wolves, since he could not have their blood by +law; but the honest sailor broke out in wrath when asked to traffic in the +flesh of our New England children. + +The Rev. John Wilson jeered at Robinson on his way to meet his death, and +reviled him as he stood beneath the gibbet, over the hole that was his +grave; but even the savage Endicott knew well that all the trainbands of +the colony could not have guarded Christison to the gallows from the +dungeon where he lay condemned. + +Yet awful as is this Massachusetts tragedy, it is but a little fragment of +the sternest struggle of the modern world. The power of the priesthood +lies in submission to a creed. In their onslaughts on rebellion they have +exhausted human torments; nor, in their lust for earthly dominion, have +they felt remorse, but rather joy, when slaying Christ's enemies and their +own. The horrors of the Inquisition, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the +atrocities of Laud, the abominations of the Scotch Kirk, the persecution +of the Quakers, had one object,--the enslavement of the mind. + +Freedom of thought is the greatest triumph over tyranny that brave men +have ever won; for this they fought the wars of the Reformation; for this +they have left their bones to whiten upon unnumbered fields of battle; for +this they have gone by thousands to the dungeon, the scaffold, and the +stake. We owe to their heroic devotion the most priceless of our +treasures, our perfect liberty of thought and speech; and all who love our +country's freedom may well reverence the memory of those martyred Quakers +by whose death and agony the battle in New England has been won. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE SCIRE FACIAS. + + +Had the Puritan Commonwealth been in reality the thing which its +historians have described; had it been a society guided by men devoted to +civil liberty, and as liberal in religion as was consistent with the +temper of their age, the early relations of Massachusetts toward Great +Britain might now be a pleasanter study for her children. Cordiality +toward Charles I. would indeed have been impossible, for the Puritans well +knew the fate in store for them should the court triumph. Gorges was the +representative of the despotic policy toward America, and so early as +1634, probably at his instigation, Laud became the head of a commission, +with absolute control over the plantations, while the next year a writ of +_quo warranto_ was brought against the patent. [Footnote: See introduction +to _New Canaan_, Prince Soc. ed.] With Naseby, however, these dangers +vanished, and thenceforward there would have been nothing to mar an +affectionate confidence in both Parliament and the Protector. + +In fact, however, Massachusetts was a petty state, too feeble for +independence, yet ruled by an autocratic priesthood whose power rested +upon legislation antagonistic to English law; therefore the ecclesiastics +were jealous of Parliament, and had little love for Cromwell, whom they +found wanting in "a thorough testimony against the blasphemers of our +days." [Footnote: Diary of Hull, Palfrey, ii. 400, 401, and note.] + +The result was that the elders clung obstinately to every privilege which +served their ends, and repudiated every obligation which conflicted with +their ambition. Clerical political morality seldom fails to be +instructive, and the following example is typical of that peculiar mode of +reasoning. The terms of admission to ordinary corporations were fixed by +each organization for itself, but in case of injustice the courts could +give relief by setting aside unreasonable ordinances, and sometimes +Parliament itself would interfere, as it did upon the petition against the +exactions of the Merchant Adventurers. Now there was nothing upon which +the theocracy more strongly insisted than that "our charter doeth expresly +give vs an absolute & free choyce of our oune members;" [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 287.] because by means of a religious test the ministers +could pack the constituencies with their tools; but on the other hand they +as strenuously argued "that no appeals or other ways of interrupting our +proceedings do lie against us," [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 283.] because +they well knew that any bench of judges before whom such questions might +come would annul the most vital of their statutes as repugnant to the +British Constitution. + +Unfortunately for these churchmen, their objects, as ecclesiastical +politicians, could seldom be reconciled with their duty as English +subjects. At the outset, though made a corporation within the realm, they +felt constrained to organize in America to escape judicial supervision. +They were then obliged to incorporate towns and counties, to form a +representative assembly, and to levy general taxes and duties, none of +which things they had power to do. Still, such irregularities as these, +had they been all, most English statesmen would have overlooked as +unavoidable. But when it came to adopting a criminal code based on the +Pentateuch, and, in support of a dissenting form of worship, fining and +imprisoning, whipping, mutilating, and hanging English subjects without +the sanction of English law; when, finally, the Episcopal Church itself +was suppressed, and peaceful subjects were excluded from the corporation +for no reason but because they partook of her communion, and were +forbidden to seek redress by appealing to the courts of their king, it +seems impossible that any self-respecting government could have long been +passive. + +At the Restoration Massachusetts had grown arrogant from long impunity. +She thought the time of reckoning would never come, and even in trivial +matters seemed to take a pride in slighting Great Britain and in vaunting +her independence. Laws were enacted in the name of the Commonwealth, the +king's name was not in the writs, nor were the royal arms upon the public +buildings; even the oath of allegiance was rejected, though it was +unobjectionable in form. She had grown to believe that were offence taken +she had only to invent pretexts for delay, to have her fault forgotten in +some new revolution. General Denison, at the Quaker trials, put the +popular belief in a nut-shell: "This year ye will go to complain to the +Parliament, and the next year they will send to see how it is; and the +third year the government is changed." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 280.] + +But, beside these irritating domestic questions, the corporation was +bitterly embroiled with its neighbors. Samuel Gorton and his friends were +inhabitants of Rhode Island, and were, no doubt, troublesome to deal with; +but their particular offence was ecclesiastical. An armed force was sent +over the border and they were seized. They were brought to Boston and +tried on the charge of being "blasphemous enemies of the true religion of +our Lord Jesus Christ, and of all his holy ordinances, and likewise of all +civil government among his people, and particularly within this +jurisdiction." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 146.] All the magistrates but +three thought that Gorton ought to die, but he was finally sentenced to an +imprisonment of barbarous cruelty. The invasion of Rhode Island was a +violation of an independent jurisdiction, the arrest was illegal, the +sentence an arbitrary outrage. [Footnote: See paper of Mr. Charles Deane, +_New Eng. Historical and Genealogical Register_, vol. iv.] + +Massachusetts was also at feud in the north, and none of her quarrels +brought more serious results than this with the proprietors of New +Hampshire and Maine. The grant in the charter was of all lands between the +Charles and Merrimack, and also all lands within the space of three miles +to the northward of the said Merrimack, or to the northward of any part +thereof, and all lands lying within the limits aforesaid from the Atlantic +to the South Sea. + +Clearly the intention was to give a margin of three miles beyond a river +which was then supposed to flow from west to east, and accordingly the +territory to the north, being unoccupied, was granted to Mason and Gorges. +Nor was this construction questioned before 1639--the General Court having +at an early day measured off the three miles and marked the boundary by +what was called the Bound House. + +Gradually, however, as it became known that the Merrimack rose to the +north, larger claims were made. In 1641 the four New Hampshire towns were +absorbed with the consent of their inhabitants, who thus gained a regular +government; another happy consequence was the settlement of sundry eminent +divines, by whose ministrations the people "were very much civilized and +reformed." [Footnote: Neal's New England, i. 210.] + +In 1652 a survey was made of the whole river, and 43 deg. 40' 12" was fixed as +the latitude of its source. A line extended east from three miles north of +this point came out near Portland, and the intervening space was forthwith +annexed. The result of such a policy was that Charles had hardly been +crowned before complaints poured in from every side. Quakers, Baptists, +Episcopalians, all who had suffered persecution, flocked to the foot of +the throne; and beside these came those who had been injured in their +estates, foremost of whom were the heirs of Mason and Gorges. The pressure +was so great and the outcry so loud that, in September, 1660, it was +thought in London a governor-general would be sent to Boston; [Footnote: +Leverett to Endicott. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 40.] and, in point +of fact, almost the first communication between the king and his colony +was his order to spare the Quakers. + +The outlook was gloomy, and there was hesitation as to the course to +pursue. At length it was decided to send Norton and Bradstreet to England +to present an address and protect the public interests. The mission was +not agreeable; Norton especially was reluctant, and with reason, for he +had been foremost in the Quaker persecutions, and was probably aware that +in the eye of English law the executions were homicide. + +However, after long vacillation, "the Lord so encouraged and strengthened" +his heart that he ventured to sail. [Footnote: Feb. 11, 1661-2. Palfrey, +ii. 524.] So far as the crown was concerned apprehension was needless, for +Lord Clarendon was prime minister, whose policy toward New England was +throughout wise and moderate, and the agents were well received. Still +they were restless in London, and Sewel tells an anecdote which may partly +account for their impatience to be gone. + +"Now the deputies of New England came to London, and endeavored to clear +themselves as much as possible, but especially priest Norton, who bowed no +less reverently before the archbishop, than before the king.... + +"They would fain have altogether excused themselves; and priest Norton +thought it sufficient to say that he did not assist in the bloody trial, +nor had advised to it. But John Copeland, whose ear was cut off at Boston, +charged the contrary upon him: and G. Fox, the elder, got occasion to +speak with them in the presence of some of his friends, and asked Simon +Broadstreet, one of the New England magistrates, 'whether he had not a +hand in putting to death those they nicknamed Quakers?' He not being able +to deny this confessed he had. Then G. Fox asked him and his associates +that were present, 'whether they would acknowledge themselves to be +subjects to the laws of England? and if they did by what law they had put +his friends to death?' They answered, 'They were subjects to the laws of +England; and they had put his friends to death by the same law, as the +Jesuits were put to death in England.' Hereupon G. Fox asked, 'whether +they did believe that those his friends, whom they had put to death, were +Jesuits, or jesuitically affected?' They said 'Nay.' 'Then,' replied G. +Fox, 'ye have murdered them; for since ye put them to death by the law +that Jesuits are put to death here in England, it plainly appears, you +have put them to death arbitrarily, without any law.' Thus Broadstreet, +finding himself and his company ensnar'd by their own words, ask'd, 'Are +you come to catch us?' But he told them 'They had catch'd themselves, and +they might justly be questioned for their lives; and if the father of +William Robinson (one of those that were put to death) were in town, it +was probable he would question them, and bring their lives into jeopardy. +For he not being of the Quakers persuasion, would perhaps not have so much +regard to the point of forbearance, as they had.' Broadstreet seeing +himself thus in danger began to flinch and to sculk; for some of the old +royalists were earnest with the Quakers to prosecute the New England +persecutors. But G. Fox and his friends said, 'They left them to the Lord, +to whom vengeance belonged, and he would repay it.' Broadstreet however, +not thinking it safe to stay in England, left the city, and with his +companions went back again to New England." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 288.] + +The following June the agents were given the king's answer [Footnote: +1662, June 28.] to their address and then sailed for home. It is certainly +a most creditable state paper. The people of Massachusetts were thanked +for their good will, they were promised oblivion for the past, and were +assured that they should have their charter confirmed to them and be safe +in all their privileges and liberties, provided they would make certain +reforms in their government. They were required to repeal such statutes as +were contrary to the laws of England, to take the oath of allegiance, and +to administer justice in the king's name. And then followed two +propositions that were crucial: "And since the principle and foundation of +that charter was and is the freedom of liberty of conscience, wee do +hereby charge and require you that that freedom and liberty be duely +admitted," especially in favor of those "that desire to use the Book of +Common Prayer." And secondly, "that all the freeholders of competent +estates, not vicious in conversations, orthodox in religion (though of +different perswasions concerning church government) may have their vote in +the election of all officers civill or millitary." [Footnote: Hutch. +Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 101-103.] + +However judicious these reforms may have been, or howsoever strictly they +conformed with the spirit of English law, was immaterial. They struck at +the root of the secular power of the clergy, and they roused deep +indignation. The agents had braved no little danger, and had shown no +little skill in behalf of the commonwealth; and the fate of John Norton +enables us to realize the rancor of theological feeling. The successor of +Cotton, by general consent the leading minister, in some respects the most +eminent man in Massachusetts, he had undertaken a difficult mission +against his will, in which he had acquitted himself well; yet on his +return he was so treated by his brethren and friends that he died in the +spring of a broken heart. [Footnote: April 5, 1663.] + +The General Court took no notice of the king's demands except to order the +writs to run in the royal name. [Footnote: Oct. 8, 1662. _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 58.] And it is a sign of the boldness, or else of the +indiscretion, of those in power, that this crisis was chosen for striking +a new coin, [Footnote: 1662, May 7.]--an act confessedly illegal and +certain to give offence in England, both as an assumption of sovereignty +and an interference with the currency. + +From the first Lord Clarendon paid some attention to colonial affairs, and +he appears to have been much dissatisfied with the condition in which he +found them. At length, in 1664, he decided to send a commission to New +England to act upon the spot. + +Great pressure must have been brought by some who had suffered, for Samuel +Maverick, the Episcopalian, who had been fined and imprisoned in 1646 for +petitioning with Childe, was made a member. Colonel Richard Nichols, the +head of the board, was a man of ability and judgment; the choice of Sir +Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwright was less judicious. + +The commissioners were given a public and private set of instructions, +[Footnote: Public Instructions, Hutch. _Hist._ i. 459.] and both were +admirable. They were to examine the condition of the country and its laws, +and, if possible, to make some arrangement by which the crown might have a +negative at least upon the choice of the governor; they were to urge the +reforms already demanded by the king, especially a larger toleration, for +"they doe in truth deny that liberty of conscience to each other, which is +equally provided for and granted to every one of them by their charter." +[Footnote: Private Instructions _O'Callaghan Documents_, iii. 58.] +They were directed to be conciliatory toward the people, and under no +circumstances to meddle with public worship, nor were they to press for +any sudden enforcement of the revenue acts. On one point alone they were +to insist: they were instructed to sit to hear appeals in causes in which +the parties alleged they had been wronged by colonial decisions. + +Unquestionably the chancellor was right in principle. The only way whereby +such powerful corporations as the trade-guilds or the East India Company +could be kept from acts of oppression was through the appellate +jurisdiction, by which means their enactments could be brought before the +courts, and those annulled which in the opinion of the judges transcended +the charters. The Company of Massachusetts Bay was a corporation having +jurisdiction over many thousand English subjects, only a minority of whom +were freemen and voters. So long, therefore, as she remained within the +empire, the crown was bound to see that the privileges of the English +Constitution were not denied within her territory. Yet, though this is +true, it is equally certain that the erection of a commission of appeal +without an act of Parliament was irregular. The stretch of prerogative, +nevertheless, cannot be considered oppressive when it is remembered that +Massachusetts was a corporation which had escaped from the realm to avoid +judicial process, and which refused to appear and plead; hence Lord +Clarendon had but this alternative: he could send judges to sit upon the +spot, or he could proceed against the charter in London. The course he +chose may have been illegal, but it was the milder of the two. + +The commissioners landed on July 23, 1664, but they did not stay in +Boston. Their first business was to subdue the Dutch at New York, and they +soon left to make the attack. The General Court now recurred, for the +first time, to the dispatch which their agents had brought home, and +proceeded to amend the law relating to the franchise. They extended the +qualification by enacting that Englishmen who presented a certificate +under the hands of the minister of the town that they were orthodox in +religion and not vicious in life, and who paid, beside, 10s. at a +single rate, might become freemen, as well as those who were church- +members. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 117.] The effect +of such a change could hardly have been toward liberality, rather, +probably, toward concentration of power in the church. However slight, +there was some popular control over the rejection of an applicant to join +a congregation; but giving a certificate was an act that must have +depended on the pastor's will alone. + +The court then drew up an address to the king: "If your poore subjects, +... doe... prostrate themselues at your royal feete, & begg yor favor, wee +hope it will be graciously accepted by your majestje, and that as the high +place you sustejne on earth doeth number you here among the gods, [priests +can cringe as well as torture] so you will jmitate the God of heaven, in +being ready... to receive their crjes...," [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. +iv. pt. 2, p. 129.] And he was implored to reflect on the affliction +of heart it was to them, that their sins had provoked God to permit their +adversaries to procure a commission, under the great seal, to four persons +to hear appeals. When this address reached London it caused surprise. The +chancellor was annoyed. He wrote to America, pointing out that His Majesty +would hardly think himself well used at complaints before a beginning had +been made, and a demand that his commission should be revoked before his +commissioners had been able to deliver their instructions. "I know," he +said, "they are expressly inhibited from intermedling with, or instructing +the administration of justice, according to the formes observed there; but +if in truth, in any extraordinary case, the proceedings there have been +irregular, and against the rules of justice, as some particular cases, +particularly recommended to them by His Majesty, seeme to be, it cannot be +presumed that His Majesty hath or will leave his subjects of New England, +without hope of redresse by an appeale to him, which his subjects of all +his other kingdomes have free liberty to make." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ +i. 465.] + +The campaign against New York was short and successful, and the +commissioners were soon at leisure. As they had reason to believe that +Massachusetts would prove stubborn, they judged it wiser to begin with the +more tractable colonies first. They therefore went to Plymouth, [Footnote: +Feb. 1664-5.] and, on their arrival, according to their instructions, +submitted the four following propositions:-- + +First. That all householders should take the oath of allegiance, and that +justice should be administered in the king's name. + +Second. That all men of competent estates and civil conversation, though +of different judgments, might be admitted to be freemen, and have liberty +to choose and be chosen officers, both civil and military. + +Third. That all men and women of orthodox opinions, competent knowledge, +and civil lives not scandalous, should be admitted to the Lord's Supper +[and have baptism for their children, either in existing churches or their +own]. + +Fourth. That all laws ... derogatory to his majesty should be repealed. +[Footnote: Palfrey, ii. 601.] + +Substantially the same proposals were made subsequently in Rhode Island +and Connecticut. They were accepted without a murmur. A few appeal cases +were heard, and the work was done. + +The commissioners reported their entire satisfaction to the government, +the colonies sent loyal addresses, and Charles returned affectionate +answers. + +Massachusetts alone remained to be dealt with, but her temper was in +striking contrast to that of the rest of New England. The reason is +obvious. Nowhere else was there a fusion of church and state. The people +had, therefore, no oppressive statutes to uphold, nor anything to conceal. +Provided the liberty of English subjects was secured to them they were +content to obey the English Constitution. On the other hand, Massachusetts +was a theocracy, the power of whose priesthood rested on enactments +contrary to British institutions, and which, therefore, would have been +annulled upon appeal. Hence the clerical party were wild with fear and +rage, and nerved themselves to desperate resistance. + +"But alasse, sir, the commission impowering those commisioners to heare +and determine all cases whatever, ... should it take place, what would +become of our civill government which hath binn, under God, the heade of +that libertie for our consciences for which the first adventurers ... bore +all ... discouragements that encountered them ... in this wildernes." +Rather than submit, they protested they had "sooner leave our place and +all our pleasant outward injoyments." [Footnote: Court to Boyle. _Hutch. +Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 113.] + +Under such conditions a direct issue was soon reached. The General Court, +in answer to the commissioners' proposals, maintained that the observance +of their charter was inconsistent with appeals; that they had already +provided an oath of allegiance; that they had conformed to his majesty's +requirements in regard to the franchise; and lastly, in relation to +toleration, there was no equivocation. "Concerning the vse of the Common +Prayer Booke"... we had not become "voluntary exiles from our deare native +country, ... could wee haue seene the word of God, warranting us to +performe our devotions in that way, & to haue the same set vp here; wee +conceive it is apparent that it will disturbe our peace in our present +enjoyments." [Footnote: 1665. _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, p.200] + +Argument was useless. The so-called oath of allegiance was not that +required by Parliament; the alteration in the franchise was a sham; while +the two most important points, appeals to England and toleration in +religion, were rejected. The commissioners, therefore, asked for a direct +answer to this question: "Whither doe yow acknowledge his majestjes +comission ... to be of full force?" [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. +pt. 2, p.204] They were met by evasion. On the 23d of May they gave notice +that they should sit the next morning to hear the case of Thos. Deane et +al. vs. The Gov. & Co. of Mass. Bay, a revenue appeal. Forthwith the +General Court proclaimed by trumpet that the hearing would not be +permitted. + +Coercion was impossible, as no troops were at hand. The commissioners +accordingly withdrew and went to Maine, which they proceeded to sever from +Massachusetts. [Footnote: June, 1665] In this they followed the king's +instructions, who himself acted upon the advice of the law officers of the +crown, who had given an opinion sustaining the claim of Gorges. [Footnote: +Charles II.'s letter to Inhabitants of Maine. _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. +ed. ii. 110; Palf. ii. 622.] + +The triumph was complete. All that the English government was then able to +do was to recall the commissioners, direct that agents should be sent to +London at once, and forbid interference with Maine. No notice was taken of +the order to send agents; and in 1668 possession was again taken of the +province, and the courts of the company once more sat in the county of +York. [Footnote: July, 1668. Report of Com. _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. +2, p. 401.] + +This was the culmination of the Puritan Commonwealth. The clergy were +exultant, and the Rev. Mr. Davenport of New Haven wrote in delight to +Leverett:-- + +"Their claiming power to sit authoritatively as a court for appeales, and +that to be managed in an arbitrary way, was a manifest laying of a +groundworke to undermine your whole government established by your +charter. If you had consented thereunto, you had plucked downe with your +owne hands that house which wisdom had built for you and your +posterity.... As for the solemnity of publishing it, in three places, by +sounding a trumpet, I believe you did it upon good advice, ... for +declaring the courage and resolution of the whole countrey to defend their +charter liberties and priviledges, and not to yeeld up theire right +voluntarily, so long as they can hold it, in dependence upon God in +Christ, whose interest is in it, for his protection and blessing, who will +be with you while you are with him." [Footnote: Davenport to Leverett. +_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 119.] + +Although the colonists were alarmed at their own success, there was +nothing to fear. At no time before or since could England have been so +safely defied. In 1664 war was begun against Holland; 1665 was the year of +the plague; 1666 of the fire. In June, 1667, the Dutch, having dispersed +the British fleets, sailed up the Medway, and their guns were heard in +London. Peace became necessary, and in August Clarendon was dismissed from +office. The discord between the crown and Parliament paralyzed the nation, +and the wastefulness of Charles kept him always poor. By the treaty of +Dover in 1670 he became a pensioner of Louis XIV. The Cabal followed, +probably the worst ministry England ever saw; and in 1672, at Clifford's +suggestion, the exchequer was closed and the debt repudiated to provide +funds for the second Dutch war. In March fighting began, and the +tremendous battles with De Ruyter kept the navy in the Channel. At length, +in 1673, the Cabal fell, and Danby became prime minister. + +Although during these years of disaster and disgrace Massachusetts was not +molested by Great Britain, they were not all years during which the +theocracy could tranquilly enjoy its victory. + +So early as 1671 the movements of the Indians began to give anxiety; and +in 1675 Philip's War broke out, which brought the colony to the brink of +ruin, and in which the clergy saw the judgment of God against the +Commonwealth, for tenderness toward the Quakers. [Footnote: _Reforming +Synod, Magnalia_, bk. 5, pt. 4.] + +With the rise of Danby a more regular administration opened, and, as +usual, the attention of the government was fixed upon Massachusetts by the +clamors of those who demanded redress for injuries alleged to have been +received at her hands. In 1674 the heirs of Mason and Gorges, in despair +at the reoccupation of Maine, proposed to surrender their claim to the +king, reserving one third of the product of the customs for themselves. +The London merchants also had become restive under the systematic +violation of the Navigation Acts. The breach in the revenue laws had, +indeed, been long a subject of complaint, and the commissioners had +received instructions relating thereto; but it was not till this year that +these questions became serious. + +The first statute had been passed by the Long Parliament, but the one that +most concerned the colonies was not enacted till 1663. The object was not +only to protect English shipping, but to give her the entire trade of her +dependencies. To that end it was made illegal to import European produce +into any plantation except through England; and, conversely, colonial +goods could only be exported by being landed in England. + +The theory upon which this legislation was based is exploded; enforced, it +would have crippled commerce; but it was then, and always had been, a dead +letter at Boston. New England was fast getting its share of the carrying +trade. London merchants already began to feel the competition of its cheap +and untaxed ships, and manufacturers to complain that they were undersold +in the American market, by goods brought direct from the Continental +ports. A petition, therefore, was presented to the king, to carry the law +into effect. No colonial office then existed; the affairs of the +dependencies were assigned to a committee of the Privy Council, called the +Lords of Committee of Trade and Plantations; and on these questions being +referred by them to the proper officers, the commissioners of customs +sustained the merchants; the attorney-general, the heirs of Mason and +Gorges. [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 281; Chalmers's _Political Annals of +the United Colonies_, p. 262.] The famous Edward Randolph now appears. +The government was still too deeply embarrassed to act with energy. A +temporizing policy was therefore adopted; and as the experiment of a +commission had failed, Randolph was chosen as a messenger to carry the +petitions and opinions to Massachusetts; together with a letter from the +king, directing that agents should be sent in answer thereto. After +delivering them, he was ordered to devote himself to preparing a report +upon the country. He reached Boston June 10, 1676. Although it was a time +of terrible suffering from the ravages of the Indian war, the temper of +the magistrates was harsher than ever. + +The repulse of the commissioners had convinced them that Charles was not +only lazy and ignorant, but too poor to use force; and they also believed +him to be so embroiled with Parliament as to make his overthrow probable. +Filled with such feelings, their reception of Randolph was almost brutal. +John Leverett was governor, who seems to have taken pains to mark his +contempt in every way in his power. Randolph was an able, but an +unscrupulous man, and probably it would not have been difficult to have +secured his good-will. Far however from bribing, or even flattering him, +they so treated him as to make him the bitterest enemy the Puritan +Commonwealth ever knew. + +Being admitted into the council chamber, he delivered the letter. +[Footnote: Randolph's Narrative. _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. +240.] The governor opened it, glanced at the signature, and, pretending +never to have heard of Henry Coventry, asked who he might be. He was told +he was his majesty's principal secretary of state. He then read it aloud +to the magistrates. Even the fierce Endicott, when he received the famous +"missive" from the Quaker Shattock, "laid off his hat ... [when] he look'd +upon the papers," [Footnote: Sewel, p. 282.] as a mark of respect to his +king; but Leverett and his council remained covered. Then the governor +said "that the matters therein contained were very inconsiderable things +and easily answered, and it did no way concern that government to take any +notice thereof;" and so Randolph was dismissed. Five days after he was +again sent for, and asked whether he "intended for London by that ship +that was ready to saile?" If so, he could have a duplicate of the answer +to the king, as the original was to go by other hands. He replied that he +had other business in charge, and inquired whether they had well +considered the petitions, and fixed upon their agents so soon. Leverett +did not deign to answer, but told him "he looked upon me as Mr. Mason's +agent, and that I might withdraw." The next day he saw the governor at his +own house, who took occasion, when Randolph referred to the Navigation +Acts, to expound the legal views of the theocracy. "He freely declared to +me that the lawes made by your majestie and your Parliament obligeth them +in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony, that the +legislative power is and abides in them solely ... and that all matters in +difference are to be concluded by their finall determination, without any +appeal to your majestie, and that your majestie ought not to retrench +their liberties, but may enlarge them." [Footnote: Randolph's Narrative. +_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 243.] One last interview took +place when Randolph went for dispatches for England, after his return from +New Hampshire; then he "was entertained by" Leverett "with a sharp reproof +for publishing the substance of my errand into those parts, contained in +your majestie's letters, ... telling me that I designed to make a +mutiny.... I told him, if I had done anything amisse, upon complaint made +to your majestie he would certainly have justice done him."... + +"At my departure ... he ... intreated me to give a favourable report of +the country and the magistrates thereof, adding that those that blessed +them God would blesse, and those that cursed them God would curse." And +that "they were a people truely fearing the Lord and very obedient to your +majestie." [Footnote: _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 248.] And +so the royal messenger was dismissed in wrath, to tell his story to the +king. + +The legislature met in August, 1676, and a decision had to be made +concerning agents. On the whole, the clergy concluded it would be wiser to +obey the crown, "provided they be, with vtmost care & caution, qualified +as to their instructions." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 99.] +Accordingly, after a short adjournment, the General Court chose William +Stoughton and Peter Bulkely; and having strictly limited their power to a +settlement of the territorial controversy, they sent them on their +mission. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 114.] + +Almost invariably public affairs were seen by the envoys of the Company in +a different light from that in which they were viewed by the clerical +party at home, and these particularly had not been long in London before +they became profoundly alarmed. There was, indeed, reason for grave +apprehension. The selfish and cruel policy of the theocracy had borne its +natural fruit: without an ally in the world, Massachusetts was beset by +enemies. Quakers, Baptists, and Episcopalians whom she had persecuted and +exiled; the heirs of Mason and Gorges, whom she had wronged; Andros, whom +she had maligned; [Footnote: He had been accused of countenancing aid to +Philip when governor of New York. O'Callaghan Documents, iii. 258.] and +Randolph, whom she had insulted, wrought against her with a government +whose sovereign she had offended and whose laws she had defied. Even her +English friends had been much alienated. [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 278, +279.] + +The controversy concerning the boundary was referred to the two chief +justices, who promptly decided against the Company; [Footnote: See +Opinion; Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 504.] and the easy acquiescence of the +General Court must raise a doubt as to their faith in the soundness of +their claims. And now again the fatality which seemed to pursue the +theocracy in all its dealings with England led it to give fresh +provocation to the king by secretly buying the title of Gorges for twelve +hundred and fifty pounds. [Footnote: May, 1677. Chalmers's _Annals_, +pp. 396, 397. See notes, Palfrey, iii. 312.] + +Charles had intended to settle Maine on the Duke of Monmouth. It was a +worthless possession, whose revenue never paid for its defence; yet so +stubborn was the colony that it made haste to anticipate the crown and +thus become "Lord Proprietary" of a burdensome province at the cost of a +slight which was never forgiven. Almost immediately the Privy Council had +begun to open other matters, such as coining and illicit trade; and the +attorney-general drew up a list of statutes which, in his opinion, were +contrary to the laws of England. The agents protested that they were +limited by their instructions, but were sharply told that his majesty did +not think of treating with his own subjects as with foreigners, and it +would be well to intimate the same to their principals. [Footnote: +Palfrey, iii. 309.] In December, 1677, Stoughton wrote in great alarm that +something must be done concerning the Navigation Acts or a breach would be +inevitable. [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 288.] And the General Court +saw reason in this emergency to increase the tension by reviving the +obnoxious oath of fidelity to the country, [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. +154.]--the substitute for the oath of allegiance,--and thus gave Randolph +a new and potent weapon. In the spring [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 316, 317; +Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 439.] the law officers gave an opinion that +the misdemeanors alleged against Massachusetts were sufficient to avoid +her patent; and the Privy Council, in view of the encroachments and +injuries which she had continually practised on her neighbors, and her +contempt of his majesty's commands, advised that a _quo warranto_ should +be brought against the charter. Randolph was appointed collector at +Boston. [Footnote: 1678, May 31.] + +Even Leverett now saw that some concessions must be made, and the General +Court ordered the oath of allegiance to be taken; nothing but perversity +seems to have caused the long delay. [Footnote: Oct. 2, 1678. _Mass. +Rec._ v. 193. See Palfrey, iii. 320, note 2.] The royal arms were also +carved in the court-house; and this was all, for the clergy were +determined upon those matters touching their authority. The agents were +told, "that which is farr more considerable then all these is the interest +of the Lord Jesus & of his churches ... which ought to be farr dearer to +us than our liues; and ... wee would not that by any concessions of ours, +or of yours... the least stone should be put out of the wall." [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 202.] + +Both agents and magistrates were, nevertheless, thoroughly frightened, and +being determined not to yield, in fact, they resorted to a policy of +misrepresentation, with the hope of deceiving the English government. +[Footnote: See Answers of Agents, Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 450.] Stoughton +and Bulkely had already assured the Lords of Committee that the "rest of +the inhabitants were very inconsiderable as to number, compared with those +that were acknowledged church-members." [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 318.] +They were in fact probably as five to one. The General Court had been +censured for using the word Commonwealth in official documents, as +intimating independence. They hastened to assure the crown that it had +not of late been used, and should not be thereafter; [Footnote: _Mass. +Rec._ v. 198. And see, in general, the official correspondence, pp. +197-203.] yet in November, 1675, commissions were thus issued. [Footnote: +Palfrey, iii. 322.] But the breaking out of the Popish plot began to +absorb the whole attention of the government at London; and the agents, +after receiving a last rebuke for the presumption of the colony in buying +Maine, were at length allowed to depart. [Footnote: Nov. 1679.] + +Nearly half a century had elapsed since the emigration, and with the +growth of wealth and population changes had come. In March, John Leverett, +who had long been the head of the high-church party, died, and the +election of Simon Bradstreet as his successor was a triumph for the +opposition. Great as the clerical influence still was, it had lost much of +its old despotic power, and the congregations were no longer united in +support of the policy of their pastors. This policy was singularly +desperate. Casting aside all but ecclesiastical considerations, the clergy +consistently rejected any compromise with the crown which threatened to +touch the church. Almost from the first they had recognized that +substantial independence was necessary in order to maintain the theocracy. +Had the colony been strong, they would doubtless have renounced their +allegiance; but its weakness was such that, without the protection of +England, it would have been seized by France. Hence they resorted to +expedients which could only end in disaster, for it was impossible for +Massachusetts, while part of the British Empire, to refuse obedience at +her pleasure to laws which other colonies cheerfully obeyed. + +Without an ally, no resistance could be made to England, when at length +her sovereignty should be asserted; and an armed occupation and military +government were inevitable upon a breach. + +Though such considerations are little apt to induce a priesthood to +surrender their temporal power, they usually control commercial +communities. Accordingly, Boston and the larger towns favored concession, +while the country was the ministers' stronghold. The result of this +divergence of opinion was that the moderate party, to which Bradstreet and +Dudley belonged, predominated in the Board of Assistants, while the +deputies remained immovable. The branches of the legislature thus became +opposed; no course of action could be agreed on, and the theocracy drifted +to its destruction. + +The duplicity characteristic of theological politics grew daily more +marked. In May, 1679, a law had been passed forbidding the building of +churches without leave from the freemen of the town or the General Court. +[Footnote: Mass. Rec. v. 213.] On the 11th of June, 1680, three persons +representing the society of Baptists were summoned before the legislature, +charged with the crime of erecting a meeting-house. They were admonished +and forbidden to meet for worship except with the established +congregations; and their church was closed. [Footnote: Mass. Rec. v. 271.] +That very day an address was voted to the king, one passage of which is as +follows: "Concerning liberty of conscience, ... that after all, a +multitude of notorious errors ... be openly broached, ... amongst us, as +by the Quakers, &c., wee presume his majesty doeth not intend; and as for +other Prottestant dissenters, that carry it peaceably & soberly, wee trust +there shallbe no cause of just complaint against us on their behalfe." +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 287.] + +Meanwhile Randolph had renewed his attack. He declared that in spite of +promises and excuses the revenue laws were not enforced; that his men were +beaten, and that he hourly expected to be thrown into prison; whereas in +other colonies, he asserted, he was treated with great respect. [Footnote: +June, 1680. Palfrey, iii. 340.] There can be no doubt ingenuity was used +to devise means of annoyance, and certainly the life he was made to lead +was hard. In March [Footnote: March 15, 1680-1.] he sailed for home, and +while in London he made a series of reports to the government which seem +to have produced the conviction that the moment for action had come. In +December he returned, commissioned as deputy-surveyor and auditor-general +for all New England, except New Hampshire. When Stoughton and Bulkely were +dismissed, the colony had been commanded to send new agents within six +months. In September, 1680, another royal letter had been written, in +which the king dwelt upon the misconduct of his subjects, "when ... we +signified unto you our gracious inclination to have all past deeds +forgotten... wee then little thought that those markes of our grace and +favour should have found no better acceptance amoung you.... We doe +therefore by these our letters, strictly command and require you, as you +tender your allegiance unto us, and will deserve the effects of our grace +and favour (which wee are enclyned to afford you) seriously to reflect +upon our commands; ... and particularly wee doe hereby command you to send +over, within three months after the receipt hereof, such... persons as you +shall think fitt to choose, and that you give them sufficient instructions +to attend the regulation and settlement of that our government." +[Footnote: Sept. 30. _Hutch. Coll. _, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 261.] + +The General Court had not thought fit to regard these communications, and +now Randolph came charged with a long and stern dispatch, in which agents +were demanded forthwith, "in default whereof, we are fully resolved, in +Trinity Term next ensuing, to direct our attorney-general to bring a quo +warranto in our court of kings-bench, whereby our charter granted unto +you, with all the powers thereof, may be legally evicted and made void; +and so we bid you farewel." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 449.] + +Hitherto the clerical party had procrastinated, buoyed up by the hope that +in the fierce struggle with the commons Charles might be overthrown; but +this dream ended with the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, and +further inaction became impossible. Joseph Dudley and John Richards were +chosen agents, and provided with instructions bearing the peculiar tinge +of ecclesiastical statesmanship. + +They were directed to represent that appeals would be intolerable; and, +for their private guidance, the legislature used these words: "We +therefore doe not vnderstand by the regulation of the gouernment, that any +alteration of the patent is intended; yow shall therefore neither doe nor +consent to any thing that may violate or infringe the liberties & +priuiledges granted to us by his majesties royall charter, or the +gouernment established thereby; but if any thing be propounded that may +tend therevnto, yow shall say, yow haue received no instruction in that +matter." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 349.] With reference to the +complaints made against the colony, they were to inform the king "that wee +haue no law prohibbiting any such as are of the perswasion of the church +of England, nor haue any euer desired to worship God accordingly that haue +been denyed." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 347. March 23.] + +Such a statement cannot be reconciled with the answer made the +commissioners; and the laws compelled Episcopalians to attend the +Congregational worship, and denied them the right to build churches of +their own. + +"As for the Annabaptists, they are now subject to no other poenal statutes +then those of the Congregational way." This sophistry is typical. The law +under which the Baptist church was closed applied in terms to all +inhabitants, it is true; but it was contrived to suppress schism, it was +used to coerce heretics, and it was unrepealed. Moreover, it would seem as +though the statute inflicting banishment must then have still been in +force. + +The assurances given in regard to the reform of the suffrage were +precisely parallel:-- + +"For admission of ffreemen, wee humbly conceive it is our liberty, by +charter, to chuse whom wee will admitt into our oune company, which yet +hath not binn restrayned to Congregational men, but others haue been +admitted, who were also provided for according to his majestjes +direction." [Footnote: 1681-2, March 23.] + +Such insincerity gave weight to Randolph's words when he wrote: "My lord, +I have but one thing to reminde your lordship, that nothing their agents +can say or doe in England can be any ground for his majestie to depend +upon." [Footnote: Randolph to Clarendon. _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. +ed. ii. 277] + +With these documents and one thousand pounds for bribery, soon after +increased to three, [Footnote: Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 461.] Dudley +and Richards sailed. Their powers were at once rejected at London as +insufficient, and the decisive moment came. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. +413.] The churchmen of Massachusetts had to determine whether to accept +the secularization of their government or abandon every guaranty of +popular liberty. The clergy did not hesitate before the momentous +alternative: they exerted themselves to the utmost, and turned the scale +for the last time. [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 303, note.] In fresh +instructions the agents were urged to do what was possible to avert, or at +least delay, the stroke; but they were forbidden to consent to appeals, or +to alterations in the qualifications required for the admission of +freemen. [Footnote: 1683, March 30. _Mass. Rec._ v. 390.] They had +previously been directed to pacify the king by a present of two thousand +pounds; and this ill-judged attempt at bribery had covered them with +ridicule. [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 303, note.] + +Further negotiation would have been futile. Proceedings were begun at +once, and Randolph was sent to Boston to serve the writ of _quo warranto_; +[Footnote: 1683, July 20.] he was also charged with a royal declaration +promising that, even then, were submission made, the charter should be +restored with only such changes as the public welfare demanded. [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 422, 423.] Dudley, who was a man of much political +sagacity, had returned and strongly urged moderation. The magistrates were +not without the instincts of statesmanship: they saw that a breach with +England must destroy all safeguards of the common freedom, and they voted +an address to the crown accepting the proffered terms. [Footnote: 1683, 15 +Nov. Hutch. _Hist._ i. 304.] But the clergy strove against them: the +privileges of their order were at stake; they felt that the loss of their +importance would be "destructive to the interest of religion and of +Christ's kingdom in the colony," [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 381.] and they +roused their congregations to resist. The deputies did not represent the +people, but the church. They were men who had been trained from infancy by +the priests, who had been admitted to the communion and the franchise on +account of their religious fervor, and who had been brought into public +life because the ecclesiastics found them pliable in their hands. The +influence which had moulded their minds and guided their actions +controlled them still, and they rejected the address. [Footnote: Nov. 30. +Palfrey, iii. 385.] Increase Mather took the lead. He stood up at a great +meeting in the Old South, and exhorted the people, "telling them how their +forefathers did purchase it [the charter], and would they deliver it up, +even as Ahab required Naboth's vineyard, Oh! their children would be bound +to curse them." [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 388, note 1.] + +All that could be resolved on was to retain Robert Humphrys of the Middle +Temple to interpose such delays as the law permitted; but no attempt was +made at defence upon the merits of their cause, probably because all knew +well that no such defence was possible. + +Meanwhile, for technical reasons, the _quo warranto_ had been abandoned, +and a writ of _scire facias_ had been issued out of chancery. On June 18, +1684, the lord keeper ordered the defendant to appear and plead on the +first day of the next Michaelmas Term. The time allowed was too short for +an answer from America, and judgment was entered by default. [Footnote: +Decree entered June 21, 1684; confirmed, Oct. 23. Palfrey, iii. 393, +note.] The decree was arbitrary, but no effort was made to obtain relief. +The story, however, is best told by Humphrys himself:-- + +"It is matter of astonishment to me, to think of the returnes I haue had +from you in the affaire of your charter; that a prudent people should +think soe little, in a thing of the greatest moment to them. + +"Which charge I humbly justify in the following particulars, and yet at +the same time confess that all you could haue done would but haue gained +more time, and spent more money, since the breaches assigned against you, +were as obvious as vnanswerable, soe as all the service your councill and +friends could haue done you here, would haue onely served to deplore, not +prevent the inevitable loss. + +"When I sent you the lord keeper's order of the 18th of June 1684 +requireing your appeareing peromptorily the first day of Michaelmas Tearme +then next, and pleading to yssue ... you may remember I sent with it such +drafts of lettres of attorney, to pass vnder your comon seale as were +essentially necessary to empower and justify such appearance, and pleading +for you here, which you could not imagine but that you must haue had due +time to returne them in, noe law compelling impossibilities. + +"When the first day of that Michaelmas Tearme came, and your lettres of +attorney neither were, nor indeed could be return'd ... I applyd by +councill to the Court of Chancery to enlarge that time urgeing the +impossibility of hauing a returne from you in the time allotted.... But it +is true my lord keeper cutt the ground from under us which wee stood upon, +by telling us the order of the 18th of June was a surprize upon his +lordship and that he ought not to haue granted it, for that every +corporacon ought to haue an attorney in every court to appeare to his +majesties suite, and that London had such.... However certainely you ought +when my lettres were come to you, nunc pro tune, to haue past the lettres +of attorney I sent you under your comon seale and sent them me, and not to +haue stopt them upon any private surmises from other hands then his you +had entrusted in that matter; and the rather for that the judgments of +law, espetially those taken by defaults for non appearances, are not like +the laws of the Medes and Persians irrevocable, but are often on just +grounds sett aside by the court here, and the defendants admitted to plead +as if noe such judgments had been entred vp, and the very order it selfe +of the 18th of June guies you a home instance of it. + +"And indeed I did therefore forbeare giueing you an account of a further +time being denyd, and the entry of judgment against you, expecting you +would before such lettre could haue reacht you haue sent me the lettres of +attorney vnder your corporacon seale that the court might haue been moved +to admitt your appearance and plea and waiued the judgment. + +"But instead of those lettres of attorney under your seale you sent me an +address to his late majesty, I confess judiciously drawne. But it is my +wonder in which of your capacityes you could imagine it should be +presented to his majesty, for if as a corporacon, a body politique, it +should have been putt under your corporacon seale if as a private comunity +it should haue been signed by your order. But the paper has neither +private hand nor publique seale to it and soe must be lost.... + +"In this condicon what could a man doe for you, nothing publiquely for he +had noe warrant from you to justify the accon." [Footnote: _Mass. +Archives_, cvi. 343.] + +So perished the Puritan Commonwealth. The child of the Reformation, its +life sprang from the assertion of the freedom of the mind; but this great +and noble principle is fatal to the temporal power of a priesthood, and +during the supremacy of the clergy the government was doomed to be both +persecuting and repressive. Under no circumstance could the theocracy have +endured: it must have fallen by revolt from within if not by attack from +without. That Charles II. did in fact cause its overthrow gives him a +claim to our common gratitude, for he then struck a decisive blow for the +emancipation of Massachusetts; and thus his successor was enabled to open +before her that splendid career of democratic constitutional liberty which +was destined to become the basis of the jurisprudence of the American +Union. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE WITCHCRAFT. + + +The history of the years between the dissolution of the Company of +Massachusetts Bay and the reorganization of the country by William III. in +1692 has little bearing upon the development of the people; for the +presidency of Dudley and the administration of Andros were followed by a +revolution that paralyzed all movement. During the latter portion of this +interval the colony was represented at London by three agents, of whom +Increase Mather was the most influential, who used every effort to obtain +the reestablishment of the old government; they met, however, with +insuperable obstacles. Quietly to resume was impossible; for the obstinacy +of the clergy, in refusing all compromise with Charles II., had caused the +patent to be cancelled; and thus a new grant had become necessary. Nor was +this all, for the attorney and solicitor general, with whom the two chief +justices concurred, [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. 139] gave it as their +opinion that, supposing no decree had been rendered, and the same powers +were exercised as before, a writ of _scire facias_ would certainly be +issued, upon which a similar judgment would inevitably be entered. These +considerations, however, became immaterial, as the king was a statesman, +and had already decided upon his policy. His views had little in common +with those held by the Massachusetts ecclesiastics, and when the Rev. Mr. +Mather first read the instrument in which they had been embodied, he +declared he "would sooner part with his life than consent unto such +minutes." [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. 134.] He grew calmer, however, when +told that his "consent was not expected nor desired;" and with that +energy and decision for which he was remarkable, at once secured the +patronage. + +The constitutional aspect of the Provincial Charter is profoundly +interesting, and it will be considered in its legal bearings hereafter. +Its political tendencies, however, first demand attention, for it wrought +a complete social revolution, since it overthrew the temporal power of the +church. Massachusetts, Maine, and Plymouth were consolidated, and within +them toleration was established, except in regard to Papists; the +religious qualification was swept away, and in its stead freeholders of +forty shillings per annum, or owners of personal property to the value of +forty pounds sterling, were admitted to the franchise; the towns continued +to elect the house of representatives, and the whole Assembly chose the +council, subject to the approval of the executive. [Footnote: Hutch. +_Hist._ ii. 15, 16] The governor, lieutenant-governor, and secretary +were appointed by the crown; the governor had a veto, and the king +reserved the right to disallow legislation within three years of the date +of its enactment. Thus the theocracy fell at a single blow; and it is +worthy of remark that thenceforward prosecutions for sedition became +unknown among the people of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Yet, though +the clerical oligarchy was no longer absolute, the ministers still exerted +a prodigious influence upon opinion. Not only did they speak with all the +authority inherited with the traditions of the past; not only had they or +their predecessors trained the vast majority of the people from their +cradles to reverence them more than anything on earth, but their compact +organization was as yet unimpaired, and at its head stood the two Mathers, +the pastors of the Old North Church. Thus venerated and thus led, the +elders were still able to appeal to the popular superstition and +fanaticism with terrible effect. + +Widely differing judgments have been formed of these two celebrated +divines; the ecclesiastical view is perhaps well summed up by the Rev. +John Eliot, who thus describes the President of Harvard: "He was the +father of the New England clergy, and his name and character were held in +veneration, not only by those, who knew him, but by succeeding +generations." [Footnote: _Biographical Dictionary_, p. 312.] All must +admit his ability and learning, while in sanctimoniousness of deportment +he was unrivalled. His son Cotton says he had such a "gravity as made all +sorts of persons, wherever he came, to be struck with a sensible awe of +his presence, ... yea, if he laughed on them, they believed it not." "His +very countenance carried the force of a sermon with it." [Footnote: +_Parentator_, p. 40.] He kept a strict account of his mental condition, +and always was pleased when able to enter in his diary at the end of the +day, "heart serious." He was unctuous in his preaching, and wept much in +the pulpit; he often mentions being "quickened at the Lord's table [during +which] tears gushed from me before the Lord," [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. +48.] but of his self-sacrifice, his mercy, and his truth, his own acts and +words are the best evidence that remain. + +When the new government was about to be put in operation, an extraordinary +amount of patronage lay at the disposal of the crown; for, beside the +regular executive officers, the entire council had to be named, since they +could not be elected until a legislature had been organized to choose +them. Increase Mather, Elisha Cooke, and Thomas Oakes were acting as +agents, and all had been bitterly opposed to the new charter; but of the +three, the English ministers thought Mather the most important to secure. +And now an odd coincidence happened in the life of this singular man. He +suddenly one day announced himself convinced that the king's project was +not so intolerable as to be unworthy of support; and then it very shortly +transpired that he had been given all the spoil before the patent had +passed the seals. [Footnote: Palfrey, iv. 85.] The proximity of these +events is interesting as bearing on the methods of ecclesiastical +statesmen, and it is also instructive to observe how thorough a master of +the situation this eminent divine proved himself to be. He not only +appointed all his favorite henchmen to office, but he rigidly excluded his +colleagues at London, who had continued their opposition, and every one +else who had any disposition to be independent. His creature, Sir William +Phips, was made governor; William Stoughton, who was bred for the church, +and whose savage bigotry endeared him to the clergy, was lieutenant- +governor; and the council was so packed that his excellent son broke into +a shout of triumph when he heard the news:-- + +"The time has come! the set time has come! I am now to receive an answer +of so many prayers. All the councellors of the province are of my own +father's nomination; and my father-in-law, with several related unto me, +and several brethren of my own church are among them. The governor of the +province is not my enemy, but one whom I baptized; namely, Sir William +Phips, one of my own flock, and one of my dearest friends." [Footnote: +Cotton Mather's _Diary_; Quincy's _History of Harvard_, i. 60.] +Such was the government the theocracy left the country as its legacy when +its own power had passed away, and dearly did Massachusetts rue that fatal +gift in her paroxysms of agony and blood. + +At the close of the seventeenth century the belief in witchcraft was +widespread, and among the more ignorant well-nigh universal. The +superstition was, moreover, fostered by the clergy, who, in adopting this +policy, were undoubtedly actuated by mixed motives. Their credulity +probably made them for the most part sincere in the unbounded confidence +they professed in the possibility of compacts between the devil and +mankind; but, nevertheless, there is abundant evidence in their writings +of their having been keenly alive to the fact that men horror-stricken at +the sight of the destruction of their wives and children by magic would +grovel in the submission of abject terror at the feet of the priest who +promised to deliver them. + +The elders began the agitation by sending out a paper of proposals for +collecting stories of apparitions and witchcrafts, and in obedience to +their wish Increase Mather published his "Illustrious Providences" in +1683-4. Two chapters of this book were devoted to sorceries, and the +reverend author took occasion to intimate his opinion that those who might +doubt the truth of his relations were probably themselves either heretics +or wizards. This movement of the clergy seems to have highly inflamed the +popular imagination, [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ ii. 24.] yet no immediate +disaster followed; and the nervous exaltation did not become deadly until +1688. In the autumn of that year four children of a Boston mason named +Goodwin began to mimic the symptoms they had so often heard described; the +father, who was a pious man, called in the ministers of Boston and +Charlestown, who fasted and prayed, and succeeded in delivering the +youngest, who was five. Meanwhile, one of the daughters had "cried out +upon" an unfortunate Irish washerwoman, with whom she had quarrelled. +Cotton Mather was now in his element. He took the eldest girl home with +him and tried a great number of interesting experiments as to the relative +power of Satan and the Lord; among others he gravely relates how when the +sufferer was tormented elsewhere he would carry her struggling to his own +study, into which entering, she stood immediately upon her feet, and cried +out, "They are gone! They are gone! They say they cannot--God won't let +'em come here." [Footnote: _Memorable Providences_, pp. 27, 28] + +It is not credible that an educated and a sane man could ever have +honestly believed in the absurd stuff which he produced as evidence of the +supernatural; his description of the impudence of the children is amazing. + +"They were divers times very near burning or drowning of themselves, but +... by their own pittiful and seasonable cries for help still procured +their deliverance: which made me consider, whether the little ones had not +their angels, in the plain sense of our Saviour's intimation.... And +sometimes, tho' but seldome, they were kept from eating their meals, by +having their teeth sett when they carried any thing to their mouthes." +[Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 15-17.] + +And it was upon such evidence that the washerwoman was hanged. There is an +instant in the battle as the ranks are wavering, when the calmness of the +officers will avert the rout; and as to have held their soldiers then is +deemed their highest honor, so to have been found wanting is their +indelible disgrace; the people stood poised upon the panic's brink, their +pastors lashed them in. + +Cotton Mather forthwith published a terrific account of the ghostly +crisis, mixed with denunciations of the Sadducee or Atheist who +disbelieved; and to the book was added a preface, written by the four +other clergymen who had assisted with their prayers, the character of +which may be judged by a single extract. "The following account will +afford to him that shall read with observation, a further clear +confirmation, that, there is both a God, and a devil, and witchcraft: that +there is no outward affliction, but what God may, (and sometimes doth) +permit Satan to trouble his people withal." [Footnote: _Memorable +Providences_, Preface.] Not content with this, Mather goaded his +congregation into frenzy from the pulpit. "Consider also, the misery of +them whom witchcraft may be let loose upon. What is it to fall into the +hands of devils?... O what a direful thing is it, to be prickt with pins, +and stab'd with knives all over, and to be fill'd all over with broken +bones? 'Tis impossible to reckon up the varieties of miseries which those +monsters inflict where they can have a blow. No less than death, and that +a languishing and a terrible death will satisfie the rage of those +formidable dragons." [Footnote: _Discourse on Witchcraft_, p. 19.] The +pest was sure to spread in a credulous community, fed by their natural +leaders with this morbid poison, and it next broke out in Salem village in +February, 1691-2. A number of girls had become intensely excited by the +stories they had heard, and two of them, who belonged to the family of the +clergyman, were seized with the usual symptoms. Of Mr. Parris it is enough +to say that he began the investigation with a frightful relish. Other +ministers were called in, and prayer-meetings lasting all day were held, +with the result of throwing the patients into convulsions. [Footnote: +Calef's _More Wonders_, p. 90 _et seq._] Then the name of the witch was +asked, and the girls were importuned to make her known. They refused at +first, but soon the pressure became too strong, and the accusations began. +Among the earliest to be arrested and examined was Goodwife Cory. Mr. +Noyes, teacher of Salem, began with prayer, and when she was brought in +the sufferers "did vehemently accuse her of afflicting them, by biting, +pinching, strangling, &c., and they said, they did in their fits see her +likeness coming to them, and bringing a book for them to sign." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 92] By April the number of informers and of the suspected had +greatly increased and the prisons began to fill. Mr. Parris behaved like a +madman; not only did he preach inflammatory sermons, but he conducted the +examinations, and his questions were such that the evidence was in truth +nothing but what he put in the mouths of the witnesses; yet he seems to +have been guilty of the testimony it was his sacred duty to truly record +[Footnote: _Grounds of Complaint against Parris_, Section 6; _More +Wonders_, p. 96 (_i.e._ 56).]. And in all this he appears to have had the +approval and the aid of Mr. Noyes. Such was the crisis when Sir William +Phips landed on the 14th of May, 1692; he was the Mathers' tool, and the +result could have been foretold. Uneducated and credulous, he was as clay +in the hands of his creators; and his first executive act was to cause the +miserable prisoners to be fettered. Jonathan Cary has described what +befell his wife: "Next morning the jaylor put irons on her legs (having +received such a command) the weight of them was about eight pounds; these +irons and her other afflictions, soon brought her into convulsion fits, so +that I thought she would have died that night." [Footnote: _More Wonders_, +p. 97] + +At the beginning of June the governor, by an arbitrary act, created a +court to try the witches, and at its head put William Stoughton. Even now +it is impossible to read the proceedings of this sanguinary tribunal +without a shudder, and it has left a stain upon the judiciary of +Massachusetts that can never be effaced. + +Two weeks later the opinion of the elders was asked, as it had been of +old, and they recommended the "speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as +have rendered themselves obnoxious," [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ ii. 53.] +nor did their advice fall upon unwilling ears. Stoughton was already +at work, and certain death awaited all who were dragged before that cruel +and bloodthirsty bigot; even when the jury acquitted, the court refused to +receive the verdict. The accounts given of the legal proceedings seem +monstrous. The preliminary examinations were conducted amid such "hideous +clamours and screechings," that frequently the voice of the defendant was +drowned, and if a defence was attempted at a trial, the victim was +browbeaten and mocked by the bench. [Footnote: _More Wonders_, p. 102.] + +The ghastly climax was reached in the case of George Burroughs, who had +been the clergyman at Wells. At his trial the evidence could hardly be +heard by reason of the fits of the sufferers. "The chief judge asked the +prisoner, who he thought hindered these witnesses from giving their +testimonies? and he answered, he supposed it was the devil. That +honourable person then replied, How comes the devil so loath to have any +testimony born against you? Which cast him into very great confusion." +Presently the informers saw the ghosts of his two dead wives, whom they +charged him with having murdered, stand before him "crying for vengeance;" +yet though much appalled, he steadily denied that they were there. He also +roused his judges' ire by asserting that "there neither are, nor ever +were, witches." [Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 115-119.] + +He and those to die with him were carried through the streets of Salem in +a cart. As he climbed the ladder he called God to witness he was innocent, +and his words were so pathetic that the people sobbed aloud, and it seemed +as though he might be rescued even as he stood beneath the tree. Then when +at last he swung above them, Cotton Mather rode among the throng and told +them of his guilt, and how the fiend could come to them as an angel of +light, and so the work went on. They cut him down and dragged him by his +halter to a shallow hole among the rocks, and threw him in, and there they +lay together with the rigid hand of the wizard Burroughs still pointing +upward through his thin shroud of earth. [Footnote: _More Wonders_, +pp. 103, 104.] + +By October it seemed as though the bonds of society were dissolving; +nineteen persons had been hanged, one had been pressed to death, and eight +lay condemned; a number had fled, but their property had been seized and +they were beggars; the prisons were choked, while more than two hundred +were accused and in momentary fear of arrest; [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 110.] +even two dogs had been killed. The plague propagated itself; for the +only hope for those cried out upon was to confess their guilt and turn +informers. Thus no one was safe. Mr. Willard, pastor of the Old South, who +began to falter, was threatened; the wife of Mr. Hale, pastor of Beverly, +who had been one of the great leaders of the prosecutions, was denounced; +Lady Phips herself was named. But the race who peopled New England had a +mental vigor which even the theocracy could not subdue, and Massachusetts +had among her sons liberal and enlightened men, whose voice was heard, +even in the madness of the terror. Of these, the two Brattles, Robert +Calef, and John Leverett were the foremost; and they served their mother +well, though the debt of gratitude and honor which she owes them she has +never yet repaid. + +On the 8th, four days before the meeting of the legislature, and probably +at the first moment it could be done with safety, Thomas Brattle wrote an +admirable letter, [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, v. 61.] in +which he exposed the folly and wickedness of the delusion with all +the energy the temper of the time would bear; had he miscalculated, his +error of judgment would probably have cost him his life. At the meeting of +the General Court the illegal and blood-stained commission came to an end, +and as the reaction slowly and surely set in, Phips began to feel alarm +lest he should he called to account in England; accordingly, he tried to +throw the blame on Stoughton: "When I returned, I found people much +dissatisfied at the proceedings of the court; ... The deputy-governor, +[Stoughton] notwithstanding, persisted vigorously in the same method.... +When I put an end to the court, there was at least fifty persons in +prison, in great misery by reason of the extreme cold and their +poverty.... I permitted a special superior court to be held at Salem, ... +on the third day of January, the lieutenant-governor being chief judge.... +All ... were cleared, saving three.... The deputy-governor signed a +warrant for their speedy execution, and also of five others who were +condemned at the former court.... But ... I sent a reprieve; ... the +lieutenant-governor upon this occasion was enraged and filled with +passionate anger, and refused to sit upon the bench at a superior court, +at that time held at Charlestown; and, indeed, hath from the beginning +hurried on these matters with great precipitancy, and by his warrant hath +caused the estates, goods, and chattels of the executed to be seized and +disposed of without my knowledge or consent." [Footnote: Phips to the Earl +of Nottingham, Feb. 21, 1693. Palfrey, iv. 112, note 2.] Some months +earlier, also, just before the meeting of the legislature, he had called +on Cotton Mather to defend him against the condemnation he had even then +begun to feel, and the elder had responded with a volume which remains as +a memorial of him and his compeers [Footnote: _Wonders of the Invisible +World_.] He gave thanks for the blood that had already flowed, and +prayed to God for more." They were some of the gracious words, inserted in +the advice, which many of the neighbouring ministers, did this summer +humbly lay before our honourable judges: 'We cannot but with all +thankfulness, acknowledge the success which the merciful God has given +unto the sedulous and assiduous endeavours of our honourable rulers, to +detect the abominable witchcrafts which have been committed in the +country; humbly praying that the discovery of those mysterious and +mischievous wickednesses, may be perfected.' If in the midst of the many +dissatisfactions among us, the publication of these trials, may promote +such a pious thankfulness unto God, for justice being so far, executed +among us, I shall rejoyce that God is glorified; and pray that no wrong +steps of ours may ever sully any of his glorious works." [Footnote: +_Wonders of the Invisible World_, pp. 82, 83.] + +"These witches ... have met in hellish randez-vouszes.... In these hellish +meetings, these monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing +than to destroy the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these parts of +the world.... We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed +might be very glorious, for the exterminating of those, accursed +things,... But if we make this day quarrelsome,... Alas, O Lord, my flesh +trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments." [Footnote: +_Idem_, pp. 49-60.] + +While reading such words the streets of Salem rise before the eyes, with +the cart dragging Martha Cory to the gallows while she protests her +innocence, and there, at her journey's end, at the gibbet's foot, stands +the Rev. Nicholas Noyes, pointing to the dangling corpses, and saying: +"What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there." +[Footnote: _More Wonders_, p. 108.] + +The sequence of cause and effect is sufficiently obvious. Although at a +moment when the panic had got beyond control, even the most ultra of the +clergy had been forced by their own danger to counsel moderation, the +conservatives were by no means ready to abandon their potent allies from +the lower world; the power they gave was too alluring. "'Tis a strange +passage recorded by Mr. Clark, in the life of his father, That the people +of his parish refusing to be reclaimed from their Sabbath breaking, by all +the zealous testimonies which that good man bore against it; at last [one +night] ... there was heard a great noise, with rattling of chains, up and +down the town, and an horrid scent of brimstone.... Upon which the guilty +consciences of the wretches, told them, the devil was come to fetch them +away; and it so terrify'd them, that an eminent reformation follow'd the +sermons which that man of God preached thereupon." [Footnote: _Wonders +of the Invisible World_, p. 65.] They therefore saw the constant +acquittals, the abandonment of prosecutions, and the growth of incredulity +with regret. The next year Cotton Mather laid bare the workings of their +minds with cynical frankness. "The devils have with most horrendous +operations broke in upon our neighbourhood, and God has at such a rate +overruled all the fury and malice of those devils, that ... the souls of +many, especially of the rising generation, have been thereby waken'd unto +some acquaintance with religion; our young people who belonged unto the +praying meetings, of both sexes, apart would ordinarily spend whole nights +by the whole weeks together in prayers and psalms upon these occasions; +... and some scores of other young people, who were strangers to real +piety, were now struck with the lively demonstrations of hell ... before +their eyes.... In the whole--the devil got just nothing, but God got +praises, Christ got subjects, the Holy Spirit got temples, the church got +addition, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits." [Footnote: +_More Wonders_, p. 12.] + +Mather prided himself on what he had done. "I am not so vain as to say +that any wisdom or virtue of mine did contribute unto this good order of +things; but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder this good." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 12.] Men with such beliefs, and lured onward by +such temptations, were incapable of letting the tremendous power +superstition gave them slip from their grasp without an effort on their +own behalf; and accordingly it was not long before the Mathers were once +more at work. On the 10th of September, 1693, or about nine months after +the last spasms at Salem, and when the belief in enchantments was fast +falling into disrepute, a girl named Margaret Rule was taken with the +accustomed symptoms in Boston. Forthwith these two godly divines repaired +to her bedside, and this is what took place:-- + + * * * * * + +Then Mr. M---- father and son came up, and others with them, in the whole +were about thirty or forty persons, they being sat, the father on a stool, +and the son upon the bedside by her, the son began to question her: + +Margaret Rule, how do you do? Then a pause without any answer. + +_Question._ What. Do there a great many witches sit upon you? +_Answer._ Yes. + +_Question._ Do you not know that there is a hard master? + +Then she was in a fit. He laid his hand upon her face and nose, but, as he +said, without perceiving breath; then he brush'd her on the face with his +glove, and rubb'd her stomach (her breast not being covered with the bed +clothes) and bid others do so too, and said it eased her, then she +revived. + +_Q._ Don't you know there is a hard master? _A._ Yes. + +_Reply._ Don't serve that hard master, you know who. + +_Q._ Do you believe? Then again she was in a fit, and he again rub'd +her breast &c.... He wrought his fingers before her eyes and asked her if +she saw the witches? _A._ No.... + +_Q._ Who is it that afflicts you? _A._ I know not, there is a +great many of them.... + +_Q._ You have seen the black man, hant you? _A._ No. + +_Reply._ I hope you never shall. + +_Q._ You have had a book offered you, hant you? + +_A._ No. + +_Q._ The brushing of you gives you ease, don't it? + +_A._ Yes. She turn'd herselfe, and a little groan'd. + +_Q._ Now the witches scratch you, and pinch you, and bite you, don't +they? _A._ Yes. Then he put his hand upon her breast and belly, viz. +on the clothes over her, and felt a living thing, as he said; which moved +the father also to feel, and some others. + +_Q._ Don't you feel the live thing in the bed? + +_A._ No.... + +_Q._ Shall we go to pray ... spelling the word. + +_A._ Yes. The father went to prayer for perhaps half an hour, chiefly +against the power of the devil and witchcraft, and that God would bring +out the afflicters.... After prayer he [the son] proceeded. + +_Q._ You did not hear when we were at prayer did you? _A._ Yes. + +_Q._ You don't hear always? you don't hear sometimes past a word or +two, do you? _A._ No. Then turning him about said, this is just +another Mercy Short.... + +_Q._ What does she eat or drink? _A._ Not eat at all; but drink +rum. [Footnote: _More Wonders_, pp. 13, 14.] + + * * * * * + +To sanctify to the godly the ravings of this drunken and abandoned wench +was a solemn joy to the heart of this servant of Christ, who gave his life +to "unwearied cares and pains, to rescue the miserable from the lions and +bears of hell," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 10.] therefore he prepared +another tract. But his hour was well-nigh come. Though it was impossible +that retribution should be meted out to him for his crimes, at least he +did not escape unscathed, for Calef and the Brattles, who had long been on +his father's track and his, now seized him by the throat. He knew well +they had been with him in the chamber of Margaret Rule, that they had +gathered all the evidence; and so when Calef sent him a challenge to stand +forth and defend himself, he shuffled and equivocated. + +At length a rumor spread abroad that a volume was to be published exposing +the whole black history, and then the priest began to cower. His Diary is +full of his prayers and lamentations. "The book is printed, and the +impression is this week arrived here.... I set myself to humble myself +before the Lord under these humbling and wondrous dispensations, and +obtain the pardon of my sins, that have rendered me worthy of such +dispensations.... + +"28d. 10m. Saturday.--The Lord has permitted Satan to raise an +extraordinary storm upon my father and myself. All the rage of Satan +against the holy churches of the Lord falls upon us. First Calf's book, +and then Coleman's, do set the people in a mighty ferment. All the +adversaries of the churches lay their heads together, as if, by blasting +of us, they hoped utterly to blow up all. The Lord fills my soul with +consolations, inexpressible consolations, when I think on my conformity to +my Lord Jesus Christ in the injuries and reproaches that are cast upon +me.... + +"5d. 2m. Saturday [1701].--I find the enemies of the churches are set with +an implacable enmity against myself; and one vile fool, namely, R. Calf, +is employed by them to go on with more of his filthy scribbles to hurt my +precious opportunities of glorifying my Lord Jesus Christ. I had need be +much in prayer unto my glorious Lord that he would preserve his poor +servant from the malice of this evil generation, and of that vile man +particularly." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._ 1855-58, pp. 290-293.] + +"More Wonders of the Invisible World" appeared in 1700, and such was the +terror the clergy still inspired it is said it had to be sent to London to +be printed, and when it was published no bookseller in Boston dared to +offer it in his shop. [Footnote: _Some Few Remarks_, p. 9.] Yet though it +was burnt in the college yard by the order of Increase Mather, it was +widely read, and dealt the deathblow to the witchcraft superstition +of New England. It did more than this: it may be said to mark an era in +the intellectual development of Massachusetts, for it shook to its centre +that moral despotism which the pastors still kept almost unimpaired over +the minds of their congregations, by demonstrating to the people the +necessity of thinking for themselves. But what the fate of its authors +would have been had the priests still ruled may be guessed by the +onslaught made on them by those who sat at the Mathers' feet. "Spit on, +Calf; thou shalt be but like the viper on Pauls hand, easily shaken off, +and without any damage to the servant of the Lord." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 22.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BRATTLE CHURCH. + + +If the working of the human mind is mechanical, the quality of its action +must largely depend upon the training it receives. Viewed as civilizing +agents, therefore, systems of education might be tested by their tendency +to accelerate or retard the intellectual development of the race. The +proposition is capable of being presented with almost mathematical +precision; the receptive faculty begins to fail at a comparatively early +age; thereafter new opinions are assimilated with increasing difficulty +until the power is lost. This progressive period of life, which is at best +brief, may, however, be indefinitely shortened by the interposition of +artificial obstacles, which have to be overcome by a waste of time and +energy, before the reason can act with freedom; and when these obstacles +are sufficiently formidable, the whole time is consumed and men are +stationary. The most effectual impediments are those prejudices which are +so easily implanted in youth, and which acquire tremendous power when +based on superstitious terrors. Herein, then, lies the radical divergence +between theological and scientific training: the one, by inculcating that +tradition is sacred, that accurate investigation is sacrilege, certain to +be visited with terrific punishment, and that the highest moral virtue is +submission to authority, seeks to paralyze exact thought, and to produce a +condition in which dogmatic statements of fact, and despotic rules of +conduct, will be received with abject resignation; the other, by +stimulating the curiosity, endeavors to provoke inquiry, and, by +encouraging a scrutiny of what is obscure, tries to put the mind in an +impartial and questioning attitude toward all the phenomena of the +universe. + +The two methods are irreconcilable, and spring from the great primary +instincts which are called conservatism and liberality. Necessarily the +movement of any community must correspond exactly with the preponderance +of liberalism. Where the theological incubus is unresisted it takes the +form of a sacred caste, as among the Hindoos; appreciable advance then +ceases, except from some external pressure, such as conquest. The same +tendencies in a mitigated form are seen in Spain, whereas Germany is +scientific. + +Such being the ceaseless conflict between these natural forces, the +vantage-points for which the opposing parties have always struggled in +western Europe are the pulpits and the universities. Through women the +church can reach children at their most impressionable age, while at the +universities the teachers are taught. Obviously, if a priesthood can +control both positions their influence must be immense. At the beginning +of any movement the conservatives are almost necessarily in possession, +and their worst reverses have come from defection from within; for unless +their organization is so perfect as not only to be animated by a single +purpose, but capable of being controlled by a single will, liberals will +penetrate within the fold, and if they can maintain their footing and +preach with the authority of the ancient tradition it leads to revolution. +It was thus the Reformation was accomplished. + +The clergy of Massachusetts, with the true priestly instinct, took in the +bearings of their situation from the instant they recognized that their +political supremacy was passing away, and in order to keep their +organization in full vigor they addressed themselves with unabated energy +to enforcing the discipline which had been established; at the same time +they set the ablest of their number on guard at Harvard. But the task was +beyond their strength; they might as well have tried to dam the rising +tide with sand. + +There is a limit to the capacity of even the most gifted man, and Increase +Mather committed a fatal error when he tried to be professor, clergyman, +and statesman at once. He was, it is true, made president in 1685, but the +next year John Leverett and William Brattle were chosen tutors and +fellows, who soon developed into ardent liberals; so it happened that when +the reverend rector went abroad in 1688, in his character of politician, +he left the college in the complete control of his adversaries. He was +absent four years, and during this interval the man was educated who was +destined to overthrow the Cambridge Platform, the corner-stone of the +conservative power. + +Benjamin Colman was one of Leverett's favorite pupils and the intimate +friend of Pemberton. As he was to be a minister, he stayed at Cambridge +until he took his master's degree in 1695; he then sailed at once for +England in the Swan. When she had been some weeks at sea she was attacked +by a French privateer, who took her after a sharp action. During the fight +Colman attracted attention by his coolness; but he declared that though he +fired like the rest, "he was sensible of no courage but of a great deal of +fear; and when they had received two or three broadsides he wondered when +his courage would come, as he had heard others talk." [Footnote: _Life +of B. Colman_, p. 6.] + +After the capture the Frenchmen stripped him and put him in the hold, and +had it not been for a Madame Allaire, who kept his money for him, he might +very possibly have perished from the exposure of an imprisonment in +France, for his lungs were delicate. Moreover, at this time of his life he +was always a pauper, for he was not only naturally generous, but so +innocent and confiding as to fall a victim to any clumsy sharper. Of +course he reached London penniless and in great depression of spirits; but +he soon became known among the dissenting clergy, and at length settled at +Bath, where he preached two years. He seems to have formed singularly +strong friendships while in England, one of which was with Mr. Walter +Singer, at whose house he passed much time, and who wrote him at parting, +"Methinks there is one place vacant in my affections, which nobody can +fill beside you. But this blessing was too great for me, and God has +reserved it for those that more deserved it.--I cannot but hope sometimes +that Providence has yet in store so much happiness for me, that I shall +yet see you." [Footnote: _Life of B. Colman_, p. 48.] + +Meanwhile opinion was maturing fast at home; the passions of the +witchcraft convulsion had gone deep, and in 1697 a movement began under +the guidance of Leverett and the Brattles to form a liberal Congregational +church. The close on which the meetinghouse was to stand was conveyed by +Thomas Brattle to trustees on January 10, 1698, and from the outset there +seems to have been no doubt as to whom the pastor should be. On the 10th +of May, 1699, a formal invitation was dispatched to Colman by a committee, +of which Thomas Brattle was chairman, and it was accompanied by letters +from many prominent liberals. Leverett wrote, "I shall exceedingly rejoice +at your return to your country. We want persons of your character. The +affair offered to your consideration is of the greatest moment." William +Brattle was even more emphatic, while Pemberton assured him that "the +gentlemen who solicit your return are mostly known to you--men of repute +and figure, from whom you may expect generous treatment; ... I believe +your return will be pleasing to all that know you, I am sure it will be +inexpressibly so to your unfeigned friend and servant." [Footnote: _Life +of B. Colman_, pp. 43, 44.] It was, however, thought prudent to have +him ordained in London, since there was no probability that the clergy of +Massachusetts would perform the rite. When he landed in November, after an +absence of four years, he was in the flush of early manhood, highly +trained for theological warfare, having seen the world, and by no means in +awe of his old pastor, the reverend president of Harvard. + +The first step after his arrival was to declare the liberal policy, and +this was done in a manifesto which was published almost at once. [Footnote: +_History of Brattle St. Church_, p. 20.] The efficiency of the +Congregational organization depended upon the perfection of the guard +which the ministers and the congregations mutually kept over each other. +On the one hand no dangerous element could creep in among the people +through the laxness of the elder, since all candidates for the communion +had to pass through the ordeal of a public examination; on the other the +orthodoxy of the ministers was provided for, not only by restricting the +elective body to the communicants, but by the power of the ordained clergy +to "except against any election of a pastor who ... may be ... unfit for +the common service of the gospel." [Footnote: Propositions determined by +the Assembly of Ministers. _Magnalia_, bk. 5, Hist. Remarks, Section +8.] + +The declaration of the Brattle Street "undertakers" cut this system at the +root, for they announced their intention to dispense with the relation of +experiences, thus practically throwing their communion open to all +respectable persons who would confess the Westminster Creed; and more +fatal still, they absolutely destroyed the homogeneousness of the +ecclesiastical constituency: "We cannot confine the right of chusing a +minister to the male communicants alone, but we think that every baptized +adult person who contributes to the maintenance, should have a vote in +electing." [Footnote: _History of Brattle St. Church_, p. 25, Prop. +16.] + +They also proposed several innovations of minor importance, such as +relaxing the baptismal regulations, and somewhat changing the established +service by having the Bible read without comment. + +Their temporal power was gone, toleration was the law of the land they had +once possessed, and now an onslaught was to be made upon the intellectual +ascendency which the clergy felt certain of maintaining over their people, +if only they could enforce obedience in their own ranks. The danger, too, +was the more alarming because so insidious; for, though their propositions +seemed reasonable, it was perfectly obvious that should the liberals +succeed in forcing their church within the pale of the orthodox communion, +discipline must end, and the pulpits might at any time be filled with men +capable of teaching the most subversive doctrines. Although such might be +the inexorable destiny of the Massachusetts hierarchy, it was not in +ecclesiastical human nature to accept the dispensation with meekness, and +the utterances of the conservative divines seem hardly to breathe the +spirit of that gospel they preached at such interminable length. + +Yet it was very difficult to devise a scheme of resistance. They were +powerless to coerce; for, although Increase Mather had taken care, when at +the summit of his power, to have a statute passed which had the effect of +reenacting the Cambridge Platform, it had been disapproved by the king; +therefore, moral intimidation was the only weapon which could be employed. +Now, aside from the fact that men like Thomas Brattle and Leverett were +not timorous, their position was at this moment very strong from the stand +they had taken in the witchcraft troubles, and worst of all, they were +openly supported by William Brattle, who was already a minister, and by +Pemberton, who was a fellow of Harvard, and soon to be ordained. + +The attack was, however, begun by Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Noyes, of +witchcraft memory, in a long rebuke, whose temper may be imagined from +such a sentence as this: "We cannot but think you might have entered upon +your declaration with more reverence and humility than so solemnly to +appeal to God, your judge, that you do it with all the sincerity and +seriousness the nature of your engagement commands from you; seeing you +were most of you much unstudied in the controversial points of church +order and discipline, and yet did not advise with the neighboring churches +... but with a great deal of confidence and freedom, set up by +yourselves." The letter then goes on to adjure them to revoke the +manifesto, and adjust matters with the "neighbouring elders," "that so the +right hand of fellowship may be given to your pastor by other pastors, ... +and that you may not be the beginning of a schism that will dishonour God, +... and be a matter of triumph to the bad." [Footnote: _History of Brattle +St. Church_, pp. 29-37.] + +Cotton Mather's Diary, however, gives the most pleasing view of the high +churchmen:-- + +"1699. 7th, 10th m. (Dec.) I see another day of temptation begun upon the +town and land. A company of headstrong men in the town, the chief of whom +are full of malignity to the holy ways of our churches, have built in the +town another meetinghouse. To delude many better meaning men in their own +company, and the churches in the neighbourhood, they passed a vote in the +foundation of the proceedings that they would not vary from the practice +of these churches, except in one little particular. + +"But a young man born and bred here, and hence gone for England, is now +returned hither at their invitation, equipped with an ordination to +qualify him for all that is intended on his returning and arriving here; +these fallacious people desert their vote, and without the advice or +knowledge of the ministers in the vicinity, they have published, under the +title of a manifesto, certain articles that utterly subvert our churches, +and invite an ill party, through all the country, to throw all into +confusion on the first opportunities. This drives the ministers that would +be faithful unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and his interests in the churches, +unto a necessity of appearing for their defence. No little part of these +actions must unavoidably fall to my share. I have already written a large +monitory letter to these innovators, which, though most lovingly penned, +yet enrages their violent and imperious lusts to carry on the apostacy." + +"1699. 5th d. 11th m. (Saturday.) I see Satan beginning a terrible shake +in the churches of New England, and the innovators that had set up a new +church in Boston (a new one indeed!) have made a day of temptation among +us. The men are ignorant, arrogant, obstinate, and full of malice and +slander, and they fill the land with lies, in the misrepresentations +whereof I am a very singular sufferer. Wherefore I set apart this day +again for prayer in my study, to cry mightily unto God." [Footnote: +_History of Harvard_, Quincy, i. 486, 487, App. x.] + +"21st d. 11th m. The people of the new church in Boston, who, by their +late manifesto, went on in an ill way, and in a worse frame, and the town +was filled with sin, and especially with slanders, wherein especially my +father and myself were sufferers. We two, with many prayers and studies, +and with humble resignation of our names unto the Lord, prepared a +faithful antidote for our churches against the infection of the example, +which we feared this company had given them, and we put it into the press. +But when the first sheet was near composed at the press, I stopped it, +with a desire to make one attempt more for the bringing of this people to +reason. I drew up a proposal, and, with another minister, carried it unto +them, who at first rejected it, but afterward so far embraced it, as to +promise that they will the next week publicly recognize their covenant +with God and one another, and therewithall declare their adherence to the +Heads of Agreement of the United Brethren in England, and request the +communion of our churches in that foundation." [Footnote: _History of +Harvard_, i. 487, App. x.] + +This last statement is marked by the exuberance of imagination for which +the Mathers are so famed. In truth, Dr. Mather had nothing to do with the +settlement. The facts were these: after Brattle Street Church was +organized, the congregation voted that Mr. Colman should ask the ministers +of the town to keep a day of prayer with them. On the 28th of December, +1699, they received the following suggestive answer:-- + + * * * * * + +MR. COLMAN: + +Whereas you have signified to us that your society have desired us to join +with them in a public fast, in order to your intended communion, our +answer is, that as we have formerly once and again insinuated unto you, +that if you would in due manner lay aside what you call your manifesto, +and resolve and declare that you will keep to the heads of agreement on +which the United Brethren in London have made their union, and then +publicly proceed with the presence, countenance, and concurrence of the +New England churches, we should be free to give you our fellowship and our +best assistance, which things you have altogether declined and neglected +to do; thus we must now answer, that, if you will give us the satisfaction +which the law of Christ requires for your disorderly proceedings, we shall +be happy to gratify your desires; otherwise, we may not do it, lest ... we +become partakers of the guilt of those irregularities by which you have +given just cause of offence.... + +INCREASE MATHER. +JAMES ALLEN. [Footnote: _History of Brattle St. Church_, p. 55.] + + * * * * * + +Under the theocracy a subservient legislature would have voted the +association "a seditious conspiracy," and the country would have been +cleared of Leverett, Colman, the Brattles, and their abettors; but in 1700 +the priests no longer manipulated the constituencies, and there was actual +danger to the conservative cause from their violence; therefore Stoughton +exerted himself to muzzle the Mathers, and he did succeed in quieting them +for the moment, though Sewall seems to intimate that they submitted with +no very good grace: [1699/1700.] "January 24th. The Lt Govr [Stoughton] +calls me with him to Mr. Willards, where out of two papers Mr. Wm Brattle +drew up a third for an accommodation to bring on an agreement between the +new-church and our ministers; Mr. Colman got his brethren to subscribe +it.... January 25th. Mr. I. Mather, Mr. C. Mather, Mr. Willard, Mr. +Wadsworth, and S. S. wait on the Lt Govr at Mr. Coopers: to confer about +the writing drawn up the evening before. Was some heat; but grew calmer, +and after lecture agreed to be present at the fast which is to be observed +January 31." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, vi. 2.] + +Humility has sometimes been extolled as the crowning grace of Christian +clergymen, but Cotton Mather's Diary shows the intolerable arrogance of +the early Congregational divines. + +"A wonderful joy filled the hearts of our good people far and near, that +we had obtained thus much from them. Our strife seemed now at an end; +there was much relenting in some of their spirits, when they saw our +condescension, our charity, our compassion. We overlooked all past +offences. We kept the public fast with them ... and my father preached +with them on following peace with holiness, and I concluded with prayer." +[Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 487, App. x.] + +Yet, although there had been this ostensible reconciliation, those who +have appreciated the sensitiveness to sin, of him whom Dr. Eliot calls the +patriarch and his son, must already feel certain they were incapable of +letting Colman's impiety pass unrebuked; indeed, the Diary says the +"faithful antidote" was at that moment in the press, and it was not long +before it was published, sanctified by their prayers. The patriarch began +by telling how he was defending the "cause of Christ and of his churches +in New England," and "if we espouse such principles... we then give away +the whole Congregational cause at once." [Footnote: _Order of the +Gospel_, pp. 8, 9.] He assured his hearers that a "wandering Levite" +like Colman was no more a pastor than he who "has no children is a +father," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 102.] he was shocked at the +abandonment of the relation of experiences, and was so scandalized at +reading the Bible without comment he could only describe it as "dumb." In +a word, there was nothing the new congregation had done which was not +displeasing to the Lord; but if they had offended in one particular more +than another it was in establishing a man in "the pastoral office without +the approbation of neighbouring churches or elders." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 8.] To this solemn admonition Colman and William Brattle +had the irreverence to prepare a reply smacking of levity; nevertheless, +they began with a grave and noble definition of their principles. "The +liberties and privileges which our Lord Jesus Christ has given to his +church ... consist ... in ... that our consciences be not imposed on by +men or their traditions." "We are reflected on as casting dishonour on our +parents, & their pious design in the first settlement of this land.... +Some have made this the great design, to be freed from the impositions of +men in the worship of God.... In this we are risen up to make good their +grounds." [Footnote: _Gospel Order Revived_, Epistle Dedicatory.] + +They then went on to expose the abuse of public relations of experiences: +"But this is the misery, the more meek and fearful are hereby kept out of +God's house, while the more conceited and presumptuous never boggle at +this, or anything else. But it seems there is a gross corruption of this +laudable practice which the author does well to censure; and that is, when +some, who have no good intention of their own, get others to devise a +relation for them." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] They even dared to +intimate that it did not savor of modesty for the patriarch "to think any +one of his sermons, or short comments, can edifie more than the reading of +twenty chapters." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 15.] And then they added some +sentences, which were afterward declared by the venerable victim to be as +scurrilous as other portions of the pamphlet were profane. + +"We are assured, the author is esteemed more a Presbyterian than a +Congregational man, by scores of his friends in London. He is lov'd and +reverenced for a moderate spirit, a peaceable disposition, and a temper so +widely different from his late brothers in London.... Did our reverend +author appear the same here, we should be his easie proselites too. But we +are loath to say how he forfeits that venerable character, which might +have consecrated his name to posterity, more than his learning, or other +honorary titles can." [Footnote: _Gospel Order Revived_, pp. 34, 35.] + +No printer in Boston dared to be responsible for this ribaldry, and when +it came home from New York and was actually cast before the people, words +fail to convey the condition into which the patriarch was thrown. At last +his emotions found a vent in a tract which he prepared jointly with his +son. + +"A moral heathen would not have done as he has done. [Footnote: +_Collection of Some of the More Offensive Matters_, Preface.]... There is +no one thing, which does more threaten or disgrace New-England, than want +of due respect unto superiors. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 10.]... It is a +disgrace to the name of Presbyterian, that such as he is should pretend +unto it. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 12.]... and if our children should learn +from them, ... we may tremble to think, what a flood of profaneness and +atheism would break in upon us, and ripen us for the dreadfullest +judgments of God. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 7.]... They assault him [the aged +president] with a volley of rude jeers and taunts, as if they were so many +children of Bethel." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 8.] Among these taunts some +struck deep, for they are quoted at length. "'Abundance of people have +long obstinately believed, that the contest on his part, is more for +lordship and dominion, than for truth.' But there are many more such +passages, which laid altogether, would make a considerable dung-hil." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] They dwelt with pathos upon those sacred rites +desecrated by these "unsanctified" "young men" in their "miserable +pamphlet." "The Lord is exceedingly glorified, and his people are edified, +by the accounts, which the candidates, of the communion in our churches +give of that self-examination which is by plain institution ... a +qualification, of the communicants. Now these think it not enough to +charge the churches, which require & expect such accounts, with +exceedingly provoking the Lord. But of the tears dropt by holy souls +on those occasions, they say with a scoff, 'whether they be for joy or +grief, we are left in the dark.'" [Footnote: _Collection of Some of the +More Offensive Matters_, p. 6.] But the suffering divines found peace +in knowing that Christ himself would inflict the punishment upon these +abandoned men which the priests would have meted out with holy joy had +they still possessed the power. + +"Considering that the things contained in their pamphlet, are a deep +apostasy, in conjunction with such open impiety, and profane scurrility +against the holy wayes in which our fathers walked, in case it become the +sin of the land, (as it will do if not duely testified against) we may +fear that some heavy judgment will come upon the whole land. And will not +the holy Lord Jesus Christ, who walks in the midst of his golden +candlesticks, make all the churches to know ... that these men have +provoked the Lord!" [Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 18, 19.] + +Yet, notwithstanding the Mathers' piteous prayers, God heeded them not, +and the rising tide that was sweeping over them soon drowned their cries. +Brattle Street congregation became an honored member of the orthodox +communion, the principles which animated its founders spread apace, and +the name of Benjamin Colman waxed great in the land. The liberals had +penetrated the stronghold of the church. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HARVARD COLLEGE. + + +For more than two centuries one ceaseless anthem of adulation has been +chanted in Massachusetts in honor of the ecclesiastics who founded Harvard +University, and this act has not infrequently been cited as +incontrovertible proof that they were both liberal and progressive at +heart. The laudation of ancestors is a task as easy as it is popular; but +history deals with the sequence of cause and effect, and an examination of +facts, apart from sentiment, tends to show that in building a college the +clergy were actuated by no loftier motive than intelligent self-interest, +if, indeed, they were not constrained thereto by the inexorable exigencies +of their position. + +The truth of this proposition becomes apparent if the soundness of the +following analysis be conceded. + +There would seem to be a point in the pathway of civilization where every +race passes more or less completely under the dominion of a sacred caste; +when and how the more robust have emerged into freedom is uncertain, but +enough is known to make it possible to trace the process by which this +insidious power is acquired, and the means by which it is perpetuated. A +flood of light has, moreover, been shed on this class of subjects by the +recent remarkable investigations among the Zunis. [Footnote: Made by Mr. +F. H. Cushing, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution.] + +Most American Indians are in the matriarchal period of development, which +precedes the patriarchal; and it is then, should they become sedentary, +that caste appears to be born. Some valuable secret, such as a cure for +the bite of the rattlesnake, is discovered, and this gives the finder, and +chosen members of his clan with whom he shares it, a peculiar sanctity in +the eyes of the rest of the tribe. Like facts, however, become known to +other clans, and then coalitions are made which take the form of esoteric +societies, and from these the stronger savages gradually exclude the +weaker and their descendants. Meanwhile an elaborate ritual is developed, +and so an hereditary priesthood comes into life, which always claims to +have received its knowledge by revelation, and which teaches that +resistance to its will is sacrilege. Nevertheless the sacerdotal power is +seldom firmly established without a struggle, the memory whereof is +carefully preserved as a warning of the danger of incurring the divine +wrath. A good example of such a myth is the fable of the rebellious Zuni +fire-priest, who at the prayer of his orthodox brethren was destroyed with +all his clan by a boiling torrent poured from the burning mountain, sacred +to their order, by the avenging gods. Compare this with the story of +Korah; and it is interesting to observe how the priestly chronicler, in +order to throw the profounder awe about his class, has made the great +national prophet the author of the exclusion of the body of the Levites +from the caste, in favor of his own brother. "And they gathered themselves +together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too +much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, ... wherefore then +lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? + +"And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face." Then he told Korah and +his followers, who were descendants of Levi and legally entitled to act as +priests by existing customs, to take censers and burn incense, and it +would appear whether the Lord would respect their offering. So every man +took his censer, and Korah and two hundred and fifty more stood in the +door of the tabernacle. + +Then Moses said, if "the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with +all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye +shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.... + +"And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, +and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. + +"They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and +the earth closed upon them:... And all Israel that were round about them +fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up +also." [Footnote: _Numbers_ xvi.] Traces of a similar conflict are +found in Hindoo sacred literature, and probably the process has been well- +nigh universal. The caste, therefore, originates in knowledge, real and +pretended, kept by secret tradition in certain families, and its power is +maintained by systematized terrorism. But to learn the mysteries and +ritual requires a special education, hence those destined for the +priesthood have careful provision made for their instruction. The youthful +Zuni is taught at the sacred college at the shrine of his order; the pious +Hindoo lives for years with some famous Brahmin; as soon as the down came +on the cheek, the descendants of Aaron were taken into the Temple at +Jerusalem, and all have read how Hannah carried the infant Samuel to the +house of the Lord at Shiloh, and how the child did minister unto the Lord +before Eli the priest. + +These facts seem to lead to well-defined conclusions when applied to New +England history. In their passionate zeal the colonists conceived the idea +of reproducing, as far as they could, the society of the Pentateuch, or, +in other words, of reverting to the archaic stage of caste; and in point +of fact they did succeed in creating a theocratic despotism which lasted +in full force for more than forty years. Of course, in the seventeenth +century such a phase of feeling was ephemeral; but the phenomena which +attended it are exceptionally interesting, and possibly they are somewhat +similar to those which accompany the liberation of a primitive people. + +The knowledge which divided the Massachusetts clergy from other men was +their supposed proficiency in the interpretation of the ancient writings +containing the revelations of God. For the perpetuation of this lore a +seminary was as essential to them as an association of priests for the +instruction of neophytes is to the Zuni now, or as the training at the +Temple was to the Jews. In no other way could the popular faith in their +special sanctity be sustained. It is also true that few priesthoods have +made more systematic use of terror. The slaughter of Anne Hutchinson and +her family was exultingly declared to be the judgment of God for defaming +the elders. Increase Mather denounced the disobedient Colman in the words +of Moses to Korah; Cotton Mather revelled in picturing the torments of the +bewitched; and, even in the last century Jonathan Edwards frightened +people into convulsions by his preaching. On the other hand, it is obvious +that the reproduction of the Mosaic law could not in the nature of things +have been complete; and the two weak points in the otherwise strong +position of the clergy were that the spirit of their age did not permit +them to make their order hereditary, nor, although their college was a +true theological school, did they perceive the danger of allowing any lay +admixture. The tendency to weaken the force of the discipline is obvious, +yet they were led to abandon the safe Biblical precedent, not only by +their own early associations, but by their hatred of anything savoring of +Catholicism. + +Men to be great leaders must exalt their cause above themselves; and if so +godly a man as the Rev. Increase Mather can be said to have had a human +failing it was an inordinate love of money and of flattery. The first of +these peculiarities showed itself early in life when, as his son says, he +was reluctant to settle at the North Church, because of "views he had of +greater service elsewhere." [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. 25.] In other +words, the parish was not liberal; for it seems "the deacons ... were not +spirited like some that have succeeded them; and the leaders of the more +honest people also, were men of a low, mean, sordid spirit.... For one of +his education, and erudition, and gentlemanly spirit, and conversation, to +be so creepled and kept in such a depressing poverty!--In these +distresses, it was to little purpose for him to make his complaint unto +man! If he had, it would have been basely improved unto his disadvantage." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 30.] His diary teemed with repinings. "Oh! that +the Lord Jesus, who hears my complaints before him, would either give an +heart to my people to look after my comfortable subsistance among them, or +... remove me to another people, who will take care of me, that so I may +be in a capacity to attend his work, and glorify his name in my +generation." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 33.] However, matters mended with +him, for we are assured that "the Glorious One who knew the works, and the +service and the patience of this tempted man, ordered it, that several +gentlemen of good estate, and of better spirit, were become the members of +his church;" and from them he had "such filial usages... as took away from +him all room of repenting, that he had not under his temptations +prosecuted a removal from them." [Footnote: _Parentator_, pp. 34, 35.] + +The presidency of Harvard, though nominally the highest place a clergyman +could hold in Massachusetts, had always been one of poverty and self- +denial; for the salary was paid by the legislature, which, as the +unfortunate Dunster had found, was not disposed to be generous. Therefore, +although Mr. Mather was chosen president in 1685, and was afterward +confirmed as rector by Andros, he was far too pious to be led again into +those temptations from which he had been delivered by the interposition of +the Glorious One; and the last thing he proposed was to go into residence +and give up his congregation. Besides, he was engrossed in politics and +went to England in 1688, where he stayed four years. Meanwhile the real +control of education was left in the hands of Leverett, who was appointed +tutor in 1686, and of William Brattle, who was in full sympathy with his +policy. Among the many powers usurped by the old trading company was that +of erecting corporations; hence the effect of the judgment vacating the +patent had been to annul the college charter which had been granted by the +General Court; [Footnote: 23 May, 1650. _Mass. Rec._ iii. 195.] and +although the institution had gone on much as usual after the Revolution, +its position was felt to be precarious. Such being the situation when the +patriarch came home in 1692 in the plenitude of power, he conceived the +idea of making himself the untrammelled master of the university, and he +forthwith caused a bill to be introduced into the legislature which would +certainly have produced that result. [Footnote: _Province Laws_, 1692-93, +c. 10.] Nor did he meet with any serious opposition in Massachusetts, +where his power was, for the moment, well-nigh supreme. His difficulty lay +with the king, since the fixed policy of Great Britain was to foster +Episcopalianism, and of course to obtain some recognition for that sect at +Cambridge. And so it came to pass that all the advantage he reaped by the +enactment of this singular law was a degree of Doctor of Divinity +[Footnote: Sept. 5, 1692. Quincy's _History of Harvard_, i. 71.] which he +gave himself between the approval of the bill by Phips and its rejection +at London. The compliment was the more flattering, however, as it was the +first ever granted in New England. But the clouds were fast gathering over +the head of this good man. Like many another benefactor of his race, he +was doomed to experience the pangs inflicted by ingratitude, and indeed +his pain was so acute he seldom lost an opportunity of giving it public +expression; to use his own words of some years later, "these are the last +lecture sermons... to be preached by me.... The ill treatment which I have +had from those from whom I had reason to have expected better, have +discouraged me from being any more concerned on such occasions." +[Footnote: Address to Sermon, _The Righteous Man a Blessing_, 1702.] + +Certainly he was in a false position; he was necessarily unappreciated by +the liberals, and he had not only alienated many staunch conservatives by +his acceptance of the charter, but he had embittered them, by rigorously +excluding all except his particular faction from Phips's council. To his +deep chagrin, the elections of 1693 went in favor of many of these +thankless men, and his discontent soon took the form of an intense longing +to go abroad in some official position which would give him importance. +The only possible opening seemed to be to get himself made agent to +negotiate a charter for Harvard; and therefore he soon had "angelical" +suggestions that God needed him in England to glorify his name. + +"1693. September 3d. As I was riding to preach at Cambridge, I prayed to +God,--begged that my labors might be blessed to the souls of the students; +at the which I was much melted. Also saying to the Lord, that some +workings of his Providence seemed to intimate, that I must be returned to +England again; ... I was inexpressibly melted, and that for a considerable +time, and a stirring suggestion, that to England I must go. In this there +was something extraordinary, either divine or angelical." + +"December 30th. Meltings before the Lord this day when praying, desiring +being returned to England again, there to do service to his name, and +persuasions that the Lord will appear therein." + +"1694. January 27th. Prayers and supplications that tidings may come from +England, that may be some direction to me, as to my returning thither or +otherwise, as shall be most for his glory." + +"March 13th. This morning with prayers and tears I begged of God that I +might hear from my friends and acquaintance in England something that +should encourage and comfort me. Such tidings are coming, but I know not +what it is. God has heard me." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 475, +476, App. ix.] + +His craving to escape from the country was increased by the nagging of the +legislature; for so early as December, 1693, the representatives passed +the first of a long series of resolves, "that the president of Harvard +College for the time being shall reside there, as hath been accustomed in +time past." [Footnote: _Court Rec._ vi. 316.] Now this was precisely +what the Reverend Doctor was determined he would not do; nor could he +resign without losing all hope of his agency; so it is not surprising that +as time went on he wrestled with the Deity. + +1698. "September 25th. This day as I was wrestling with the Lord, he gave +me glorious and heart-melting persuasions, that he has work for me to do +in England, for the glory of his name. My soul rejoiceth in the Lord." +[Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 480, App. ix.] + +Doubtless his trials were severe, but the effect upon his temper was +unfortunate. He brought forward scheme after scheme, and the corporation +was made to address the legislature, and then the legislature was pestered +to accede to the prayer of the corporation, until everybody was wrought to +a pitch of nervous irritation; he himself was always jotting in his Diary +what he had on foot, mixed with his hopes and prayers. + +"1696. December 11th. I was with the representatives in the General Court, +and did acquaint them with my purpose of undertaking a voyage for England +in the spring (if the Lord will), in order to the attainment of a good +settlement for the college." + +"December 28th. The General Court have done nothing for the poor +college.... The corporation are desirous that I should go to England on +the college's account." + +1696. "April 19th (Sabbath.) In the morning, as I was praying in my +closet, my heart was marvellously melted with the persuasion, that I +should glorify Christ in England." + +"1697. June 7th. Discourse with ministers about the college, and the +corporation unanimously desired me to take a voyage for England on the +college's account." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 476, App. ix.] + +But of what the senior tutor was doing with the rising generation he took +no note at all. His attention was probably first attracted by rumors of +the Brattle Church revolt, for not till 1697 was he able to divert his +thoughts from himself long enough to observe that all was not as it should +be at Cambridge. Then, at length, he made an effort to get rid of Leverett +by striking his name from the list of fellows when a bill for +incorporation was brought into the legislature; but this crafty politician +had already become too strong in the house of representatives, of which he +was soon after made speaker. + +Two years later, however, the conservative clergy made a determined effort +and prepared a bill containing a religious test, which they supported with +a petition praying "that, in the charter for the college, our holy +religion may be secured to us and unto our posterity, by a provision, that +no person shall be chosen president, or fellow, of the college, but such +as declare their adherence unto the principles of reformation, which were +espoused and intended by those who first settled the country ... and have +hitherto been the general profession of New England." [Footnote: +_Idem_, i. 99.] This time they narrowly missed success, for the bill +passed the houses, but was vetoed by Lord Bellomont. + +Hitherto Cotton Mather had shown an unfilial lack of interest in his +father's ambition to serve the public; but this summer he also began to +have assurances from God. One cause for his fervor may have been the death +of the Rev. Mr. Morton, who was conceded to stand next in succession to +the presidency, and he therefore supposed himself to be sure of the office +should a vacancy occur. [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 102.] + +"1699. 7th d. 4th m. (June.) The General Court has, divers times of late +years, had under consideration the matter of the settlement of the +college, which was like still to issue in a voyage of my father to +England, and the matter is now again considered. I have made much prayer +about it many and many a time. Nevertheless, I never could have my mind +raised unto any particular faith about it, one way or another. But this +day, as I was (may I not say) in the spirit, it was in a powerful manner +assured me from heaven, that my father should one day be carried into +England, and that he shall there glorify the Lord Jesus Christ;... And +thou, O Mather the younger, shalt live to see this accomplished!" +[Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 482, 483, App. x.] + +"16th d. 5th m. (July.) Being full of distress in my spirit, as I was at +prayer in my study at noon, it was told me from heaven, that my father +shall be carried from me unto England, and that my opportunities to +glorify the Lord Jesus Christ will, on that occasion, _be gloriously +accommodated_." + +"18th d. 5th m.... And now behold a most unintelligible dispensation! At +this very time, even about noon, instead of having the bill for the +college enacted, as was expected, the governor plainly rejected it, +because of a provision therein, made for the religion of the country." + +After the veto the patriarch seems to have got the upper hand for a +season, and to have made some arrangement by which he evicted his +adversary, as appears by a very dissatisfied letter written by Leverett in +August, 1699: "As soon as I got home I was informed, that Rev. President +(I. M.), held a corporation at the college the 7th inst., and the said +corporation, after the publication of the _new settlement_, made +choice of Mr. Flynt to be one of the tutors at college.... I have not the +late act for incorporating the college at hand, nor have I seen the new +temporary settlement; but I perceive, that all the members of the late +corporation were not notified to be at the meeting. I can't say how legal +these late proceedings are; but it is wonderful, that an establishment for +so short a time as till October next, should be made use of so soon to +introduce an unnecessary addition to that society." [Footnote: _History +of Harvard_, i. 500, App. xvi.] + +A long weary year passed, during which Dr. Mather must have suffered +keenly from the public ingratitude; still, at its end he was happy, since +he felt certain of being rewarded by the Lord; for, just as the earl's +administration was closing, he had succeeded by unremitting toil in so +adjusting the legislature as to think the spoil his own; when, alas, +suddenly, without warning, in the most distressing manner, the prize +slipped into Bellomont's pocket. How severely his faith was tried appears +from his son's Diary. + +"1700. 16th d. 4th mo. (Lord's Day.) I am going to relate one of the most +astonishing things that ever befell in all the time of my pilgrimage. + +"A particular faith had been unaccountably produced in my father's heart, +and in my own, that God will carry him unto England, and there give him a +short but great opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, before his +entrance into the heavenly kingdom. There appears no probability of my +father's going thither but in an agency to obtain a charter for the +college. This matter having been for several years upon the very point of +being carried in the General Assembly, hath strangely miscarried when it +hath come to the birth. It is now again before the Assembly, in +circumstances wherein if it succeed not, it is never like to be revived +and resumed any more.... + +"But the matter in the Assembly being likely now to come unto nothing, I +was in this day in extreme distress of spirit concerning it.... After I +had finished all the other duties of this day, I did in my distress cast +myself prostrate on my study floor before the Lord.... I spread before him +the consequences of things, and the present posture and aspect of them, +and, having told the Lord, that I had always taken a particular faith to +be a work of heaven on the minds of the faithful, but if it should prove a +deceit in that remarkable instance which was now the cause of my agony, I +should be cast into a most wonderful confusion; I then begged of the Lord, +that, if my particular faith about my father's voyage to England were not +a delusion, he would be pleased to renew it upon me. All this while my +heart had the coldness of a stone upon it, and the straitness that is to +be expected from the lone exercise of reason. But now all on the sudden I +felt an inexpressible force to fall on my mind, an afflatus, which cannot +be described in words; _none knows it but he that has it_.... It was +told me, that the Lord Jesus Christ loved my father, and loved me, and +that he took delight in us, as in two of his faithful servants, and that +he had not permitted us to be deceived in our particular faith, but that +my father should be carried into England, and there glorify the Lord Jesus +Christ before his passing into glory.... + +"Having left a flood of tears from me, by these rages from the invisible +world, on my study floor, I rose and went into my chair. There I took up +my Bible, and the first place that I opened was at Acts xxvii. 23-25, +'There stood by me an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, +Fear not, thou must be brought before Caesar.' ... A new flood of tears +gushed from my flowing eyes, and I broke out into these expressions. +'What! shall my father yet appear before Caesar! Has an angel from heaven +told me so! And must I believe what has been told me! Well then, it shall +be so! It shall be so!'" + +"And now what shall I say! When the affair of my father's agency after +this came to a turning point in the court, it strangely miscarried! All +came to nothing! Some of the Tories had so wrought upon the governor, +that, though he had first moved this matter, and had given us both +directions and promises about it, yet he now (not without base +unhandsomeness) deferred it. The lieutenant-governor, who had formerly +been for it, now (not without great ebullition of unaccountable prejudice +and ingratitude) appeared, with all the little tricks imaginable, to +confound it. It had for all this been carried, had not some of the council +been inconveniently called off and absent. But now the whole affair of the +college was left unto the management of the Earl of Bellamont, so that all +expectation of a voyage for my father unto England, on any such occasion, +is utterly at an end." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 484-486, +App. x.] + +During all these years the legislature had been steadily passing +resolutions requiring the president to go into residence; and in 1698 they +went so far as to vote him the liberal salary, for that age, of two +hundred pounds, and appointed a committee to wait upon him. Judge Sewall +describes the interview:-- + +"Mr. President expostulated with Mr. Speaker ... about the votes being +alter'd from 250 [L.?]." ... "We urg'd his going all we could; I told him +of his birth and education here; that he look'd at work rather than wages, +all met in desiring him.... Objected want of a house, bill for corporation +not pass'd ... must needs preach once every week, which he preferred +before the gold and silver of the West-Indies. I told him would preach +twice aday to the students. He said that [exposition] was nothing like +preaching." [Footnote: Sewall's _Diary_. _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, +v. 487.] And in this the patriarch spoke the truth; for if there was +anything he loved more than money it was the incense of adulation which +steamed up to his nostrils from a great congregation. Of course he +declined; and yet this importunity pained the good man, not because there +was any conflict in his mind between his duty to a cause he held sacred +and his own interest, but because it was "a thing contrary to the faith +marvellously wrought into my soul, that God will give me an opportunity to +serve and glorify Christ in England, I set the day apart to cry to heaven +about it." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, vi. 481, App. ix.] + +There were limits, however, even to the patience of the Massachusetts +Assembly with an orthodox divine; and no sooner was the question of the +agency decided by the appointment of Bellomont, than it addressed itself +resolutely to the seemingly hopeless task of forcing Dr. Mather to settle +in Cambridge or resign his office. On the 10th of July, 1700, they voted +him two hundred and twenty pounds a year, and they appointed a committee +to obtain from him a categorical answer. This time he thought it prudent +to feign compliance; and after a "suitable place... for the reception and +entertainment of the president" had been prepared at the public expense, +he moved out of town and stayed till the 17th of October, when he went +back to Boston, and wrote to tell Stoughton his health was suffering. His +disingenuousness seems to have given Leverett the opportunity for which he +had been waiting; and his acting as chairman of a committee appointed by +the representatives suggests his having forced the issue; it was resolved +that, should Mr. Mather be absent from the college, his duties should +devolve upon Samuel Willard, the vice-president; [Footnote: _History of +Harvard_, i. 111; _Court Rec._ vii. 172, 175.] and in March the committee +apparently reported the president's house to be in good condition. +Stimulated by this hint, the doctor went back to Cambridge and stayed a +little more than three months, when he wrote a characteristic note to +Stoughton, who was acting governor. "I promised the last General Court to +take care of the college until the Commencement. Accordingly I have been +residing in Cambridge these three months. I am determined (if the Lord +will) to return to Boston the next week, and no more return to reside in +Cambridge; for it is not reasonable to desire me to be (as, out of respect +to the public interest, I have been six months within this twelve) any +longer absent from my family.... I do therefore earnestly desire, that the +General Court would... think of another president.... It would be fatal to +the interest of religion, if a person disaffected to the order of the +Gospel, professed and practised in these churches, should preside over +this society. I know the General Assembly, out of their regard to the +interest of Christ, will take care to prevent it." [Footnote: _History of +Harvard_, i. 501, App. xvii.] Yet though he himself begged the legislature +to select his successor, in his inordinate vanity he did not dream of +being taken at his word; so when he was invited to meet both houses in the +council chamber he explained with perfect cheerfulness how "he was now +removed from Cambridge to Boston, and ... did not think fitt to continue +his residence there, ... but, if the court thought fit to desire he should +continue his care of the colledge as formerly, he would do so." [Footnote: +_Court Records_, vii. 229.] + +Increase Mather delighted to blazon himself as Christ's foremost champion +in the land. He predicted, and with reason, that should those who had been +already designated succeed him at Harvard, it would be fatal to that cause +to which his life was vowed. The alternative was presented of serving +himself or God, and to him it seemed unreasonable of his friends to expect +of him a choice. And yet when, as was his wont, he would describe himself +from the pulpit, as a refulgent beacon blazing before New England, he +would use such words as these: "Every ... one of a publick spirit ... will +deny himself as to his worldly interests, provided he may thereby promove +the welfare of his people.... He will not only deny himself, but if called +thereto, will encounter the greatest difficulties and dangers for the +publicks sake." [Footnote: Sermon, _The Publick Spirited Man_, pp. 7, 9.] + +The man had presumed too far; the world was wearying of him. On September +6, 1701, the government was transferred to Samuel Willard, the vice- +president, and Harvard was lost forever. [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, +i. 116.] + +No education is so baleful as the ecclesiastical, because it breeds the +belief in men that resistance to their will is not only a wrong to their +country and themselves, but a sacrilege toward God. The Mathers were now +to give an illustration of the degree to which the theocratic training +debauched the mind; and it is only necessary to observe that Samuel +Sewall, who tells the story, was educated for the ministry, and was +perhaps as staunch a conservative as there was in the province. + +1701, "October 20. Mr. Cotton Mather came to Mr. Wilkins's shop, and there +talked very sharply against me as if I had used his father worse than a +neger; spake so loud that people in the street might hear him.... I had +read in the morn Mr. Dod's saying; Sanctified afflictions are good +promotions. I found it now a cordial." + +"October 9. I sent Mr. Increase Mather a hanch of very good venison; I +hope in that I did not treat him as a negro." + +"October 2, 1701. I, with Major Walley and Capt. Samuel Checkly, speak +with Mr. Cotton Mather at Mr. Wilkins's.... I told him of his book of the +Law of Kindness for the Tongue, whether this were correspondent with that. +Whether correspondent with Christ's rule: + +"He said, having spoken to me before there was no need to speak to me +again; and so justified his reviling me behind my back. Charg'd the +council with lying, hypocrisy, tricks, and I know not what all. I ask'd +him if it were done with that meekness as it should; Answer'd, Yes. +Charg'd the council in general, and then shew'd my share, which was my +speech in council; viz. If Mr. Mather should goe to Cambridge again to +reside there with a resolution not to read the Scriptures, and expound in +the Hall: I fear the example of it will do more hurt than his going +thither will doe good. This speech I owned.... I ask'd him if I should +supose he had done somthing amiss in his church as an officer; whether it +would be well for me to exclaim against him in the street for it." + +"Thorsday October 23. Mr. Increase Mather said at Mr. Wilkins's, If I am a +servant of Jesus Christ, some great judgment will fall on Capt. Sewall, or +his family." [Footnote: Sewall's _Diary. Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, +vi. 43-45.] + +Had the patriarch been capable of a disinterested action, for the sake of +those principles he professed to love, he would have stopped Willard's +presidency, no matter at what personal cost, for he knew him to be no +better than a liberal in disguise, and he had already quarrelled bitterly +with him in 1697 when he was trying to eject Leverett. Sewall noted on +"Nov. 20.... Mr. Willard told me of the falling out between the president +and him about chusing fellows last Monday. Mr. Mather has sent him word, +he will never come to his house more till he give him satisfaction." +[Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, v. 464.] But they had in +reality separated years before; for when, in the witchcraft terror, +Willard was cried out upon, and had to look a shameful death in the face, +he learned to feel that the men who were willing to risk their lives to +save him were by no means public enemies. And so, as the vice-president +lived in Boston, the administration of the college was left very much to +Leverett and the Brattles, who were presently reinstated. + +Joseph Dudley was the son of that old governor who wrote the verses about +the cockatrice to be hatched by toleration, yet he inherited very little +of his father's disposition. He was bred for the ministry, and as the +career did not attract him, he turned to politics, in which he made a +brilliant opening. At first he was the hope of the high churchmen, but +they afterward learned to hate him with a rancor exceptional even toward +their enemies. And he gave them only too good a handle against him, for he +was guilty of the error of selling himself without reserve to the Andros +government. At the Revolution he suffered a long imprisonment, and +afterward went to England, where he passed most of William's reign. There +his ability soon brought him forward, he was made lieutenant-governor of +the Isle of Wight, was returned to Parliament, and at last appointed +governor by Queen Anne. Though Massachusetts owes a deeper debt to few of +her chief magistrates, there are few who have found scantier praise at the +hands of her historians. He was, it is true, an unscrupulous politician +and courtier, but his mind was broad and vigorous, his policy wise and +liberal, and at the moment of his power his influence was of inestimable +value. + +Among his other gifts, he was endowed with infinite tact, and when working +for his office he managed not only to conciliate the Mathers, but even to +induce the son to write a letter in his favor; and so when he arrived in +1702 they were both sedulous in their attentions in the expectation of +controlling him. A month had not passed, however, before this ominous +entry was made in the younger's diary:-- + +"June 16, 1702. I received a visit from Governour Dudley.... I said to him +... I should be content, I would approve it, ... if any one should say to +your excellency, 'By no means let any people have cause to say, that you +take all your measures from the two Mr. Mathers.' By the same rule I may +say without offence,' By no means let any people say, that you go by no +measures in your conduct, but Mr. Byfield's and Mr. Leverett's.'... The +WRETCH went unto those men and told them, that I had advised him to be no +ways advised by them; and inflamed them into an implacable rage against +me." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 137.] + +Leverett, on the contrary, now reached his zenith; from the house he +passed into the council and became one of Dudley's most trusted advisers. +The Mathers were no match for these two men, and few routs have been more +disastrous than theirs. Lord Bellomont's sudden death had put an end to +all hope of obtaining a charter by compromise with England, and no further +action had been taken, when, on September 12, 1707, Willard died. On the +28th of October the fellows met and chose John Leverett president of +Harvard College; and then came a demonstration which proved not only +Increase Mather's prescience, when he foretold how a liberal university +would kill a disciplined church, but which shows the mighty influence a +devoted teacher can have upon his age. Thirty-nine ministers addressed +Governor Dudley thus:-- + +"We have lately, with great joy, understood the great and early care that +our brethren, who have the present care and oversight of the college at +Cambridge, have taken, ... by their unanimous choice of Mr. John Leverett, +... to be the president ... Your Excellency personally knows Mr. Leverett +so well, that we shall say the less of him. However, we cannot but give +this testimony of our great affection to and esteem for him; that we are +abundantly satisfied ... of his religion, learning, and other excellent +accomplishments for that eminent service, a long experience of which we +had while he was senior fellow of that house; for that, under the wise and +faithful government of him, and the Rev. Mr. Brattle, of Cambridge, the +greatest part of the now rising ministry in New England were happily +educated; and we hope and promise ourselves, through the blessing of the +God of our fathers, to see religion and learning thrive and flourish in +that society, under Mr. Leverett's wise conduct and influence, as much as +ever yet it hath done." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 504, App. xx.] + +His salary was only one hundred and fifty pounds a year; but the man +worked for love of a great cause, and did not stop to haggle. Nor were he +and Dudley of the temper to leave a task half done. Undoubtedly at the +governor's instigation, a resolve was introduced into the Assembly +reviving the Act of 1650 by which the university had been incorporated, +and it is by the sanction of this lawless and masterly feat of +statesmanship that Harvard has been administered for almost two hundred +years. + +Sewall tells how Dudley went out in state to inaugurate his friend. "The +governour prepared a Latin speech for instalment of the president. Then +took the president by the hand and led him down into the hall;... The +governour sat with his back against a noble fire.... Then the governour +read his speech ... and mov'd the books in token of their delivery. Then +president made a short Latin speech, importing the difficulties +discouraging, and yet that he did accept: ... Clos'd with the hymn to the +Trinity. Had a very good dinner upon 3 or 4 tables.... Got home very well. +_Laus Deo._" [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, vi. 209.] + +Nor did Dudley fail to provide the new executive with fit support. By the +old law he had revived the corporation was reduced to seven; of this board +Leverett himself was one, and on the day he took his office both the +Brattles and Pemberton were also appointed. And more than this, when, a +few years later, Pemberton died, the arch-rebel, Benjamin Colman, was +chosen in his place. The liberal triumph was complete, and in looking back +through the vista of the past, there are few pages of our history more +strongly stamped with the native energy of the New England mind than this +brilliant capture of Harvard, by which the ancient cradle of bigotry and +superstition was made the home of American liberal thought. As for the +Mathers, when they found themselves beaten in fair fight, they conceived a +revenge so dastardly that Pemberton declared with much emotion he would +humble them, were he governor, though it cost him his head. Being unable +longer to withstand Dudley by honorable means, they tried to blast him by +charging him with felony. Their letters are too long to be reproduced in +full; but their purport may be guessed by the extracts given, and to this +day they remain choice gems of theocratic morality. + + * * * * * + +SIR, That I have had a singular respect for you, the Lord knows; but that +since your arrival to the government, my charitable expectations have been +greatly disappointed, I may not deny.... + +1st. I am afraid you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of bribery and +unrighteousness.... + +2d. I am afraid that you have not been true to the interest of your +country, as God (considering his marvellous dispensations towards you) and +his people have expected from you.... + +3d. I am afraid that you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of much +hypocrisy and falseness in the affair of the college.... + +4th. I am afraid that the guilt of innocent blood is still crying in the +ears of the Lord against you. I mean the blood of Leister and Milburn. My +Lord Bellamont said to me, that he was one of the committee of Parliament +who examined the matter; and that those men were not only murdered, but +barbarously murdered.... + +5th. I am afraid that the Lord is offended with you, in that you +ordinarily forsake the worship of God in the holy church to which you are +related, in the afternoon on the Lord's day, and after the publick +exercise, spend the whole time with some persons reputed very ungodly men. +I am sure your father did not so.... Would you choose to be with them or +such as they are in another world, unto which you are hastening?... I am +under pressures of conscience to bear a publick testimony without respect +of persons.... I trust in Christ that when I am gone, I shall obtain a +good report of my having been faithful before him. To his mercy I commend +you, and remain in him, + +Yours to serve, +I. MATHER. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 126.] +BOSTON, _January_ 20, 1707-8. +To the Governour. + + * * * * * + +BOSTON, _Jan_. 20, 1707-8. + +Sir, There have appeared such things in your conduct, that a just concern +for the welfare of your excellency seems to render it necessary, that you +should be _faithfully_ advised of them.... You will give me leave to +write nothing, but in a style, whereof an ignorant mob, to whom (as well +as the General Assembly) you think fit to communicate what _fragments_ you +please of my letters, must be _competent judges_. I must proceed +accordingly.... I weakly believed that the wicked and horrid things done +before the righteous Revolution, had been heartily repented of; and that +the rueful business at New York, which many illustrious persons ... called +a barbarous murder, ... had been considered with such a repentance, as +might save you and your family from any further storms of heaven for the +revenging of it.... Sir, your _snare_ has been that thing, the _hatred_ +whereof is most expressly required of the _ruler_, namely COVETOUSNESS. +When a governour shall make his government more an engine to enrich +himself, than to _befriend his country_, and shall by the unhallowed +hunger of riches be prevailed withal to do many wrong, base, dishonourable +things; it is a covetousness which will shut out from the kingdom of +heaven; and sometimes the _loss of a government on earth_ also is the +punishment of it.... The main channel of that covetousness has been the +reign of bribery, which you, sir, have set up in the land, where it was +hardly known, till you brought it in fashion.... And there lie affidavits +before the queen and council, which affirm that you have been guilty of it +in very many instances. I do also know that you have.... + +Sir, you are sensible that there is a judgment to come, wherein the +glorious Lord will demand, how far you aimed at serving him in your +government; ... how far you did in your government encourage those that +had most of his image upon them, or place your eyes on the wicked of the +land. Your _age_ and _health_, as well as other circumstances, greatly +invite you, sir, to entertain _awful thoughts_ of this matter, and +solicit the divine mercy through the only sacrifice.... Yet if the +troubles you brought on yourself should procure your abdication and recess +unto a more private condition, and your present _parasites_ forsake +you, as you _may be sure they will_, I should think it my duty to do +you all the good offices imaginable. + +Finally, I can forgive and forget injuries; and I hope I am somewhat ready +for _sunset_; the more for having discharged the duty of this letter.... + +Your humble and faithful servant, + +COTTON MATHER. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 128.] + + * * * * * + +But these venomous priests had tried their fangs upon a resolute and an +able man. Dudley shook them off like vermin. + + * * * * * + +GENTLEMEN, Yours of the 20th instant I received; and the contents, both as +to the matter and manner, astonish me to the last degree. I must think you +have extremely forgot your own station, as well as my character; otherwise +it had been impossible to have made such an open breach upon all the laws +of decency, honour, justice, and Christianity, as you have done in +treating me with an air of superiority and contempt, which would have been +greatly culpable towards a Christian of the lowest order, and is +insufferably rude toward one whom divine Providence has honoured with the +character of your governour.... + +Why, gentlemen, have you been so long silent? and suffered sin to lie upon +me years after years? You cannot pretend any new information as to the +main of your charge; for you have privately given your tongues a loose +upon these heads, I am well assured, when you thought you could serve +yourselves by exposing me. Surely murder, robberies, and other such +flaming immoralities were as reprovable then as now.... + +Really, gentlemen, conscience and religion are things too solemn, +venerable, or sacred, to be played with, or made a covering for actions so +disagreeable to the gospel, as these your endeavours to expose me and my +most faithful services to contempt; nay, to unhinge the government.... + +I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or sixty good +ministers, your equals in the province, have a share in the government of +the college, and advise thereabouts as well as yourselves, and I hope all +will be well.... + +I am your humble servant, + +J. DUDLEY. + +To the Reverend Doctors Mathers. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first +series, iii. 135.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE LAWYERS. + + +In the age of sacred caste the priest is likewise the law-maker and the +judge, and as succeeding generations of ecclesiastics slowly spin the +intricate web of their ceremonial code, they fail not to teach the people +that their holy ordinances were received of yore from divine lips by some +great prophet. This process is beautifully exemplified in the Old +Testament: though the complicated ritualism of Leviticus was always +reverently attributed to Moses, it was evidently the work of a much later +period; for the present purpose, however, its date is immaterial, it +suffices to follow the account the scribes thought fit to give in Kings. + +Long after the time of Solomon, Josiah one day sent to inquire about some +repairs then being made at the Temple, when suddenly, "Hilkiah the high +priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in +the house of the Lord." And he gave the book to Shaphan. + +"And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book... he +rent his clothes." And he was greatly alarmed for fear of the wrath of the +Lord, because their fathers had not hearkened unto the words of this book; +as indeed it was impossible they should, since they knew nothing about it. +So, to find out what was best to be done, he sent Hilkiah and others to +Huldah the prophetess, who told them that the wrath of the Lord was indeed +kindled, and he would bring evil unto the land; but, because Josiah's +heart had been tender, and he had humbled himself, and rent his clothes, +and wept when he had heard what was spoken, he should be gathered into his +grave in peace, and his eyes should not see the evil. [Footnote: 2 _Kings_ +xxii.] + +Such is an example of the process whereby a compilation of canonical +statutes is brought into practical operation by adroitly working upon the +superstitions fears of the civil magistrate; at an earlier period the +priests administer justice in person. + +Eli judged Israel forty years, and Samuel went on circuit all the days of +his life; "and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, +and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places." [Footnote: 1 +_Samuel_ iv., vii.] But, sooner or later, the time must come when a +soldier is absolutely necessary, both to fight foreign enemies and to +enforce obedience at home; and then some chief is set up whom the clergy +think they can control: thus Samuel anointed Saul to be captain over the +Lord's inheritance. [Footnote: 1 _Samuel_ x.] So long as the king is +submissive to authority all goes well, but any insubordination is promptly +punished; and this was the fate of Saul. On one occasion, when he was in +difficulty and Samuel happened to be away, he was so rash as to sacrifice +a burnt offering himself; his presumption offended the prophet, who +forthwith declared that his kingdom should not continue. [Footnote: 1 +_Samuel_ xiii.] After this the relations between them went from bad to +worse, and it was not long before the priest began to intrigue with David, +whom he presently anointed. [Footnote: _Idem_, xvi.] The end of it was +that Saul was defeated in battle, as Samuel's ghost foretold, for not +obeying "the voice of the Lord;" and after a struggle between the houses +of Saul and David, all the elders of Israel went to Hebron, where David +made a league with them, and in return they anointed him king. [Footnote: +2 _Samuel_ v.]. + +Thenceforward, or from the moment when a layman assumed control of the +temporal power, the Jewish chronicles teem with the sins and the disasters +of those rulers who did not walk in the way of their fathers, or who, in +other words, were restive under ecclesiastical dictation. + +So long as this period lasts, during which the sovereign is forced to obey +the behests of the priesthood, an arbitrary despotism is inevitable; nor +can the foundation of equal justice and civil liberty be laid until first +the military, and then the legal profession, has become distinct and +emancipated from clerical control, and jurisprudence has grown into the +recognized calling of a special class. + +These phenomena tend to explain the peculiar and original direction taken +by legal thought in Massachusetts, for they throw light upon the +influences under which her first generation of lawyers grew up, whose +destiny it was to impress upon her institutions the form they have ever +since retained. + +The traditions inherited from the theocracy were vicious in the extreme. +For ten years after the settlement the clergy and their aristocratic +allies stubbornly refused either to recognize the common law or to enact a +code; and when at length further resistance to the demands of the freemen +was impossible, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward drew up "The Body of Liberties," +which, though it perhaps sufficiently defined civil obligations, contained +this extraordinary provision concerning crimes:-- + +"No mans life shall be taken away, no mans honour or good name shall be +stayned, no mans person shall be arested, restrayned, banished, +dismembred, nor any wayes punished, ... unlesse it be by virtue or equitie +of some expresse law of the country waranting the same, ... or in case of +the defect of a law in any parteculer case by the word of God. And in +capitall cases, or in cases concerning dismembring or banishment according +to that word to be judged by the Generall Court." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. +Coll._ third series, viii. 216] + +The whole of the subtle policy, whereof this legislation forms a part, +well repays attentive study. The relation of the church to the state was +not unlike that of Samuel toward Saul, for no public man could withstand +its attack, as was demonstrated by the fate of Vane. Much of the story has +been told already in describing the process whereby the clergy acquired a +substantial ascendency over the executive and legislature, through their +command of the constituencies which it was the labor of their lives to +fill with loyal retainers. Nothing therefore remains to be done but to +trace the means they employed to invest their order with judicial +attributes. + +From the outset lawyers were excluded from practice, so the magistrates +were nothing but common politicians who were nominated by the priests; +thus the bench was not only filled with trusty partisans without +professional training or instincts, but also, as they were elected +annually, they were practically removable at pleasure should they by any +chance rebel. Upon these points there is abundant evidence: "The +government was first by way of charter, which was chiefly managed by the +preachers, who by their power with the people made all the magistrates & +kept them so intirely under obedience, that they durst not act without +them. Soe that whensoever anything strange or unusuall was brought before +them, they would not determine the matter without consulting the +preachers, for should any bee soe sturdy as to presume to act of himself +without takeing advice & directions, he might bee sure of it, his +magistracy ended with the year. He could bee noe magistrate for them, that +was not approved and recommended from the pulpit, & he could expect little +recommendation who was not the preacher's most humble servant. Soe they +who treated, caressed & presented the preachers most, were the rulers & +magistrates among the people." [Footnote: An Account of the Colonies, +etc., Lambeth MSS. Perry's _Historical Collections_, iii. 48.] + +From the decisions of such a judiciary the only appeal lay to a popular +assembly, which could always be manipulated. Obviously, ecclesiastical +supervision over the ordinary course of litigation was amply provided for. +The adjudication of the more important controversies was reserved; for it +was expressly enacted that doubtful questions and the higher crimes should +be judged according to the Word of God. This master-stroke resembled +Hilkiah's when he imposed his book on Josiah; for on no point of +discipline were the ministers so emphatic as on the sacred and absolute +nature of their prerogative to interpret the Scriptures; nor did they fail +to impress upon the people that it was a sin akin to sacrilege for the +laity to dispute their exposition of the Bible. + +The deduction to be drawn from these premises is plain. The assembled +elders, acting in their advisory capacity, constituted a supreme tribunal +of last resort, wholly superior to carnal precedent, and capable of +evolving whatsoever decrees they deemed expedient from the depths of their +consciousness. [Footnote: See Gorton's case, Winthrop, ii. 146.] The +result exemplifies the precision with which a cause operating upon the +human mind is followed by its consequence; and the action of this +resistless force is painfully apparent in every state prosecution under +the Puritan Commonwealth, from Wheelwright's to Margaret Brewster's. The +absorption of sacerdotal, political, and juridical functions by a single +class produces an arbitrary despotism; and before judges greedy of earthly +dominion, flushed by the sense of power, unrestrained by rules of law or +evidence, and unopposed by a resolute and courageous bar, trials must +become little more than conventional forms, precursors of predetermined +punishments. + +After a period of about half a century these social conditions underwent +radical change, but traditions remained that deeply affected the +subsequent development of the people, and produced a marked bent of +thought in the lawyers who afterward wrote the Constitution. + +At the accession of William III. great progress had been made in the +science of colonial government; charters had been granted to Connecticut +and Rhode Island in 1662 and 1663, which, except in the survival of the +ancient and meaningless jargon of incorporation, had a decidedly modern +form. By these regular local representative governments were established +with full power of legislation, save in so far as limited by clauses +requiring conformity with the law of England; and they served their +purpose well, for both were kept in force many years after the Revolution, +Rhode Island's not having been superseded until 1843. + +The stubborn selfishness of the theocracy led to the adoption of a less +liberal policy toward Massachusetts. The nomination of the executive +officers was retained by the crown, and the governor was given very +substantial means of maintaining his authority; he could reject the +councillors elected by the Assembly; he appointed the judges and sheriffs +with the advice of this body, whose composition he could thus in a measure +control; he had a veto, and was commander-in-chief. Appeals to the king in +council were also provided for in personal actions where the matter in +difference exceeded three hundred pounds. + +On the other hand, the legislature made all appropriations, including +those for the salaries of the governor and judges, and was only limited in +its capacity to enact statutes by the clause invariably inserted in these +patents. + +This, therefore, is the precise moment when the modern theory of +constitutional limitations first appears defined; distinct from the +ancient corporate precedents. By a combination of circumstances also, a +sufficient sanction for the written law happened to be provided, thus +making the conception complete, for the tribunal of last resort was an +English court sustained by ample physical force; nevertheless the great +principle of coordinate departments of government was not yet understood, +and substantial relief against legislative usurpation had to be sought in +a foreign jurisdiction. To lawyers of our own time it is self-evident that +the restrictions of an organic code must be futile unless they are upheld +by a judiciary not only secure in tenure and pay, but removed as far as +may be from partisan passions. This truth, however, remained to be +discovered amid the abuses of the eighteenth century, for the position of +the provincial bench was unsatisfactory in the last degree. The justices +held their commissions at the king's pleasure, but their salaries were at +the mercy of the deputies; they were therefore subject to the caprice of +antagonistic masters. Nor was this the worst, for the charter did not +isolate the judicial office. Under the theocracy the policy of the clergy +had been to suppress the study of law in order to concentrate their own +power; hence no training was thought necessary for the magistrate, no +politician was considered incompetent to fill the judgment-seat because of +ignorance of his duty, and the office-hunter, having got his place by +influence, was deemed at liberty to use it as a point of vantage, from +whence to prosecute his chosen career. For example, the first chief +justice was Stoughton, who was appointed by Phips, probably at the +instigation of Increase Mather. As he was bred for the church, he could +have had no knowledge to recommend him, and his peculiar qualifications +were doubtless family connections and a narrow and bigoted mind; he was +also lieutenant-governor, a member of the council, and part of the time +commander-in-chief. + +Thomas Danforth was the senior associate, who is described by Sewall as "a +very good husbandman, and a very good Christian, and a good councillor;" +but his reputation as a jurist rested upon a spotless record, he having +been the most uncompromising of the high church managers. + +Wait Winthrop was a soldier, and was not only in the council, but so +active in public life that years afterward, while on the bench, he was set +up as a candidate for governor in opposition to Dudley. + +John Richards was a merchant, who had been sent to England as agent in +1681, just when the troubles came to a crisis; but the labors by which he +won the ermine seem plain enough, for he was bail for Increase Mather when +sued by Randolph, and was appointed by Phips. Samuel Sewall was brought up +to preach, took to politics on the conservative side, and was regularly +chosen to the council. + +This motley crew, who formed the first superior court, had but one trait +in common: they belonged to the clique who controlled the patronage; and +as it began so it continued to the end, for Hutchinson, the last chief +justice but one, was a merchant; yet he was also probate judge, +lieutenant-governor, councillor, and leader of the Tories. In so +intelligent a community such prostitution of the judicial office would +have been impossible but for the pernicious tradition that the civil +magistrate needed no special training to perform his duty, and was to take +his law from those who expounded the Word of God. + +And there was another inheritance, if possible, more baleful still. The +legislature, under the Puritan Commonwealth, had been the court of last +resort, and it was by no means forward to abandon its prerogative. It was +consequently always ready to listen to the complaints of suitors who +thought themselves aggrieved by the decisions of the regular tribunals, +and it was fond of altering the course of justice to make it conform to +what the members were pleased to call equity. This abuse finally took such +proportions that Hutchinson remonstrated vigorously in a speech to the +houses in 1772. + +"Much time is usually spent ... in considering petitions for new trials at +law, for leave to sell the real estates of persons deceased, by their +executors, or administrators, and the real estates of minors, by their +guardians. All such private business is properly cognizable by the +established judicatories.... A legislative body ... is extremely improper +for such decisions. The polity of the English government seldom admits of +the exercise of this executive and judiciary power by the legislature, and +I know of nothing special in the government of this province, to give +countenance to it." [Footnote: Mass. State Papers, 1765-1775, p. 314.] + +The disposition to interfere in what did not concern them was probably +aggravated by the presence of judicial politicians in the popular +assemblies, who seem to have been unable to resist the temptation of +intriguing to procure legislation to affect the litigation before them. +But the simplest way to illustrate the working of the system in all its +bearings will be to give a history of a celebrated case finally taken on +appeal to the Privy Council. The cause arose in Connecticut, it is true, +but the social condition of the two colonies was so similar as to make +this circumstance immaterial. + +Wait Winthrop, [Footnote: This report of Winthrop v. Lechmere is taken +from a MS. brief in the possession of Hon. R. C. Winthrop.] grandson of +the first John Winthrop, died intestate in 1717, leaving two children, +John, of New London, and Anne, wife of Thomas Lechmere, of Boston. The +father intended his son should take the land according to the family +tradition, and in pursuance of this purpose he put him in actual +possession of the Connecticut property in 1711; but he neglected to make a +will. + +By the common law of England real estate descended to the eldest son of +him who was last seised; but in 1699 the Assembly had passed a statute of +distribution, copied from a Massachusetts act, which directed the probate +court, after payment of debts, to make a "distribution of ... all the +residue ... of the real and personal estate by equal portions to and among +the children ... except the eldest son ... who shall have two shares." + +Here, then, at the threshold, the constitutional question had to be met, +as to whether the colonial enactment was not in conflict with the +restriction in the charter, and therefore void. Winthrop took out letters +of administration, and Lechmere became one of the sureties on his bond. +There was no disagreement about the personalty, but the son's claim to the +land was disputed, though suit was not brought against him till 1723. + +The litigation began in Boston, but was soon transferred to New London, +where, in July, 1724, Lechmere petitioned for an account. Winthrop +forthwith exhibited an inventory of the chattels, and moved that it should +be accepted as final; but the judge of probate declined so to rule. Then +Lechmere prayed for leave to sue on the bond in the name of the judge. His +prayer was granted, and he presently began no less than six actions in +different forms. + +Much time was consumed in disposing of technicalities, but at length two +test cases were brought before the superior court. One, being in substance +an action on the bond, was tried on the general issue, and the verdict was +for the defendant. The other was a writ of partition, wherein Anne was +described as co-heir with her brother. It was argued on demurrer to the +declaration, and the defendant again prevailed. + +Thus, so far as judicial decision could determine private rights to +property, Winthrop had established his title; but he represented the +unpopular side in the controversy, and his troubles were just beginning. +Christopher Christophers was the judge of probate, he was also a justice +of the superior court, and a member of the Assembly, of which body the +plaintiff's counsel was speaker. In April, 1725, when Lechmere had finally +exhausted his legal remedies, he addressed a petition to the legislature, +where he had this strong support, and which was not to meet till May, +stating the impossibility of obtaining relief by ordinary means, and +asking to have one of the judgments set aside and a new trial ordered, in +such form as to enable him to maintain his writ of partition, +notwithstanding the solemn decision against him by the court of last +resort. The defendant in vain protested that no error was alleged, no new +evidence produced, nor any matter of equity advanced which might justify +interference: the Assembly had determined to sustain the statute of +distributions, and it accordingly resolved that in cases of this +description relief ought to be given in probate by means of a new grant of +administration, to be executed according to the terms of the act. + +Winthrop was much alarmed, and with reason, for he saw at once the +intention of the legislature was to induce the judges to assume an +unprecedented jurisdiction; he therefore again offered his account, which +Christophers rejected, and he appealed from the decision. Lechmere also +applied for administration on behalf of his wife; and upon his prayer +being denied, pending a final disposition of Winthrop's cause, he too went +up. In March, 1725-6, final judgment was rendered, the judges holding that +both real and personal property should be inventoried. Winthrop thereupon +entered his appeal to the Privy Council, whose jurisdiction was +peremptorily denied. + +From what afterward took place, the inference is that Christophers shrank +from assuming alone so great a responsibility as now devolved upon him, +and persuaded his brethren to share it with him; for the superior court +proceeded to issue letters of administration to Lechmere, and took his +bond, drawn to themselves personally, for the faithful performance of his +trust. This was a most high-handed usurpation, for the function of the +higher tribunal in these matters was altogether appellate, it having +nothing to do with such executive business as taking bonds, which was the +province of the judge of probate. + +However this may have been, progress was thenceforward rapid. In April +Lechmere produced a schedule of debts, which have at this day a somewhat +suspicious look, and when they were allowed, he petitioned the legislature +for leave to sell land to pay them. Winthrop appeared and presented a +remonstrance, which "the Assembly, observing the common course of justice, +and the law of the colony being by application to the said Assembly, when +the judgments of the superior courts are grievous to any person... +dismissed," and immediately passed an act authorizing the sale, and making +the administrators' deed good to convey a title. + +Then Winthrop was so incautious as to make a final effort: he filed a +protest and caution against any illegal interference with his property +pending his appeal, declaring the action already taken to be contrary to +the common and statute law of England, and to the tenor of the charter. + +The Assembly being of the opinion that this protest "had in it a great +show of contempt," caused Winthrop to be arrested and brought to the bar; +there he not only defended his representations as reasonable, but avowed +his determination to lay all these proceedings before the king in council. +"This was treated as an insolent contemptuous and disorderly behaviour" in +the prisoner, "as declaring himself _coram non judice_, and putting +himself on a par with them, and impeaching their authoritys and the +charter; and his said protest was declared to be full of reflections, and +to terrifie so far as in him lay all the authorities established by the +charter." So they imprisoned him three days and fined him twenty pounds +for his contemptuous words. + +This leading case was afterward elaborately argued in London, and judgment +was entered for Winthrop, upon the ground that the statute of distribution +was in conflict with the charter and therefore void; but as Connecticut +resolutely refused to abandon its own policy, the utmost confusion +prevailed for seventeen years regarding the settlement of estates. During +all this time the local government made unremitting efforts to obtain +relief, and seems to have used pecuniary as well as legal arguments to +effect its purpose; at all events, it finally secured a majority in the +Privy Council, who reversed Winthrop v. Lechmere, in Clark v. Tousey. The +same question was raised in Massachusetts in 1737, in Phillips v. Savage, +but enough influence was brought to bear to prevent an adverse decision. +[Footnote: _Conn. Coll. Rec._ vii. 191, note; _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._ +1860-62, pp. 64-80, 165-171.] A possible distinction between the two cases +also lay in the fact that the Massachusetts act had received the royal +assent. + +The history of this litigation is interesting, not only as illustrating +the defects in provincial justice, but as showing the process by which the +conception of constitutional limitations became rooted in the minds of the +first generation of lawyers; and in point of fact, they were so thoroughly +impregnated with the theory as to incline to carry it to unwarrantable +lengths. For example, so justly eminent a counsel as James Otis, in his +great argument on the Writs of Assistance in 1761, solemnly maintained the +utterly untenable proposition that an act of Parliament "against the +Constitution is void: an act against natural equity is void: and if an act +of Parliament should be made, in the very words of this petition, it would +be void." [Footnote: Quincy's _Reports_, p. 474.] While so sound a man, +otherwise, as John Adams wrote, in 1776, to Mr. Justice Cushing: "You have +my hearty concurrence in telling the jury the nullity of acts of +Parliament.... I am determined to die of that opinion, let the _jus +gladii_ say what it will." [Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, ix. 390.] + +On looking back at Massachusetts as she was in the year 1700, permeated +with the evil theocratic traditions, without judges, teachers, or books, +the mind can hardly fail to be impressed with the unconquerable energy +which produced great jurists from such a soil; and yet in 1725 Jeremiah +Gridley graduated from Harvard, who may fairly be said to have been the +progenitor of a famous race; for long before the Revolution, men like +Prat, Otis, and John Adams could well have held their own before any court +of Common Law that ever sat. Such powerful counsel naturally felt a +contempt for the ignorant politicians who for the most part presided over +them, which they took little pains to hide. Ruggles one day had an aged +female witness who could find no chair and complained to him of +exhaustion. He told her to go and sit on the bench. His honor, in some +irritation, calling him to account, he replied: "I really thought that +place was made for old women." Hutchinson says of himself: "It was an +eyesore to some of the bar to have a person at the head of the law who had +not been bred to it." But he explains with perfect simplicity how his +occupation as chief justice "engaged his attention, and he applied his +intervals to reading the law." [Footnote: _Diary and Letters of Thomas +Hutchinson_, p. 66.] + +The British supremacy closed with the evacuation of Boston, and the colony +then became an independent state; yet in that singularly homogeneous +community, which had always been taught to regard their royal patents as +the bulwark of their liberties, no one seems to have seriously thought it +possible to dispense with a written instrument to serve as the basis of +the social organization. Accordingly, in 1779, the legislature called a +convention to draft a Constitution; and it was the good fortune of the +lawyers, who were chosen as delegates, to have an opportunity, not only to +correct those abuses from which the administration of justice had so long +suffered, but to carry into practical operation their favorite theory, of +the limitation of legislative power by the intervention of the courts. The +course pursued was precisely what might have been predicted of the +representatives of a progressive yet sagacious people. Taking the old +charter as the foundation whereon to build, they made only such +alterations as their past experience had shown them to be necessary; they +adopted no fanciful schemes, nor did they lightly depart from a system +with which they were acquainted; and their almost servile fidelity to +their precedent, wherever it could be folio wed, is shown by the following +extracts relating to the legislative and executive departments. + + +CHARTER. + + +And we doe further for vs our heires and successors give and grant to the +said governor and the Great and Generall Court or Assembly of our said +province or territory for the time being full power and authority from +time to time to make ordaine and establish all manner of wholsome and +reasonable orders laws statutes and ordinances directions and instructions +either with penalties or without (soe as the same be not repugnant or +contrary to the lawes of this our realme of England) as they shall judge +to be for the good and welfare of our said province or territory and for +the gouernment and ordering thereof and of the people inhabiting or who +shall inhabit the same and for the necessary support and defence of the +government thereof. + + +CONSTITUTION. + + +And further, full power and authority are hereby given and granted to the +said General Court, from time to time, to make, ordain, and establish, all +manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, and ordinances, +directions and instructions, either with penalties or without; so as the +same be not repugnant or contrary to this constitution, as they shall +judge to be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth, and for the +government and ordering thereof, and of the subjects of the same, and for +the necessary support and defence of the government thereof. + + +CHARTER. + + +The governour of our said province for the time being shall have authority +from time to time at his discretion to assemble and call together the +councillors or assistants of our said province for the time being and that +the said governour with the said assistants or councillors or seaven of +them at the least shall and may from time to time hold and keep a councill +for the ordering and directing the affaires of our said province. + + +CONSTITUTION. + + +The governour shall have authority, from time to time at his discretion, +to assemble and call together the councillors of this commonwealth for the +time being; and the governour, with the said councillors, or five of them +at least, shall, and may, from time to time, hold and keep a council, for +the ordering and directing the affairs of the commonwealth, agreeably to +the constitution and the laws of the land. + + * * * * * + +The clause concerning the council is curious as an instance of the +survival of an antiquated form. In the province the body had a use, for it +was a regular upper chamber; but when, in 1779, a senate was added, it +became an anomalous and meaningless third house; yet it is still regularly +elected, though its inutility is obvious. So long ago as 1814 John Adams +had become very tired of it; he then wrote: "This constitution, which +existed in my handwriting, made the governor annually elective, gave him +the executive power, shackled with a council, that I now wish was +annihilated." [Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, vi. 465.] + +On the other hand, the changes made are even more interesting, as an +example of the evolution of institutions. The antique document was +simplified by an orderly arrangement and division into sections; the +obsolete jargon of incorporation was eliminated, which had come down from +the mediaeval guilds; in the dispute with England the want of a bill of +rights had been severely felt, so one was prefixed; and then the +convention, probably out of regard to symmetry, blotted their otherwise +admirable work by creating an unnecessary senate. But viewed as a whole, +the grand original conception contained in this instrument, making it loom +up a landmark in history, is the theory of the three coordinate +departments in the administration of a democratic commonwealth, which has +ever since been received as the corner-stone of American constitutional +jurisprudence. + +Though this assertion may at first sight seem too sweeping, it is borne +out by the facts. During the first sessions of the Continental Congress no +question was more pressing than the reorganization of the colonies should +they renounce their allegiance to the crown, nor was there one in regard +to which the majority of the delegates were more at sea. From, their +peculiar education the New Englanders were exceptions to the general rule, +and John Adams in particular had thought out the problem in all its +details. His conversation so impressed some of his colleagues that he was +asked to put his views in a popular form. His first attempt was a short +letter to Richard Henry Lee, in November, 1775, in which he starts with +this proposition as fundamental: "A legislative, an executive, and a +judicial power comprehend the whole of what is meant and understood by +government. It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, +that the efforts in human nature towards tyranny can alone be checked and +restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution." +[Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, iv. 186.] + +His next tract, written in 1776 at the request of Wythe of Virginia, was +printed and widely circulated, and similar communications were sent in +reply to applications from New Jersey, North Carolina, and possibly other +States. The effect of this discussion is apparent in all of the ten +constitutions afterward drawn, with the exception of Pennsylvania's, which +was a failure; but none of them passed beyond the tentative or embryonic +stage. It therefore remained for Massachusetts to present the model, which +in its main features has not yet been superseded. + +A first attempt was deservedly rejected by the people, and the work was +not done until 1779; but the men who then met in convention at Cambridge +knew precisely what they meant to do. Though the executive and the +legislature were a direct inheritance, needing but little change, a deep +line was drawn between the three departments, and the theory of the +coordinate judiciary was first brought to its maturity within the +jurisdiction where it had been born. To attain this cherished object was +the chief labor of the delegates, for to the supreme court was to be +intrusted the dangerous task of grappling with the representative chambers +and enforcing the popular charter. Therefore they made the tenure of the +judges permanent; they secured their pay; to obtain impartiality they +excluded them from political office; while on the other hand they confined +the legislature within its proper sphere, to the end that the government +they created might be one of laws and not of men. + +The experiment has proved one of those memorable triumphs which mark an +era. Not only has the great conception of New England been accepted as the +fundamental principle of the Federal Union, but it has been adopted by +every separate State; and more than this, during the one hundred and six +years since the people of our Commonwealth wrote their Constitution, they +have had as large a measure of liberty and safety under the law as men +have ever known on earth. There is no jurisdiction in the world where +justice has been purer or more impartial; nor, probably, has there ever +been a community, of equal numbers, which has produced more numerous or +more splendid specimens of juridical and forensic talent. + +When freed from the incubus of the ecclesiastical oligarchy the range of +intellectual activity expanded, and in 1780 Massachusetts may be said, +without exaggeration, to have led the liberal movement of the world; for +not only had she won almost in perfection the three chief prizes of modern +civilization, liberty of speech, toleration, and equality before the law; +but she had succeeded in formulating those constitutional doctrines by +which, during the nineteenth century, popular self-government has reached +the highest efficiency it has ever yet attained. + +A single example, however, must suffice to show what the rise of the class +of lawyers had done for individual security and liberty in that +comparatively short interval of ninety years. + +Theocratic justice has been described; the trials of Wheelwright, and of +Anne Hutchinson, of Childe, of Holmes, and of Christison have been +related; and also the horrors perpetrated before that ghastly tribunal of +untrained bigots, which condemned the miserable witches undefended and +unheard. [Footnote: In England, throughout the eighteenth century, counsel +were allowed to speak in criminal trials, in cases of treason and +misdemeanor only. Nor is the conduct of Massachusetts in regard to witches +peculiar. Parallel atrocities might probably be adduced from the history +of every European nation, even though the procedure of the courts were +more regular than was that of the Commission of Phips. The relation of the +priest to the sorcerer is a most interesting phenomenon of social +development; but it would require a treatise by itself.] For the honor of +our Common wealth let the tale be told of a state prosecution after her +bar was formed. + +In 1768 the British Ministry saw fit to occupy Boston with a couple of +regiments, a force large enough to irritate, but too small to overawe, the +town. From the outset bad feeling prevailed between the citizens and the +soldiers, but as the time went on the exasperation increased, and early in +1770 that intense passion began to glow which precedes the outbreak of +civil war. Yet though there were daily brawls, no blood was shed until the +night of the 5th of March, when a rabble gathered about the sentry at the +custom-house in State Street. He became frightened and called for help, +Captain Preston turned out the guard, the mob pelted them, and they fired +on the people without warning. A terrific outbreak was averted by a +species of miracle, but the troops had to be withdrawn, and Preston and +his men were surrendered and indicted for murder. + +John Adams, who was a liberal, heart and soul, had just come into leading +practice. His young friend Josiah Quincy was even more deeply pledged to +the popular cause. On the morning after the massacre, Preston, doubtless +at Hutchinson's suggestion, sent Adams a guinea as a retaining fee, which, +though it seemed his utter ruin to accept, he did not dream of refusing. +What Quincy went through may be guessed from his correspondence with his +father. + + * * * * * + +BRAINTREE, March 22, 1770. + +MY DEAR SON, I am under great affliction at hearing the bitterest +reproaches uttered against you, for having become an advocate for those +criminals who are charged with the murder of their fellow-citizens. Good +God! Is it possible? I will not believe it. + +Just before I returned home from Boston, I knew, indeed, that on the day +those criminals were committed to prison, a sergeant had inquired for you +at your brother's house; but I had no apprehension that it was possible an +application would be made to you to undertake their defence. Since then I +have been told that you have actually engaged for Captain Preston; and I +have heard the severest reflections made upon the occasion, by men who had +just before manifested the highest esteem for you, as one destined to be a +saviour of your country. I must own to you, it has filled the bosom of +your aged and infirm parent with anxiety and distress, lest it should not +only prove true, but destructive of your reputation and interest; and I +repeat, I will not believe it, unless it be confirmed by your own mouth, +or under your own hand. + +Your anxious and distressed parent, + +JOSIAH QUINCY. + + * * * * * + +BOSTON, March 26, 1770. + +HONOURED SIR, I have little leisure, and less inclination, either to know +or to take notice of those ignorant slanderers who have dared to utter +their "bitter reproaches" in your hearing against me, for having become an +advocate for criminals charged with murder.... Before pouring their +reproaches into the ear of the aged and infirm, if they had been friends, +they would have surely spared a little reflection on the nature of an +attorney's oath and duty.... + +Let such be told, sir, that these criminals, charged with murder, are not +yet legally proved guilty, and therefore, however criminal, are entitled, +by the laws of God and man, to all legal counsel and aid; that my duty as +a man obliged me to undertake; that my duty as a lawyer strengthened the +obligation.... This and much more might be told with great truth; and I +dare affirm that you and this whole people will one day rejoice that I +became an advocate for the aforesaid "criminals," charged with the murder +of our fellow-citizens. + +I never harboured the expectation, nor any great desire, that all men +should speak well of me. To enquire my duty, and to do it, is my aim.... +When a plan of conduct is formed with an honest deliberation, neither +murmuring, slander, nor reproaches move.... There are honest men in all +sects,--I wish their approbation;--there are wicked bigots in all +parties,--I abhor them. + +I am, truly and affectionately, your son, + +JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr. [Footnote: _Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr._ pp. 26, 27.] + + * * * * * + +Many of the most respected citizens asserted and believed that the +soldiers had fired with premeditated malice, for the purpose of revenge; +and popular indignation was so deep and strong that even the judges were +inclined to shrink. As Hutchinson was acting governor at the time, the +chief responsibility fell on Benjamin Lynde, the senior associate, who was +by good fortune tolerably competent. He was the son of the elder Lynde, +who, with the exception of Paul Dudley, was the only provincial chief +justice worthy to be called a lawyer. + +The juries were of course drawn from among those men who afterward fought +at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and, like the presiding judge and the +counsel, they sympathized with the Revolutionary cause. Yet the prisoners +were patiently tried according to the law and the evidence; all that +skill, learning, and courage could do for them was done, the court charged +impartially, and the verdicts were, Not guilty. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE REVOLUTION. + + +Status appears to be that stage of civilisation whence advancing +communities emerge into the era of individual liberty. In its most perfect +development it takes the form of caste, and the presumption is the +movement toward caste begins upon the abandonment of a wandering life, and +varies in intensity with the environment and temperament of each race, the +feebler sinking into a state of equilibrium, when change by spontaneous +growth ceases to be perceptible. So long as the brain remains too feeble +for sustained original thought, and man therefore lacks the energy to +rebel against routine, this condition of existence must continue, and its +inevitable tendency is toward rigid distinctions of rank, and as a +necessary consequence toward the limitation of the range of ambition, by +the conventional lines dividing the occupations of the classes. Such at +least in a general way was the progression of the Jews, and in a less +marked degree of the barbarians who overran the Roman Empire. Yet even +these, when they acquired permanent abodes, gravitated strongly enough +toward caste to produce a social system based on monopoly and privilege +which lasted through many centuries. On the other hand, the democratic +formula of "equality before the law" best defines the modern conception of +human relations, and this maxim indicates a tone of thought directly the +converse of that which begot status; for whereas the one strove to raise +impassable barriers against free competition in the struggle for +existence, the ideal of the other is to offer the fullest scope for the +expansion of the faculties. + +As in Western Europe church and state alike rested upon the customs of the +Middle Ages, a change so fundamental must have wrought the overthrow, not +only of the vastest vested interests, but of the profoundest religious +prejudices, consequently, it could not have been accomplished peaceably; +and in point of fact the conservatives were routed in two terrific +outbreaks, whereof the second was the sequence of the first, though +following it after a considerable interval of time. By the wars of the +Reformation freedom of thought was gained; by the revolutions of the +eighteenth century, which swept away the incubus of feudalism, liberty of +action was won; and as Massachusetts had been colonized by the radicals of +the first insurrection, it was not unnatural that their children should +have led the second. So much may be readily conceded, and yet the +inherited tendency toward liberalism alone would have been insufficient to +have inspired the peculiar unanimity of sentiment which animated her +people in their resistance to Great Britain, and which perhaps was +stronger among her clergy, whose instincts regarding domestic affairs were +intensely conservative, than among any other portion of her population. +The reasons for this phenomenon are worthy of investigation, for they are +not only interesting in themselves, but they furnish an admirable +illustration of the irresistible action of antecedent and external causes +on the human mind. + +Under the Puritan Commonwealth the church gave distinction and power, and +therefore monopolized the ability which sought professional life; but +under the provincial government new careers were opened, and intellectual +activity began to flow in broader channels. John Adams illustrates the +effect produced by the changed environment; when only twenty he made this +suggestive entry in his Diary: "The following questions may be answered +some time or other, namely,--Where do we find a precept in the Gospel +requiring Ecclesiastical Synods? Convocations? Councils? Decrees? Creeds? +Confessions? Oaths? Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trumpery +that we find religion encumbered with in these days?" [Footnote: _Works +of J. Adams_, ii. 5.] + +Such men became lawyers, doctors, or merchants; theology ceased to occupy +their minds; and gradually the secular thought of New England grew to be +coincident with that of the other colonies. + +Throughout America the institutions favored individuality. No privileged +class existed among the whites. Under the careless rule of Great Britain +habits of personal liberty had taken root, which showed themselves in the +tenacity wherewith the people clung to their customs of self-government; +and so long as these usages were respected, under which they had always +lived, and which they believed to be as well established as Magna Charta, +there were not in all the king's broad dominions more loyal subjects than +men like Washington, Jefferson, and Jay. + +The generation now living can read the history of the Revolution +dispassionately, and to them it is growing clear that our ancestors were +technically in the wrong. For centuries Parliament has been theoretically +absolute; therefore it might constitutionally tax the colonies, or do +whatsoever else with them it pleased. Practically, however, it is self- +evident that the most perfect despotism must be limited by the extent to +which subjects will obey, and this is a matter of habit; rebellions, +therefore, are usually caused by the conservative instinct, represented by +the will of the sovereign, attempting to enforce obedience to customs +which a people have outgrown. + +In 1776, though the Middle Ages had passed, their traditions still +prevailed in Europe, and probably the antagonism between this survival of +a dead civilization and the modern democracy of America was too deep for +any arbitrament save trial by battle. Identically the same dispute had +arisen in England the century before, when the commons rebelled against +the prerogatives of the crown, and Cromwell fought like Washington, in the +cause of individual emancipation; but the movement in Great Britain was +too radical for the age, and was followed by a reaction whose force was +not spent when George III. came to the throne. + +Precedent is only inflexible among stationary races, and advancing nations +glory in their capacity for change; hence it is precisely those who have +led revolt successfully who have won the brightest fame. If, therefore, it +be admitted that they should rank among mankind's noblest benefactors, who +have risked their lives to win the freedom we enjoy, and which seems +destined to endure, there are few to whom posterity owes a deeper debt +than to our early statesmen; nor, judging their handiwork by the test of +time, have many lived who in genius have surpassed them. In the fourth +article of their Declaration of Rights, the Continental Congress resolved +that the colonists "are entitled to a free and exclusive power of +legislation in their several provincial legislatures, ... in all cases of +taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their +sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, +... we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of Parliament as +are, _bona fide_, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce." + +In 1778 a statute was passed, of which an English jurist wrote in 1885: +"One act, indeed, of the British Parliament might, looked at in the light +of history, claim a peculiar sanctity. It is certainly an enactment of +which the terms, we may safely predict, will never be repealed and the +spirit never be violated.... It provides that Parliament' will not impose +any duty, tax or assessment whatever, payable in any of his majesty's +colonies ... except only such duties as it may be expedient to impose for +the regulation of commerce.'" [Footnote: _The Law of the Constitution_, +Dicey, p. 62.] + +Thus is the memory of their grievance held sacred by the descendants of +their adversaries after the lapse of a century, and the local self- +government for which they pleaded has become the immutable policy of the +empire. The principles they laid down have been equally enduring, for they +proclaimed the equality of men before the law, the corner-stone of modern +civilization, and the Constitution they wrote still remains the +fundamental charter of the liberties of the republic of the United States. + +Nevertheless it remains true that secular liberalism alone could never +have produced the peculiarly acrimonious hostility to Great Britain +wherein Massachusetts stood preeminent, whose causes, if traced, will be +found imbedded at the very foundation of her social organization, and to +have been steadily in action ever since the settlement. Too little study +is given to ecclesiastical history, for probably nothing throws so much +light on certain phases of development; and particularly in the case of +this Commonwealth the impulses which moulded her destiny cannot be +understood unless the events that stimulated the passions of her clergy +are steadily kept in view. + +The early aggrandizement of her priests has been described; the inevitable +conflict with the law into which their ambition plunged them, and the +overthrow of the theocracy which resulted therefrom, have been related; +but the causes that kept alive the old exasperation with England +throughout the eighteenth century have not yet been told. + +The influence of men like Leverett and Colman tended to broaden the +church, but necessarily the process was slow; and there is no lack of +evidence that the majority of the ministers had little relish for the +toleration forced upon them by the second charter. It is not surprising, +therefore, to find the sectaries soon again driven to invoke the +protection of the king. + +Though doubtless some monastic orders have been vowed to poverty, it will +probably be generally conceded that a life of privation has not found +favor with divines as a class; and one of the earliest acts of the +provincial legislature bid each town choose an able and orthodox minister +to dispense the Word of God, who should be "suitably encouraged" by an +assessment on all inhabitants without distinction. This was for many years +a bitter grievance to the dissenting minority; but there was worse to +come; for sometimes the majority were heterodox, when pastors were elected +who gave great scandal to their evangelical brethren. Therefore, for the +prevention of "atheism, irreligion and prophaness," [Footnote: _Province +Laws_, 1715, c. 17.] it was enacted in 1775 that the justices of the +county should report any town without an orthodox minister, and thereupon +the General Court should settle a candidate recommended to them by the +ordained elders, and levy a special tax for his support. Nor could men +animated by the fervent piety which raised the Mathers to eminence in +their profession be expected to sit by tamely while blasphemers not only +worshipped openly, but refused to contribute to their incomes. + +"We expect no other but Satan will show his rage against us for our +endeavors to lessen his kingdom of darkness. He hath grievously afflicted +me (by God's permission) by infatuating or bewitching three or four who +live in a corner of my parish with Quaker notions, [who] now hold a +separate meeting by themselves." [Footnote: Rev. S. Danforth, 1720. +_Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, i.] + +The heretics, on their side, were filled with the same stubborn spirit +which had caused them "obstinately and proudly" to "persecute" Norton and +Endicott in earlier days. In 1722 godly preachers were settled at +Dartmouth and Tiverton, under the act, the majority of whose people were +Quakers and Baptists; and the Friends tell their own story in a petition +they presented to the crown in 1724: "That the said Joseph Anthony and +John Siffon were appointed assessors of the taxes for the said town of +Tiverton, and the said John Akin and said Philip Tabor for the town of +Dartmouth, but some of the said assessors being of the people called +Quakers, and others of them also dissenting from the Presbyterians and +Independents, and greatest part of the inhabitants of the said towns being +also Quakers or Anabaptists ... the said assessors duly assessed the other +taxes ... relating to the support of government ... yet they could not in +conscience assess any of the inhabitants of the said towns anything for or +towards the maintenance of any ministers. + +"That the said Joseph Anthony, John Siffon, John Akin and Philip Tabor, +(on pretence of their non-compliance with the said law) were on the 25th +of the month called May, 1723, committed to the jail aforesaid, where they +still continue prisoners under great sufferings and hardships both to +themselves and families, and where they must remain and die, if not +relieved by the king's royal clemancy and favour." [Footnote: Gough's +_Quakers_, iv. 222, 223.] + +A hearing was had upon this petition before the Privy Council, and in +June, 1724, an order was made directing the remission of the special taxes +and the release of the prisoners, who were accordingly liberated in +obedience thereto, after they had been incarcerated for thirteen months. + +The blow was felt to be so severe that the convention of ministers the +next May decided to convene a synod, and Dr. Cotton Mather was appointed +to draw up a petition to the legislature. + +"Considering the great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the +growth of many miscarriages, which we fear may have provoked the glorious +Lord in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress us.... It is +humbly desired that ... the ... churches ... meet by their pastors ... in +a synod, and from thence offer their advice upon.... What are the +miscarriages whereof we have reason to think the judgments of heaven, upon +us, call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the most +evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop unto those or the like +miscarriages." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ 3d ed. ii. 292, note.] + +The "evangelical expedient" was of course to revive the Cambridge +Platform; nor was such a scheme manifestly impossible, for the council +voted "that the synod ... will be agreeable to this board, and the +reverend ministers are desired to take their own time, for the said +assembly; and it is earnestly wished the issue thereof may be a happy +reformation." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Opinions_, i. 8.] In the house +of representatives this resolution was read and referred to the next +session. + +Meanwhile the Episcopalian clergymen of Boston, in much alarm, presented a +memorial to the General Court, remonstrating against the proposed measure; +but the council resolved "it contained an indecent reflection on the +proceedings of that board," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] and dismissed +it. Nothing discouraged, the remonstrants applied for protection to the +Bishop of London, who brought the matter to the attention of the law +officers of the crown. In their opinion to call a synod would be "a +contempt of his majesty's prerogative," and if "notwithstanding, ... they +shall continue to hold their assembly, ... the principal actors therein +[should] be prosecuted ... for a misdemeanour." [Footnote: Chalmers's +_Opinions_, p. 13.] + +Steadily and surely the coil was tightening which was destined to strangle +the established church of Massachusetts; but the resistance of the +ministers was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to the +outbreak of the Revolution. They believed it would be impossible for them +to remain a dominant priesthood if Episcopalianism, supported by the +patronage of the crown, should be allowed to take root in the land; yet +the Episcopalians represented conservatism, therefore they were forced to +become radicals, and the liberalism they taught was fated to destroy their +power. + +Meanwhile their sacred vineyard lay open to attack upon every side. At +Boston the royal governors went to King's Chapel and encouraged the use of +the liturgy, while an inroad was made into Connecticut from New York. +Early in the century a certain Colonel Heathcote organized a regular +system of invasion. He was a man eminently fitted for the task, being +filled with zeal for the conversion of dissenters. "I have the charity to +believe that, after having heard one of our ministers preach, they will +not look upon our church to be such a monster as she is represented; and +being convinced of some of the cheats, many of them may duly consider of +the sin of schism." [Footnote: Conn. _Church Documents_, i. 12.] + +"They have abundance of odd kind of laws, to prevent any dissenting ... +and endeavour to keep the people in as much blindness and unacquaintedness +with any other religion as possible, but in a more particular manner the +church, looking upon her as the most dangerous enemy they have to grapple +withal, and abundance of pains is taken to make the ignorant think as bad +as possible of her; and I really believe that more than half the people in +that government think our church to be little better than the Papist, and +they fail not to improve every little thing against us." [Footnote: Conn. +_Church Documents_, i. 9.] + +He had little liking for the elders, whom he described as being "as +absolute in their respective parishes as the Pope of Rome;" but he felt +kindly toward "the passive, obedient people, who dare not do otherwise +than obey." [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 10.] He explained the details of +his plan in his letters, and though he was aware of the difficulties, he +did not despair, his chief anxiety being to get a suitable missionary. He +finally chose the Rev. Mr. Muirson, and in 1706 began a series of +proselytizing tours. Nevertheless, the clergyman was wroth at the +treatment he received. + + * * * * * + +HONOR'D SIR, I entreat your acceptance of my most humble and hearty thanks +for the kind and Christian advice you were pleased to tender me in +relation to Connecticut.... I know that meekness and moderation is most +agreeable to the mind of our blessed Saviour, Christ, who himself was meek +and lowly, and would have all his followers to learn that lesson of +him.... I have duly considered all these things, and have carried myself +civilly and kindly to the Independent party, but they have ungratefully +resented my love; yet I will further consider the obligations that my holy +religion lays upon me, to forgive injuries and wrongs, and to return good +for their evil.... I desired only a liberty of conscience might be allowed +to the members of the National Church of England; which, notwithstanding, +they seemed unwilling to grant, and left no means untried, both foul and +fair, to prevent the settling the church among them; for one of their +justices came to my lodging and forewarned me, at my peril, from +preaching, telling me that I did an illegal thing in bringing in new ways +among them; the people were likewise threatened with prison, and a +forfeiture of L5 for coming to hear me. It will require more time than you +will willingly bestow on these lines to express how rigidly and severely +they treat our people, by taking their estates by distress, when they do +not willingly pay to support their ministers.... They tell our people that +they will not suffer the house of God to be defiled with idolatrous +worship and superstitious ceremonies.... They say the sign of the cross is +the mark of the beast and the sign of the devil, and that those who +receive it are given to the devil.... + +Honored sir, your most assured friend, ... + +GEO. MUIRSON. +RYE, _9th January_, 1707-8. [Footnote: _Conn. Church Documents_, i. 29.] + + * * * * * + +However, in spite of his difficulties, he was able to boast that "I have +... in one town, ... baptized about 32, young and old, and administered +the Holy Sacrament to 18, who never received it before. Each time I had a +numerous congregation." [Footnote: _Conn. Church Documents_, i. 23.] + +The foregoing correspondence was with the secretary of the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel, which had been incorporated in 1701, and had +presently afterward appointed Colonel Heathcote as their agent. They could +have chosen no more energetic representative, nor was it long before his +exertions began to bear fruit. In 1707 nineteen inhabitants of Stratford +sent a memorial to the Bishop of London, the forerunner of many to come. +"Because by reason of the said laws we are not able to support a minister, +we further pray your lordship may be pleased to send one over with a +missionary allowance from the honourable corporation, invested with full +power, so as that he may preach and we hear the blessed Gospel of Jesus +Christ, without molestation and terror." [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 34.] + +The Anglican prelates conceived it to be their duty to meddle with the +religious concerns of New England; therefore, by means of the organization +of the venerable society, they proceeded to plant a number of missions +throughout the country, whose missionaries were paid from the corporate +funds. Whatever opinion may be formed of the wisdom of a policy certain to +exasperate deeply so powerful and so revengeful a class as the +Congregational elders, there can be no doubt the Episcopalians achieved a +measure of success, in the last degree alarming, not only among the laity, +but among the clergy themselves. Mr. Reed, pastor of Stratford, was the +first to go over, and was of course deprived of his parish; his defection +was followed in 1722 by that of the rector of Yale and six other +ministers; and the Rev. Joseph Webb, who thought the end was near, wrote +in deep affliction to break the news to his friends in Boston. + + * * * * * + +FAIRFIELD, _Oct._ 2, 1722. + +REVEREND AND HONOURED SIR, The occasion of my now giving you the trouble +of these few lines is to me, and I presume to many others, melancholy +enough. You have perhaps heard before now, or will hear before these come +to hand, (I suppose) of the revolt of several persons of figure among us +unto the Church of England. There's the Rev. Mr. Cutler, rector of our +college, and Mr. Daniel Brown, the tutor thereof. There are also of +ordained ministers, pastors of several churches among us, the Rev. +Messieurs following, viz. John Hart of East Guilford, Samuel Whittlesey of +Wallingford, Jared Eliot of Kennelworth, ... Samuel Johnson of West-Haven, +and James Wetmore of North-Haven. They are the most of them reputed men of +considerable learning, and all of them of a virtuous and blameless +conversation. I apprehend the axe is hereby laid to the root of our civil +and sacred enjoyments; and a doleful gap opened for trouble and confusion +in our churches.... It is a very dark day with us; and we need pity, +prayers and counsel. [Footnote: Rev. Joseph Webb to Dr. C. Mather. +_Mass. Hist. Coll._ second series, ii. 131.] + + * * * * * + +From the tone in which these tidings were received it is plain that the +charity and humility of the golden age of Massachusetts were not yet +altogether extinct among her ecclesiastics. The ministers published their +"sentiments" in a document beginning as follows:-- + +"These new Episcopalians have declared their desire to introduce an +usurpation and a superstition into the church of God, clearly condemned in +the sacred Scriptures, which our loyalty and chastity to our Saviour, +obliges us to keep close unto; and a tyranny, from which the whole church, +which desires to be reformed, has groaned that it may be delivered.... The +scandalous conjunction of these unhappy men with the Papists is, perhaps, +more than what they have themselves duly considered." [Footnote: The +Sentiments of the Several Ministers in Boston. _Mass. Hist. Coll._ +second series, ii. 133.] In "A Faithful Relation" of what had happened it +was observed: "It has caused some indignation in them," (the people) "to +see the vile indignity cast by these cudweeds upon those excellent +servants of God, who were the leaders of the flock that followed our +Saviour into this wilderness: and upon the ministry of them, and their +successours, in which there has been seen for more than forescore years +together, the power and blessing of God for the salvation of many +thousands in the successive generations; with a success beyond what any of +them which set such an high value on the Episcopal ordination could ever +boast of!... It is a sensible addition, unto their horrour, to see the +horrid character of more than one or two, who have got themselves +qualified with Episcopal ordination, ... and come over as missionaries, +perhaps to serve scarce twenty families of such people, in a town of +several hundred families of Christians, better instructed than the very +missionaries: to think, that they must have no other ministers, but such +as are ordained, and ordered by them, who have sent over such tippling +sots unto them: instead of those pious and painful and faithful +instructors which they are now blessed withal!" [Footnote: "A Faithful +Relation of a Late Occurrence." _Mass. Hist. Coll._ second series, ii. +138, 139.] + +Only three of the converts had the fortitude to withstand the pressure to +which they were exposed: Cutler, Johnson, and Brown went to England for +ordination; there Brown died of small-pox, but Cutler returned to Boston +as a missionary, and as he, too, possessed a certain clerical aptitude for +forcible expression, it is fitting he should relate his own experiences:-- + +"I find that, in spite of malice and the basest arts our godly enemies can +easily stoop to, that the interest of the church grows and penetrates into +the very heart of this country.... This great town swarms with them +"(churchmen)," and we are so confident of our power and interest that, out +of four Parliament-men which this town sends to our General Assembly, the +church intends to put up for two, though I am not very sanguine about our +success in it.... My church grows faster than I expected, and, while it +doth so, I will not be mortified by all the lies and affronts they pelt me +with. My greatest difficulty ariseth from another quarter, and is owing to +the covetous and malicious spirit of a clergyman in this town, who, in +lying and villany, is a perfect overmatch for any dissenter that I know; +and, after all the odium that he contracted heretofore among them, is +fully reconciled and endeared to them by his falsehood to the church." +[Footnote: Dr. Timothy Cutler to Dr. Zachary Grey, April 2, 1725, Perry's +_Collection_, iii. 663.] + +Time did not tend to pacify the feud. There was no bishop in America, and +candidates had to be sent to England for ordination; nor without such an +official was it found possible to enforce due discipline; hence the +anxiety of Dr. Johnson, and, indeed, of all the Episcopalian clergy, to +have one appointed for the colonies was not unreasonable. Nevertheless, +the opposition they met with was acrimonious in the extreme, so much so as +to make them hostile to the charters themselves, which they thought +sheltered their adversaries. + +"The king, by his instructions to our governor, demands a salary; and if +he punishes our obstinacy by vacating our charter, I shall think it an +eminent blessing of his illustrious reign." [Footnote: Dr. Cutler to Dr. +Grey, April 20, 1731. Perry's _Coll._ iii.] + +Whitefield came in 1740, and the tumult of the great revival roused fresh +animosities. + +"When Mr. Whitefield first arrived here the whole town was alarmed.... The +conventicles were crowded; but he chose rather our Common, where +multitudes might see him in all his awful postures; besides that, in one +crowded conventicle, before he came in, six were killed in a fright. The +fellow treated the most venerable with an air of superiority. But he +forever lashed and anathematized the Church of England; and that was +enough. + +"After him came one Tennent, a monster! impudent and noisy, and told them +all they were damn'd, damn'd, damn'd! This charmed them, and in the most +dreadful winter that i ever saw, people wallowed in the snow night and day +for the benefit of his beastly brayings; and many ended their days under +these fatigues. Both of them carried more money out of these parts than +the poor could be thankful for." [Footnote: Dr. Cutler to Dr. Grey, Sept. +24, 1743. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 676.] + +The excitement was followed by its natural reaction conversions became +numerous, and the unevangelical temper this bred between the rival +clergymen is painfully apparent in a correspondence wherein Dr. Johnson +became involved. Mr. Gold, the Congregationalist minister of Stratford, +whom he called a dissenter, had said of him "that he was a thief, and +robber of churches, and had no business in the place; that his church +doors stood open to all mischief and wickedness, and other words of like +import." He therefore wrote to defend himself: "As to my having no +business here, I will only say that to me it appears most evident that I +have as much business here at least as you have,--being appointed by a +society in England incorporated by royal charter to provide ministers for +the church people in America; nor does his majesty allow of any +establishment here, exclusive of the church, much less of anything that +should preclude the society he has incorporated from providing and sending +ministers to the church people in these countries." [Footnote: _Life of +Dr. Samuel Johnson_, p. 108.] To which Mr. Gold replied:-- + + * * * * * + +As for the pleas which you make for Col. Lewis, and others that have broke +away disorderly from our church, I think there's neither weight nor truth +in them; nor do I believe such poor shifts will stand them nor you in any +stead in the awful day of account; and as for your saying that as bad as +you are yet you lie open to conviction,--for my part I find no reason to +think you do, seeing you are so free and full in denying plain matters of +fact.... I don't think it worth my while to say anything further in the +affair, and as you began the controversy against rule or justice, so I +hope modesty will induce you to desist; and do assure you that if you see +cause to make any more replies, my purpose is, without reading of them, to +put them under the pot among my other thorns and there let one flame +quench the matter.... HEZ. GOLD. + +STRATFORD, _July_ 21, 1741. [Footnote: _Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson,_ +p. 111.] + + * * * * * + +And so by an obvious sequence of cause and effect it came to pass that the +clergy were early ripe for rebellion, and only awaited their opportunity. +Nor could it have been otherwise. An autocratic priesthood had seen their +order stripped of its privileges one by one, until nothing remained but +their moral empire over their parishioners, and then at last not only did +an association of rival ecclesiastics send over emissaries to steal away +their people, but they proposed to establish a bishop in the land. The +thought was wormwood. He would be rich, he would live in a palace, he +would be supported by the patronage and pomp of the royal governors; the +imposing ceremonial would become fashionable; and in imagination they +already saw themselves reduced to the humble position of dissenters in +their own kingdom. Jonathan Mayhew was called a heretic by his more +conservative brethren, but he was one of the ablest and the most acrid of +the Boston ministers. He took little pains to disguise his feelings, and +so early as 1750 he preached a sermon, which was once famous, wherein he +told his hearers that it was their duty to oppose the encroachment of the +British prelates, if necessary, by force. + +"Suppose, then, it was allowed, in general, that the clergy were a useful +order of men; that they ought to be esteemed very highly in love for their +work's sake, and to be decently supported by those they serve, 'the +laborer being worthy of his reward.' Suppose, further, that a number of +reverend and right reverend drones, who worked not; who preached, perhaps, +but once a year, and then not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the divine +right of tithes, the dignity of their office as ambassadors of Christ, ... +suppose such men as these, spending their lives in effeminacy, luxury, and +idleness; ... suppose this should be the case, ... would not everybody be +astonished at such insolence, injustice, and impiety?" [Footnote: +"Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission," Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton's +_American Pulpit_, pp. 71, 72.] "Civil tyranny is usually small in its +beginning, like 'the drop of a bucket,' till at length, like a mighty +torrent... it bears down all before it.... Thus it is as to ecclesiastical +tyranny also--the most cruel, intolerable, and impious of any. From small +beginnings, 'it exalts itself above all that is called God and that is +worshipped.' People have no security against being unmercifully priest- +ridden but by keeping all imperious bishops, and other clergymen who love +to 'lord it over God's heritage,' from getting their foot into the stirrup +at all.... For which reason it becomes every friend to truth and human +kind, every lover of God and the Christian religion, to bear a part in +opposing this hateful monster." [Footnote: Preface to "A Discourse +concerning Unlimited Submission," Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton's _Amer. +Pulpit_, pp. 50, 51.] + +Between these envenomed priests peace was impossible; each year brought +with it some new aggression which added fuel to the flame. In 1763, Mr. +Apthorp, missionary at Cambridge, published a pamphlet, in answer, as he +explained, to "some anonymous libels which appeared in our newspapers ... +grossly reflecting on the society & their missionaries, & in particular on +the mission at Cambridge." [Footnote: East Apthorp to the Secretary, June +25, 1763. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 500.] + +By this time the passions of the Congregationalist divines had reached a +point when words seemed hardly adequate to give them expression. The Rev. +Ezra Stiles wrote to Dr. Mayhew in these terms:-- + +"Shall we be hushed into silence, by those whose tender mercies are +cruelty; and who, notwithstanding their pretence of moderation, wish the +subversion of our churches, and are combined, in united, steady and +vigorous effort, by all the arts of subtlety and intreague, for our ruin?" +[Footnote: Dr. Ezra Stiles to Dr. Mayhew, 1763. _Life of Mayhew_, p. 246.] + +Mr. Stiles need have felt no anxiety, for, according to Mr. Apthorp, "this +occasion was greedily seized, ... by a dissenting minister of Boston, a +man of a singular character, of good abilities, but of a turbulent & +contentious disposition, at variance, not only with the Church of England, +but in the essential doctrines of religion, with most of his own party." +[Footnote: East Apthorp to the Secretary. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 500.] +He alluded to a tract written by Dr. Mayhew in answer to his pamphlet, in +which he reproduced the charge made by Mr. Stiles: "The society have long +had a formal design to dissolve and root out all our New-England churches; +or, in other words, to reduce them all to the Episcopal form." [Footnote: +_Observations on the Charter, etc. of the Society_, p. 107.] And +withal he clothed his thoughts in language which angered Mr. Caner:-- + +"A few days after, Mr. Apthorpe published the enclosed pamphlet, in +vindication of the institution and conduct of the society, which +occasioned the ungenteel reflections which your grace will find in Dr. +Mayhew's pamphlet, in which, not content with the personal abuse of Mr. +Apthorpe, he has insulted the missions in general, the society, the Church +of England, in short, the whole rational establishment, in so dirty a +manner, that it seems to be below the character of a gentleman to enter +into controversy with him. In most of his sermons, of which he published a +great number, he introduces some malicious invectives against the society +or the Church of England, and if at any time the most candid and gentle +remarks are made upon such abuse, he breaks forth into such bitter and +scurrilous personal reflections, that in truth no one cares to have +anything to do with him. His doctrinal principles, which seem chiefly +copied from Lord Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, &c., are so offensive to the +generalty of the dissenting ministers, that they refuse to admit him a +member of their association, yet they appear to be pleased with his +abusing the Church of England." [Footnote: Rev. Mr. Caner to the +Archbishop of Canterbury, June 8, 1763. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 497, +498.] + +The Archbishop of Canterbury himself now interfered, and tried to calm the +tumult by a candid and dignified reply to Dr. Mayhew, in which he labored +to show the harmlessness of the proposed bishopric. + +"Therefore it is desired, that two or more bishops may be appointed for +them, to reside where his majesty shall think most convenient [not in New +England, but in one of the Episcopalian colonies]; that they may have no +concern in the least with any person who do not profess themselves to be +of the Church of England, but may ordain ministers for such as do; ... and +take such oversight of the Episcopal clergy, as the Bishop of London's +commissaries in those parts have been empowered to take, and have taken, +without offence. But it is not desired in the least that they should hold +courts ... or be vested with any authority, now exercised either by +provincial governors or subordinate magistrates, or infringe or diminish +any privileges and liberties enjoyed by any of the laity, even of our own +communion." [Footnote: _An Answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations_, etc. +Dr. Secker, p. 51.] + +But the archbishop should have known that the passions of rival +ecclesiastics are not to be allayed. The Episcopalians had become so +exasperated as to want nothing less than the overthrow of popular +government. Dr. Johnson wrote in 1763: "Is there then nothing more that +can be done either for obtaining bishops or demolishing these pernicious +charter governments, and reducing them all to one form in immediate +dependence on the king? I cannot help calling them pernicious, for they +are indeed so as well for the best good of the people themselves as for +the interests of true religion." [Footnote: _Life of Samuel Johnson_, +p. 279.] + +The Congregationalists, on the other hand, inflamed with jealousy, were +ripe for rebellion. On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act became law, and the +clergy threw themselves into the combat with characteristic violence. +Oliver had been appointed distributor, but his house was attacked and he +was forced to resign. The next evening but one the rabble visited +Hutchinson, who was lieutenant-governor, and broke his windows; and there +was general fear of further rioting. In the midst of this crisis., on the +25th of August, Dr. Mayhew preached a sermon in the West Meeting-house +from the text, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." +[Footnote: _Galatians_ v. 12.] I That this discourse was in fact an +incendiary harangue is demonstrated by what followed. At nightfall on the +26th a fierce mob forced the cellars of the comptroller of the customs, +and got drunk on the spirits stored within; then they went on to +Hutchinson's dwelling: "The doors were immediately split to pieces with +broad axes, and a way made there, and at the windows, for the entry of the +mob; which poured in, and filled, in an instant, every room.... They +continued their possession until daylight; destroyed ... everything ... +except the walls, ... and had begun to break away the brick-work." +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ iii. 124.] His irreplaceable collection of +original papers was thrown into the street; and when a bystander +interfered in the hope of saving some of them, "answer was made, that it +had been resolved to destroy everything in the house; and such resolve +should be carried to effect." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 125, note.] Malice so +bitter bears the peculiar ecclesiastical tinge, and is explained by the +confession of one of the ring-leaders, who, when subsequently arrested, +said he had been excited by the sermon, "and that he thought he was doing +God service." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 123.] + +The outbreak met with general condemnation, and Dr. Mayhew, who saw he had +gone too far, tried to excuse himself:-- + +"SIR,--I take the freedom to write you a few lines, by way of condolence, +on account of the almost unparalleled outrages committed at your house +last evening; and the great damage which I understand you have suffered +thereby. God is my witness, that, from the bottom of my heart, I detest +these proceedings; that I am most sincerely grieved at them, and have a +deep sympathy with you and your distressed family on this occasion." +[Footnote: Mayhew to Hutchinson. _Life of Mayhew_, p. 420.] + +Nevertheless, the repeal of the Stamp Act, which pacified the laity, left +the clergy as hot as ever; and so early as 1768, when no one outside of +the inmost ecclesiastical circle yet dreamed of independence, but when the +Rev. Andrew Eliot thought the erection of the bishopric was near, he +frankly told Hollis he anticipated war. + +"You will see by this pamphlet, how we are cajoled. A colony bishop is to +be a more innocent creature than ever a bishop was, since diocesan bishops +were introduced to lord it over God's heritage. ... Can the A-b-p, and his +tools, think to impose on the colonists by these artful +representations.... The people of New England are greatly alarmed; the +arrival of a bishop would raise them as much as any one thing.... Our +General Court is now sitting. I have hinted to some of the members, that +it will be proper for them to express their fears of the setting up an +hierarchy here. I am well assured a motion will be made to this +purpose.... I may be mistaken, but I am persuaded the dispute between +Great Britain and her colonies will never be _amicably_ settled.... I +sent you a few hasty remarks on the A-b-p's sermon. ... I am more and more +convinced of the meanness, art--if he was not in so high a station, I +should say, falsehood--of that Arch-Pr-l-te." [Footnote: Thomas Seeker. +Andrew Eliot to Thomas Hollis, Jan. 5, 1768. _Mass. Hist. Coll._ +fourth series, iv. 422.] An established priesthood is naturally the +firmest support of despotism; but the course of events made that of +Massachusetts revolutionary. This was a social factor whose importance it +is hard to overestimate; for though the influence of the elders had much +declined during the eighteenth century, their political power was still +immense; and it is impossible to measure the degree in which the drift of +feeling toward independence would have been arrested had they been +thoroughly loyal. At all events, the evidence tends to show that it is +most improbable the first blood would have been shed in the streets of +Boston had it been the policy of Great Britain to conciliate the +Congregational Church; if, for example, the liberals had been forced to +meet the issue of taxation upon a statute designed to raise a revenue for +the maintenance of the evangelical clergy. How potent an ally King George +lost by incurring their hatred may be judged by the devotion of the +Episcopalian pastors, many of whom were of the same blood as their +Calvinistic brethren, often, like Cutler and Johnson, converts. They all +showed the same intensity of feeling; all were Tories, not one wavered; +and they boasted that they were long able to hold their parishioners in +check. + +In September, 1765, those of Connecticut wrote to the secretary, "although +the commotions and disaffection in this country are very great at present, +relative to what they call the imposition of stamp duties, yet ... the +people of the Church of England, in general, in this colony, as we hear, +... and those, in particular, under our respective charges, are of a +contrary temper and conduct; esteeming it nothing short of rebellion to +speak evil of dignities, and to avow opposition to this last act of +Parliament.... + +"We think it our incumbent duty to warn our hearers, in particular, of the +unreasonableness and wickedness of their taking the least part in any +tumult or opposition to his majesty's acts, and we have obvious reasons +for the fullest persuasion, that they will steadily behave themselves as +true and faithful subjects to his majesty's person and government." +[Footnote: _Conn. Church Doc._ ii. 81.] + +Even so late as April, 1775, Mr. Caner, at Boston, felt justified in +making a very similar report to the society: "Our clergy have in the midst +of these confusions behaved I think with remarkable prudence. None of them +have been hindered from exercising the duties of their office since Mr. +Peters, tho' many of them have been much threat'ned; and as their people +have for the most part remained firm and steadfast in their loyalty and +attachment to goverment, the clergy feel themselves supported by a +conscious satisfaction that their labors have not been in vain." +[Footnote: Perry's _Coll._ iii. 579.] + +Nor did they shrink because of danger from setting an example of passive +obedience to their congregations. The Rev. Dr. Beach graduated at Yale in +1721 and became the Congregational pastor of Newtown. He was afterward +converted, and during the war was forbidden to read the prayers for the +royal family; but he replied, "that he would do his duty, preach and pray +for the king, till the rebels cut out his tongue." [Footnote: _O'Callaghan +Documents_, iii. 1053, 8vo ed.] + +In estimating the energy of a social force, such as ecclesiasticism, the +indirect are often more striking than the direct manifestations of power, +and this is eminently true of Massachusetts; for, notwithstanding her +ministers had always been astute and indefatigable politicians, their +greatest triumphs were invariably won by some layman whose mind they had +moulded and whom they put forward as their champion. From John Winthrop, +who was the first, an almost unbroken line of these redoubtable partisans +stretched down to the Revolution, where it ended with him who is perhaps +the most celebrated of all. + +Samuel Adams has been called the last of the Puritans. He was indeed the +incarnation of those qualities which led to eminence under the theocracy. +A rigid Calvinist, reticent, cool, and brave, matchless in intrigue, and +tireless in purpose, his cause was always holy, and therefore sanctified +the means. + +Professor Hosmer thus describes him: "It was, however, as a manager of men +that Samuel Adams was greatest. Such a master of the methods by which a +town-meeting may be swayed, the world has never seen. On the best of terms +with the people, the shipyard men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as +the merchants and ministers, he knew precisely what springs to touch. He +was the prince of canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which his +father was the inventor.... As to his tact, was it ever surpassed?" +[Footnote: Hosmer's _Samuel Adams_, p. 363.] A bigot in religion, he +had the flexibility of a Jesuit; and though he abhorred Episcopalians, he +proposed that Mr. Duche should make the opening prayer for Congress, in +the hope of soothing the southern members. Strict in all ceremonial +observances, he was loose in money matters; yet even here he stood within +the pale, for Dr. Cotton Mather was looser, [Footnote: See Letter on +behalf of Dr. Cotton Mather to Sewall, _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth +series, ii. 122.] who was the most orthodox of divines. + +The clergy instinctively clave to him, and gave him their fullest +confidence. When there was any important work to do they went to him, and +he never failed them. On January 5, 1768, the Rev. Dr. Eliot told Hollis +he had suggested to some of the members of the legislature to remonstrate +against the bishops. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, iv. +422.] A week later the celebrated letter of instructions of the house +to the agent, De Berdt, was reported, which, was written by Adams; and it +is interesting to observe how, in the midst of a most vigorous protest on +the subject, he broke out: "We hope in God such an establishment will +never take place in America, and we desire you would strenuously oppose +it." [Footnote: _Mass. State Papers_, 1765-1775, p. 132.] + +The subtle but unmistakable flavor of ecclesiasticism pervades his whole +long agitation. He handled the newspapers with infinite skill, and the way +in which he used the toleration granted the Canadian Catholics after the +conquest, as a goad wherewith to inflame the dying Puritan fanaticism, was +worthy of St. Ignatius. He moved for the committee who reported the +resolutions of the town of Boston in 1772; his spirit inspired them, and +in these also the grievance of Episcopacy plays a large part. How strong +his prejudices were may be gathered from a few words: "We think therefore +that every design for establishing ... a bishop in this province, is a +design both against our civil and religious rights." [Footnote: _Votes +and Proceedings of Boston_, Nov. 20, 1772, p. 28.] + +The liberals, as loyal subjects of Great Britain, grieved over her policy +as the direst of misfortunes, which indeed they might be driven to resist, +but which they strove to modify. + +Washington wrote in 1774: "I am well satisfied, ... that it is the ardent +wish of the warmest advocates for liberty, that peace and tranquillity, +upon constitutional grounds, may be restored, and the horrors of civil +discord prevented." [Footnote: Washington to Mackenzie. _Washington's +Writings_, ii. 402.] Jefferson affirmed: "Before the commencement of +hostilities ... I never had heard a whisper of a disposition to separate +from Great Britain; and after that, its possibility was contemplated with +affliction by all." While John Adams solemnly declared: "For my own part, +there was not a moment during the Revolution, when I would not have given +everything I possessed for a restoration to the state of things before the +contest began, provided we could have had a sufficient security for its +continuance." [Footnote: Note of Sparks, _Washington's Writings_, ii. +501.] + +In such feelings Samuel Adams had no share. In each renewed aggression he +saw the error of his natural enemy, which brought ever nearer the +realization of the dream of independence he had inherited from the past; +for the same fierce passion burned within him that had made Endicott +mutilate his flag, and Leverett read his king's letter with his hat on; +and the guns of Lexington were music in his ears. + +He was not a lawyer, nor a statesman, in the true meaning of the word, but +he was a consummate agitator; and if this be remembered, his career +becomes clear. When he conceived the idea of the possibility of +independence is uncertain; probably soon after the passage of the Stamp +Act, but the evidence is strong that so early as 1768 he had deliberately +resolved to precipitate some catastrophe which would make reconciliation +impossible, and obviously an armed collision would have suited his purpose +best. + +Troops were then first ordered to Boston, and at one moment he was tempted +to cause their landing to be resisted. An old affidavit is still extant, +presumably truthful enough, which brings him vividly before the mind as he +went about the town lashing up the people. + +"Mr. Samuel Adams ... happened to join the same party ... trembling and in +great agitation.... The informant heard the said Samuel Adams then say ... +'If you are men, behave like men. Let us take up arms immediately, and be +free, and seize all the king's officers. We shall have thirty thousand men +to join us from the country.' ... And before the arrival of the troops ... +at the house of the informant ... the said Samuel Adams said: 'We will not +submit to any tax, nor become slaves.... The country was first settled by +our ancestors, therefore we are free and want no king.' ... The informant +further sayeth, that about a fortnight before the troops arrived, the +aforesaid Samuel Adams, being at the house of the informant, the informant +asked him what he thought of the times. The said Adams answered, with +great alertness, that, on lighting the beacon, we should be joined with +thirty thousand men from the country with their knapsacks and bayonets +fixed, and added, 'We will destroy every soldier that dare put his foot on +shore. His majesty has no right to send troops here to invade the country, +and I look upon them as foreign enemies!'" [Footnote: Wells's _Samuel +Adams_, i. 210, 211.] + +Maturer reflection must have convinced him his design was impracticable, +for he certainly abandoned it, and the two regiments disembarked in peace; +but their position was unfortunate. Together they were barely a thousand +strong, and were completely at the mercy of the populous and hostile +province they had been sent to awe. + +The temptation to a bold and unscrupulous revolutionary leader must have +been intense. Apparently it needed but a spark to cause an explosion; the +rabble of Boston could be fierce and dangerous when roused, as had been +proved by the sack of Hutchinson's house; and if the soldiers could be +goaded into firing on the citizens, the chances were they would be +annihilated in the rising which would follow, when a rupture would be +inevitable. But even supposing the militia abstained from participating in +the outbreak, and the tumult were suppressed, the indignation at the +slaughter would be deep enough to sustain him in making demands which the +government could not grant. + +Hutchinson and the English officers understood the danger, and for many +months the discipline was exemplary, but precautions were futile. Though +he knew full well how to be all things to all men, the natural +affiliations of Samuel Adams were with the clergy and the mob, and in the +ship-yards and rope-walks he reigned supreme. Nor was he of a temper to +shrink from using to the utmost the opportunity his adversaries had put in +his hands, and he forthwith began a series of inflammatory appeals in the +newspapers, whereof this is a specimen: "And are the inhabitants of this +town still to be affronted in the night as well as the day by soldiers +arm'd with muskets and fix'd bayonets?... Will the spirits of people, as +yet unsubdued by tyranny, unaw'd by the menaces of arbitary power, submit +to be govern'd by military force?" [Footnote: Vindex, _Boston Gazette_, +Dec. 5, 1768.] + +In 1770 it was notorious that "endeavors had been systematically pursued +for many months, by certain busy characters, to excite quarrels, +rencounters, and combats, single or compound, in the night, between the +inhabitants of the lower class and the soldiers, and at all risks to +enkindle an immortal hatred between them." [Footnote: Autobiography of +John Adams. _Works of J. Adams_, ii. 229.] And it is curious to +observe how the British always quarrelled with the laborers about the +wharves; and how these, the closest friends of Adams, were all imbued with +the theory he maintained, that the military could not use their weapons +without the order of a civil magistrate. Little by little the animosity +increased, until on the 2d of March there was a very serious fray at +Gray's rope-walk, which was begun by one of the hands, who knocked down +two soldiers who spoke to him in the street. Although Adams afterward +labored to convince the public that the tragedy which happened three days +later was the result of a deliberately matured conspiracy to murder the +citizens for revenge, there is nothing whereon to base such a charge; on +the contrary, the evidence tends to exonerate the troops, and the verdicts +show the opinion of the juries. There was exasperation on both sides, but +the rabble were not restrained by discipline, and on the night of the 5th +of March James Crawford swore he he saw at Calf's corner "about a dozen +with sticks, in Quaker Lane and Green's Lane, met many going toward King +Street. Very great sticks, pretty large cudgells, not common walking +canes.... At Swing bridge the people were walking from all quarters with +sticks. I was afraid to go home, ... the streets in such commotion as I +hardly ever saw in my life. Uncommon sticks such as a man would pull out +of an hedge.... Thomas Knight at his own door, 8 or 10 passed with sticks +or clubs and one of them said 'D--n their bloods, let us go and attack the +main guard first.'" [Footnote: Kidder's _Massacre_, p. 10.] The crown +witnesses testified that the sentry was surrounded by a crowd of thirty or +forty, who pelted him with pieces of ice "hard and large enough to hurt +any man; as big as one's fist." And ha said "he was afraid, if the boys +did not disperse, there would be trouble." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 138.] +When the guard came to his help the mob grew still more violent, yelling +"bloody backs," "lobster scoundrels," "damn you, fire! why don't you +fire?" striking them with sticks. + +"Did you observe anybody strike Montgomery, or was a club thrown? The +stroke came from a stick or club that was in somebody's hand, and the blow +struck his gun and his arm." "Was he knocked down?... He fell, I am +sure.... His gun flew out of hand, and as he stooped to take it up, he +fell himself.... Was any number of people standing near the man that +struck his gun? Yes, a whole crowd, fifty or sixty." [Footnote: Kidder's +_Massacre_, pp. 138, 139.] When the volley came at last the rabble +fell back, and the 29th was rapidly formed before the main guard, the +front rank kneeling, that the fire might sweep the street. And now when +every bell was tolling, and the town was called to arms, and infuriated +men came pouring in by thousands, Hutchinson showed he had inherited the +blood of his great ancestress, who feared little upon earth; but then, +indeed, their adversaries have seldom charged the Puritans with cowardice +in fight. Coming quickly to the council chamber he passed into the +balcony, which overhung the kneeling regiment and the armed and maddened +crowd, and he spoke with such calmness and courage that even then he was +obeyed. He promised that justice should be done and he commanded the +people to disperse. Preston and his men were at once surrendered to the +authorities to await their trial. + +The next day Adams was in his glory. The meeting in the morning was as wax +between his fingers, and his friend, the Rev. Dr. Cooper, opened it with +fervent prayer. A committee was at once appointed to demand the withdrawal +of the troops, but Hutchinson thought he had no power and that Gage alone +could give the order. Nevertheless, after a conference with Colonel +Dalrymple he was induced to propose that the 29th should be sent to the +Castle, and the 14th put under strict restraint. [Footnote: Kidder's +_Massacre_, p. 43.] To the daring agitator it seemed at last his hour +was come, for the whole people were behind him, and Hutchinson himself +says "their spirit" was "as high as was the spirit of their ancestors when +they imprisoned Andros." As the committee descended the steps of the State +House to go to the Old South where they were to report, the dense crowd +made way for them, and Samuel Adams as he walked bare-headed through their +lines continually bowed to right and left, repeating the catchword, "Both +regiments or none." His touch on human passions was unerring, for when the +lieutenant-governor's reply was read, the great assembly answered with a +mighty shout, "Both regiments or none," and so instructed he returned. +Then the nature of the man shone out; the handful of troops were helpless, +and he was as inflexible as steel. The thin, strong, determined, gray-eyed +Puritan stood before Hutchinson, inwardly exulting as he marked his +features change under the torture. "A multitude highly incensed now wait +the result of this application. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands +that both regiments be forthwith removed.... Fail not then at your peril +to comply with this requisition!" [Footnote: Hosmer's _Samuel Adams_, +p. 173.] It was the spirit of Norton and of Endicott alive again, and he +was flushed with the same stern triumph at the sight of his victim's pain: +"It was then, if fancy deceived me not, I observed his knees to tremble. I +thought I saw his face grow pale (and I enjoyed the sight)." [Footnote: +Adams to Warren. Wells's Samuel Adams, i. 324.] + +Probably nothing prevented a complete rupture but the hopeless weakness of +the garrison, for Hutchinson, feeling the decisive moment had come, was +full of fight. He saw that to yield would destroy his authority, and he +opposed concession, but he stood alone, the officers knew their position +was untenable, and the council was unanimous against him. "The Lt G. +endeavoured to convince them of the ill consequence of this advice, and +kept them until late in the evening, the people remaining assembled; but +the council were resolute. Their advice, therefore, he communicated to Col +Dalrymple accompanied with a declaration, that he had no authority to +order the removal of the troops. This part Col. D. was dissatisfied with, +and urged the Lt G. to withdraw it, but he refused, and the regiments were +removed. He was much distressed, but he brought it all upon himself by his +offer to remove one of the regiments. No censure, however, was passed upon +him." [Footnote: _Diary and Letters of T. Hutchinson_, p. 80.] + +Had the pacification of his country been the object near his heart, Samuel +Adams, after his victory, would have abstained from any act however +remotely tending to influence the course of justice; for he must have +known that it was only by such conduct the colonists could inspire respect +for the motives which actuated them in their resistance. A capital +sentence would have been doubly unfortunate, for had it been executed it +would have roused all England; while had the king pardoned the soldiers, +as assuredly he would have done, a deep feeling of wrong would have +rankled in America. + +A fanatical and revolutionary demagogue, on the other hand, would have +longed for a conviction, not only to compass his ends as a politician, but +to glut his hate as a zealot. + +Samuel Adams was a taciturn, secretive man, whose tortuous course would +have been hard to follow a century ago; now the attempt is hopeless. Yet +there is one inference it seems permissible to draw: his admirers have +always boasted that he was the inspiration of the town meetings, +presumably, therefore, the the votes passed at them may be attributed to +his manipulation. And starting from this point, with the help of +Hutchinson and his own writings, it is still possible to discern the +outlines of a policy well worthy of a theocratic statesman. + +The March meeting began on the 12th. On the 13th it was resolved:-- + +"That ---- be and they hereby are appointed a committee for and in behalf +of the town to find out who those persons are that were the perpetrators +of the horred murders and massacres done and committed in King Street on +several of the inhabitants in the evening of the 5th instant and take such +examinations and depositions as they can procure, and lay the whole +thereof before the grand inquest in order that such perpetrators may be +indicted and brought to tryal for the same, and upon indictments being +found, said committee are desired to prepare matters for the king's +attorney, to attend at their tryals in the superior court, subpoena all +the witnesses, and do everything necessary for bringing those murtherers +to that punishment for such crimes, as the laws of God and man require." +[Footnote: _Records of Boston_, v. 232.] + +A day or two afterward a number of Adams's friends, among whom were some +of the members of this committee, dined together, and Hutchinson tells +what he persuaded them to do. + +"The time for holding the superior court for the county of Suffolk was the +next week after the tragical action in King Street. Although bills were +found by the grand jury, yet the court, considering the disordered state +of the town, had thought fit to continue the trials over to the next term, +when the minds of people would be more free from prejudice." "A +considerable number of the most active persons in all publick measures of +the town, having dined together, went in a body from table to the superior +court then sitting, and Mr. Adams, at their head and in behalf of the +town, pressed the bringing on the trial the same term with so much spirit, +that the judges did not think it advisable to abide by their own order, +but appointed a day for the trials, and adjourned the court for that +purpose." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ iii. 285, 286 and note.] + +The justices must afterward have grown ashamed of their cowardice, for Rex +_v._ Preston did not come on until the autumn, and altogether very little +was accomplished by these attempts to interfere with the due +administration of the law. "A committee had been appointed by the town to +assist in the prosecution of the soldiers ... but this was irregular. The +courts, according to the practice in the province, required no prosecutors +but the officers of the crown; much less would they have thought it proper +for the principal town in the province to have brought all its weight, +which was very great, into court against the prisoners." [Footnote: +_Idem_, iii. 286, note.] + +Nevertheless, Adams had by no means exhausted his resources, for it was +possible so to inflame the public mind that dispassionate juries could +hardly be obtained. + +At the same March meeting another committee was named, who were to obtain +a "particular account of all proceedings relative to the massacre in King +Street on Monday night last, that a full and just representation may be +made thereof?" [Footnote: Kidder's _Massacre_, p. 23.] The reason +assigned for so unwonted a proceeding as the taking of _ex parte_ +testimony by a popular assembly concerning alleged murders, for which men +were to be presently tried for their lives, was the necessity for +controverting the aspersions of the British officials; but the probable +truth of this explanation must be judged by the course actually pursued. +On the 19th the report was made, consisting of "A Short Narrative of the +Horrid Massacre in Boston," together with a number of depositions; and +though perhaps it was natural, under the circumstances, for such a +pamphlet to have been highly partisan, it was unnatural for its authors to +have assumed the burden of proving that a deliberately planned conspiracy +had existed between the civilians and the military to murder the citizens; +especially as this tremendous charge rested upon no better foundation than +the fantastic falsehoods of "a French boy, whose evidence appeared to the +justice so improbable, and whose character was so infamous, that the +justice, who was one of the most zealous in the cause of liberty, refused +to issue a warrant to apprehend his master, against whom he swore." +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist_. iii. 279, 280.] "Then I went up to the +custom-house door and knocked, ... I saw my master and Mr. Munroe come +down-stairs, and go into a room; when four or five men went up stairs, +pulling and hauling me after them.... When I was carried into the chamber, +there was but one light in the room, and that in the corner of the +chamber, when I saw a tall man loading a gun (then I saw two guns in the +room) ... there was a number of gentlemen in the room. After the gun was +loaded, the tall man gave it to me, and told me to fire, and said he would +kill me if I did not; I told him I would not. He drawing a sword out of +his cane, told me, if I did not fire it, he would run it through my guts. +The man putting the gun out of the window, it being a little open, I fired +it side way up the street; the tall man then loaded the gun again.... I +told him I would not fire again; he told me again, he would run me through +the guts if I did not. Upon which I fired the same way up the street. +After I fired the second gun, I saw my master in the room; he took a gun +and pointed it out of the window; I heard the gun go off. Then a tall man +came and clapped me on the shoulders above and below stairs, and said, +that's my good boy, I'll give you some money to-morrow.... And I ran home +as fast as I could, and sat up all night in my master's kitchen. And +further say, that my master licked me the next night for telling Mrs. +Waldron about his firing out of the custom-house. And for fear that I +should be licked again, I did deny all that I said before Justice Quincy, +which I am very sorry for. [Footnote: Kidder's _Massacre_, p. 82. +Deposition 58.] + +"CHARLOTTE BOURGATE + (his mark)." + + * * * * * + +While it is inconceivable that a cool and sagacious politician, whose +object was to convince Parliament of the good faith of Massachusetts, +should have relied upon such incredible statements to sway the minds of +English statesmen and lawyers, it is equally inconceivable lie should not +have known they were admirably adapted to still further exasperate an +already excited people; and that such was his purpose must be inferred +from the immediate publication of the substance of this affidavit in the +newspapers. [Footnote: _Boston Gazette_, March 19, 1770.] + +Without doubt a vote was passed on the 26th of March, a week after the +committee had presented their report, desiring them to reserve all the +printed copies not sent to Europe, as their distribution might tend to +bias the juries; but even had this precaution been observed, it came too +late, for the damage was done when the Narrative was read in Faneuil Hall; +in fact, however, the order was eluded, for "many copies, notwithstanding, +got abroad, and some of a second edition were sent from England, long +before the trials of the officer and soldiers came on." [Footnote: Hutch. +_Hist._ iii. 279.] And at this cheap rate a reputation for magnanimity was +earned. + +How thoroughly the clergy sympathized with their champion appears from +their clamors for blood. As the time drew near it was rumored Hutchinson +would reprieve the prisoners, should they be convicted, till the king's +pleasure could be known. Then Dr. Chauncy, the senior minister of Boston, +cried out in his pulpit: "Surely he would not counteract the operation of +the law, both of God and of man! Surely he would not suffer the town and +land to lie under the defilement of blood! Surely he would not make +himself a partaker in the guilt of murder, by putting a stop to the +shedding of their blood, who have murderously spilt the blood of others!" +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ iii. 329, note.] Adams attended when the +causes were heard and took notes of the evidence; and one of the few +occasions in his long life on which his temper seems to have got beyond +control was when the accused were acquitted. His writings betray +unmistakable chagrin; and nothing is more typical of the man, or of the +clerical atmosphere wherein he had been bred, than his comments upon the +testimony on which the lives of his enemies hung. His piety caused him to +doubt those whose evidence was adverse to his wishes, though they appeared +to be trying to speak the truth. "The credibility of a witness perhaps +cannot be impeach'd in court, unless he has been convicted of perjury: but +an immoral man, for instance one who will commonly prophane the name of +his maker, certainly cannot be esteemed of equal credit by a jury, with +one who fears to take that sacred name in vain: It is impossible he should +in the mind of any man." [Footnote: _Boston Gazette_, Jan. 21, 1771.] + +And yet this rigid Calvinist, this incarnation of ecclesiasticism, had no +scruple in propagating the palpable and infamous lies of Charlotte +Bourgate, when by so doing he thought it possible to further his own ends. +He was bitterly mortified, for he had been foiled. Yet, though he had +failed in precipitating war, he had struck a telling blow, and he had no +reason to repine. Probably no single event, before fighting actually +began, left so deep a scar as the Boston massacre; and many years later +John Adams gave it as his deliberate opinion that, on the night of the 5th +of March, 1770, "the foundation of American independence was laid." Nor +was the full realization of his hopes long delayed. Gage occupied Boston +in 1774. During the winter the tireless agitator, from his place in the +Provincial Congress, warned the people to fight any force sent more than +ten miles from the town; and so when Paul Revere galloped through +Middlesex on the night of the 18th of April he found the farmers ready. +Samuel Adams had slept at the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark. Before +sunrise the detachment sent to seize him was close at hand. While they +advanced, he escaped; and as he walked across the fields toward Woburn, to +the sound of the guns of Lexington, he exclaimed, in a burst of passionate +triumph, "What a glorious morning is this!" + +Massachusetts became the hot-bed of rebellion because of this unwonted +alliance between liberality and sacerdotalism. Liberality was her +birthright; for liberalism is the offspring of intellectual variation, +which makes mutual toleration of opinion a necessity; but that her church +should have been radical at this crisis was due to the action of a long +chain of memorable causes. + +The exiles of the Reformation were enthusiasts, for none would then have +dared defy the pains of heresy, in whom the instinct onward was feebler +than the fear of death; yet when the wanderers reached America the mental +growth of the majority had culminated, and they had passed into the age of +routine; and exactly in proportion as their youthful inspiration had been +fervid was their later formalism intense. But similar causes acting on the +human mechanism produce like results; hence bigotry and ambition fed by +power led to persecution. Then, as the despotism of the preachers +deepened, their victims groaning in their dungeons, or furrowed by their +lash, implored the aid of England, who, in defence of freedom and of law, +crushed the theocracy at a blow. And the clergy knew and hated their enemy +from the earliest days; it was this bitter theological jealousy which +flamed within Endicott when he mutilated his flag, and within Leverett +when he insulted Randolph; it was a rapacious lust for power and a furious +detestation of rival priests which maddened the Mathers in their onslaught +upon Dudley, which burned undimmed in Mayhew and Cooper, and in their +champion, Samuel Adams, and which at last made the hierarchy cast in its +lot with an ally more dangerous far than those prelates whom it deemed its +foe. For no church can preach liberality and not be liberalized. Of a +truth the momentary spasm may pass which made these conservatives +progressive, and they may once more manifest their reactionary nature, +but, nevertheless, the impulsion shall have been given to that automatic, +yet resistless, machinery which produces innovation; wherefore, in the +next generation, the great liberal secession from the Congregational +communion broke the ecclesiastical power forever. And so, through toil and +suffering, through martyrdoms and war, the Puritans wrought out the +ancient destiny which fated them to wander as outcasts to the desolate New +England shore; there, amidst hardship and apparent failure, they slowly +achieved their civil and religious liberty, and conceived that +constitutional system which is the root of our national life; and there in +another century the liberal commonwealth they had builded led the battle +against the spread of human oppression; and when the war of slavery burst +forth her soldiers rightly were the first to fall; for it is her +children's heritage that, wheresoever on this continent blood shall flow +in defence of personal freedom, there must the sons of Massachusetts +surely be. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Emancipation of Massachusetts, by Brooks Adams + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS *** + +This file should be named 7mncm10.txt or 7mncm10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7mncm11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7mncm10a.txt + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Emancipation of Massachusetts + +Author: Brooks Adams + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6706] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 17, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS +THE DREAM AND THE REALITY + +BY +BROOKS ADAMS + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION. + + +I am under the deepest obligations to the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain and Mr. +Charles Deane. + +The generosity of my friend Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing in putting at my +disposal the unpublished results of his researches among the Zuñis is in +keeping with the originality and power of his mind. Without his aid my +attempt would have been impossible. I have also to thank Prof. Henry C. +Chapman, J. A. Gordon, M. D., Prof. William James, and Alpheus Hyatt, +Esq., for the kindness with which they assisted me. I feel that any merit +this volume may possess is due to these gentlemen; its faults are all my +own. + +BROOKS ADAMS. +QUINCY, _September_ 17, 1886. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PREFACE + +CHAPTER I. THE COMMONWEALTH + +CHAPTER II. THE ANTINOMIANS + +CHAPTER III. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM + +CHAPTER IV. THE ANABAPTISTS + +CHAPTER V. THE QUAKERS + +CHAPTER VI. THE SCIRE FACIAS + +CHAPTER VII. THE WITCHCRAFT + +CHAPTER VIII. BRATTLE CHURCH + +CHAPTER IX. HARVARD COLLEGE + +CHAPTER X. THE LAWYERS + +CHAPTER XL. THE REVOLUTION + + + + +PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + + +CHAPTER I + + +I wrote this little volume more than thirty years ago, since when I have +hardly opened it. Therefore I now read it almost as if it were written by +another man, and I find to my relief that, on the whole, I think rather +better of it than I did when I published it. Indeed, as a criticism of +what were then the accepted views of Massachusetts history, as expounded +by her most authoritative historians, I see nothing in it to retract or +even to modify. I do, however, somewhat regret the rather acrimonious tone +which I occasionally adopted when speaking of the more conservative +section of the clergy. Not that I think that the Mathers, for example, and +their like, did not deserve all, or, indeed, more than all I ever said or +thought of them, but because I conceive that equally effective strictures +might have been conveyed in urbaner language; and, as I age, I shrink from +anything akin to invective, even in what amounts to controversy. + +Therefore I have now nothing to alter in the _Emancipation of +Massachusetts_, viewed as history, though I might soften its asperities +somewhat, here and there; but when I come to consider it as philosophy, I +am startled to observe the gap which separates the present epoch from my +early middle life. + +The last generation was strongly Darwinian in the sense that it accepted, +almost as a tenet of religious faith, the theory that human civilization +is a progressive evolution, moving on the whole steadily toward +perfection, from a lower to a higher intellectual plane, and, as a +necessary part of its progress, developing a higher degree of mental +vigor. I need hardly observe that all belief in democracy as a final +solution of social ills, all confidence in education as a means to +attaining to universal justice, and all hope of approximating to the rule +of moral right in the administration of law, was held to hinge on this +great fundamental dogma, which, it followed, it was almost impious to +deny, or even to doubt. Thus, on the first page of my book, I observe, as +if it were axiomatic, that, at a given moment, toward the opening of the +sixteenth century, "Europe burst from her mediæval torpor into the +splendor of the Renaissance," and further on I assume, as an equally self- +evident axiom, that freedom of thought was the one great permanent advance +which western civilization made by all the agony and bloodshed of the +Reformation. Apart altogether from the fact that I should doubt whether, +in the year 1919, any intelligent and educated man would be inclined to +maintain that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were, as contrasted +with the nineteenth, ages of intellectual torpor, what startles me in +these paragraphs is the self-satisfied assumption of the finality of my +conclusions. I posit, as a fact not to be controverted, that our universe +is an expression of an universal law, which the nineteenth century had +discovered and could formulate. + +During the past thirty years I have given this subject my best attention, +and now I am so far from assenting to this proposition that my mind tends +in the opposite direction. Each day I live I am less able to withstand the +suspicion that the universe, far from being an expression of law +originating in a single primary cause, is a chaos which admits of reaching +no equilibrium, and with which man is doomed eternally and hopelessly to +contend. For human society, to deserve the name of civilization, must be +an embodiment of order, or must at least tend toward a social equilibrium. +I take, as an illustration of my meaning, the development of the domestic +relations of our race. + +I assume it to be generally admitted, that possibly man's first and +probably his greatest advance toward order--and, therefore, toward +civilization--was the creation of the family as the social nucleus. As +Napoleon said, when the lawyers were drafting his Civil Code, "Make the +family responsible to its head, and the head to me, and I will keep order +in France." And yet although our dependence on the family system has been +recognized in every age and in every land, there has been no restraint on +personal liberty which has been more resented, by both men and women +alike, than has been this bond which, when perfect, constrains one man and +one woman to live a joint life until death shall them part, for the +propagation, care, and defence of their children. + +The result is that no civilization has, as yet, ever succeeded, and none +promises in the immediate future to succeed, in enforcing this primary +obligation, and we are thus led to consider the cause, inherent in our +complex nature, which makes it impossible for us to establish an +equilibrium between mind and matter. A difficulty which never has been +even partially overcome, which wrecked the Roman Empire and the Christian +Church, which has wrecked all systems of law, and which has never been +more lucidly defined than by Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, +"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. +For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but +what I hate, that do I.... Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin +that dwelleth in me.... For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil +which I would not, that I do.... For I delight in the law of God after the +inward man: ... But I see another law in my members, warring against the +law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is +in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the +body of this death?" [Footnote: Romans vii, 14-24.] + +And so it has been since a time transcending the limits of imagination. +Here in a half-a-dozen sentences Saint Paul exposes the ceaseless conflict +between mind and matter, whose union, though seemingly the essence of +life, creates a condition which we cannot comprehend and to which we could +not hope to conform, even if we could comprehend it. In short, which +indicates chaos as being the probable core of an universe from which we +must evolve order, if ever we are to cope with violence, fraud, crime, +war, and general brutality. Wheresoever we turn the prospect is the same. +If we gaze upon the heavens we discern immeasurable spaces sprinkled with +globules of matter, to which our earth seems to be more or less akin, but +all plunging, apparently, both furiously and aimlessly, from out of an +infinite past to an equally immeasurable future. + +Whence this material mass comes, or what its wild flight portends, we +neither know nor could we, probably, comprehend even were its secret +divulged to us by a superior intelligence, always conceding that there be +such an intelligence, or any secret to disclose. These latter speculations +lie, however, beyond the scope of my present purpose. It suffices if +science permits me to postulate (a concession by science which I much +doubt if it could make) that matter, as we know it, has the semblance of +being what we call a substance, charged with a something which we define +as energy, but which at all events simulates a vital principle resembling +heat, seeking to escape into space, where it cools. Thus the stars, having +blazed until their vital principle is absorbed in space, sink into +relative torpor, or, as the astronomers say, die. The trees and plants +diffuse their energy in the infinite, and, at length, when nothing but a +shell remains, rot. Lastly, our fleshly bodies, when the union between +mind and matter is dissolved, crumble into dust. When the involuntary +partnership between mind and matter ceases through death, it is possible, +or at least conceivable, that the impalpable soul, admitting that such a +thing exists, may survive in some medium where it may be free from +material shackles, but, while life endures, the flesh has wants which must +be gratified, and which, therefore, take precedence of the yearnings of +the soul, just as Saint Paul points out was the case with himself; and +herein lies the inexorable conflict between the moral law and the law of +competition which favors the strong, and from whence comes all the +abominations of selfishness, of violence, of cruelty and crime. + +Approached thus, perhaps no historical fragment is more suggestive than +the exodus of the Jews from Egypt under Moses, who was the first great +optimist, nor one which is seldomer read with an eye to the contrast which +it discloses between Moses the law-giver, the idealist, the religious +prophet, and the visionary; and Moses the political adventurer and the +keen and unscrupulous man of the world. And yet it is here at the point at +which mind and matter clashed, that Moses merits most attention. For Moses +and the Mosaic civilization broke down at this point, which is, indeed, +the chasm which has engulfed every progressive civilization since the dawn +of time. And the value of the story as an illustration of scientific +history is its familiarity, for no Christian child lives who has not been +brought up on it. + +We have all forgotten when we first learned how the Jews came to migrate +to Egypt during the years of the famine, when Joseph had become the +minister of Pharaoh through his acuteness in reading dreams. Also how, +after their settlement in the land of Goshen,--which is the Egyptian +province lying at the end of the ancient caravan road, which Abraham +travelled, leading from Palestine to the banks of the Nile, and which had +been the trade route, or path of least resistance, between Asia and +Africa, probably for ages before the earliest of human traditions,--they +prospered exceedingly. But at length they fell into a species of bondage +which lasted several centuries, during which they multiplied so rapidly +that they finally raised in the Egyptian government a fear of their +domination. Nor, considering subsequent events, was this apprehension +unreasonable. At all events the Egyptian government is represented, as a +measure of self-protection, as proposing to kill male Jewish babies in +order to reduce the Jewish military strength; and it was precisely at this +juncture that Moses was born, Moses, indeed, escaped the fate which +menaced him, but only by a narrow chance, and he was nourished by his +mother in an atmosphere of hate which tinged his whole life, causing him +always to feel to the Egyptians as the slave feels to his master. After +birth the mother hid the child as long as possible, but when she could +conceal the infant no longer she platted a basket of reeds, smeared it +with pitch, and set it adrift in the Nile, where it was likely to be +found, leaving her eldest daughter, named Miriam, to watch over it. +Presently Pharaoh's daughter came, as was her habit, to the river to +bathe, as Moses's mother expected that she would, and there she noticed +the "ark" floating among the bulrushes. She had it brought her, and, +noticing Miriam, she caused the girl to engage her mother, whom Miriam +pointed out to her, as a nurse. Taking pity on the baby the kind-hearted +princess adopted it and brought it up as she would had it been her own, +and, as the child grew, she came to love the boy, and had him educated +with care, and this education must be kept in mind since the future of +Moses as a man turned upon it. For Moses was most peculiarly a creation of +his age and of his environment; if, indeed, he may not be considered as an +incarnation of Jewish thought gradually shaped during many centuries of +priestly development. + +According to tradition, Moses from childhood was of great personal beauty, +so much so that passers by would turn to look at him, and this early +promise was fulfilled as he grew to be a man. Tall and dignified, with +long, shaggy hair and beard, of a reddish hue tinged with gray, he is +described as "wise as beautiful." Educated by his foster-mother as a +priest at Heliopolis, he was taught the whole range of Chaldean and +Assyrian literature, as well as the Egyptian, and thus became acquainted +with all the traditions of oriental magic: which, just at that period, was +in its fullest development. Consequently, Moses must have been familiar +with the ancient doctrines of Zoroaster. + +Men who stood thus, and had such an education, were called Wise Men, Magi, +or Magicians, and had great influence, not so much as priests of a God, as +enchanters who dealt with the supernatural as a profession. Daniel, for +example, belonged to this class. He was one of three captive Jews whom +Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, gave in charge to the master of his +eunuchs, to whom he should teach the learning and the tongue of the +Chaldeans. Daniel, very shortly, by his natural ability, brought himself +and his comrades into favor with the chief eunuch, who finally presented +them to Nebuchadnezzar, who conversed with them and found them "ten times +better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." + +The end of it was, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream which he +forgot when he awoke and he summoned "the magicians, and the astrologers, +and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams," +but they could not unless he told it them. This vexed the king, who +declared that unless they should tell him his dream with the +interpretation thereof, they should be cut in pieces. So the decree went +forth that all "the wise men" of Babylon should be slain, and they sought +Daniel and his fellows to slay them. Therefore, it appears that together +with its privileges and advantages the profession of magic was dangerous +in those ages. Daniel, on this occasion, according to the tradition, +succeeded in revealing and interpreting the dream; and, in return, +Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel a great man, chief governor of the province of +Babylon. + +Precisely a similar tale is told of Joseph, who, having been sold by his +brethren to Midianitish merchantmen with camels, bearing spices and balm, +journeying along the ancient caravan road toward Egypt, was in turn sold +by them to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard. + +And Joseph rose in Potiphar's service, and after many alternations of +fortune was brought before Pharaoh, as Daniel had been before +Nebuchadnezzar, and because he interpreted Pharaoh's dream acceptably, he +was made "ruler over all the land of Egypt" and so ultimately became the +ancestor whom Moses most venerated and whose bones he took with him when +he set out upon the exodus. + +It is true also that Josephus has preserved an idle tale that Moses was +given command of an Egyptian army with which he made a successful campaign +against the Ethiopians, but it is unworthy of credit and may be neglected. +His bringing up was indeed the reverse of military. So much so that +probably far the most important part of his education lay in acquiring +those arts which conduce to the deception of others, such deceptions as +jugglers have always practised in snake-charming and the like, or in +gaining control of another's senses by processes akin to hypnotism;-- +processes which have been used by the priestly class and their familiars +from the dawn of time. In especial there was one miracle performed by the +Magi, on which not only they, but Moses himself, appear to have set great +store, and on which Moses seemed always inclined to fall back, when hard +pressed to assert his authority. They pretended to make fire descend onto +their altars by means of magical ceremonies. [Footnote: Lenormant, +_Chaldean Magic_, 226.] Nevertheless, amidst all these ancient eastern +civilizations, the strongest hold which the priests or sorcerers held +over, and the greatest influence which they exercised upon, others, +lay in their relations to disease, for there they were supposed to be +potent. For example, in Chaldea, diseases were held to be the work of +demons, to be feared in proportion as they were powerful and malignant, +and to be restrained by incantations and exorcisms. Among these demons the +one, perhaps most dreaded, was called Namtar, the genius of the plague. +Moses was, of course, thoroughly familiar with all these branches of +learning, for the relations of Egypt were then and for many centuries had +been, intimate with Mesopotamia. Whatever aspect the philosophy may have, +which Moses taught after middle life touching the theory of the religion +in which he believed, Moses had from early childhood been nurtured in +these Mesopotamian beliefs and traditions, and to them--or, at least, +toward them--he always tended to revert in moments of stress. Without +bearing this fundamental premise in mind, Moses in active life can hardly +be understood, for it was on this foundation that his theories of cause +and effect were based. + +As M. Lenormant has justly and truly observed, go back as far as we will +in Egyptian religion, we find there, as a foundation, or first cause, the +idea of a divine unity,--a single God, who had no beginning and was to +have no end of days,--the primary cause of all. [Footnote: _Chaldean +Magic_, 79.] It is true that this idea of unity was early obscured by +confounding the energy with its manifestations. Consequently a polytheism +was engendered which embraced all nature. Gods and demons struggled for +control and in turn were struggled with. In Egypt, in Media, in Chaldea, +in Persia, there were wise men, sorcerers, and magicians who sought to put +this science into practice, and among this fellowship Moses must always +rank foremost. Before, however, entering upon the consideration of Moses, +as a necromancer, as a scientist, as a statesman, as a priest, or as a +commander, we should first glance at the authorities which tell his +history. + +Scholars are now pretty well agreed that Moses and Aaron were men who +actually lived and worked probably about the time attributed to them by +tradition. That is to say, under the reign of Ramses II, of the Nineteenth +Egyptian dynasty who reigned, as it is computed, from 1348 to 1281 B.C., +and under whom the exodus occurred. Nevertheless, no very direct or +conclusive evidence having as yet been discovered touching these events +among Egyptian documents, we are obliged, in the main, to draw our +information from the Hebrew record, which, for the most part, is contained +in the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible. + +Possibly no historical documents have ever been subjected to a severer or +more minute criticism than have these books during the last two centuries. +It is safe to say that no important passage and perhaps no paragraph has +escaped the most searching and patient analysis by the acutest and most +highly trained of minds; but as yet, so far as the science of history is +concerned, the results have been disappointing. The order in which events +occurred may have been successfully questioned and the sequence of the +story rearranged hypothetically; but, in general, it has to be admitted +that the weight of all the evidence obtained from the monuments of +contemporary peoples has been to confirm the reliability of the Biblical +narrative. For example, no one longer doubts that Joseph was actually a +Hebrew, who rose, through merit, to the highest offices of state under an +Egyptian monarch, and who conceived and successfully carried into +execution a comprehensive agrarian policy which had the effect of +transferring the landed estates of the great feudal aristocracy to the +crown, and of completely changing Egyptian tenures. Nor does any one +question, at this day, the reality of the power which the Biblical writers +ascribed to the Empire of the Hittites. Under such conditions the course +of the commentator is clear. He should treat the Jewish record as +reliable, except where it frankly accepts the miracle as a demonstrated +fact, and even then regard the miracle as an important and most suggestive +part of the great Jewish epic, which always has had, and always must have, +a capital influence on human thought. + +The Pentateuch has, indeed, been demonstrated to be a compilation of +several chronicles arranged by different writers at different times, and +blended into a unity under different degrees of pressure, but now, as the +book stands, it is as authentic a record as could be wished of the +workings of the Mosaic mind and of the minds of those of his followers who +supported him in his pilgrimage, and who made so much of his task +possible, as he in fact accomplished. + +Moses, himself, but for the irascibility of his temper, might have lived +and died, contented and unknown, within the shadow of the Egyptian court. +The princess who befriended him as a baby would probably have been true to +him to the end, in which case he would have lived wealthy, contented, and +happy and would have died overfed and unknown. Destiny, however, had +planned it otherwise. + +The Hebrews were harshly treated after the death of Joseph, and fell into +a quasi-bondage in which they were forced to labor, and this species of +tyranny irritated Moses, who seems to have been brought up under his +mother's influence. At all events, one day Moses chanced to see an +Egyptian beating a Jew, which must have been a common enough sight, but a +sight which revolted him. Whereupon Moses, thinking himself alone, slew +the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. Moses, however, was not alone. +A day or so later he again happened to see two men fighting, whereupon he +again interfered, enjoining the one who was in the wrong to desist. +Whereupon the man whom he checked turned fiercely on him and said, "Who +made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou +killedst the Egyptian?" + +When Moses perceived by this act of treachery on the part of a countryman, +whom he had befriended, that nothing remained to him but flight, he +started in the direction of southern Arabia, toward what was called the +Land of Midian, and which, at the moment, seems to have lain beyond the +limits of the Egyptian administrative system, although it had once been +one of its most prized metallurgical regions. Just at that time it was +occupied by a race called the Kenites, who were more or less closely +related to the Amalekites, who were Bedouins and who relied for their +living upon their flocks, as the Israelites had done in the time of +Abraham. Although Arabia Patrea was then, in the main, a stony waste, as +it is now, it was not quite a desert. It was crossed by trade routes in +many directions along which merchants travelled to Egypt, as is described +in the story of Joseph, whose brethren seized him in Dothan, and as they +sat by the side of the pit in which they had thrown him, they saw a +company of Ishmaelites who came from Gilead and who journeyed straight +down from Damascus to Gilead and from thence to Hebron, along the old +caravan road, toward Egypt, with camels bearing spices and myrrh, as had +been their custom since long beyond human tradition, and which had been +the road along which Abraham had travelled before them, and which was +still watered by his wells. This was the famous track from Beersheba to +Hebron, where Hagar was abandoned with her baby Ishmael, and if the +experiences of Hagar do not prove that the wilderness of Shur was +altogether impracticable for women and children it does at least show that +for a mixed multitude without trustworthy guides or reliable sources of +supply, the country was not one to be lightly attempted. + +It was into a region similar to this, only somewhat further to the south, +that Moses penetrated after his homicide, travelling alone and as an +unknown adventurer, dressed like an Egyptian, and having nothing of the +nomad about him in his looks. As Moses approached Sinai, the country grew +wilder and more lonely, and Moses one day sat himself down, by the side of +a well whither shepherds were wont to drive their flocks to water. For +shepherds came there, and also shepherdesses; among others were the seven +daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, who came to water their +father's flocks. But the shepherds drove them away and took the water for +themselves. Whereupon Moses defended the girls and drew water for them and +watered their flocks. This naturally pleased the young women, and they +took Moses home with them to their father's tent, as Bedouins still would +do. And when they came to their father, he asked how it chanced that they +came home so early that day. "And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out +of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and +watered the flock." And Jethro said, "Where is he? Why is it that ye have +left the man? Call him that he may eat bread." + +"And Moses was content to dwell with" Jethro, who made him his chief +shepherd and gave him Zipporah, his daughter. And she bore him a son. +Seemingly, time passed rapidly and happily in this peaceful, pastoral +life, which, according to the tradition preserved by Saint Stephen, lasted +forty years, but be the time long or short, it is clear that Moses loved +and respected Jethro and was in return valued by him. Nor could anything +have been more natural, for Moses was a man who made a deep impression at +first sight--an impression which time strengthened. Intellectually he must +have been at least as notable as in personal appearance, for his education +at Heliopolis set him apart from men whom Jethro would have been apt to +meet in his nomad life. But if Moses had strong attractions for Jethro, +Jethro drew Moses toward himself at least as strongly in the position in +which Moses then stood. Jethro, though a child of the desert, was the +chief of a tribe or at least of a family, a man used to command, and to +administer the nomad law; for Jethro was the head of the Kenites, who were +akin to the Amalekites, with whom the Israelites were destined to wage +mortal war. And for Moses this was a most important connection, for Moses +after his exile never permitted his relations with his own people in Egypt +to lapse. The possibility of a Jewish revolt, of which his own banishment +was a precursor, was constantly in his mind. To Moses a Jewish exodus from +Egypt was always imminent. For centuries it had been a dream of the Jews. +Indeed it was an article of faith with them. Joseph, as he sank in death, +had called his descendants about him and made them solemnly swear to +"carry his bones hence." And to that end Joseph had caused his body to be +embalmed and put in a coffin that all might be ready when the day came. +Moses knew the tradition and felt himself bound by the oath and waited in +Midian with confidence until the moment of performance should come. +Presently it did come. Very probably before he either expected or could +have wished it, and actually, as almost his first act of leadership, Moses +did carry the bones of Joseph with him when he crossed the Red Sea. Moses +held the tradition to be a certainty. He never conceived it to be a matter +of possible doubt, nor probably was it so. There was in no one's mind a +question touching Joseph's promise nor about his expectation of its +fulfilment. What Moses did is related in Exodus XIII, 19: "And Moses took +the bones of Joseph with him; for he had straitly sworn the children of +Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones +away hence with you." + +In fine, Moses, in the solitude of the Arabian wilderness, in his +wanderings as the shepherd of Jethro, came to believe that his destiny was +linked with that of his countrymen in a revolution which was certain to +occur before they could accomplish the promise of Joseph and escape from +Egypt under the guidance of the god who had befriended and protected him. +Moreover, Moses was by no means exclusively a religious enthusiast. He was +also a scientific man, after the ideas of that age. Moses had a high +degree of education and he was familiar with the Egyptian and Chaldean +theory of a great and omnipotent prime motor, who had had no beginning and +should have no end. He was also aware that this theory was obscured by the +intrusion into men's minds of a multitude of lesser causes, in the shape +of gods and demons, who mixed themselves in earthly affairs and on whose +sympathy or malevolence the weal or woe of human life hinged. Pondering +deeply on these things as he roamed, he persuaded himself that he had +solved the riddle of the universe, by identifying the great first cause of +all with the deity who had been known to his ancestors, whose normal home +was in the promised land of Canaan, and who, beside being all-powerful, +was also a moral being whose service must tend toward the welfare of +mankind. For Moses was by temperament a moralist in whom such abominations +as those practised in the worship of Moloch created horror. He knew that +the god of Abraham would tolerate no such wickedness as this, because of +the fate of Sodom on much less provocation, and he believed that were he +to lead the Israelites, as he might lead them, he could propitiate such a +deity, could he but by an initial success induce his congregation to obey +the commands of a god strong enough to reward them for leading a life +which should be acceptable to him. All depended, therefore, should the +opportunity of leadership come to him, on his being able, in the first +place, to satisfy himself that the god who presented himself to him was +verily the god of Abraham, who burned Sodom, and not some demon, whose +object was to vex mankind: and, in the second place, assuming that he +himself were convinced of the identity of the god, that he could convince +his countrymen of the fact, and also of the absolute necessity of +obedience to the moral law which he should declare, since without absolute +obedience, they would certainly merit, and probably suffer, such a fate as +befell the inhabitants of Sodom, under the very eyes of Abraham, and in +spite of his prayers for mercy. + +There was one other apprehension which may have troubled, and probably did +trouble, Moses. The god of the primitive man, and certainly of the +Bedouin, is usually a local deity whose power and whose activity is +limited to some particular region, as, for instance, a mountain or a +plain. Thus the god of Abraham might have inhabited and absolutely ruled +the plain of Mamre and been impotent elsewhere. But this, had Moses for a +moment harbored such a notion, would have been dispelled when he thought +of Joseph. Joseph, when his brethren threw him into the pit, must have +been under the guardianship of the god of his fathers, and when he was +drawn out, and sold in the ordinary course of the slave-trade, he was +bought by Potiphar, the captain of the guard. "And the Lord was with +Joseph and he was a prosperous man." Thenceforward, Joseph had a wonderful +career. He received in a dream a revelation of what the weather was to be +for seven years to come. And by this dream he was able to formulate a +policy for establishing public graineries like those which were maintained +in Babylon, and by means of these graineries, ably administered, the crown +was enabled to acquire the estates of the great feudatories, and thus the +whole social system of Egypt was changed. And Joseph, from being a poor +waif, cast away by his brethren in the wilderness, became the foremost man +in Egypt and the means of settling his compatriots in the province of +Gotham, where they still lived when Moses fled from Egypt. Such facts had +made a profound impression upon the mind of Moses, who very reasonably +looked upon Joseph as one of the most wonderful men who had ever lived, +and one who could not have succeeded as he succeeded, without the divine +interposition. But if the god who did these things could work such +miracles in Egypt, his power was not confined by local boundaries, and his +power could be trusted in the desert as safely as it could be on the plain +of Mamre or elsewhere. The burning of Sodom was a miracle equally in point +to prove the stern morality of the god. And that also, was a fact, as +incontestable, to the mind of Moses, as was the rising of the sun upon the +morning of each day. He knew, as we know of the battle of Great Meadows, +that one day his ancestor Abraham, when sitting in the door of his tent +toward noon, "in the plain of Mamre," at a spot not far from Hebron and +perfectly familiar to every traveller along the old caravan road hither, +on looking up observed three men standing before him, one of whom he +recognized as the "Lord." Then it dawned on Abraham that the "Lord" had +not come without a purpose, but had dropped in for dinner, and Abraham ran +to meet them, "and bowed himself toward the ground." And he said, "Let a +little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the +tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; +after that you shall pass on." "And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht +a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to +dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, +and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did +eat." Meanwhile, Abraham asked no questions, but waited until the object +of the visit should be disclosed. In due time he succeeded in his purpose. +"And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in +the tent. And he [the Lord] said, ... Sarah thy wife shall have a son.... +Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age." At this time +Abraham was about one hundred years old, according to the tradition, and +Sarah was proportionately amused, and "laughed within herself." This mirth +vexed "the Lord," who did not treat his words as a joke, but asked, "Is +anything too hard for the Lord?" Then Sarah took refuge in a lie, and +denied that she had laughed. But the lie helped her not at all, for the +Lord insisted, "Nay, but thou didst laugh." And this incident broke up the +party. The men rose and "looked toward Sodom": and Abraham strolled with +them, to show them the way. And then the "Lord" debated with himself +whether to make a confidant of Abraham touching his resolution to destroy +Sodom utterly. And finally he decided that he would, "because the cry of +Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous." +Whereupon Abraham intervened, and an argument ensued, and at length God +admitted that he had been too hasty and promised to think the matter over. +And finally, when "the Lord" had reduced the number of righteous for whom +the city should be saved to ten, Abraham allowed him to go "his way ... +and Abraham returned to his place." + +In the evening of the same day two angels came to Sodom, who met Lot at +the gate, and Lot took them to his house and made them a feast and they +did eat. Then it happened that the mob surrounded Lot's house and demanded +that the strangers should be delivered up to them. But Lot successfully +defended them. And in the morning the angels warned Lot to escape, but Lot +hesitated, though finally he did escape to Zoar. + +"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from +the Lord out of heaven." + +"And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood +before the Lord: + +"And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the +plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke +of a furnace." + +We must always remember, in trying to reconstruct the past, that these +traditions were not matters of possible doubt to Moses, or indeed to any +Israelite. They were as well established facts to them as would be the +record of volcanic eruptions now. Therefore it would not have astonished +Moses more that the Lord should meet him on the slope of Horeb, than that +the Lord should have met his ancestor Abraham on the plain of Mamre. +Moses' doubts and perplexities lay in another direction. Moses did not +question, as did his great ancestress, that his god could do all he +promised, if he had the will. His anxiety lay in his doubt as to God's +steadiness of purpose supposing he promised; and this doubt was increased +by his lack of confidence in his own countrymen. The god of Abraham was a +requiring deity with a high moral standard, and the Hebrews were at least +in part somewhat akin to a horde of semi-barbarous nomads, much more +likely to fall into offences resembling those of Sodom than to render +obedience to a code which would strictly conform to the requirements which +alone would ensure Moses support, supposing he accepted a task which, +after all, without divine aid, might prove to be impossible to perform. + +When the proposition which Moses seems, more or less confidently, to have +expected to be made to him by the Lord, came, it came very suddenly and +very emphatically. "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, +the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, +and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. + +"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the +midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, +and the bush was not consumed." + +And Moses, not, apparently, very much excited, said, "I will now turn +aside, and see this great sight." But God called unto him out of the midst +of the bush, and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here am I." Then the +voice commanded him to put off his shoes from off his feet, for the place +he stood on was holy ground. + +"Moreover," said the voice, "I am the God of thy father, the God of +Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face; +for he was afraid to look upon God. + +And the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people ... and +have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their +sorrows. + +"And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and +to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a +land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and +the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites.... + +"Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest +bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. + +And Moses said unto God, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and +that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?..." And +Moses said unto God, "Behold, when I am come unto the children of Israel, +and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; +and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" + +And God said unto Moses, "_I am That I Am_;" and he said, "Thus shalt +thou say unto the children of Israel, _I Am_ hath sent me unto you." + +"And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children +of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of +Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name +forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." + +Then the denizen of the bush renewed his instructions and his promises, +assuring Moses that he would bring him and his following out of the land +of affliction of Egypt and into the land of the Canaanites, and the +Hittites, and the Amorites, and others, unto a land flowing with milk and +honey. In a word to Palestine. And he insisted to Moses that he should +gain an entrance to Pharaoh, and that he should tell him that "the Lord +God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, +three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord +our God." + +Also God did not pretend to Moses that the King of Egypt would forthwith +let them go; whereupon he would work his wonders in Egypt and after that +Pharaoh would let them go. + +Moreover, he promised, as an inducement to their avarice, that they should +not go empty away, for that the Lord God would give the Hebrews favor in +the sight of the Egyptians, "so that every woman should borrow of her +neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, +jewels of gold, and raiment," and that they should spoil the Egyptians. +But all this time God did not disclose his name; so Moses tried another +way about. If he would not tell his name he might at least enable Moses to +work some wonder which should bring conviction to those who saw it, even +if the god remained nameless. For Moses appreciated the difficulty of the +mission suggested to him. How was he, a stranger in Egypt, to gain the +confidence of that mixed and helpless multitude, whom he was trying to +persuade to trust to his guidance in so apparently desperate an enterprise +as crossing a broad and waterless waste, in the face of a well-armed and +vigorous foe. Moses apprehended that there was but one way in which he +could by possibility succeed. He might prevail by convincing the +Israelites that he was commissioned by the one deity whom they knew, who +was likely to have both the will and the power to aid them, and that was +the god who had visited Abraham on the plain of Mamre, who had destroyed +Sodom for its iniquity, and who had helped Joseph to become the ruler of +Egypt. Joseph above all was the man who had made to his descendants that +solemn promise on whose faith Moses was, at that very moment, basing his +hopes of deliverance; for Joseph had assured the Israelites in the most +solemn manner that the god who had aided him would surely visit them, and +that they should carry his bones away with them to the land he promised. +That land was the land to which Moses wished to guide them. Now Moses was +fully determined to attempt no such project as this unless the being who +spoke from the bush would first prove to him, Moses, that he was the god +he purported to be, and should beside give Moses credentials which should +be convincing, by which Moses could prove to the Jews in Egypt that he was +no impostor himself, nor had he been deceived by a demon. Therefore Moses +went on objecting as strongly as at first: + +"And Moses answered and said, But behold they will not believe me, nor +hearken to my voice; for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto +thee." + +Then the being in the bush proceeded to submit his method of proof, which +was of a truth feeble, and which Moses rejected as feeble. A form of proof +which never fully convinced him, and which, in his judgment could not be +expected to convince others, especially men so educated and intelligent as +the Egyptians. For the Lord had nothing better to suggest than the ancient +trick of the snake-charmer, and even the possessor of the voice seems +implicitly to have admitted that this could hardly be advanced as a +convincing miracle. So the Lord proposed two other tests: the first was +that Moses should have his hand smitten with leprous sores and restored +immediately by hiding it from sight in "his bosom." And in the event that +this test left his audience still sceptical, he was to dip Nile water out +of the river, and turn it into blood on land. + +Moses at all these three proposals remained cold as before. And with good +reason, for Moses had been educated as a priest in Egypt, and he knew that +Egyptian "wise men" could do as well, and even better, if it came to a +magical competition before Pharaoh. And Moses had evidently no relish for +a contest in the presence of his countrymen as to the relative quality of +his magic. Therefore, he objected once more on another ground: "I am not +eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: +but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." This continued hesitancy +put the Lord out of patience; who retorted sharply, "Who hath made man's +mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have +not I the Lord? + +"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou +shalt say." + +Then Moses made his last effort. "0 my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the +hand of him whom thou wilt send." Which was another way of saying, Send +whom you please, but leave me to tend Jethro's flock in Midian. + +"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses; and he said, Is not +Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, +behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be +glad in his heart. + +"And he shall be, ... to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him +instead of God." + +Then Moses, not seeming to care very much what Aaron might think about the +matter, went to Jethro, and related what had happened to him on the +mountain, and asked for leave to go home to Egypt, and see how matters +stood there. And Jethro listened, and seems to have thought the experiment +worth trying, for he answered, "Go in peace." + +"And the Lord said unto Moses,"--but where is not stated, probably in +Midian,--"Go, return into Egypt," which you may do safely, for all the men +are dead which sought thy life. + +"And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he +returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand." + +It was after this, apparently, that Aaron travelled to meet Moses in +Midian, and Moses told Aaron what had occurred, and performed his tests, +and, seemingly, convinced him; for then Moses and Aaron went together into +Egypt and called the elders of the children of Israel together, "and did +the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed: and ... +bowed their heads and worshipped." Meanwhile God had not, as yet, revealed +his name. But as presently matters came to a crisis between Moses and +Pharaoh, he did so. He said to Moses, "I am the Lord: + +"I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God +Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.... + +"Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord.... And I will +bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to +Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I +am the Lord. + +"And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not +unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.... + +"And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold the children of Israel +have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me?" And from this +form of complaint against his countrymen until his death Moses never +ceased. + +Certain modern critics have persuaded themselves to reject this whole +Biblical narrative as the product of a later age and of a maturer +civilization, contending that it would be childish to attribute the +reasoning of the Pentateuch to primitive Bedouins like the patriarchs or +like the Jews who followed Moses into the desert. Setting aside at once +the philological discussion as to whether the language of the Pentateuch +could have been used by Moses, and admitting for the sake of argument that +Moses did not either himself write, or dictate to another, any part of the +documents in question, it would seem that the application of a little +common sense would show pretty conclusively that Moses throughout his +whole administrative life acted upon a single scientific theory of the +application of a supreme energy to the affairs of life, and upon the +belief that he had discovered what that energy was and understood how to +control it. + +His syllogism amounted to this: + +Facts, which are admitted by all Hebrews, prove that the single dominant +power in the world is the being who revealed himself to our ancestors, and +who, in particular, guided Joseph into Egypt, protected him there, and +raised him to an eminence never before or since reached by a Jew. It can +also be proved, by incontrovertible facts, that this being is a moral +being, who can be placated by obedience and by attaining to a certain +moral standard in life, and by no other means. That this standard has been +disclosed to me, I can prove to you by sundry miraculous signs. Therefore, +be obedient and obey the law which I shall promulgate "that ye may prosper +in all that ye do." + +Indeed, the philosophy of Moses was of the sternly practical kind, +resembling that of Benjamin Franklin. He did not promise his people, as +did the Egyptians, felicity in a future life. He confined himself to +prosperity in this world. And to succeed in his end he set an attainable +standard. A standard no higher, certainly than that accepted by the +Egyptians, as it is set forth in the 125th chapter of the Book of the +Dead, a standard to which the soul of any dead man had to attain before he +could be admitted into Paradise. Nor did Moses, as Dr. Budde among others +assumes, have to deal with a tribe of fierce and barbarous Bedouins, like +the Amalekites, to whom indeed the Hebrews were antagonistic and with whom +they waged incessant war. + +The Jews, for the most part, differed widely from such barbarians. They +had become sedentary at the time of the exodus, whatever they may have +been when Abraham migrated from Babylon. They were accustomed in Egypt to +living in houses, they cultivated and cooked the cereals, and they fed on +vegetables and bread. They did not live on flesh and milk as do the +Bedouins; and, indeed, the chief difficulty Moses encountered in the +exodus was the ignorance of his followers of the habits of desert life, +and their dislike of desert fare. They were forever pining for the +delights of civilization. "Would to God we had died by the hand of the +Lord in the land of Egypt, when we eat by the flesh-pots, and when we did +eat bread to the full! for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, +to kill this whole assembly with hunger." [Footnote: Ex. XVI, 3.] + +"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, +and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." These +were the wants of sedentary and of civilized folk, not of barbarous nomads +who are content with goat's flesh and milk. And so it was with their +morality and their conceptions of law. Moses was, indeed, a highly +civilized and highly educated man. No one would probably pretend that +Moses represented the average Jew of the exodus, but Moses understood his +audience reasonably well, and would not have risked the success of his +whole experiment by preaching to them a doctrine which was altogether +beyond their understanding. If he told them that the favor of God could +only be gained by obeying the laws he taught, it was because he thought +such an appeal would be effective with a majority of them. + +Dr. Budde, who is a good example of the modern hypercritical school, takes +very nearly the opposite ground. His theory is that Moses was in search of +a war god, and that he discovered such a god, in the god of the Bedouin +tribe of the Kenites whose acquaintance he first made when dwelling with +his father-in-law Jethro at Sinai. The morality of such a god he insists +coincided with the morality which Moses may have at times countenanced, +but which was quite foreign to the spirit of the decalogue. + +Doubtless this is, in a degree, true. The religion of the pure Bedouin was +very often crude and shocking, not to say disgusting. But to argue thus is +to ignore the fact that all Bedouins did not, in the age of Moses, stand +on the same intellectual or moral level, and it is also to ignore the gap +that separated Moses and his congregation intellectually and morally from +such Bedouins as the Amalekites. + +Dr. Budde, in his _Religion of Israel to the Exile_, insists that the +Kenite god, Jehovah, demanded "The sacred ban by which conquered cities +with all their living beings were devoted to destruction, the slaughter of +human beings at sacred spots, animal sacrifices at which the entire +animal, wholly or half raw, was devoured, without leaving a remnant, +between sunset and sunrise,--these phenomena and many others of the same +kind harmonise but ill with an aspiring ethical religion." + +He also goes on to say: "We are further referred to the legislation of +Moses, ... comprising civil and criminal, ceremonial and ecclesiastical, +moral and social law in varying compass. This legislation, however, cannot +have come from Moses.... Such legislation can only have arisen after +Israel had lived a long time in the new home." + +To take these arguments in order,--for they must be so dealt with to +develop any reasonable theory of the Mosaic philosophy,--Moses, doubtless, +was a ruthless conqueror, as his dealings with Sihon and Og sufficiently +prove. "So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of +Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him +remaining.... + +"And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, +utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city." [Footnote: +Deut. III, 3-6.] + +There is nothing extraordinary, or essentially barbarous, in this attitude +of Moses. The same theory of duty or convenience has been held in every +age and in every land, by men of the ecclesiastical temperament, at the +very moment at which the extremest doctrines of charity, mercy, and love +were practised by their contemporaries, or even preached by themselves. +For example: + +At the beginning of the thirteenth century the two great convents of Cluny +and Citeau, together, formed the heart of monasticism, and Cluny and +Citeau were two of the richest and most powerful corporations in the +world, while the south of France had become, by reason of the eastern +trade, the wealthiest and most intelligent district in Europe. It suffices +to say here that, just about this time, the people of Languedoc had made +up their minds, because of the failure of the Crusades, the cost of such +magnificent establishments was not justified by their results, and +accordingly Count Raymond of Toulouse, in sympathy with his subjects, did +seriously contemplate secularization. To the abbots of these great +convents, it was clear that if this movement spread across the Rhone into +Burgundy, the Church would face losses which they could not contemplate +with equanimity. At this period one Arnold was Abbot of Citeau, +universally recognized as perhaps the ablest and certainly one of the most +unscrupulous men in Europe. Hence the crusade against the Albigenses which +Simon de Montfort commanded and Arnold conducted. Arnold's first exploit +was the sack of the undefended town of Béziers, where he slaughtered +twenty thousand men, women, and children, without distinction of religious +belief. When asked whether the orthodox might not at least be spared, he +replied, "Kill them all; God knows his own." + +This sack of Béziers occurred in 1209. Exactly contemporaneously Saint +Francis of Assisi was organizing his order whose purpose was to realize +Christ's kingdom upon earth, by the renunciation of worldly wealth and by +the practice of poverty, humility, and obedience. Soon after, Arnold was +created Archbishop of Narbonne and became probably the greatest and +richest prelate in France, or in the world. This was in 1225. In 1226 the +first friars settled in England. They multiplied rapidly because of their +rigorous discipline. Soon there were to be found among them some of the +most eminent men in England. Their chief house stood in London in a spot +called Stinking Lane, near the Shambles in Newgate, and there, amidst +poverty, hunger, cold, and filth, these men passed their lives in nursing +horrible lepers, so loathsome that they were rejected by all but +themselves, while Arnold lived in magnificence in his palace, upon the +spoil of those whom he had immolated to his greed. + +In the case of Moses the contrast between precept and practice in the race +for wealth and fortune was not nearly so violent. Moses, it is true, +according to Leviticus, declared it to be the will of the Lord that the +Israelites should love their neighbors as themselves, [Footnote: Lev. XIX, +18.] while on the other hand in Deuteronomy he insisted that obedience was +the chief end of life, and that if the Israelites were to thoroughly obey +the Lord's behests, they were to "consume all the people which the Lord +thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: +neither" should thou serve their gods, "for the Lord thy God is a jealous +God." [Footnote: Deut. VII, 16.] And the penalty for slackness was "lest +the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee +from off the face of the earth." [Footnote: Deut. VI, 15.] There is, +nevertheless, this much to be said in favor of the morality of Moses as +contrasted with that of thirteenth-century orthodox Christians like +Arnold; Moses led a crusade against a foreign and hostile people, while +Arnold slaughtered the Albigenses, who were his own flock, sheep to whom +he was the shepherd, communicants in his own church, and worshippers of +the God whom he served. What concerns us, however, is that the same +stimulant animated Moses and Arnold alike. The stimulant, pure and simple, +of greed. On these points Moses was as outspokenly, one may say as +brutally, frank as was Arnold. In the desert Moses commanded his followers +to exterminate the inhabitants of the kingdom of Bashan in order that they +might appropriate their possessions, which he enumerated, and Moses had no +other argument to urge but the profitableness of it by which to secure +obedience to his moral law. + +Arnold stood on precisely the same platform. He did not accuse Count +Raymond of heresy or any other crime, nor did Pope Innocent III consider +Raymond as morally guilty of a criminal offence, or worthy of punishment. +Indeed, the pope would have protected the Count had it been possible, and +summoned him before the Fourth Lateran Council for that purpose. But +Arnold told his audience that were Raymond allowed to escape there would +be an end of the Catholic faith in France. Or, in other words, monastic +property would be secularized. Perhaps he was right. At all events, this +argument prevailed, and Raymond and his family and people were sacrificed. + +Moses promised his congregation that, if they would spare nothing they +should enjoy abundance of good things, without working for them. He was +much more pitiless than such a man as King David thought it necessary to +be, but Moses was not a soldier like David. He could not promise to win +victories himself, he could but promise what he had in hand, and that was +the spoil of those they massacred. Moses never had but one appeal to make +for obedience, one incentive to offer to obey. In this he was perfectly +honest and perfectly logical. His congregation and he, finding Egypt +untenable, were engaged in a common land speculation to improve their +condition; a speculation in which Moses believed, but which could only be +brought to a successful end by obtaining control of the dominant energy of +the world. This energy, he held, could be handled by no one but himself, +and then only in case those who acted with him were absolutely obedient to +his commands, which, taken together, were equivalent to a magical exorcism +or spell. Then only could they hope that the Lord of Abraham and Isaac +would give them "great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And +houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, +which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst +not." [Footnote: Deut. VI, 10, 11.] + +Very obviously, if the theory which Moses propounded were sound the assets +which he offered as an inducement for docility could be obtained, at so +cheap a rate, in no other way. All Moses' moral teaching amounted, +therefore, to this--"It pays to be obedient and good." No argument could +have been better adapted to Babylonish society, and it seems to have +answered nearly as well with the Israelites, which proves that they stood +on nearly the same intellectual plane. The chief difficulty with which +Moses had to contend was that his countrymen did not thoroughly believe in +him, nor in the efficacy of his motor. They always were tempted to try +experiments with other motors which were operated by other prophets and by +other peoples who were, apparently, as prosperous as they, or even more +so. His trouble was not that his followers were nomads unprepared for a +sedentary life or a moral law like his, or unable to appreciate the value +of the property of a people further advanced in civilization than they +were. The Amalekites would have responded to no such system of bribery as +Moses offered the Israelites, who did respond with intelligence, if not +always with enthusiasm. + +The same is true of the Mosaic legislation which Dr. Budde curtly +dismisses as impossible to have come from Moses, [Footnote: _Religion of +Israel to the Exile_, 31.] as presupposing a knowledge of a settled +agricultural life, which "Israel did not reach until after Moses' death." + +All this is an assumption of fact unsupported by evidence; but quite the +contrary, as we can see by an examination of the law in question. Whatever +may have been the date of the establishment of the cities of refuge, I +suppose that it will not be seriously denied that the law of the covenant +as laid down in Exodus XX, 1, Numbers XXXV, 6, is at least as old as the +age of Moses, in principle, if not in words; and this legal principle is +quite inconsistent with, if not directly antagonistic to, all the +prejudices and regulations, moral, religious, or civil, of a pure nomadic +society, since it presupposes a social condition which, if adopted, would +be fatal to a nomad society. + +The true nomad knows no criminal law save the law of the blood feud, which +is the law of revenge, and which prevailed among the Hebrews much earlier. +In the early Saxon law it was expressed by the apothegm "_Factum +reputabitur pro volunte_." The act implies the intent. That is to say, +the tribe is an enlarged family who, since they have no collective system +of sovereignty which gives them common protection by an organized police, +and courts with power to enforce process, have no option but to protect +each other. Therefore, it is incumbent on each member of the tribe or +family to avenge an injury to any other member, whether the injury be +accidental or otherwise; and to be himself the judge of what amounts to an +injury. Such a condition prevailed among the Hebrews at a very early +period; "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them: ... at the +hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth +man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." [Footnote: Gen. IX, 1, 5, +6.] These customs and the type of thought which sustain them are very +tenacious and change slowly. Moses could not have altered the nomadic +customs of thought and of blood revenge, had he tried, more than could +Canute. It would have been impossible. The advent of a civilized +conception of the law is the work of centuries as the history of England +proves. + +We know not how long ago it was that the law of the blood feud was fully +recognized in England, but it had already been shaken at the conquest, and +its death-blow was given it by the Church, which had begun to tire of the +responsibility entailed by the trial by ordeal or miracle, and the obloquy +which it involved, at a relatively early date. For the purposes of the +Church and the uses of confession it was more convenient to regard crime +or tort, as did the Romans; as a mental condition, dependent altogether +upon the state of the mind or "animus." Malice in the eye of the Church +was the virus which poisoned the otherwise innocent act, and made the +thought alone punishable. Indeed, this conception is one which has not yet +been completely established even in the modern law. The first signs of +such a revolution in jurisprudence only began to appear in England some +seven centuries ago. As Mr. Maitland has observed in his _History of +English Law_, [Footnote: Vol. II, 476.] "We receive a shock of surprise +when we meet with a maxim which has troubled our modern lawyers, namely, +_Reum nonfacit nisi mens rea_, in the middle of the _Leges Henrici_." That +is to say somewhere about the year 1118 A.D. This maxim was taken bodily +out of a sermon of Saint Augustine, which accounts for it, but at that +time the Church had another process to suggest by which she asserted her +authority. She threw the responsibility for detecting guilt, in cases of +doubt, upon God. By the ordeal, if a homicide, for example, were +committed, and the accused denied his guilt, he was summoned to appear, +and then, after a solemn reference to God by the ecclesiastics in charge, +he was caused either to carry a red-hot iron bar a certain distance or to +plunge his arms in boiling water. If he were found, after a certain length +of time, during which his arms were bandaged, to have been injured, he was +held to have been guilty. If he had escaped unhurt he was innocent. +Gradually, however, the ordeal began to fall into ridicule. William Rufus +gibed at it, for of fifty men sent to the ordeal of iron, under the sacred +charge of the clerks, all escaped, which certainly, as Mr. Maitland +intimates, looks as if the officiating ecclesiastics had an interest in +the result. [Footnote: _History of English Law_, II, 599, note 2.] At +length, by the Lateran Council of 1215, the Church put an end to the +institution, but long afterward it found its upholders. For example, the +_Mirror_, written in the reign of Edward I (circa 1285) complained, "It is +an abuse that proofs and compurgations be not by the miracle of God where +other proof faileth." Nor was the principle that "attempts" to commit +indictable offences are crimes, established as law, until at least the +time of the Star Chamber, before its abolition in the seventeenth century. +Though doubtless it is the law to-day. [Footnote: Stephen, _Digest of the +Criminal Law_, 192.] And this, although the means used may have been +impossible. Moreover, the doctrine is still in process of enlargement. + +Very convincing conclusions may be drawn from these facts. The subject is +obscure and difficult, but if the inception of the process of breaking +down the right of enforcing the blood feud be fixed provisionally toward +the middle of the tenth century,--and this date is early enough,--the +movement of thought cannot be said to have attained anything like ultimate +results before at least the year 1321 when a case is cited wherein a man +was held guilty because he had attempted to kill his master, and the +"_volunias in isto casu reputabitur pro facto_." + +Measuring by this standard five hundred years is a short enough period to +estimate the time necessary for a community to pass from the stage when +the blood feud is recognized as unquestioned law, to the status involved +in the administration of the cities of refuge, for in these cities not +only the mental condition is provided for as a legitimate defence, but the +defence of negligence is made admissible in a secular court. + +"These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and +for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them; that every one that +killeth any person unawares may flee thither.... + +"If he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait that he die; + +"Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him +shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood +shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. + +"But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him +anything without laying of wait, + +"Or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it +upon him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm: + +"Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of +blood according to these judgments: + +"And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the +revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of +his refuge, whither he was fled."... [Footnote: Numbers XXXV, 15, 20-25.] + +Here we have a defendant in a case of homicide setting up the defence that +the killing happened through an accident, but an accident not caused by +criminal negligence, and this defence is to be tried by the congregation, +which is tantamount to trial by jury. It is not left to God, under the +oversight of the Church; and this is precisely our own system at the +present day. We now come to the inferences to be drawn from these facts. +Supposing that the Israelites when they migrated to Egypt, in the time of +Joseph, were in the condition of pure nomads among whom the blood feud was +fully recognized as law, an interval of four or five hundred years, such +as they are supposed to have passed in Goshen would bring them to the +exodus. Now, assuming that the Israelites during those four centuries, +when they lived among civilized neighbors and under civilized law, made an +intellectual movement corresponding in velocity to the movement the +English made after the conquest, they would have been, about the time when +the cities of refuge were created, in the position described in Numbers, +which is what we should expect assuming the Biblical tradition to be true. + +To us the important question is not whether a certain piece of the +supposed Mosaic legislation actually went into effect during the life of +Moses, for that is relatively immaterial, but whether the Biblical +narrative is, on the whole, worthy of credence, and this correlation of +dates gives the strongest possible evidence in its favor. Very possibly, +perhaps it may even be said certainly, the order in which events occurred +may have been transposed, but, taken as a whole, it is impossible to +resist the inference that the Bible story is excellent history and that, +due allowance being made for the prejudice of the various scribes who +wrote the Pentateuch in favor of the miraculous, where Moses was +concerned, the Biblical record is good and trustworthy history, and frank +at that;--much superior to quantities of modern documents which we accept +without question. + +Of all the achievements of Moses' life none equals the exodus itself, +either in brilliancy or success. How it was possible for Moses, with the +assistance he had at command, to marshal and move a column of a million or +a million and a half of men, women, and children, without discipline or +cohesion, and encumbered with their baggage, beside their cattle, is an +insoluble mystery. "And the children of Israel did according to the word +of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels +of gold, and raiment: ... And they spoiled the Egyptians. And the children +of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on +foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also +with them; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle." They started from +Ramses and Succoth. + +The position of Ramses has been identified; that of Succoth is more +questionable. Ramses and Pithom were fortified places, built by the +Israelites for Ramses II, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but apparently +Succoth was the last halting-place before coming to the difficult ground +which was overflowed by the sea. + +The crossing was made at night, but it is hard to understand how, even +under the most favorable conditions of weather, such a vast and confused +multitude of women and children could have made the march in darkness with +an active enemy pursuing, without loss of life or material. Indeed, even +at that day the movement seemed to the actors so unparalleled that it +always passed for a miracle, and its perfect success gave Moses more +reputation with the Israelites and more practical influence over them than +anything else he ever did, or indeed than all his other works together. +"And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and +the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses." + +"And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron; and all the women went +after her with timbrels and with dances." Now Miriam was in general none +too loyal a follower of her younger brother, but that day, or rather +night, she did proclaim Moses as a conqueror; which was a great concession +from her, and meant much. And Moses exulted openly, as he had good cause +to do, and gave vent to his exultation in a song which tradition has ever +since attributed to him, and has asserted to have been sung by him and his +congregation as they stood by the shore of the sea and watched the corpses +of the Egyptians lying in the sand. And, if ever man had, Moses then had, +cause for exultation, for he had seemingly proved by the test of war, +which is the ultimate test to which a man can subject such a theory as +his, that he had indeed discovered the motor which he sought, and, more +important still, that he knew how to handle it. Therefore, he was master +of supreme energy and held his right to command by the title of conquest. +This was the culminating moment of his life; he never again reached such +exaltation. From this moment his slow and gradual decline began. + +And, indeed, great as had been the momentary success of Moses, his +position was one of extreme difficulty, and probably he so understood it, +otherwise there would be no way to account for his choosing the long, +difficult, and perilous journey by Sinai, instead of approaching the +"Promised Land" directly by way of Kadesh-Barnea, which was, in any event, +to be his ultimate objective. It may well have been because Moses felt +himself unable alone to cope with the difficulties confronting him that he +decided at any cost to seek Jethro in Midian, who seems to have been the +only able, honest, and experienced man within reach. Joshua, indeed, might +be held to be an exception to this generalization, but Joshua, though a +good soldier, was a man of somewhat narrow understanding, and quite unfit +to grapple with questions involving jurisprudence and financial +topography. + +And at this juncture Moses must have felt his own deficiencies keenly. As +a captain he made no pretence to efficiency. The Amalekites were, as he +well knew, at this moment lying in wait for him, and forthwith he +recognized that he had no alternative but to retire into the background +himself and surrender the active command of the army to Joshua, a fatal +concession had Joshua been ambitious or unscrupulous. And this was but the +beginning. Before he could occupy Palestine he had to encounter and +overcome numbers of equally formidable foes, a defeat by any one of whom +might well be fatal. A man like Jethro, therefore, would be invaluable in +guiding the caravan to spots favorable for action, from whence retreat to +a place of safety would be open in case of a check. A reverse which +happened on a later occasion gave Moses a shock he never forgot. + +Furthermore, though Moses lived many years with Jethro, as his chief +servant, he never seems to have travelled extensively in Arabia, and to +have been ignorant of the chief trade routes along which wells were dug, +and of the oases where pasture was to be found; so that Moses was nearly +worthless as a guide, and this was a species of knowledge in which Jethro, +according to Moses' own statement, excelled. Meanwhile, the lives of all +his followers depended on such knowledge. And Moses, when he reached +Sinai, left no stone unturned to overcome Jethro's reluctance to join him +and to instruct him on the march north. + +More important and pressing than all, Moses was ignorant of how, +practically, to administer the law which he taught. His only idea was to +do all in person, but this, with so large a following, was impossible. And +here also his hope lay in Jethro. For when he got to Sinai, and Jethro +remonstrated with him upon his methods, pointing out that they were +impracticable, all Moses had to say in reply was that he sat all day to +hear disputes and "I judge between one and another; and I do make them +know the statutes of God, and his laws." Further than this he had nothing +to propose. It was Jethro who explained to him a constructive policy. + +On the whole, upon this analysis, it appears that in all those executive +departments in which Moses, by stress of the responsibilities which he had +assumed, was called upon, imperatively, to act, there was but one, that of +the magician or wise man, in which, by temperament and training, he was +fitted to excel, and the functions of this profession drove him into to +intolerably irksome and distressing position, yet a position from which +throughout his life he found it impossible to escape. No one who +attentively weighs the evidence can, I apprehend, escape the conviction +that Moses was at bottom an honest man who would have conformed to the +moral law he laid down in the name of the Lord had it been possible for +him to do so. Among these precepts none ranked higher than a regard for +truth and honesty. "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie +one to another." [Footnote: Leviticus XIX, 11.] And this text is but one +example of a general drift of thought. + +Whether these particular words of Leviticus, or any similar phrases, were +ever used by Moses is immaterial. No one can doubt that, in substance, +they contained the gist of his moral doctrine and that he enforced the +moral duty which they convey to the best of his power. And here the burden +lay, which crushed this man, from which he never thenceforward could, even +for an instant, free himself, and which Saint Paul avers to be the +heaviest burden man can bear. Moses, to fulfil what he conceived to be his +destiny and which at least certainly was his ambition, was condemned to +lead a life of deceit and to utter no word during his long subsequent +march which was not positively or inferentially a lie. And the bitterest +of his trials must have been the agony of anxiety in which he must have +lived lest some error in judgment on his part, some slackness in measuring +the exact credulity of his audience, should cause his exposure and lead to +his being cast out of the camp as an impostor and hunted to death as a +false prophet: a fate which more than once nearly overtook him. Indeed, as +he aged and his nerves lost their elasticity under the tension, he became +obsessed with the fixed idea that God had renounced him and that some +horror would overtake him should he attempt to cross the Jordan and enter +the "Promised Land." Defeated at Hormah, he dared not face another such +check and, therefore, dawdled away his time in the wilderness until +further dawdling became impossible. Then followed his mental collapse +which is told in Deuteronomy, together with his suicide on Mount Nebo. And +thus he died because he could not gratify at once his lust for power and +his instinct to live an honest man. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The interval during which Moses led the exodus falls, naturally, into +three parts of unequal length. The first consists of the months which +elapsed between the departure from Ramses and the arrival at Sinai. The +second comprises the halt at Sinai, while the third contains the story of +the rest of his life, ending with Mount Nebo. + +His trials began forthwith. The march was hardly a week old before the +column was in quasi-revolt because he had known so little of the country, +that he had led the caravan three days through a waterless wilderness +where they feared to perish from thirst. And matters grew steadily worse. +At Rephidim, "And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore +is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our +children and our cattle with thirst?" Not impossibly Moses may still, at +this stage of his experiences, have believed in himself, in the God he +pretended to serve, and in his mission. At least he made a feint of so +doing. Indeed, he had to. Not to have done so would have caused his +instant downfall. He always had to do so, in every emergency of his life. +A few days later he was at his wits' end. He cried unto the Lord, "What +shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me." In short, +long before the congregation reached Sinai, and indeed before Moses had +fought his first battle with Amalek, the people had come to disbelieve in +Moses and also to question whether there was such a god as he pretended. + +"And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the +chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, +saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" + +"Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim." [Footnote: Exodus +xvii, 7, 8.] + +Under such conditions it was vital to Moses to show resolution and +courage; but it was here that Moses, on the contrary, flinched; as he +usually did flinch when it came to war, for Moses was no soldier. + +"And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out, fight with +Amalek: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God +in mine hand." + +And Moses actually had the assurance to do as he proposed, nor did he even +have the endurance to stand. He made Aaron and Hur fetch a stone on which +he should sit and then hold up his hands for him, pretending the while +that when Moses held up his hands the Hebrews prevailed and when he +lowered them Amalek prevailed. Notwithstanding, Joshua won a victory. But +it may readily be believed that this performance of his functions as a +captain, did little to strengthen the credit of Moses among the fighting +men. Nor evidently was Moses satisfied with the figure that he cut, nor +was he confident that Joshua approved of him, for the Lord directed Moses +to make excuses, promising to do better the next time, by assuring Joshua +that "I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." +This was the best apology Moses could make for his weakness. However, the +time had now come when Moses was to realize his plan of meeting Jethro. + +"And Jethro ... came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the +wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: ... And Moses went out +to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they +asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. + +"And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh +and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come +upon them by the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.... + +"And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the +hand of the Egyptians.... Now I know that the Lord is greater than all +gods.... And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with +Moses' father-in-law before God." + +It is from all this very plain that Jethro had a controlling influence +over Moses, and was the proximate cause of much that followed. For the +next morning Moses, as was his custom, "sat to judge the people: and the +people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening." And when Jethro +saw how Moses proceeded he remonstrated, "Why sittest thou thyself alone, +and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?" + +And Moses replied: "Because the people come unto me to enquire of God." + +And Jethro protested, saying "The thing thou doest is not good. Thou wilt +surely wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee: for this +thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself +alone. + +"Hearken, ... I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee; Be +thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto +God." + +Then it was that Moses perceived that he must have a divinely promulgated +code. Accordingly, Moses made his preparations for a great dramatic +effect, and it is hard to see how he could have made them better. For, +whatever failings he may have had in his other capacities as a leader, he +understood his part as a magician. + +He told the people to be ready on the third day, for on the third day the +Lord would come down in the sight of all upon Mount Sinai. But, "Take heed +to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: +whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: + +"There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot +through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet +soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount." + +It must be admitted that Moses either had wonderful luck, or that he had +wonderful judgment in weather, for, as it happened in the passage of the +Red Sea, so it happened here. At the Red Sea he was aided by a gale of +wind which coincided with a low tide and made the passage practicable, and +at Sinai he had a thunder-storm. + +"And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were +thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice +of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp +trembled." Moses had undoubtedly sent some thoroughly trustworthy person, +probably Joshua, up the mountain to blow a ram's horn and to light a +bonfire, and the effect seems to have been excellent. + +"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended +upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, +and the whole mount quaked greatly. + +"And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and +louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. + +"And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and the +Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up." And the +first thing that Moses did on behalf of the Lord was to "charge the +people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them +perish." + +And Moses replied to God's enquiry, "The people cannot come up to Mount +Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount. + +"And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, +thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break +through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. + +"So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them." + +Whether the decalogue, as we know it, was a code of law actually delivered +upon Sinai, which German critics very much dispute as being inconsistent +with the stage of civilization at which the Israelites had arrived, but +which is altogether kindred to the Babylonish law with which Moses was +familiar, is immaterial for the present purpose. What is essential is that +beside the decalogue itself there is a considerable body of law chiefly +concerned with the position of servants or slaves, the difference between +assaults or torts committed with or without malice, theft, trespass, and +the regulation of the _lex talionis_. There are beside a variety of +other matters touched upon all of which may be found in the 21st, 22d, and +23d chapters of Exodus. + +Up to this point in his show Moses had behaved with discretion and had +obtained a complete success. The next day he went on to demand an +acceptance of his code, which he prepared to submit in form. But as a +preliminary he made ready to take Aaron and his two sons, together with +seventy elders of the congregation up the mountain, to be especially +impressed with a sacrifice and a feast which he had it in his mind to +organize. In the first place, "Moses ... rose up early in the morning, and +builded an altar, ... and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the +Lord.... + +"And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the +people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be +obedient." + +Had Moses been content to end his ceremony here and to return to the camp +with his book of the covenant duly accepted as law, all might have been +well. But success seems to have intoxicated him, and he conceived an undue +contempt for the intelligence of his audience, being, apparently, +convinced that there were no limits to their credulity, and that he could +do with them as he pleased. + +It was not enough for him that he should have them accept an ordinary book +admittedly written by himself. There was nothing overpoweringly impressive +in that. What he wanted was a stone tablet on which his code should be +engraved, as was the famous code of Hammurabi, which he probably knew +well, and this engraving must putatively be done by God himself, to give +it the proper solemnity. + +To have such a code as this engraved either by himself or by any workman +he could take into the mountain with him, would be a work of time and +would entail his absence from the camp, and this was a very serious risk. +But he was over-confident and determined to run it, rather than be baulked +of his purpose, + +"And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua; and Moses went up into the +mount of God. + +"And he said unto the elders, Tarry you here for us, until we come again +unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: and if any man have +matters to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went into the midst of +the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty +days and forty nights." + +But Moses had made the capital mistake of undervaluing the intelligence of +his audience. They had, doubtless, been impressed when Moses, as a +showman, had presented his spectacle, for Moses had a commanding presence +and he had chosen a wonderful locality for his performance. But once he +was gone the effect of what he had done evaporated and they began to value +the exhibition for what it really was. As men of common sense, said they +to one another, why should we linger here, if Moses has played this trick +upon us? Why not go back to Egypt, where at least we can get something to +eat? So they decided to bribe Aaron, who was venal and would do anything +for money. + +"And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, +the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, +make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man +that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of +him." + +When Aaron heard this proposition he showed no objection to accept, +provided the people made it worth his while to risk the wrath of Moses; so +he answered forthwith, "Break off the golden earrings, which are in the +ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them +unto me." + +These were the ornaments of which the departing Israelites had spoiled the +Egyptians and they must have been of very considerable value. At all +events, Aaron took them and melted them and made them into the image of a +calf, such as he had been used to see in Egypt. The calf was probably made +of wood and laminated with gold. Sir G. Wilkinson thinks that the calf was +made to represent Mnevis, with whose worship the Israelites had been +familiar in Egypt. Then Aaron proclaimed a feast for the next day in honor +of this calf and said, "To-morrow is a feast to the Lord," and they said, +"These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of +Egypt." + +"And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and +brought peace offerings: and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and +rose up to play." + +It was not very long before Moses became suspicious that all was not right +in the camp, and he prepared to go down, taking the two tables of +testimony in his hands. These stone tablets were covered with writing on +both sides, which must have taken a long time to engrave considering that +Moses was on a bare mountainside with probably nobody to help but Joshua. +Of course all that made this weary expedition worth the doing was that, as +the Bible says, "the tables were" to pass for "the work of God, and the +writing was the writing of God." Accordingly, it is not surprising that as +Moses "came nigh unto the camp," and he "saw the calf, and the dancing": +that his "anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and +brake them beneath the mount. + +"And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and +ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children +of Israel drink of it. + +"And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast +brought so great a sin upon them? + +"And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the +people, that they are set on mischief. + +"For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for +this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot +not what is become of him. + +"And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So +they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this +calf. + +"And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them +naked unto their shame among their enemies:)" that is to say, the people +had come to the feast unarmed, and without the slightest fear or suspicion +of a possible attack; then Moses saw his opportunity and placed himself in +a gate of the camp, and said: "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come +unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. + +"And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man +his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the +camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and +every man his neighbour. + +"And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there +fell of the people that day about three thousand men." + +There are few acts in all recorded history, including the awful massacres +of the Albigenses by Simon de Montfort and the Abbot Arnold, more +indefensible than this wholesale murder by Moses of several thousand +people who had trusted him, and whom he had entrusted to the care of his +own brother, who participated in their crime, supposing that they had +committed any crime saving the crime of tiring of his dictatorship. + +The effect of this massacre was to put Moses, for the rest of his life, in +the hands of the Levites with Aaron at their head, for only by having a +body of men stained with his own crimes and devoted to his fortunes could +Moses thenceforward hope to carry his adventure to a good end. Otherwise +he faced certain and ignominious failure. His preliminary task, therefore, +was to devise for the Levites a reward which would content them. His first +step in this direction was to go back to the mountain and seek a new +inspiration and a revelation more suited to the existing conditions than +the revelation conveyed before the golden calf incident. + +Up to this time there is nothing in Jewish history to show that the +priesthood was developing into a privileged and hereditary caste. With the +consecration of Aaron as high priest the process began. Moses spent +another six weeks in seclusion on the mount. And as soon as he returned to +the camp he proclaimed how the people should build and furnish a sanctuary +in which the priesthood should perform its functions. These directions +were very elaborate and detailed, and part of the furnishings of the +sanctuary consisted in the splendid and costly garments for Aaron and his +sons "for glory and for beauty." + +"And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and +sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And +thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: And thou shalt +anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister +unto me in the priest's office: for their anointing shall surely be an +everlasting priesthood, throughout their generations. + +"Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he." + +It followed automatically that, with the creation of a great vested +interest centred in an hereditary caste of priests, the pecuniary burden +on the people was correspondingly increased and that thenceforward Moses +became nothing but the representative of that vested interest: as +reactionary and selfish as all such representatives must be. How selfish +and how reactionary may readily be estimated by glancing at Numbers XVIII, +where God's directions are given to Aaron touching what he was to claim +for himself, and what the Levites were to take as their wages for service. +It was indeed liberal compensation. A good deal more than much of the +congregation thought such services worth. + +In the first place, Aaron and the Levites with him for their service "of +the tabernacle" were to have "all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance." +But this was a small part of their compensation. There were beside +perquisites, especially those connected with the sacrifices which the +people were constrained to make on the most trifling occasions; as, for +example, whenever they became _unclean_, through some accident, as +by touching a dead body: + +"This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: +every oblation of their's, every meat offering of their's, and every sin +offering of their's, and every trespass offering of their's, which they +shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and thy sons. + +"In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it; it +shall be holy unto thee. + +"And this is thine.... All the best of the oil, and all the best of the +wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they shall offer +unto the Lord, them have I given thee; ... every one that is clean in +thine house shall eat of it. + +"Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine.... + +"All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel +offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters +with thee, by a statute forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before +the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee." + +Also, on the taking of a census, such as occurred at Sinai, Aaron received +a most formidable perquisite. + +The Levites were not to be numbered; but there was to be a complicated +system of redemption at the rate of "five shekels by the poll, after the +shekel of the sanctuary." + +"And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them +that were redeemed by the Levites: Of the first-born of the children of +Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and three score and +five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; And Moses gave the money +of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons." + +Assuming the shekel of those days to have weighed two hundred and twenty- +four grains of silver, its value in our currency would have been about +fifty-five cents, but its purchasing power, twelve hundred years before +Christ, would have been, at the very most moderate estimate, at least ten +for one, which would have amounted to between six and seven thousand +dollars in hard cash for no service whatever, which, considering that the +Israelites were a wandering nomadic horde in the wilderness, was, it must +be admitted, a pretty heavy charge for the pleasure of observing the +performances of Aaron and his sons, in their gorgeous garments. + +Also, under any sedentary administration it followed that the high priest +must become the most considerable personage in the community, as well as +one of the richest. And thus as payment for the loyalty to himself of the +Levites during the massacre of the golden calf, Moses created a theocratic +aristocracy headed by Aaron and his sons, and comprising the whole tribe +of Levi, whose advancement in fortune could not fail to create discontent. +It did so: a discontent which culminated very shortly after in the +rebellion of Korah, which brought on a condition of things at Kadesh which +contributed to make the position of Moses intolerable. + +Moses was one of those administrators who were particularly reprobated by +Saint Paul; Men who "do evil," as in the slaughter of the feasters who set +up the golden calf, "that good may come," and "whose damnation," +therefore, "is just." [Footnote: Romans III, 8.] + +And Moses wrought thus through ambition, because, though personally +disinterested, he could not endure having his will thwarted. Aaron had +nearly the converse of such a temperament. Aaron appears to have had few +or no convictions; it mattered little to him whether he worshipped Jehovah +on Sinai or the golden calf at the foot of Sinai, provided he were paid at +his own price. And he took care to exact a liberal price. Also the +inference to be drawn from the way in which Moses behaved to him is that +Moses understood what manner of man he was. + +Jethro stood higher in the estimation of Moses, and Moses did his best to +keep Jethro with him, but, apparently, Jethro had watched Moses closely +and was not satisfied with his conduct of the exodus. On the eve of +departure from Sinai, just as the Israelites were breaking camp, Moses +sought out Jethro and said to him; "We are journeying unto the place of +which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will do +thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. + +"And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, +and to my kindred." + +Not discouraged, Moses kept on urging: "Leave us not, I pray thee; +forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou +mayest be to us instead of eyes. + +"And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness +the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee." It has been +inferred from a passage in Judges, [Footnote: Judges I, 16.] that Moses +induced Jethro to reconsider his refusal and that he did accompany the +congregation in its march to Kadesh, but, on the whole, the text of the +Bible fails to bear out such inference, for there is no subsequent mention +of Jethro in the books which treat directly of the trials of the journey, +although there would seem to have been abundant occasion for Moses to have +called upon Jethro for aid had Jethro been present. In his apparent +absence the march began, under the leadership of the Lord and Moses, very +much missing Jethro. + +They departed from the mount: "And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by +day," when they left the camp "to search out a resting-place." Certainly, +on this occasion, the Lord selected a poor spot for the purpose, quite +different from such an one as Jethro would have been expected to have +pointed out; for the children of Israel began complaining mightily, so +much so that it displeased the Lord who sent fire into the uttermost parts +of the camp, where it consumed them. + +"And the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the +fire was quenched." + +This suggestion of a divine fire under the control of Moses opens an +interesting speculation. + +The Magi, who were the priests of the Median religion, greatly developed +the practices of incantation and sorcery. Among these rites they +"pretended to have the power of making fire descend on to their altars by +means of magical ceremonies." [Footnote: Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, +226, 238.] Moses appears to have been very fond of this particular +miracle. It is mentioned as having been effective here at Taberah, and it +was the supposed weapon employed to suppress Korah's rebellion. Moses was +indeed a powerful enchanter. His relations with all the priestcraft of +central Asia were intimate, and if the Magi had secrets which were likely +to be of use to him in maintaining his position among the Jews, the +inference is that he would certainly have used them to the utmost; as he +did the brazen serpent, the ram's horns at Sinai, and the like. But in +spite of all his miracles Moses found his task too heavy, and he frankly +confessed that he wished himself dead. + +"Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families... and the +anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. + +"And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy +servant? ... that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? + +"Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou +shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father +beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their +fathers? + +"Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep +unto me saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. + +"I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for +me. + +"And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I +have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness." + +Leaving aside for the moment all our childish preventions, and considering +this evidence in the cold light of history, it becomes tolerably evident +that Moses had now reached the turning-point in his career, the point +whither he had inexorably tended since the day on which he bid good-bye to +Jethro to visit Egypt and attempt to gain control of the exodus, and the +point to which all optimists must come who resolve to base a religious or +a political movement on the manipulation of the supernatural. However pure +and disinterested the motives of such persons may be at the outset, and +however thoroughly they may believe in themselves and in their mission, +sooner or later, to compass their purpose, they must resort to deception +and thus become impostors who flourish on the credulity of their dupes. + +Moses, from the nature of the case, had to make such demands on the +credulity of his followers that even those who were bound to him by the +strongest ties of affection and self-interest were alienated, and those +without such commanding motives to submit to his claim to exact from them +absolute obedience, revolted, and demanded that he should be deposed. The +first serious trouble with which Moses had to contend came to a head at +Hazeroth, the second station after leaving Sinai. The supposed spot is +still used as a watering-place. There Miriam and Aaron attacked Moses +because they were jealous of his wife, whom they decried as an +"Ethiopian." And they said, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? +hath he not spoken also by us?" Instantly, it became evident to Moses that +if this denial of his superior intimacy with God were to be permitted, his +supremacy must end. Accordingly the Lord came down "in the pillar of the +cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and +Miriam: and they both came forth." And the Lord explained that he had no +objection to a prophet; if any one among the congregation had an ambition +to be a prophet he would communicate with him in a dream; but there must +always be a wide difference between such a man or woman and Moses with +whom he would "speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark +speeches." And then God demanded irritably, "Wherefore, then, were ye not +afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" "Afterward the cloud," +according to the Bible, departed and God with it. + +Ever since the dawn of time the infliction of or the cure of disease has +been the stronghold of the necromancer, the wise man, the magician, the +saint, the prophet and the priest, and Moses was no exception to the rule, +only hitherto he had had no occasion to display his powers of this kind. +Nevertheless, among the Hebrews of the exodus, the field for this form of +miracle was large. Leprosy was very prevalent, so much so that in Egypt +the Jews were called a nation of lepers. And in the camp the regulations +touching them were strict and numerous. But the Jews were always a dirty +race. + +In chapter XIII of Leviticus, elaborate directions are given as to how the +patient shall be brought before Aaron himself, or at least some other of +the priests, who was to examine the sore and, if it proved to be a +probable case of leprosy, the patient was to be excluded from the camp for +a week. At the end of that time the disease, if malignant, was supposed to +show signs of spreading, in which case there was no cure and the patient +was condemned to civil death. On the contrary, if no virulent symptoms +developed during the week, the patient was pronounced clean and returned +to ordinary life. + +The miracle in the case of Miriam was this: When the cloud departed from +off the tabernacle, Miriam was found to be "leprous, white as snow," just +as Moses' hand was found to be white with leprosy after his conversation +with the Lord at the burning bush. Upon this Aaron, who had been as guilty +as Miriam, and was proportionately nervous, made a prayer to Moses: "Alas, +my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done +foolishly.... Let her not be as one dead. + +"And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech +thee." + +But the Lord replied: "If her father had but spit in her face, should she +not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, +and after that let her be received in again." + +This was the Mosaic system of discipline. And it was serious for all +parties concerned. Evidently it was very serious for Miriam, who had to +leave her tent and be exiled to some spot in the desert, where she had to +shift for herself. We all know the almost intolerable situation of those +unfortunates who, in the East, are excluded from social intercourse, and +sit without the gate, and are permitted to approach no one. But it was +also a serious infliction for the congregation, since Miriam was a +personage of consequence, and had to be waited for. That is to say, a +million or two of people had to delay their pilgrimage until Moses had +determined how much punishment Miriam deserved for her insubordination, +and this was a question which lay altogether within the discretion of +Moses. In that age there were at least seven varieties of eruptions which +could hardly, if at all, be distinguished, in their early stages, from +leprosy, and it was left to Moses to say whether or not Miriam had been +attacked by true leprosy or not. There was no one, apparently, to question +his judgment, for, since Jethro had left the camp, there was no one to +controvert the Mosaic opinion on matters such as these. Doubtless Moses +was content to give Aaron and Miriam a fright; but also Moses intended to +make them understand that they lay absolutely at his mercy. + +After this outbreak of discontent had been thus summarily suppressed and +Miriam had been again received as "clean," the caravan resumed its march +and entered into the wilderness of Paran, which adjoined Palestine, and +from whence an invasion of Canaan, if one were to be attempted, would be +organized. Accordingly Moses appointed a reconnaissance, who in the +language of the Bible are called "spies," to examine the country, report +its condition, and decide whether an attack were feasible. + +On this occasion Moses seems to have remembered the lesson he learned at +Sinai. He did not undertake to leave the camp himself for a long interval. +He sent the men whom he supposed he could best trust, among whom were +Joshua and Caleb. These men, who corresponded to what, in a modern army, +would be called the general-staff, were not sent to manufacture a report +which they might have reason to suppose would be pleasing to Moses, but to +state precisely what they saw and heard together with their conclusions +thereon, that they might aid their commander in an arduous campaign; and +this duty they seem, honestly enough, to have performed. But this was very +far from satisfying Moses, who wanted to make a strenuous offensive, and +yet sought some one else to take the responsibility therefor. + +The spies were absent six weeks and when they returned were divided in +opinion. They all agreed that Canaan was a good land, and, in verity, +flowing with milk and honey. But the people, most of them thought, were +too strong to be successfully attacked. "The cities were walled and very +great," and moreover "we saw the children of Anak there." + +"The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the +Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites +dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. + +"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at +once, ... for we are well able to overcome it. + +"But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against +the people; for they are stronger than we. + +"And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched, +... saying, ... all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. + +"And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, ... and we were in our own +sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight." + +Had Moses been gifted with military talent, or with any of the higher +instincts of the soldier, he would have arranged to have received this +report in private and would then have acted as he thought best. Above all +he would have avoided anything like a council of war by the whole +congregation, for a vast popular meeting of that kind was certain to +become unmanageable the moment a division appeared in their command, upon +a difficult question of policy. + +Moses did just the opposite. He convened the people to hear the report of +the "spies." And immediately the majority became dangerously depressed, +not to say mutinous. + +"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people +wept that night. + +"And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: +and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in +the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness!... + +"And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return +into Egypt. + +"Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the +congregation of the children of Israel." + +But Joshua, who was a soldier, when Moses thus somewhat ignominiously +collapsed, retained his presence of mind and his energy. He and Caleb +"rent their clothes," and reiterated their advice. + +"And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, +The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. + +"If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give +it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. + +"Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the +land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them... +fear them not. + +"But all the congregation bade stone them with stones." + +By this time Moses seems to have recovered some composure. Enough, at +least, to repeat certain violent threats of the "Lord." + +Nothing is so impressive in all this history as the difference between +Moses when called upon to take responsibility as a military commander, and +Moses when, not to mince matters, he acted as a quack. On the one hand, he +was all vacillation, timidity, and irritability. On the other, all +temerity and effrontery. + +In this particular emergency, which touched his very life, Moses vented +his disappointment and vexation in a number of interviews which he +pretended to have had with the "Lord," and which he retailed to the +congregation, just at the moment when they needed, as Joshua perceived, to +be steadied and encouraged. + +"How long," vociferated the Lord, when Moses had got back his power of +speech, "will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they +believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? + +"I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make +of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." + +But when Moses had cooled a little and came to reflect upon what he had +made the "Lord" say, he fell into his ordinary condition of hesitancy. +Supposing some great disaster should happen to the Jews at Kadesh, which +lay not so very far from the Egyptian border, the Egyptians would +certainly hear of it, and in that case the Egyptian army might pursue and +capture Moses. Such a contingency was not to be contemplated, and +accordingly Moses began to make reservations. It must be remembered that +all these ostensible conversations with the "Lord" went on in public; that +is to say, Moses proffered his advice to the Lord aloud, and then retailed +his version of the answer he received. + +"Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which +have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, + +"Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he +sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.... + +"Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the +greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt +even until now. + +"And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word." + +Had Moses left the matter there it would not have been so bad, but he +could not contain his vexation, because his staff had not divined his +wishes. Those men, though they had done their strict duty only, must be +punished, so he thought, to maintain his ascendancy. + +Of the twelve "spies" whom Moses had sent into Canaan to report to him, +ten had incurred his bitter animosity because they failed to render him +such a report as would sustain him before the people in making the +campaign of invasion to which he felt himself pledged, and on the success +of which his reputation depended. Of these ten men, Moses, to judge by the +character of his demands upon the Lord, thought it incumbent on him to +make an example, in order to sustain his own credit. + +To simply exclude these ten spies from Palestine, as he proposed to do +with the rest of the congregation, would hardly be enough, for the rest of +the Hebrews were, at most, passive, but these ten had wilfully ignored the +will of Moses, or, as he expressed it, of the Lord. Therefore it was the +Lord's duty, as Moses saw it, to punish them. And this Moses proposed that +the Lord should do in a prompt and awful manner: the lesson being pointed +by the immunity of Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who had had the wit to +divine the will of Moses. Therefore, all ten of these men died of the +plague while the congregation lay encamped at Kadesh, though Joshua and +Caleb remained immune. + +Moses, as the commanding general of an attacking army, took a course +diametrically opposed to that of Joshua, and calculated to be fatal to +victory. He vented his irritation in a series of diatribes which he +attributed to the "Lord," and which discouraged and confused his men at +the moment when their morale was essential to success. + +Therefore, the Lord, according to Moses, went on: + +"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of +the Lord. + +"Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I +did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, +and have not hearkened to my voice; + +"Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, +neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: + +"But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath +followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went;..." + +Having said all this, and, as far as might be, disorganized the army, +Moses surrendered suddenly his point. He made the "Lord" go on to command: +"Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red +Sea." But, not even yet content, Moses assured them that this retreat +should profit them nothing. + +"And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I +bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard +the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me." +And the Lord continued: + +"Say unto them, As truly as I live, ... as ye have spoken in mine ears, so +will I do to you. + +"Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered +of you, ... from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against +me, + +"Doubtless ye shall not come into the land.... + +"But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.... + +"And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made +all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon +the land,-- + +"Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by +the plague before the Lord. + +"But Joshua ... and Caleb, ... which were of the men that went to search +the land, lived still. + +"And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel and the +people mourned greatly." + +The congregation were now completely out of hand. They knew not what Moses +wanted to do, nor did they comprehend what Moses was attempting to make +the Lord threaten: except that he had in mind some dire mischief. +Accordingly, the people decided that the best thing for them was to go +forward as Joshua and Caleb proposed. So, early in the morning, they went +up into the top of the mountain, saying, "We be here, and will go up unto +the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned." + +But Moses was more dissatisfied than ever. "Wherefore now do you +transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper." +Notwithstanding, "they presumed to go up unto the hilltop: nevertheless +the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the +camp. + +"Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites, which dwelt in that +hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah"; which was +at a very considerable distance,--perhaps not less than thirty miles, +though the positions are not very well established. + +This is the story as told by the priestly chronicler, who, of course, said +the best that could be said for Moses. But he makes a sorry tale of it. +According to him, Moses, having been disappointed with the report made by +his officers on the advisability of an immediate offensive, committed the +blunder of summoning the whole assembly of the people to listen to it, and +then, in the midst of the panic he had created, he lost his self- +possession and finally his temper. Whereupon his soldiers, not knowing +what to do or what he wanted, resolved to follow the advice of Joshua and +advance. + +But this angered Moses more than ever, who committed the unpardonable +crime in the eyes of the soldier; he abandoned his men in the presence of +the enemy and by this desertion so weakened them that they sustained the +worst defeat the Israelites suffered during the whole of their wanderings +in the wilderness. Such a disaster brought on a crisis. The only wonder is +that it had been so long delayed. Moses had had since the exodus a +wonderful opportunity to test the truth of his theories. He had asserted +that the universe was the expression of a single and supreme mind, which +operated according to a fixed moral law. That he alone, of all men, +understood this mind, and could explain and administer its law, and that +this he could and would do were he to obtain absolute obedience to the +commands which he uttered. Were he only obeyed, he would win for his +followers victory in battle, and a wonderful land to which they should +march under his guidance, which was the Promised Land, and thereafter all +was to be well with them. + +The disaster at Hormah had demonstrated that he was no general, and even +on that very day the people had proof before their eyes that he knew +nothing of the desert, and that the Lord knew no more than he, since there +was no water at Kadesh, and to ask the congregation to encamp in such a +spot was preposterous. Meanwhile Moses absorbed all the offices of honor +and profit for his family. Aaron and his descendants monopolized the +priesthood, and this was a bitter grievance to other equally ambitious +Levites. In short, the Mosaic leadership was vulnerable on every hand. +Attack on Moses was, therefore, inevitable, and it came from Korah, who +was leader of the opposition. + +Korah was a cousin of Moses, and one of the ablest and most influential +men in the camp, to whom Dathan and Abiram and "two hundred and fifty" +princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, joined +themselves. "And they gathered themselves together against Moses and +against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all +the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: +wherefore then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" + +Koran's grievance was that he had been, although a Levite, excluded from +the priesthood in favor of the demands of Aaron and his sons. + +"And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face." + +And yet something had to be done. Moses faced an extreme danger. His life +hung upon the issue. As between him and Korah he had to demonstrate which +was the better sorcerer or magician, and he could only do this by +challenging Korah to the test of the ordeal: the familiar test of the +second clause of the code of Hammurabi; "If the holy river makes that man +to be innocent, and has saved him, he who laid the spell upon him shall be +put to death. He who plunged into the holy river shall take to himself the +house of him who wove the spell upon him." [Footnote: Code of Laws +promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon. Translated by C. H. W. Johns, +M.A., Section 2.] And so with Elijah, to whom Ahaziah sent a captain of +fifty to arrest him. And Elijah said to the captain of fifty, "If I be a +man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy +fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his +fifty." [Footnote: 2 Kings I, 10.] + +In a word, the ordeal was the common form of test by which the enchanter, +the sorcerer, or the magician always was expected to prove himself. Moses +already had tried the test by fire at least once, and probably oftener. So +now Moses reproached Korah because he was jealous of Aaron; "and what is +Aaron, that ye murmur against him?... This do; Take you censers, Korah, +and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before +the Lord to-morrow; and ... whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: +ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." + +But it was not only about the priesthood that Moses had trouble on his +hands. He had undertaken, with the help of the Lord, to lead the +Israelites through the wilderness. But at every step of the way his +incompetence became more manifest. Even there, at that very camp of +Kadesh, there was no water, and all the people clamored. And, therefore, +Dathan and Abiram taunted him with failure, and with his injustice to +those who served him. And Moses had no reply, except that he denied having +abused his power. + +"And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, +We will not come up: + +"Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that +floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou +make thyself altogether a prince over us? + +"Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and +honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out +the eyes of these men [probably alluding to the "spies"]? We will not come +up." + +This was evidently an exceedingly sore spot. Moses had boasted that, +because the "spies" had rendered to the congregation what they believed to +be a true report instead of such a report as he had expected, the "Lord" +had destroyed them by the plague. And it is pretty evident that the +congregation believed him. It could hardly have been by pure accident that +out of twelve men, the ten who had offended Moses should have died by the +plague, and the other two alone should have escaped. Moses assumed to have +the power of destroying whom he pleased by the pestilence through prayer +to the "Lord," and he, indeed, probably had the power, in such a spot as +an ancient Jewish Nomad camp, not indeed by prayer, but by the very human +means of communicating so virulent a poison as the plague: means which he +very well understood. + +Therefore it is not astonishing that this insinuation should have stung +Moses to the quick. + +"And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their +offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of +them." + +Then Moses turned to Korah, "Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, +thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow: + +"And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye +before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers." + +And Korah, on the morrow, gathered all the congregation against them unto +the door of the tabernacle. And the "Lord" then as usual intervened and +advised Moses to "separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I +may consume them in a moment." And Moses did so. That is to say, he made +an effort to divide the opposition, who, when united, he seems to have +appreciated, were too strong for him. + +What happened next is not known. That Moses partially succeeded in his +attempt at division is admitted, for he persuaded Dathan and Abiram and +their following to "depart ... from the tents of these wicked men, and +touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins." + +Exactly what occurred after this is unknown. The chronicle, of course, +avers that "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their +houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods." +But it could not have been this or anything like it, for the descendants +of Korah, many generations after, were still doing service in the Temple, +and at the time of the miracle the spectators were not intimidated by the +sight, although all "Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of +them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. + +"And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and +fifty men that offered incense." + +Notwithstanding all which, the congregation next day were as hostile and +as threatening as ever. + +"On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured +against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the +Lord.... + +"And they fell upon their faces." + +In this crisis of his fate, when it seemed that nothing could save Moses +from a conflict with the mass of his followers, who had renounced him, +Moses showed that audacity and fertility of resource, which had hitherto +enabled him, and was destined until his death to enable him, to maintain +his position, at least as a prophet, among the Jewish people. + +The plague was always the most dreaded of visitations among the ancient +Jews: far more terrible than war. It was already working havoc in the +camp, as the death of the "spies" shows us. Moses always asserted his +ability to control it, and at this instant, when, apparently, he and Aaron +were lying on their faces before the angry people, he conceived the idea +that he would put his theurgetic powers to the proof. Suddenly he called +to Aaron to "take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and +put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an +atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague +is begun." + +"And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the +congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: ... and +made an atonement for the people. + +"And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. + +"Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven +hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah." + +Even this was not enough. The discontent continued, and Moses went on to +meet it by the miracle of Aaron's rod. + +Moses took a rod from each tribe, twelve rods in all and on Aaron's rod he +wrote the name of Levi, and Moses laid them out in the tabernacle. And the +next day Moses examined the rods and showed the congregation how Aaron's +rod had budded. And Moses declared that Aaron's rod should be kept for a +token against the rebels: and that they must stop their murmurings "that +they die not." + +This manipulation of the plague by Moses, upon what seems to have been a +sudden inspiration, was a stroke of genius in the way of quackery. He was, +indeed, in this way almost portentous. It had a great and terrifying +effect upon the people, who were completely subdued by it. Against +corporeal enemies they might hope to prevail, but they were helpless +against the plague. And they all cried out with one accord, "Behold we +die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the +tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?" + +As I have already pointed out, Moses was a very great theurgist, as many +saints and prophets have been. When in the actual presence of others he +evidently had the power of creating a belief in himself which approached +the miraculous, so far as disease was concerned. And he presumed on this +power and took correspondingly great risks. The case of the brazen serpent +is an example. The story is--and there is no reason to doubt its +substantial truth--that the Hebrews were attacked by venomous serpents +probably in the neighborhood of Mount Hor, where Aaron died, and thereupon +Moses set up a large brazen serpent on a pole, and declared that whoever +would look upon the serpent should live. Also, apparently, it did produce +an effect upon those who believed: which, of course, is not an +unprecedented phenomenon among faith healers. But what is interesting in +this historical anecdote is not that Moses performed certain faith cures +by the suggestion of a serpent, but that the Israelites themselves, when +out of the presence of Moses, recognized that he had perpetrated on them a +vulgar fraud. For example, King Hezekiah destroyed this relic, which had +been preserved in the Temple, calling it "Nehushtan," "a brazen thing," as +an expression of his contempt. And what is more remarkable still is that +although Hezekiah reigned four or five centuries after the exodus, yet +science had made no such advance in the interval as to justify this +contempt. Hezekiah seems to have been every whit as credulous as were the +pilgrims who looked on the brazen serpent and were healed. Hezekiah "was +sick unto death, and Isaiah came to see him, and told him to set his house +in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.... And Hezekiah wept sore." + +Then, like Moses, Isaiah had another revelation in which he was directed +to return to Hezekiah, and tell him that he was to live fifteen years +longer. And Isaiah told the attendants to take "a lump of figs." "And they +took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered." + +Afterward Hezekiah asked of Isaiah how he was to know that the Lord would +keep his word and give him fifteen additional years of life. Isaiah told +him that the shadow should go back ten degrees on the dial. And Isaiah +"cried unto the Lord," and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward "by +which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." [Footnote: 2 Kings xx, 11.] +And yet this man Hezekiah, who could believe in this marvellous cure of +Isaiah, repudiated with scorn the brazen serpent as an insult to +credulity. The contrast between Moses, who hesitated not to take all risks +in matters of disease with which he felt himself competent to cope, and +his timidity and hesitation in matters of war, is astounding. But it is a +common phenomenon with the worker of miracles and indicates the limit of +faith at which the saint or prophet has always betrayed the impostor. For +example: Saint Bernard, when he preached in 1146 the Second Crusade, made +miraculous cures by the thousand, so much so that there was danger of +being killed in the crowds which pressed upon him. And yet this same +saint, when chosen by the crusaders four years later, in 1150, to lead +them because of his power to constrain victory by the intervention of God, +wrote, after the crusaders' defeat, in terror to the pope to protect him, +because he was unfit to take such responsibility. + +But even with this reservation Moses could not gain the complete +confidence of the congregation and the insecurity of his position finally +broke him down. + +At this same place of Kadesh, Miriam died, "and the people chode with +Moses because there was no water for the congregation." [Footnote: Numbers +xx, 8.] Moses thereupon withdrew and, as usual, received a revelation. And +the Lord directed him to take his rod, "and speak ye unto the rock before +their eyes; and it shall give forth his water." + +And Moses gathered the congregation and said unto them, "Hear now, ye +rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?" + +"And he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly." + +But Moses felt that he had offended God, "Because ye believed me not, to +sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not +bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." + +Moses had become an old man, and he felt himself unequal to the burden he +had assumed. He recognized that his theory of cause and effect had broken +down, and that the "Lord" whom at the outset he had firmly believed to be +an actual and efficient power to be dominated by him, either could not or +would not support him in emergency. In short, he had learned that he was +an adventurer who must trust to himself. Hence, after Hormah he was a +changed man. Nothing could induce him to lead the Jews across the Jordan +to attack the peoples on the west bank, and though the congregation made a +couple of campaigns against Sihon and Og, whose ruthlessness has always +been a stain on Moses, the probability is that Moses did not meddle much +with the active command. Had he done so, the author of Deuteronomy would +have given the story in more detail and Moses more credit. All that is +attributed to Moses is a division of the conquests made together with +Joshua, and a fruitless prayer to the Lord that he might be permitted to +cross the Jordan. + +Meanwhile life was ending for him. His elder sister Miriam died at Kadesh, +and Aaron died somewhat later at Mount Hor, which is supposed to lie about +as far to the east of Kadesh as Hormah is to the west, but there are +circumstances about the death of Aaron which point to Moses as having had +more to do with it than of having been a mere passive spectator thereof. + +The whole congregation is represented as having "journeyed from Kadesh and +come unto Mount Hor ... by the coast of the land of Edom," and there the +"Lord" spoke unto Moses and Aaron, and explained that Aaron was to be +"gathered unto his people, ... because ye rebelled ... at the water of +Meribah." Therefore Moses was to "take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and +bring them up unto Mount Hor: and strip Aaron of his garments, and put +them upon Eleazar," ... and that Aaron ... shall die there. + +"And they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And +Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; +and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came +down from the mount." [Footnote: Numbers xx, 22-28.] + +Now it is incredible that all this happened as straightforwardly as the +chronicle would have us believe. Aaron was an old man and probably +failing, but his death was not imminent. On the contrary, he had strength +to climb Mount Hor with Moses, without aid, and there is no hint that he +suffered from any ailment likely to end his life suddenly. Moses took care +that he and Eleazar should be alone with Aaron so that there should be no +witness as to what occurred, and Moses alone knew what was expected. + +Moses had time to take off the priestly garments, which were the insignia +of office and to put them on Eleazar, and then, when all was ready, Aaron +simply ceased to breathe at the precise moment when it was convenient for +Moses to have him die, for the policy of Moses evidently demanded that +Aaron should live no longer. Under the conditions of the march Moses was +evidently preparing for his own death, and for a complete change in the +administration of affairs. Appreciating that his leadership had broken +down and that the system he had created was collapsing, he had dawdled as +long on the east side of the Jordan as the patience of the congregation +would permit. An advance had become inevitable, but Moses recognized his +own inability to lead it. The command had to be delegated to a younger man +and that man was Joshua. Eleazar, on the other hand, was the only +available candidate for the high priesthood, and Moses took the +opportunity of making the investiture on Mount Hor. So Aaron passed away, +a sacrifice to the optimism of Moses. Next came the turn of Moses himself. +The whole story is told in Deuteronomy. Within, probably, something less +than a year after Aaron's death the "Lord" made a like communication to +Moses. + +"Get thee up ... unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is +over against Jericho; + +"And die in the Mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy +people; as Aaron, thy brother died in Mount Hor; + +"Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the +waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified +me not in the midst of the children of Israel. + +"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, ... +And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan. + +"And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, +according to the word of the Lord.... But no man knoweth of his sepulchre +unto this day. + +"And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was +not dim, nor his natural force abated." + +The facts, as preserved by Josephus, appear to have been these: Moses +ascended the mountain with only the elders, the high priest Eleazar, and +Joshua. At the top of the mountain he dismissed the elders, and then, as +he was embracing Joshua and Eleazar and still speaking, a cloud covered +him, and he disappeared in a ravine. In other words, he killed himself. + +Such is the story of Moses, a fragment of history interesting enough in +itself, but especially material to us not only because of the development +of the thought dealt with in the following volumes, but of the inferences +which, at the present time, it permits us to draw touching our own +immediate future. + +Moses was the first great optimist of whom any record remains, and one of +the greatest. He was the prototype of all those who have followed. He was +a visionary. All optimists must be visionaries. Moses based the social +system which he tried to organize, not on observed facts, but on _a +priori_ theories evolved out of his own mind, and he met with the +failure that all men of that cast of mind must meet with when he sought to +realize his visions. His theory was that the universe about him was the +expression of an infinite mind which operated according to law. That this +mind, or consciousness, was intelligent and capable of communicating with +man. That it did, in fact, so communicate through him, as a medium, and +that other men had only to receive humbly and obey implicitly his +revelations to arrive at a condition nearly approaching, if not absolutely +reaching, perfection, while they should enjoy happiness and prosperity in +the land in which they should be permitted, by an infinite and +supernatural power and wisdom, to dwell. All this is not alien to the +attitude of scientific optimists at the present day, who anticipate +progressive perfection. + +Let us consider, for a moment, whither these _a priori_ theories led, +when put in practice upon human beings, including himself. And, in the +first place, it will probably be conceded that no optimist could have, or +ever hope to have, a fairer opportunity to try his experiment than had +Moses on that plastic Hebrew community which he undertook to lead through +Arabia. Also it must be admitted that Moses, as an expounder of a moral +code, achieved success. The moral principles which he laid down have been +accepted as sound from that day to this, and are still written up in our +churches, as a standard for men and women, however slackly they may be +observed. But when we come to mark the methods by which Moses obtained +acceptance of his code by his contemporaries, and, above all, sought to +constrain obedience to himself and to it, we find the prospect unalluring. +To begin with, Moses had only begun the exodus when he learned from his +practical father-in-law that the system he employed was fantastic and +certain to fail: his notion being that he should sit and judge causes +himself, as the mouthpiece of the infinite, and that therefore each +judgment he gave would demand a separate miracle or imposture. This could +not be contemplated. Therefore Moses was constrained to impose his code in +writing, once for all, by one gigantic fraud which he must perpetrate +himself. This he tried at Sinai, unblushingly declaring that the stone +tablets which he produced were "written with the finger of God"; +wherefore, as they must have been written by himself, or under his +personal supervision, he brazenly and deliberately lied. His good faith +was obviously suspected, and this suspicion caused disastrous results. To +support his lie Moses caused three thousand unsuspecting and trusting men +to be murdered in cold blood, whose only crime was that they would have +preferred another leadership to his, and because, had they been able to +effect their purpose, they would have disappointed his ambition. + +To follow Moses further in the course which optimism enforced upon him +would be tedious, as it would be to recapitulate the story which has +already been told. It suffices to say shortly that, at every camp, he had +to sink to deeper depths of fraud, deception, lying, and crime in order to +maintain his credit. It might be that, as at Meribah, it was only claiming +for himself a miracle which he knew he could not work, and for claiming +which, instead of giving the credit to God, he openly declared he deserved +and must receive punishment; or it might be some impudent quackery, like +the brazen serpent, which at least was harmless; or it might have been +complicated combinations which suggest a deeper shade; as, for example, +the outbreak of the plague, after Korah's rebellion, which bears the +aspect of a successful effort at intimidation to support his own wavering +credit. But the result was always the same. Moses had promised that the +supernatural power he pretended to control should sustain him and give +victory. Possibly, when he started on the exodus he verily believed that +such a power existed, was amenable and could be constrained to intervene. +He found that he had been mistaken on all these heads, and when he +accepted these facts as final, nothing remained for him but suicide, as +has been related. It only remains to glance, for a single moment, at what +befell, when he had gone, the society he had organized on the optimistic +principle of the approach of human beings toward perfection. During the +period of the Judges, when "there was no king in Israel, but every man did +that which was right in his own eyes," [Footnote: Judges xvii, 6.] anarchy +supervened, indeed, but also the whole Mosaic system broke down because of +the imbecility of the men on whom Moses relied to lift the people toward +perfection. + +Eli, a descendant of Aaron, was high priest, and a judge, being the +predecessor of Samuel, the last of the judges. Now Eli had two sons who +"were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord." + +Eli, being very old, "heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how +they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle...." +And Eli argued with them; "notwithstanding they harkened not unto the +voice of their father." + +Samuel succeeded Eli. He was not a descendant of Aaron, but became a +judge, apparently, upon his own merits. But as a judge he did not +constrain his sons any better than Eli had his, for "they took bribes, and +perverted judgment." So the elders of Israel came to Samuel and said, +"Give us a king to judge us." "And Samuel prayed unto the Lord," though he +disliked the idea. Yet the result was inevitable. The kingdom was set up, +and the Mosaic society perished. Nothing was left of Mosaic optimism but +the tradition. Also there was the Mosaic morality, and what that amounted +to may best, perhaps, be judged by David, who was the most perfect flower +of the perfection to which humanity was to attain under the Mosaic law, +and has always stood for what was best in Mosaic optimism. David's +morality is perhaps best illustrated by the story of Uriah the Hittite. + +One day David saw Uriah's wife taking a bath on her housetop and took a +fancy to her. The story is all told in the Second of Samuel. How David +sent for her, took her into the palace, and murdered Uriah by sending him +to Joab who commanded the army, and instructing Joab to set Uriah in the +forefront of the hottest battle, and "retire ye from him that he may be +smitten and die." And Uriah was killed. + +Then came the famous parable by Nathan of the ewe lamb. "And David's anger +was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord +liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die. + +"And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man." + +And Nathan threatened David with all kinds of disaster and even with +death, and David was very repentant and "he fasted and lay all night upon +the earth." But for all that, when assured that nothing worse was to +happen to him than the loss of the son Bathsheba had borne him, David +comforted Bathsheba. He by no means gave her up. On the contrary, "he went +in unto her ... and she bare him a son, and he called his name Solomon: +and the Lord loved him." + +Again the flesh had prevailed. And so it has always been with each new +movement which has been stimulated by an idealism inspired by a belief +that the spirit was capable of generating an impulse which would overcome +the flesh and which could cause men to move toward perfection along any +other path than the least resistant. And this because man is an automaton, +and can move no otherwise. In this point of view nothing can be more +instructive than to compare the Roman with the Mosaic civilization, for +the Romans were a sternly practical people and worshipped force as Moses +worshipped an ideal. + +As Moses dreamed of realizing the divine consciousness on earth by +introspection and by prayer, so the Romans supposed that they could attain +to prosperity and happiness on earth by the development of superior +physical force and the destruction of all rivals. Cato the Censor was the +typical Roman landowner, the type of the class which built up the great +vested interest in land which always moved and dominated Rome. He +expressed the Roman ideal in his famous declaration in the Senate, when he +gave his vote for the Third Punic War; "_Delenda est Carthago_," Carthage +must be destroyed. And Carthage was destroyed because to a Roman to +destroy Carthage was a logical competitive necessity. Subsequently, the +Romans took the next step in their social adjustment at home. They deified +the energy which had destroyed Carthage. The incarnation of physical force +became the head of the State;--the Emperor when living, the Divus, when +dead. And this conception gained expression in the law. This godlike +energy found vent in the Imperial will; "_Quod principi placuit, legis +habet vigorem_." [Footnote: Inst. l, 2, 6.] + +Nothing could be more antagonistic to the Mosaic philosophy, which invoked +the supernatural unity as authority for every police regulation. Moreover, +the Romans carried out their principle relentlessly, to their own +destruction. That great vested interest which had absorbed the land of +Italy, and had erected the administrative entity which policed it, could +not hold and cultivate its land profitably, in competition with other +lands such as Egypt, North Africa, or Assyria, which were worked by a +cheaper and more resistant people. Therefore the Roman landowners imported +this competitive population from their homes, having first seized them as +slaves, and cultivated their own Italian fields with them after the +eviction of the original native peasants, who could not survive on the +scanty nutriment on which the eastern races throve. [Footnote: I have +dealt with this subject at length in my _Law of Civilization and +Decay_, chapter II, to which I must refer the reader. More fully still +in the French translation. "This unceasing emigration gradually changed +the character of the rural population, and a similar alteration took place +in the army. As early as the time of Cæsar, Italy was exhausted; his +legions were mainly raised in Gaul, and as the native farmers sank into +serfdom or slavery, and then at last vanished, recruits were drawn more +and more from beyond the limits of the empire." I cannot repeat my +arguments here, but I am not aware that they have been seriously +controverted.] + +The Roman law, the _Romana lex_, was as gigantic, as original, and as +comprehensive a structure as was the empire which gave to it expression. +Modern European law is but a dilution thereof. The Roman law attained +perfection, as I conceive, about the time of the Antonines, through the +great jurists who then flourished. If one might name a particular moment +at which so vast and complex a movement culminated, one would be tempted +to suggest the reign of Hadrian, who appointed Salvius Julianus to draw up +the _edictum perpetuum_, or permanent edict, in the year 132 A.D. +Thenceforward the magistrate had to use his discretion only when the edict +of Julianus did not apply. + +I am not aware that any capital principle of municipal law has been +evolved since that time, and the astonishing power of the Roman mind can +only be appreciated when it is remembered that the whole of this colossal +fabric was original. Modern European law has been only a servile copy. +But, regard being had to the position of the emperor in relation to the +people, and more especially in relation to the vast bureaucracy of Rome, +which was the embodiment of the vested interest which was Rome itself, the +adherence of Roman thought to the path of least resistance was absolute. +"So far as the cravings of Stoicism found historical and political +fulfilment, they did so in the sixty years of Hadrian and the Antonines, +and so far again as an individual can embody the spirit of an age, its +highest and most representative impersonation is unquestionably to be +found in the person of Marcus Antoninus.... Stoicism faced the whole +problem of existence, and devoted as searching an investigation to +processes of being and of thought, to physics and to dialectic, as to the +moral problems presented by the emotions and the will." [Footnote: +_Marcus Aurelius Antoninus_, in English, by Gerald H. Rendall, +Introduction, xxvii.] + +Such was stoicism, of which Marcus Aurelius was and still remains the +foremost expression. He admitted that as emperor his first duty was to +sacrifice himself for the public and he did his duty with a constancy +which ultimately cost him his life. Among these duties was the great duty +of naming his successor. The Roman Empire never became strictly +hereditary. It hinged, as perhaps no other equally developed system ever +hinged, upon the personality of the emperor, who incarnated the +administrative bureaucracy which gave effect to the _Pax Romana_ and +the _Romana lex_ from the Euphrates to the Atlantic and from Scotland +to the Tropic of Cancer. Of all men Marcus Aurelius was the most +conscientious and the most sincere, and he understood, as perhaps no other +man in like position ever understood, the responsibility which impinged on +him, to allow no private prevention to impose an unfit emperor upon the +empire But Marcus had a son Commodus, who was nineteen when his father +died, and who had already developed traits which caused foreboding. +Nevertheless, Marcus associated Commodus with himself in the empire when +Commodus was fourteen and Commodus attained to absolute power when Marcus +died. Subsequently, Commodus became the epitome of all that was basest and +worst in a ruler. He was murdered by the treachery of Marcia, his favorite +concubine, and the Senate decreed that "his body should be dragged with a +hook into the stripping room of the gladiators, to satiate the public +fury." [Footnote: _Decline and Fall_, chap. iv.] + +From that day Rome entered upon the acute stage of her decline, and she +did so very largely because Marcus Aurelius, the ideal stoic, was +incapable of violating the great law of nature which impelled him to +follow not reason, but the path of least resistance in choosing a +successor; or, in other words, the instinct of heredity. Moreover, this +instinct and not reason is or has been, among the strongest which operate +upon men, and makes them automata. It is the basis upon which the family +rests, and the family is the essence of social cohesion. Also the +hereditary instinct has been the prime motor which has created +constructive municipal jurisprudence and which has evolved religion. + +With the death of Marcus Aurelius individual competition may be judged to +have done its work, and presently, as the population changed its character +under the stress thereof, a new phase opened: a phase which is marked, as +such phases usually are, by victory in war. Marcus Aurelius died in 180 +A.D. Substantially a century later, in 312, Constantine won the battle of +the Milvian Bridge with his troops fighting under the Labarum, a standard +bearing a cross with the device "_In hoc signo vinces_"; By this sign +conquer. Probably Constantine had himself scanty faith in the Labarum, but +he speculated upon it as a means to arouse enthusiasm in his men. It +served his purpose, and finding the step he had taken on the whole +satisfactory, he followed it up by accepting baptism in 337 A.D. + +From this time forward the theory of the possibility of securing divine or +supernatural aid by various forms of incantation or prayer gained steadily +in power for about eight centuries, until at length it became a passion +and gave birth to a school of optimism, the most overwhelming and the most +brilliant which the world has ever known and which evolved an age whose +end we still await. + +The Germans of the fourth century were a very simple race, who +comprehended little of natural laws, and who therefore referred phenomena +they did not understand to supernatural intervention. This intervention +could only be controlled by priests, and thus the invasions caused a rapid +rise in the influence of the sacred class. The power of every +ecclesiastical organization has always rested on the miracle, and the +clergy have always proved their divine commission as did Moses. This was +eminently the case with the mediæval Church. At the outset Christianity +was socialistic, and its spread among the poor was apparently caused by +the pressure of servile competition; for the sect only became of enough +importance to be persecuted under Nero, contemporaneously with the first +signs of distress which appeared through the debasement of the denarius. +But socialism was only a passing phase, and disappeared as the money value +of the miracle rose, and brought wealth to the Church. Under the Emperor +Decius, about 250, the magistrates thought the Christians opulent enough +to use gold and silver vessels in their service, and by the fourth century +the supernatural so possessed the popular mind that Constantine, as we +have seen, not only allowed himself to be converted by a miracle, but used +enchantment as an engine of war. + +The action of the Milvian Bridge, fought in 312, by which Constantine +established himself at Rome, was probably the point whence nature began to +discriminate decisively against the vested interest of Western Europe. +Capital had already abandoned Italy; Christianity was soon after +officially recognized, and during the next century the priest began to +rank with the soldier as a force in war. + +Meanwhile, as the population sank into exhaustion, it yielded less and +less revenue, the police deteriorated, and the guards became unable to +protect the frontier. In 376, the Goths, hard pressed by the Huns, came to +the Danube and implored to be taken as subjects by the emperor. After +mature deliberation the Council of Valens granted the prayer, and some +five hundred thousand Germans were cantoned in Moesia. The intention of +the government was to scatter this multitude through the provinces as +_coloni,_ or to draft them into the legions; but the detachment detailed +to handle them was too feeble, the Goths mutinied, cut the guard to +pieces, and having ravaged Thrace for two years, defeated and killed +Valens at Hadrianople. In another generation the disorganization of the +Roman army had become complete, and Alaric gave it its death-blow in his +campaign of 410. + +Alaric was not a Gothic king, but a barbarian deserter, who, in 392, was +in the service of Theodosius. Subsequently he sometimes held imperial +commands, and sometimes led bands of marauders on his own account, but was +always in difficulty about his pay. Finally, in the revolution in which +Stilicho was murdered, a corps of auxiliaries mutinied and chose him their +general. Alleging that his arrears were unpaid, Alaric accepted the +command, and with this army sacked Rome. + +During the campaign the attitude of the Christians was more interesting +than the strategy of the soldiers. Alaric was a robber, leading mutineers, +and yet the orthodox historians did not condemn him. They did not condemn +him because the sacred class instinctively loved the barbarians whom they +could overawe, whereas they could make little impression on the +materialistic intellect of the old centralized society. Under the empire +the priests, like all other individuals, had to obey the power which paid +the police; and as long as a revenue could be drawn from the provinces, +the Christian hierarchy were subordinate to the monied bureaucracy who had +the means to coerce them. + +Yet only very slowly, as the empire disintegrated, did the theocratic idea +take shape. As late as the ninth century the pope prostrated himself +before Charlemagne, and did homage as to a Roman emperor. [Footnote: Perz, +_Annales Lauressenses_, I, 188.] + +Saint Benedict founded Monte Cassino in 529, but centuries elapsed before +the Benedictine order rose to power. The early convents were isolated and +feeble, and much at the mercy of the laity, who invaded and debauched +them. Abbots, like bishops, were often soldiers, who lived within the +walls with their wives and children, their hawks, their hounds, and their +men-at-arms; and it has been said that, in all France, Corbie and Fleury +alone kept always something of their early discipline. + +Only in the early years of the most lurid century of the Middle Ages, when +decentralization culminated, and the imagination began to gain its fullest +intensity, did the period of monastic consolidation open with the +foundation of Cluny. In 910 William of Aquitaine draw a charter [Footnote: +Bruel, _Recueil des Chartes de l'Abbaye de Cluny_, I, 124.] which, so +far as possible, provided for the complete independence of his new +corporation. There was no episcopal visitation, and no interference with +the election of the abbot. The monks were put directly under the +protection of the pope, who was made their sole superior. John XI +confirmed this charter by his bull of 932, and authorized the affiliation +of all converts who wished to share in the reform. [Footnote: _Bull. +Clun._ p. 2, col. 1. Also Luchaire, _Manuel des Institutions Françaises_, +93, 95, where the authorities are collected.] + +The growth of Cluny was marvellous; by the twelfth century two thousand +houses obeyed its rule, and its wealth was so great, and its buildings so +vast, that in 1245 Innocent IV, the Emperor Baldwin, and Saint Louis were +all lodged together within its walls, and with them all the attendant +trains of prelates and nobles with their servants. + +In the eleventh century no other force of equal energy existed. The monks +were the most opulent, the ablest, and the best organized society in +Europe, and their effect upon mankind was proportioned to their strength. +They intuitively sought autocratic power, and during the centuries when +nature favored them, they passed from triumph to triumph. They first +seized upon the papacy and made it self-perpetuating; they then gave +battle to the laity for the possession of the secular hierarchy, which had +been under temporal control since the very foundation of the Church. + +According to the picturesque legend, Bruno, Bishop of Toul, seduced by the +flattery of courtiers and the allurements of ambition, accepted the tiara +from the emperor, and set out upon his journey to Italy with a splendid +retinue, and with his robe and crown. On his way he turned aside at Cluny, +where Hildebrand was prior. Hildebrand, filled with the spirit of God, +reproached him with having seized upon the seat of the vicar of Christ by +force, and accepted the holy office from the sacrilegious hand of a +layman. He exhorted Bruno to cast away his pomp, and to cross the Alps +humbly as a pilgrim, assuring him that the priests and people of Rome +would recognize him as their bishop, and elect him according to canonical +forms. Then he would taste the joys of a pure conscience, having entered +the fold of Christ as a shepherd and not as a robber. Inspired by these +words, Bruno dismissed his train, and left the convent gate as a pilgrim. +He walked barefoot, and when after two months of pious meditations he +stood before Saint Peter's, he spoke to the people and told them it was +their privilege to elect the pope, and since he had come unwillingly he +would return again, were he not their choice. + +He was answered with acclamations, and on February 2, 1049, he was +enthroned as Leo IX. His first act was to make Hildebrand his minister. + +The legend tells of the triumph of Cluny as no historical facts could do. +Ten years later, in the reign of Nicholas II, the theocracy made itself +self-perpetuating through the assumption of the election of the pope by +the college of cardinals, and in 1073 Hildebrand, the incarnation of +monasticism, was crowned under the name of Gregory VII. + +With Hildebrand's election, war began. The Council of Rome, held in 1075, +decreed that holy orders should not be recognized where investiture had +been granted by a layman, and that princes guilty of conferring +investiture should be excommunicated. The Council of the next year, which +excommunicated the emperor, also enunciated the famous propositions of +Baronius--the full expression of the theocratic idea. The priest had grown +to be a god on earth. + +"So strong in this confidence, for the honour and defence of your Church, +on behalf of the omnipotent God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, +by your power and authority, I forbid the government of the German and +Italian kingdoms, to King Henry, the son of the Emperor Henry, who, with +unheard-of arrogance, has rebelled against your Church. I absolve all +Christians from the oaths they have made or may make to him, and I forbid +that any one should obey him as king." [Footnote: Migne, CXLVIII, 790.] + +Henry marched on Italy, but in all European history there has been no +drama more tremendous than the expiation of his sacrilege. To his soldiers +the world was a vast space, peopled by those fantastic beings which are +still seen on Gothic towers. These demons obeyed the monk of Rome, and his +army, melting from about the emperor under a nameless horror, left him +helpless. + +Gregory lay like a magician in the fortress of Canossa: but he had no need +of carnal weapons, for when the emperor reached the Alps he was almost +alone. Then his imagination also took fire, the panic seized him, and he +sued for mercy. + +On August 7, 1106, Henry died at Liège, an outcast and a mendicant, and +for five long years his body lay at the church door, an accursed thing +which no man dared to bury. + +Gregory prevailed because, to the understanding of the eleventh century, +the evidence at hand indicated that he embodied in a high degree the +infinite energy. The eleventh century was intensely imaginative and the +evidence which appealed to it was those phenomena of trance, hypnotism, +and catalepsy which are as mysterious now as they were then, but whose +effect was then to create an overpowering demand for miracle-working +substances. The sale of these substances gradually drew the larger portion +of the wealth of the community into the hands of the clergy, and with +wealth went temporal power. No vested interest in any progressive +community has probably ever been relatively stronger, for the Church found +no difficulty, when embarrassed, in establishing and operating a thorough +system for exterminating her critics. + +Under such a pressure modern civilization must have sunk into some form of +caste had the mediæval mind resembled any antecedent mind, but the middle +age, though superficially imaginative, was fundamentally materialistic, as +the history of the crusades showed. + +At Canossa the laity conceded as a probable hypothesis that the Church +could miraculously control nature; but they insisted that if the Church +possessed such power, she must use that power for the common good. Upon +this point they would not compromise, nor would they permit delay. During +the chaos of the ninth century turmoil and violence reached a stage at +which the aspirations of most Christians ended with self-preservation; but +when the discovery and working of the Harz silver had brought with it some +semblance of order, an intense yearning possessed both men and women to +ameliorate their lot. If relics could give protection against oppression, +disease, famine, and death, then relics must be obtained, and, if the +cross and the tomb were the most effective relics, then the cross and the +tomb must be conquered at any cost. In the north of Europe especially, +misery was so acute that the people gladly left their homes upon the +slenderest promise of betterment, even following a vagrant like Peter the +Hermit, who was neither soldier nor priest. There is a passage in William +of Tyre which has been often quoted to explain a frenzy which is otherwise +inexplicable, and in the old English of Caxton the words still glow with +the same agony which makes lurid the supplication of the litany,--"From +battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord deliver us": + +"Of charyte men spack not, debates, discordes, and warres were nyhe +oueral, in suche wyse, that it seemed, that thende of the world was nyghe, +by the signes that our lord sayth in the gospell, ffor pestylences and +famynes were grete on therthe, ferdfulness of heuen, tremblyng of therthe +in many places, and many other thinges there were that ought to fere the +hertes of men.... + +"The prynces and the barons brente and destroyed the contrees of theyr +neyghbours, yf ony man had saved ony thynge in theyr kepyng, theyr owne +lordes toke them and put them in prison and in greuous tormentis, for to +take fro them suche as they had, in suche qyse that the chyldren of them +that had ben riche men, men myght see them goo fro dore to dore, for to +begge and gete theyr brede, and some deye for hungre and mesease." +[Footnote: Godeffroy of Bologne, by William, Archbishop of Tyre, +translated from the French by William Caxton, London, 1893, 21, 22.] + +Throughout the eleventh century the excitement touching the virtues of the +holy places in Judea grew, until Gregory VII, about the time of Canossa, +perceived that a paroxysm was at hand, and considered leading it, but on +the whole nothing is so suggestive of the latent scepticism of the age as +the irresolution of the popes at this supreme moment. The laity were the +pilgrims and the agitators. The kings sought the relics and took the +cross; the clergy hung back. Robert, Duke of Normandy, for example, the +father of William the Conqueror, died in 1035 from hardship at Nicæa when +returning from Palestine, absorbed to the last in the relics which he had +collected, but the popes stayed at home. Whatever they may have said in +private, neither Hildebrand nor Victor nor Urban moved officially until +they were swept forward by the torrent. They shunned responsibility for a +war which they would have passionately promoted had they been sure of +victory. The man who finally kindled the conflagration was a half-mad +fanatic, a stranger to the hierarchy. No one knew the family of Peter the +Hermit, or whence he came, but he certainly was not an ecclesiastic in +good standing. Inflamed by fasting and penance, Peter followed the throng +of pilgrims to Jerusalem, and there, wrought upon by what he saw, he +sought the patriarch. Peter asked the patriarch if nothing could be done +to protect the pilgrims, and to retrieve the Holy Places. The patriarch +replied, "Nothing, unless God will touch the heart of the western princes, +and will send them to succor the Holy City." The patriarch did not propose +meddling himself, nor did it occur to him that the pope should intervene. +He took a rationalistic view of the Moslem military power. Peter, on the +contrary, was logical, arguing from eleventh-century premises. If he could +but receive a divine mandate, he would raise an invincible army. He +prayed. His prayer was answered. One day while prostrated before the +sepulchre he heard Christ charge him to announce in Europe that the +appointed hour had come. Furnished with letters from the patriarch, Peter +straightway embarked for Rome to obtain Urban's sanction for his design. +Urban listened and gave a consent which he could not prudently have +withheld, but he abstained from participating in the propaganda. In March, +1095, Urban called a Council at Piacenza, nominally to consider the +deliverance of Jerusalem, and this Council was attended by thirty thousand +impatient laymen, only waiting for the word to take the vow, but the pope +did nothing. Even at Clermont eight months later, he showed a disposition +to deal with private war, or church discipline, or with anything in fact +rather than with the one engrossing question of the day, but this time +there was no escape. A vast multitude of determined men filled not only +Clermont but the adjacent towns and villages, even sleeping in the fields, +although the weather was bitterly cold, who demanded to know the policy of +the Church. Urban seems to have procrastinated as long as he safely could, +but, at length, at the tenth session, he produced Peter on the platform, +clad as a pilgrim, and, after Peter had spoken, he proclaimed the war. +Urban declined, however, to command the army. The only effective force +which marched was a body of laymen, organized and led by laymen, who in +1099 carried Jerusalem by an ordinary assault. In Jerusalem they found the +cross and the sepulchre, and with these relics as the foundation of their +power, the laity began an experiment which lasted eighty-eight years, +ending in 1187 with the battle of Tiberias. At Tiberias the infidels +defeated the Christians, captured their king and their cross, and shortly +afterward seized the tomb. + +If the eleventh-century mind had been as rigid as the Roman mind of the +first century, mediæval civilization could hardly, after the collapse of +the crusades, have failed to degenerate as Roman civilization degenerated +after the defeat of Varus. Being more elastic, it began, under an +increased tension, to develop new phases of thought. The effort was indeed +prodigious and the absolute movement possibly slow, but a change of +intellectual attitude may be detected almost contemporaneously with the +fall of the Latin kingdom in Palestine. It is doubtless true that the +thirteenth century was the century in which imaginative thought reached +its highest brilliancy, when Albertus Magnus and Saint Thomas Aquinas +taught, when Saint Francis and Saint Clara lived, and when Thomas of +Celano wrote the _Dies Iræ_. It was then that Gothic architecture touched +its climax in the cathedrals of Chartres and Amiens, of Bourges and of +Paris; it was then also that Blanche of Castile ruled in France and that +Saint Louis bought the crown of thorns, but it is equally true that the +death of Saint Louis occurred in 1270, shortly after the thorough +organization of the Inquisition by Innocent IV in 1252, and within two +years or so of the production by Roger Bacon of his _Opus Majus_. + +The establishment of the Inquisition is decisive, because it proves that +sceptical thought had been spread far enough to goad the Church to general +and systematic repression, while the _Opus Majus_ is a scientific +exposition of the method by which the sceptical mind is trained. + +Roger Bacon was born about 1214, and going early to Oxford fell under the +influence of the most liberal teachers in Europe, at whose head stood +Robert Grosseteste, afterward Bishop of Lincoln. Bacon conceived a +veneration for Grosseteste, and even for Adam de Marisco his disciple, and +turning toward mathematics rather than toward metaphysics he eagerly +applied himself, when he went to Paris, to astrology and alchemy, which +were the progenitors of the modern exact sciences. In the thirteenth +century a young man like Bacon could hardly stand alone, and Bacon joined +the Franciscans, but before many years elapsed he embroiled himself with +his superiors. His friend, Grosseteste, died in 1253, the year after +Innocent IV issued the bull _Ad extirpanda_ establishing the +Inquisition, and Bacon felt the consequences. The general of his order, +Saint Bonaventura, withdrew him from Oxford where he was prominent, and +immured him in a Parisian convent, treating him rigorously, as Bacon +intimated to Pope Clement IV. There he remained, silenced, for some ten +years, until the election of Clement IV, in 1265. Bacon at once wrote to +Clement complaining of his imprisonment, and deploring to the pope the +plight into which scientific education had fallen. The pope replied +directing Bacon to explain his views in a treatise, but did not order his +release. In response Bacon composed the _Opus Majus_. + +The _Opus Majus_ deals among other things with experimental science, +and in the introductory chapter to the sixth part Bacon stated the theory +of inductive thought quite as lucidly as did Francis Bacon three and a +half centuries later in the _Novum Organum_. [Footnote: Positis radicibus +sapientiae Latinorum penes Linguas et Mathematicam et Perspectivam, nunc +volo revolvere radices a parte Scientiae Experimentalis, quia sine +experientia nihil sufficienter scire protest. Duo enim simt modi +cognoscendi, scilicet per argumentum et experimentum. Argumentum concludit +et facit nos concedere conclusionem, sed non certificat neque removet +dubitationem ut quiescat animus in intuitu veritatis, nisi eam inveniat +via experientiae; quia multi habent argumenta ad scibilia, sed quia non +habent experientiam, negligunt ea, nee vitant nociva nex persequuntue +bona. J. H. Bridges, _The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon_ (Oxford, 1897), II, +167.] + +Clement died in 1268. The papacy remained vacant for a couple of years, +but in 1271 Gregory X came in on a conservative reaction. Bacon passed +most of the rest of his life in prison, perhaps through his own +ungovernable temper, and ostensibly his writings seem to have had little +or no effect on his contemporaries, yet it is certain that he was not an +isolated specimen of a type of intelligence which suddenly bloomed during +the Reformation. Bacon constantly spoke of his friends, but his friends +evidently did not share his temperament. The scientific man has seldom +relished martyrdom, and Galileo's experience as late as 1633 shows what +risks men of science ran who even indirectly attacked the vested interests +of the Church. After the middle of the thirteenth century the danger was +real enough to account for any degree of secretiveness, and a striking +case of this timidity is related by Bacon himself. No one knows even the +name of the man to whom Bacon referred as "Master Peter," but according to +Bacon, "Master Peter" was the greatest and most original genius of the +age, only he shunned publicity. The "Dominus experimentorum," as Bacon +called him, lived in a safe retreat and devoted himself to mathematics, +chemistry, and the mechanical arts with such success that, Bacon insisted, +he could by his inventions have aided Saint Louis in his crusade more than +his whole army. [Footnote: Émile Charles, _Roger Bacon. Sa vie et ses +ouvrages_, 17.] Nor is this assertion altogether fantastic. Bacon +understood the formula for gunpowder, and if Saint Louis had been provided +with even a poor explosive he might have taken Cairo; not to speak of the +terror which Greek fire always inspired. Saint Louis met his decisive +defeat in a naval battle fought in 1250, for the command of the Nile, by +which he drew supplies from Damietta, and he met it, according to Matthew +Paris, because his ships could not withstand Greek fire. Gunpowder, even +in a very simple form, might have changed the fate of the war. + +Scepticism touching the value of relics as a means for controlling nature +was an effect of experiment, and, logically enough, scepticism advanced +fastest among certain ecclesiastics who dealt in relics. For example, in +1248 Saint Louis undertook to invade Egypt in defence of the cross. +Possibly Saint Louis may have been affected by economic considerations +also touching the eastern trade, but his ostensible object was a crusade. +The risk was very great, the cost enormous, and the responsibility the +king assumed of the most serious kind. Nothing that he could do was left +undone to ensure success. In 1249 he captured Damietta, and then stood in +need of every pound of money and of every man that Christendom could +raise; yet at this crisis the Church thought chiefly of making what it +could in cash out of the war, the inference being that the hierarchy +suspected that even if Saint Louis prevailed and occupied Jerusalem, +little would be gained from an ecclesiastical standpoint. At all events, +Matthew Paris has left an account, in his chronicle of the year 1249, of +how the pope and the Franciscans preached this crusade, which is one of +the most suggestive passages in thirteenth-century literature: + +"About the same time, by command of the pope, whom they obeyed implicitly, +the Preacher and Minorite brethren diligently employed themselves in +preaching; and to increase the devotion of the Christians, they went with +great solemnity to the places where their preaching was previously +indicated, and granted many days of indulgence to those who came to hear +them.... Preaching on behalf of the cross, they bestowed that symbol on +people of every age, sex and rank, whatever their property or worth, and +even on sick men and women, and those who were deprived of strength by +sickness or old age; and on the next day, or even directly afterwards, +receiving it back from them, they absolved them from their vow of +pilgrimage, for whatever sum they could obtain for the favour. What seemed +unsuitable and absurd was, that not many days afterwards, Earl Richard +collected all this money in his treasury, by the agency of Master Bernard, +an Italian clerk, who gathered in the fruit; whereby no slight scandal +arose in the Church of God, and amongst the people in general, and the +devotion of the faithful evidently cooled." [Footnote: Matthew Paris, +_English History_, translated by the Rev. J. A, Giles, II, 309.] + +When the unfortunate Baldwin II became Emperor of the East in 1237, the +relics of the passion were his best asset. In 1238, while Baldwin was in +France trying to obtain aid, the French barons who carried on the +government at Constantinople in his absence were obliged to pledge the +crown of thorns to an Italian syndicate for 13,134 perpera, which Gibbon +conjectures to have been besants. Baldwin was notified of the pledge and +urged to arrange for its redemption. He met with no difficulty. He +confidently addressed himself to Saint Louis and Queen Blanche, and +"Although the king felt keen displeasure at the deplorable condition of +Constantinople, he was well pleased, nevertheless, with the opportunity of +adorning France with the richest and most precious treasure in all +Christendom." More especially with "a relic, and a sacred object which was +not on the commercial market." [Footnote: Du Cange, _Histoire de L'empire +de Constantinople sous les empereurs Français_, edition de Buchon, I, +259.] + +Louis, beside paying the loan and the cost of transportation which came to +two thousand French pounds (the mark being then coined into £2, 15 sous +and 6 pence), made Baldwin a present of ten thousand pounds for acting as +broker. Baldwin was so well contented with this sale which he closed in +1239, that a couple of years later he sent to Paris all the contents of +his private chapel which had any value. Part of the treasure was a +fragment of what purported to be the cross, but the authenticity of this +relic was doubtful; there was beside, however, the baby linen, the spear- +head, the sponge, and the chain, beside several miscellaneous articles +like the rod of Moses. + +Louis built the Sainte Chapelle at a cost of twenty thousand marks as a +shrine in which to deposit them. The Sainte Chapelle has usually ranked as +the most absolutely perfect specimen of mediaeval religious architecture. +[Footnote: On this whole subject of the inter-relation of mediæval +theology with architecture and philosophy the reader is referred to +_Mont-Saint-Michel et Chartres_, by Henry Adams, which is the most +philosophical and thorough exposition of this subject which ever has been +attempted.] + +When Saint Louis bought the Crown of Thorns from Baldwin in 1239, the +commercial value of relics may, possibly, be said to have touched its +highest point, but, in fact, the adoration of them had culminated with the +collapse of the Second Crusade, and in another century and a half the +market had decisively broken and the Reformation had already begun, with +the advent of Wycliffe and the outbreak of Wat Tyler's Rebellion in 1381. +For these social movements have always a common cause and reach a +predetermined result. + +In the eleventh century the convent of Cluny, for example, had an enormous +and a perfectly justified hold upon the popular imagination, because of +the sanctity and unselfishness of its abbots. Saint Hugh won his sainthood +by a self-denial and effort which were impossible to ordinary men, but +with Louis IX the penitential life had already lost its attractions and +men like Arnold rapidly brought religion and religious thought into +contempt. The famous Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, born, probably, in +1175, died in 1253. He presided over the diocese of Lincoln at the precise +moment when Saint Louis was building the Sainte Chapelle, but Grosseteste +in 1250 denounced in a sermon at Lyons the scandals of the papal court +with a ferocity which hardly was surpassed at any later day. + +To attempt even an abstract of the thought of the English Reformation +would lead too far, however fascinating the subject might be. It must +suffice to say briefly that theology had little or nothing to do with it. +Wycliffe denounced the friars as lazy, profligate impostors, who wrung +money from the poor which they afterwards squandered in ways offensive to +God, and he would have stultified himself had he admitted, in the same +breath, that these reprobates, when united, formed a divinely illuminated +corporation, each member of which could and did work innumerable miracles +through the interposition of Christ. Ordinary miracles, indeed, could be +tested by the senses, but the essence of transubstantiation was that it +eluded the senses. Thus nothing could be more convenient to the government +than to make this invisible and intangible necromancy a test in capital +cases for heresy-Hence Wycliffe had no alternative but to deny +transubstantiation, for nothing could be more insulting to the +intelligence than to adore a morsel of bread which a priest held in his +hand. The pretension of the priests to make the flesh of Christ was, +according to Wycliffe, an impudent fraud, and their pretension to possess +this power was only an excuse by which they enforced their claim to +collect fees, and what amounted to extortionate taxes, from the people. +[Footnote: Nowhere, perhaps, does Wycliffe express himself more strongly +on this subject than in a little tract called _The Wicket_, written +in English, which he issued for popular consumption about this time.] But, +in the main, no dogma, however incomprehensible, ever troubled +Protestants, as a class. They easily accepted the Trinity, the double +procession, or the Holy Ghost itself, though no one had the slightest +notion what the Holy Ghost might be. Wycliffe roundly declared in the +first paragraph of his confession [Footnote: Fasciculi Zizaniorum, 115.] +that the body of Christ which was crucified was truly and really in the +consecrated host, and Huss, who inherited the Wycliffian tradition, +answered before the Council of Constance, "Verily, I do think that the +body of Christ is really and totally in the sacrament of the altar, which +was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, died, and rose again, and sitteth +on the right hand of God the Father Almighty." [Footnote: Foxe, _Acts +and Monuments_, III, 452.] That which has rent society in twain and has +caused blood to flow like water, has never been abstract opinions, but +that economic competition either between states or classes, that lust for +power and wealth, which makes a vested interest. Thus by 1382 the +eucharist had come to represent to the privileged classes power and +wealth, and they would have repudiated Wycliffe even had they felt strong +enough to support him. But they were threatened by an adversary equally +formidable with heresy in the person of the villeins whom the constantly +increasing momentum of the time had raised into a position in which they +undertook to compete for the ownership of the land which they still tilled +as technical serfs. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Now the courts may say what they will in support of the vested interests, +for to support vested interests is what lawyers are paid for and what +courts are made for. Only, unhappily, in the process of argument courts +and lawyers have caused blood to flow copiously, for in spite of all that +can be said to the contrary, men have practically proved that they do own +all the property they can defend, all the courts in Christendom +notwithstanding, and this is an issue of physical force and not at all of +words or of parchments. And so it proved to be in England in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, alike in Church and State. It was a +matter of rather slow development. After the conquest villeins could +neither in fact nor theory acquire or hold property as against their lord, +and the class of landlords stretched upwards from the owner of a knight's +fee to the king on his throne, who was the chief landlord of all, but by +so narrow a margin that he often had enough to do to maintain some vestige +of sovereignty. So, to help himself, it came to pass that the king +intrigued with the serfs against their restive masters, and the abler the +king, the more he intrigued, like Henry I, until the villeins gained very +substantial advantages. Thus it was that toward 1215, or pretty nearly +contemporaneously with the epoch when men like Grosseteste began to show +restlessness under the extortionate corruption of the Church, the villein +was discovered to be able to defend his claim to some portion of the +increment in the value of the land which he tilled and which was due to +his labor: and this title the manorial courts recognized, because they +could not help it, as a sort of tenant right, calling it a customary +tenancy by base service. A century later these services in kind had been +pretty frequently commuted into a fixed rent paid in money, and the serf +had become a freeman, and a rather formidable freeman, too. For it was +largely from among these technical serfs that Edward III recruited the +infantry who formed his line at Crécy in 1346, and the archers of Crécy +were not exactly the sort of men who take kindly to eviction, to say +nothing of slavery. As no one meddled much with the villeins before 1349, +all went well until after Crécy, but in 1348 the Black Death ravaged +England, and so many laborers died that the cost of farming property by +hired hands exceeded the value of the rent which the villeins paid. Then +the landlords, under the usual reactionary and dangerous legal advice, +tried coercion. Their first experiment was the famous Statute of Laborers, +which fixed wages at the rates which prevailed in 1347, but as this +statute accomplished nothing the landlords repudiated their contracts, and +undertook to force their villeins to render their ancient customary +services. Though the lay landlords were often hard masters, the +ecclesiastics, especially the monks, were harder still, and the +ecclesiastics were served by lawyers of their own cloth, whose sharp +practice became proverbial. Thus the law declined to recognize rights in +property existing in fact, with the inevitable result of the peasant +rising in 1381, known as Wat Tyler's Rebellion. Popular rage perfectly +logically ran highest against the monks and the lawyers. Both the +Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon de Sudbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the +Chief Justice were killed, and the insurgents wished to kill, as Capgrave +has related, "all the men that had learned ony law." Finally the rebellion +was suppressed, chiefly by the duplicity of Richard II. Richard promised +the people, by written charters, a permanent tenure as freemen at +reasonable rents, and so induced them to go home with his charters in +their hands; but they were no sooner gone than vengeance began. Though +Richard had been at the peasants' mercy, who might have killed him had +they wished, punitive expeditions were sent in various directions. One was +led by Richard himself, who travelled with Tresilian, the new Chief +Justice, the man who afterward was himself hanged at Tyburn. Tresilian +worked so well that he is said to have strung up a dozen villeins to a +single beam in Chelmsford because he had no time to have them executed +regularly. Stubbs has estimated that seven thousand victims hardly +satisfied the landlords' sense of outraged justice. What concerns us, +chiefly, is that this repression, however savage, failed altogether to +bring tranquillity. After 1381 a full century of social chaos supervened, +merging at times into actual civil war, until, in 1485, Henry Tudor came +in after his victory at Bosworth, pledged to destroy the whole reactionary +class which incarnated feudalism. For the feudal soldier was neither +flexible nor astute, and allowed himself to be caught between the upper +and the nether millstone. While industrial and commercial capital had been +increasing in the towns, capitalistic methods of farming had invaded the +country, and, as police improved, private and predatory warfare, as a +business, could no longer be made to pay. The importance of a feudal noble +lay in the body of retainers who followed his banner, and therefore the +feudal tendency always was to overcharge the estate with military +expenditure. Hence, to protect themselves from creditors, the landlords +passed the Statute _De Donis_ [Footnote: 13 Edw. I, c. I (A.D. +1284).] which made entails inalienable. Toward the end of the Wars of the +Roses, however, the pressure for money, which could only be raised by +pledging their land, became too strong for the feudal aristocracy. Edward +IV, who was a very able man, perceived, pretty early in his reign, that +his class could not maintain themselves unless their land were put upon a +commercial basis. Therefore he encouraged the judges, in the collusive +litigation known to us as Taltarum's Case, decided in 1472, to set aside +the Statute _De Donis_, by the fiction of the Common Recovery. The +concession, even so, came too late. The combination against them had grown +too strong for the soldiers to resist. Other classes evolved by +competition wanted their property, and these made Henry Tudor king of +England to seize it for them. + +Henry's work was simple enough. After Bosworth, with a competent police +force at hand to execute process, he had only to organize a political +court, and to ruin by confiscatory fines all the families strong enough, +or rash enough, to maintain garrisoned houses. So Henry remodelled the +Star Chamber, in 1486, [Footnote: 3 Henry 7, C 1.] to deal with the +martial gentry, and before long a new type of intelligence possessed the +kingdom. + +The feudal soldiers being disposed of, it remained to evict the monks, who +were thus left without their natural defenders. No matter of faith was +involved. Henry VIII boasted that in doctrine he was as orthodox as the +pope. There was, however, an enormous monastic landed property to be +redistributed This was confiscated, and appropriated, not to public +purposes, but, as usually happens in revolutions, to the use of the +astutest of the revolutionists. Among these, John Russell, afterward Earl +of Bedford, stood preeminent. Russell had no particular pedigree or +genius, save the acquisitive genius, but he made himself useful to Henry +in such judicial murders as that of Richard Whiting, Abbot of Glastonbury. +He received in payment, among much else, Woburn Abbey, which has since +remained the Bedford country seat, and Covent Garden or Convent Garden, +one of the most valuable parcels of real estate in London. Covent Garden +the present duke recently sold, anticipating, perhaps, some such +legislation as ruined the monks and made his ancestor's fortune. As for +the monks whom Henry evicted, they wandered forth from their homes +beggars, and Henry hanged all of them whom he could catch as vagrants. How +many perished as counterpoise for the peasant massacres and Lollard +burnings of the foregoing two centuries can never be known, nor to us is +it material. What is essential to mark, from the legal standpoint, is that +while this long and bloody revolution, of one hundred and fifty years, +displaced a favored class and confiscated its property, it raised up in +their stead another class of land monopolists, rather more greedy and +certainly quite as cruel as those whom they superseded. Also, in spite of +all opposition, labor did make good its claim to participate more or less +fully in the ownership of the property it cultivated, for while the +holding of the ancient villein grew to be well recognized in the royal +courts as a copyhold estate, villeinage itself disappeared. + +Yet, unless I profoundly err, in the revolution of the sixteenth century, +the law somewhat conspicuously failed in its function of moderating +competition, for I am persuaded that competition of another kind +sharpened, and shortly caused a second civil war bloodier than the Wars of +the Roses. + +Fifteen years before the convents were seized, Sir Thomas More wrote +_Utopia_, in whose opening chapter More has given an account of a +dinner at Cardinal Morton's, who, by the way, presided in the Star +Chamber. At this dinner one of the cardinal's guests reflected on the +thievish propensities of Englishmen, who were to be found throughout the +country hanged as felons, sometimes twenty together on a single gallows. +More protested that this was not the fault of the poor who were hanged, +but of rich land monopolists, who pastured sheep and left no fields for +tillage. According to More, these capitalists plucked down houses and even +towns, leaving nothing but the church for a sheep-house, so that "by covin +and fraud, or by violent oppression, ... or by wrongs and injuries," the +husbandmen "be thrust out of their own," and, "must needs depart away, +poor, wretched souls, men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless children, +widows." The dissolution of the convents accelerated the process, and more +and more of the weaker yeomanry were ruined and evicted. It is +demonstrated that the pauperization of the feebler rural population went +on apace by the passage of poor-laws under Elizabeth, which, in the Middle +Ages, had not been needed and, therefore, were unknown. This movement, +described by More, was the beginning of the system of enclosing common +lands which afterward wrought havoc among the English yeomen, and which, I +suppose, contributed more than any other single cause to the Great +Rebellion of the seventeenth century. In the mediæval village the owners +of small farms enjoyed certain rights in the common land of the community, +affording them pasturage for their cattle and the like, rights without +which small farming could not be made profitable. These commons the land +monopolists appropriated, sometimes giving some shadow of compensation, +sometimes by undisguised force, but on the whole compensation amounted to +so little that the enclosure of the commons must rank as confiscation. +Also this seizure of property would doubtless have caused a convulsion as +lasting as that which followed the insurrection of 1381, or as did +actually occur in Ireland, had it not been for an unparalleled +contemporaneous territorial and industrial expansion. Thorold Rogers +always insisted that between 1563, the year of the passage of the Statute +of Apprentices, [Footnote: 5 Eliz. c. 4.] and 1824, a regular conspiracy +existed between the lawyers "and the parties interested in its success ... +to cheat the English workman of his wages, ... and to degrade him to +irremediable poverty." [Footnote: _Work and Wages_, 398.] Certainly +the land monopolists resorted to strong measures to accumulate land, for +something like six hundred and fifty Enclosure Acts were passed between +1760, the opening of the Industrial Revolution, and 1774, the outbreak of +the American War. But without insisting on Rogers's view, it is not denied +that the weakest of the small yeomen sank into utter misery, becoming +paupers or worse. On the other hand, of those stronger some emigrated to +America, others, who were among the ablest and the boldest, sought fortune +as adventurers over the whole earth, and, like the grandfather of Chatham, +brought home from India as smugglers or even as pirates, diamonds to be +sold to kings for their crowns, or, like Clive, became the greatest +generals and administrators of the nation. Probably, however, by far the +majority of those who were of average capacity found compensation for the +confiscated commons in domestic industry, owning their houses with lots of +land and the tools of their trade. Defoe has left a charming description +of the region about Halifax in Yorkshire, toward the year 1730, where he +found the whole population busy, prosperous, healthy, and, in the main, +self-sufficing. He did not see a beggar or an idle person in the whole +country. So, favored by circumstances, the landed oligarchy met with no +effective resistance after the death of Cromwell, and achieved what +amounted to being autocratic power in 1688. Their great triumph was the +conversion of the House of Commons into their own personal property, about +the beginning of the eighteenth century, with all the guaranties of law. +In the Middle Ages the chief towns of England had been summoned by the +king to send burgesses to Westminster to grant him money, but as time +elapsed the Commons acquired influence and, in 1642, became dominant. +Then, after the Restoration, the landlords conceived the idea of +appropriating the right of representation, as they had appropriated and +were appropriating the common lands. Lord John Russell one day observed in +the House of Commons that the burgesses were originally chosen from among +the inhabitants of the towns they represented, but that, in the reign of +Anne, the landlords, to depress the shipping interest, opened the borough +representation to all qualified persons without regard to domicile. +[Footnote: 36 Hansard, Third Series, 548.] Lord John was mistaken in his +date, for the change occurred earlier, but he described correctly enough +the persistent animus of the landlords. An important part of their policy +turned on the so-called Determination Acts of 1696 and 1729, which defined +the franchises and which had the effect of confirming the titles of +patrons to borough property, [Footnote: Porritt, _Unreformed House of +Commons_, I, 9, _et seq._] thus making a seat in the House of +Commons an incorporeal hereditament fully recognized by law. On this point +so high an authority as Lord Eldon was emphatic. [Footnote: 12 Hansard, +Third Series, 396.] By the time of the American War the oligarchy had +become so narrow that one hundred and fifty-four peers and commoners +returned three hundred and seven members, or much more than a majority of +the House as then organized. [Footnote: Grey's motion for Reform, 30 +_Parl. Hist._ 795 (A.D. 1793)] With the privileged class reduced to +these contemptible numbers a catastrophe necessarily followed. Almost +impregnable as the position of the oligarchy appeared, it yet had its +vulnerable point. As Burke told the Duke of Portland, a duke's power did +not come from his title, but from his wealth, and the landlords' wealth +rested on their ability to draw a double rent from their estates, one rent +for themselves, and another to provide for the farmer to whom they let +their acres. Evidently British land could not bear this burden if brought +in competition with other equally good land that paid only a single rent, +and from a pretty early period the landlords appear to have been alive to +this fact. Nevertheless, ocean freights afforded a fair protection, and as +long as the industrial population remained tolerably self-supporting, +England rather tended to export than to import grain. But toward 1760 +advances in applied science profoundly modified the equilibrium of English +society. The new inventions, stimulated by steam, could only be utilized +by costly machinery installed in large factories, which none but +considerable capitalists could build, but once in operation the product of +these factories undersold domestic labor, and ruined and evicted the +population of whole regions like Halifax. These unfortunate laborers were +thrust in abject destitution into filthy and dark alleys in cities, where +they herded in masses, in misery and crime. In consequence grain rose in +value, so much so that in 1766 prayers were offered touching its price. +Thenceforward England imported largely from America, and in 1773 +Parliament was constrained to reduce the duty on wheat to a point lower +than the gentry conceded again, until the total repeal of the Corn Laws in +1846. [Footnote: John Morley, _The Life of Richard Cobden_, 167, note +5.] The situation was well understood in London. Burke, Governor Pownall, +and others explained it in Parliament, while Chatham implored the +landlords not to alienate America, which they could not, he told them, +conquer, but which gave them a necessary market,--a market as he aptly +said, both of supply and demand. And Chatham was right, for America not +only supplied the grain to feed English labor, but bought from England at +least one third of all her surplus manufactures. + +This brings us to the eighteenth century, which directly concerns us, +because the religious superstition, which had previously caused men to +seek in a conscious supreme energy the effective motor in human affairs, +had waned, and the problem presented was reduced to the operation of that +acceleration of movement by the progress of applied science which always +has been, and always must be, the prime cause of the quickening of +economic competition either as between communities or as between +individuals. And this is the capital phenomenon of civilization. For it is +now generally admitted that war is nothing but economic competition in its +acutest form. When competition reaches a certain intensity it kindles into +war or revolution, precisely as when iron is raised to a certain heat it +kindles into flame. And, for the purposes of illustration, possibly the +best method of showing how competition was quickened, and how it affected +adjacent communities during the eighteenth century, is to take navigation, +not only because navigation was much improved during the first three +quarters of that period, but because both England and France competed for +control in America by means of ships. It suffices to mention, very +succinctly, a few of the more salient advances which were then made. + +Toward 1761 John Harrison produced the chronometer, by which longitude +could be determined at sea, making the ship independent in all parts of +the world. At the same time more ingenious rigging increased her power of +working to windward. With such advantages Captain Cook became a mighty +discoverer both in the southern and western oceans, charted New Zealand +and much else, and more important than all, in 1759 he surveyed the Saint +Lawrence and piloted ships up the river, of which he had established the +channel. Speaking of Cook naturally leads to the solution of the problem +of the transportation of men, sailors, soldiers, and emigrants, on long +voyages, thereby making population fluid. Cook, in his famous report, read +before the Royal Society in March, 1776, after his second voyage, +established forever the hygienic principles by observing which a ship's +company may safely be kept at sea for any length of time. Previously there +had always been a very high mortality from scurvy and kindred diseases, +which had, of course, operated as a very serious check to human movement. +On land the same class of phenomena were even more marked. In England the +Industrial Revolution is usually held to date from 1760, and, by common +consent, the Industrial Revolution is attributed altogether to applied +science, or, in other words, to mechanical inventions. In 1760 the flying- +shuttle appeared, and coal began to replace wood for smelting. In 1764 +Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny; in 1779 Crompton contrived the +mule; and in 1768 Watt brought the steam-engine to maturity. In 1761 the +first boat-load of coals sailed over the Barton viaduct, which James +Brindley built for the Duke of Bridgewater's canal, to connect Worsley +with Manchester, thus laying the foundation of British inland navigation, +which before the end of the century had covered England; while John +Metcalf, the blind road-builder, began his lifework in 1765. He was +destined to improve English highways, which up to that time had been +mostly impossible for wheeled traffic. In France the same advance went on. +Arthur Young described the impression made on him in 1789 by the +magnificence of the French roads which had been built since the +administration of Colbert, as well as by the canal which connected the +Mediterranean with the Atlantic. + +In the midst of this activity Washington grew up. Washington was a born +soldier, engineer, and surveyor with the topographical instinct peculiar +to that temperament. As early as 1748 he was chosen by Lord Fairfax, who +recognized his ability, though only sixteen years old, to survey his vast +estate west of the Blue Ridge, which was then a wilderness. He spent three +years in this work and did it well. In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie sent +Washington on a mission to the French commander on the Ohio, to warn him +to cease trespassing on English territory, a mission which Washington +fulfilled, under considerable hardship and some peril, with eminent +success. Thus early, for he was then only twenty-two, Washington gained +that thorough understanding of the North American river system which +enabled him, many years afterward, to construct the Republic of the United +States upon the lines of least resistant intercommunication. And +Washington's conception of the problem and his solution thereof were, in +substance, this: + +The American continent, west of the mountains and south of the Great +Lakes, is traversed in all directions by the Mississippi and its +tributaries, but we may confine our attention to two systems of +watercourses, the one to the west, forming by the Wisconsin and the main +arm of the Mississippi, a thoroughfare from Lake Michigan to the Gulf; and +the other by French Creek and the Allegheny, broken only by one easy +portage, affording a perfect means of access to the Ohio, a river which +has always operated as the line of cleavage between our northern and +southern States. The French starting from Quebec floated from Lake Erie +down the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, the English ascended the Potomac to +Cumberland, and thence, following the most practicable watercourses, +advanced on the French position at the junction of the Allegheny and the +Monongahela. There Washington met and fought them in 1754, and ever after +Washington maintained that the only method by which a stable union among +the colonies could be secured was by a main trunk system of transportation +along the line of the Ohio and the Potomac. This was to be his canal which +should bind north and south, east and west, together by a common interest, +and which should carry the produce of the west, north, and south, to the +Atlantic coast, where it should be discharged at the head of deep-water +navigation, and which should thus stimulate industry adjacent to the spot +he chose for the Federal City, or, in our language, for the City of +Washington. Thus the capital of the United States was to become the +capital of a true nation, not as a political compromise, but because it +lay at the central point of a community made cohesive by a social +circulation which should build it up, in his own words, into a capital, or +national heart, if not "as large as London, yet of a magnitude inferior to +few others in Europe." [Footnote: Washington to Mrs. Fairfax, 16 May, +1798; Sparks, xi, 233.] Maryland and Virginia abounded, as Washington well +knew, in coal and iron. His canal passing through this region would +stimulate industry, and these States would thus become the focus of +exchanges. Manufacturing is incompatible with slavery, hence slavery would +gradually and peacefully disappear, and the extremities of the Union would +be drawn together at what he described as "the great emporium of the +United States." To crown all, a national university was to make this +emporium powerful in collective thought. + +Doubtless Grenville and Townshend had not considered the American problem +as maturely as had Washington, but nevertheless, most well-informed +persons now agree that Englishmen in 1763 were quite alive to the +advantages which would accrue to Great Britain, by holding in absolute +control a rich but incoherent body of colonies whose administrative centre +lay in England, and were as anxious that London should serve as the heart +of America as Washington was that America should have its heart on the +Potomac. + +Accordingly, England attempted to isolate Massachusetts and pressed an +attack on her with energy, before the whole thirteen colonies should be +able to draw to a unity. On the other hand, Washington, and most sensible +Americans, resisted this attack as resolutely as might be under such +disadvantages, not wishing for independence, but hoping for some +compromise like that which Great Britain has since effected with her +remaining colonies. The situation, however, admitted of no peaceful +adjustment, chiefly because the imbecility of American administration +induced by her incapacity for collective thought, was so manifest, that +Englishmen could not believe that such a society could wage a successful +war. Nor could America have done so alone. She owed her ultimate victory +altogether to Washington and France. + +It would occupy too much space for me to undertake to analyze, even +superficially, the process by which, after the Seven Years' War, +competition between America and England reached an intensity which kindled +the American Revolution, but, shortly stated, the economic tension arose +thus: As England was then organized, the estates of the English landlords +had to pay two rents, one to the landlord himself, the other to the farmer +who leased his land, and this it could not do were it brought into direct +competition with equally good land which paid but one profit, and which +was not burdened by an excessive cost of transportation in reaching its +market. As freights between England and America fell because of improved +shipping and the greater safety of the seas, England had to have +protection for her food and she proposed to get it thus: If competing +Continental exports could be excluded from America, and, at the same time, +Americans could be prevented from manufacturing for themselves, the +colonists might be constrained to take what they needed from England, at +prices which would enable labor to buy food at a rate which would yield +the double profit, and thus America could be made to pay the cost of +supporting the landlords. As Cobden afterward observed, the fortunes of +England have turned on American competition. A part of these fortunes were +represented by the Parliamentary boroughs which the landlords owned and +which were confiscated by the Reform Bill, and these boroughs were held by +Lord Eldon to be incorporeal hereditaments: as truly a part of the private +property of the gentry who owned them as church advowsons, or the like. +And the gentry held to their law-making power which gave them such a +privilege with a tenacity which precipitated two wars before they yielded; +but this was naught compared to the social convulsion which rent France, +when a population which had been for centuries restrained from free +domestic movement, burst its bonds and insisted on levelling the barriers +which had immobilized it. + +The story of the French Revolution is too familiar to need recapitulation +here: indeed, I have already dealt with it in my _Social Revolutions_; but +the effects of that convulsion are only now beginning to appear, and these +effects, without the shadow of a doubt, have been in their ultimate +development the occasion of that great war whose conclusion we still +await. + +France, in 1792, having passed into a revolution which threatened the +vested interests of Prussia, was attacked by Prussia, who was defeated at +Valmy. Presently, France retaliated, under Napoleon, invaded Prussia, +crushed her army at Jena, in 1807, dismembered the kingdom and imposed on +her many hardships. To obtain their freedom the Prussians found it needful +to reorganize their social system from top to bottom, for this social +system had descended from Frederic William, the Great Elector of +Brandenburg (1640-1688), and from Frederic the Great (1740-1786), and was +effete and incapable of meeting the French onset, which amounted, in +substance, to a quickened competition. Accordingly, the new Prussian +constitution, conceived by Stein, put the community upon a relatively +democratic and highly developed educational basis. By the Emancipating +Edict of 1807, the peasantry came into possession of their land, while, +chiefly through the impulsion of Scharnhorst, who was the first chief of +staff of the modern army, the country adopted universal military service, +which proved to be popular throughout all ranks. Previous to Scharnhorst, +under Frederic the Great, the qualification of an officer had been birth. +Scharnhorst defined it as education, gallantry, and intelligence. +Similarly, Gneisenau's conception of a possible Prussian supremacy lay in +its army, its science, and its administration. But the civil service was +intended to incarnate science, and was the product of the modernized +university, exemplified in the University of Berlin organized by William +von Humboldt. Herein lay the initial advantage which Germany gained over +England, an advantage which she long maintained. And the advantage lay in +this: Germany conceived a system of technical education matured and put in +operation by the State. Hence, so far as in human affairs such things are +possible, the intelligence of Germans was liberated from the incubus of +vested interests, who always seek to use education to advance themselves. +It was so in England. The English entrusted education to the Church, and +the Church was, by the necessity of its being, reactionary and hostile to +science, whereas the army, in the main, was treated in England as a social +function, and the officers, speaking generally, were not technically +specially educated at all. Hence, in foreign countries, but especially in +Germany which was destined to be ultimately England's great competitor, +England laid herself open to rather more than a suspicion of weakness, and +indeed, when it came to a test, England found herself standing, for +several years of war, at a considerable disadvantage because of the lack +of education in those departments wherein Germany had, by the attack of +France, been forced to make herself proficient. This any one may see for +himself by reading the addresses of Fichte to the German nation, delivered +in 1807 and 1808, when Berlin was still occupied by the French. In fine, +it was with Prussia a question of competition, brought to its ultimate +tension by war. Prussia had no alternative as a conquered land but to +radically accelerate her momentum, or perish. And so, at the present day, +it may not improbably be with us. Competition must grow intenser. + +With England the situation in 1800 was very different. It was less +strenuous. Nothing is more notable in England than to observe how, after +the Industrial Revolution began, there was practically no means by which a +poor man could get an education, save by educating himself. For instance, +in February 1815, four months before Waterloo, George Stephenson took out +a patent for the locomotive engine which was to revolutionize the world. +But George Stephenson was a common laborer in the mines, who had no state +instruction available, nor had he even any private institution at hand in +which the workmen whom he employed in practical construction could be +taught. He and his son Robert, had to organize instruction for themselves +and their employees independently. So it was even with a man like Faraday, +who began life as an errand boy, and later on who actually went abroad as +a sort of valet to Sir Humphry Davy. Davy himself was a self-made man. In +short, England, as a community, did little or nothing by education for +those who had no means, and but little to draw any one toward science. It +was at this precise moment that Germany was cast into the furnace of +modern competition with England, who had, because of a series of causes, +chiefly geographical, topographical, and mineralogical, about a century +the start of her. Against this advantage Germany had to rely exclusively +upon civil and military education. At first this competition by Germany +took a military complexion, and very rapidly wrought the complete +consolidation of Germany by the Austrian and the French wars. But this +phase presently passed, and after the French campaign of 1870 the purely +economic aspect of the situation developed more strenuously still, so much +so that intelligent observers, among whom Lord Roberts was conspicuous, +perceived quite early in the present century that the heat generated in +the conflict must, probably, soon engender war. Nor could it either +theoretically or practically have been otherwise, for the relations +between the two countries had reached a point where they generated a +friction which caused incandescence automatically. And, moreover, the +inflammable material fit for combustion was, especially in Germany, +present in quantity. From the time of Fichte and Scharnhorst downward to +the end of the century, the whole nation had learned, as a sort of gospel, +that the German education produced a most superior engine of economic +competition, whereas the slack education and frivolous amusements of +English civil and military life alike, had gradually created a society apt +to crumble. And it is only needful for any person who has the curiosity, +to glance at the light literature of the Victorian age, which deals with +the army, to see how dominant a part such an amusement as hunting played +in the life of the younger officers, especially in the fashionable +regiments, to be impressed with the soundness of much of this German +criticism. + +Assuming, then, for the sake of argument, that these historical premises +are sound, I proceed to consider how they bear on our prospective +civilization. + +This is eminently a scientific age, and yet the scientific mind, as it is +now produced among us, is not without tendencies calculated to cause +uneasiness to those a little conversant with history or philosophy. For +whereas no one in these days would dream of utilizing prayer, as did Moses +or Saint Hugh, as a mechanical energy, nevertheless the search for a +universal prime motor goes on unabated, and yet it accomplishes nothing to +the purpose. On the contrary, the effect is one which could neither be +expected nor desired. Instead of being an aid to social coordination, it +stimulates disintegration to a high degree as the war has shown. It has +stimulated disintegration in two ways. First, it has enormously quickened +physical movement, which has already been discussed, and secondly, it has +stimulated the rapidity with which thought is diffused. The average human +being can only absorb and assimilate safely new forms of thought when +given enough time for digestion, as if he were assimilating food. If he be +plied with new thought too rapidly he fails to digest. He has a surfeit, +serious in proportion to its enormity. That is to say, his power of +drawing correct conclusions from the premises submitted to him fails, and +we have all sorts of crude experiments in sociology attempted, which end +in that form of chaos which we call a violent revolution. The ordinary +result is infinite waste fomented by fallacious hopes; in a word, +financial disaster, supplemented usually by loss of life. The experience +is an old one, and the result is almost invariable. + +For example, during the Middle Ages, men like Saint Hugh and Peter the +Venerable, and, most of all, Saint Francis, possessed by dreams of +attaining to perfection, by leading lives of inimitable purity, self- +devotion, and asceticism, inspired the community about them with the +conviction that they could work miracles. They thereby, as a reward, drew +to the Church they served what amounted to being, considering the age they +lived in, boundless wealth. But the effect of this economic phenomenon was +far from what they had hoped or expected. Instead of raising the moral +standard of men to a point where all the world would be improved, they so +debased the hierarchy, by making money the standard of ambition within it, +that, as a whole, the priesthood accepted, without any effective protest, +the fires of the Council of Constance which consumed Huss, and the +abominations of the Borgias at Rome. Perfectly logically, as a corollary +to this orgy of crime and bestiality, the wars of the Reformation swept +away many, many thousands of human beings, wasted half of Europe, and only +served to demonstrate the futility of ideals. + +And so it was with the Puritans, who were themselves the children of the +revolt against social corruption. They fondly believed that a new era was +to be ushered in by the rule of the Cromwellian saints. What the +Cromwellian saints did in truth usher in, was the carnival of debauchery +of Charles II, in its turn to be succeeded by the capitalistic competitive +age which we have known, and which has abutted in the recent war. + +Man can never hope to change his physical necessities, and therefore his +moral nature must always remain the same in essence, if not in form. As +Washington truly said, "The motives which predominate most in human +affairs are self-love and self-interest," and "nothing binds one country +or one state to another but interest." + +If, then, it be true, that man is an automatic animal moving always along +the paths of least resistance toward predetermined ends, it cannot fail to +be useful to us in the present emergency to mark, as distinctly as we can, +the causes which impelled Germany, at a certain point in her career, to +choose the paths which led to her destruction rather than those which, at +the first blush, promised as well, and which seemed to be equally as easy +and alluring. And we may possibly, by this process, expose certain +phenomena which may profit us, since such an examination may help us to +estimate what avenues are like to prove ultimately the least resistant. + +Throughout the Middle Ages North Germany, which is the region whereof +Berlin is the capital, enjoyed relatively little prosperity, because +Brandenburg, for example, lay beyond the zone of those main trade routes +which, before the advent of railways, served as the arteries of the +eastern trade. Not until after the opening of the Industrial Revolution in +England, did that condition alter. Nor even then did a change come rapidly +because of the inertia of the Russian people. Nevertheless, as the Russian +railway system developed, Berlin one day found herself standing, as it +were, at the apex of a vast triangle whose boundaries are, roughly, +indicated by the position of Berlin itself, Petersburg, Warsaw, Moscow, +Kiev, and the Ukraine. Beyond Berlin the stream of traffic flowed to +Hamburg and thence found vent in America, as a terminus. Great Britain, +more especially, demanded food, and food passed by sea from Odessa. Hence +Russia served as a natural base for Germany, taking German manufactures +and offering to Germany a reservoir capable of absorbing her redundant +population. Thus it had long been obvious that intimate relations with +Russia were of prime importance to Germany since all the world could +perceive that the monied interests of Russia must more and more fall into +German hands, because of the intellectual limitations of the Russians. +Also pacification to the eastward always was an integral part of +Bismarck's policy. Notwithstanding which other influences conflicted with, +and ultimately overbalanced, this eastern trend in Germany. + +For many thousand years before written history began, the economic capital +of the world, the seat for the time being of opulence and of splendor, and +at once the admiration and the envy of less favored rivals, has been a +certain ambulatory spot upon the earth's surface, at a point where the +lines of trade from east to west have converged. And always the marked +idiosyncrasy of this spot has been its unrest. It has constantly +oscillated from east to west according as the fortunes of war have +prevailed, or as the march of applied science has made one or another +route of transportation cheaper or more defensible. + +Thus Babylon was conquered and robbed by Rome, and Rome, after a long +heyday of prosperity, yielded to Constantinople, while Constantinople lost +her supremacy to Venice, Genoa, and North Italy, following the sack of +Constantinople by the Venetians in 1202 A.D. The Fairs of Champaign in +France, and the cities of the Rhine and Antwerp were the glory of the +Middle Ages, but these great markets faded when the discovery of the long +sea voyage to India threw the route by the Red Sea and Cairo into +eccentricity, and caused Spain and Portugal to bloom. Spain's prosperity +did not, however, last long. England used war during the sixteenth century +as an economic weapon, pretty easily conquering. And since the opening of +the Industrial Revolution, at least, London, with the exception of the few +years when England suffered from the American revolt of 1776, has assumed +steadily more the aspect of the great international centre of exchanges, +until with Waterloo her supremacy remained unchallenged. It was this +brilliant achievement of London, won chiefly by arms, which more than any +other cause impelled Germany to try her fortunes by war rather than by the +methods of peace. + +Nor was the German calculation of chances unreasonable or unwarranted. For +upwards of two centuries Germany had found war the most profitable of all +her economic ventures; especially had she found the French war of 1870 a +most lucrative speculation. And she felt unbounded confidence that she +could win as easy a triumph with her army, over the French, in the +twentieth as in the nineteenth century. But, could she penetrate to Paris +and at the same time occupy the littoral of the Channel and Antwerp, she +was persuaded that she could do to the commerce of England what England +had once done to the commerce of Spain, and that Hamburg and Berlin would +supplant London. And this calculation might have proved sound had it not +been for her oversight in ignoring one essential factor in the problem. +Ever since North America was colonized by the English, that portion of the +continent which is now comprised by the Republic of the United States, had +formed a part of the British economic system, even when the two fragments +of that system were competing in war, as has occurred more than once. And +as America has waxed great and rich these relations have grown closer, +until of recent years it has become hard to determine whether the centre +of gravity of this vast capitalistic mass lay to the east or to the west +of the Atlantic. One fact, however, from before the outset of this war had +been manifest, and that was that the currents of movement flowed with more +power from America to England than from America to Germany. And this had +from before the outbreak of hostilities affected the relations of the +parties. Should Germany prevail in her contest with England, the result +would certainly be to draw the centre of exchanges to the eastward, and +thereby to throw the United States, more or less, into eccentricity; but +were England to prevail the United States would tend to become the centre +toward which all else would gravitate. Hence, perfectly automatically, +from a time as long ago as the Spanish War, the balance, as indicated by +the weight of the United States, hung unevenly as between Germany and +England, Germany manifesting something approaching to repulsion toward the +attraction of the United States while Great Britain manifested favor. And +from subsequent evidence, this phenomenon would seem to have been thus +early developed, because the economic centre of gravity of our modern +civilization had already traversed the Atlantic, and by so doing had +decided the fortunes of Germany in advance, in the greater struggle about +to come. Consider attentively what has happened. In April, 1917, when the +United States entered the conflict, Germany, though it had suffered +severely in loss of men, was by no means exhausted. On the contrary, many +months subsequently she began her final offensive, which she pushed so +vigorously that she penetrated to within some sixty miles of Paris. But +there, at Château Thierry, on the Marne, she first felt the weight of the +economic shift. She suddenly encountered a division of American troops +advancing to oppose her. Otherwise the road to Paris lay apparently open. +The American troops were raw levies whom the Germans pretended to despise. +And yet, almost without making a serious effort at prolonged attack, the +Germans began their retreat, which only ended with their collapse and the +fall of the empire. + +A similar phenomenon occurred once before in German history, and it is not +an uncommon incident in human experience when nature has already made, or +is on the brink of making, a change in the seat of the economic centre of +the world. In the same way, when Constantine won the battle of the Milvian +Bridge, with his men fighting under the standard of the Labarum, it was +subsequently found that the economic capital of civilization had silently +migrated from the Tiber to the Bosphorus, where Constantine seated himself +at Constantinople, which was destined to be the new capital of the world +for about eight hundred years. So in 1792, when the Prussians and the +French refugees together invaded France, they never doubted for an instant +that they should easily disperse the mob, as they were pleased to call it, +of Kellermann's "vagabonds, cobblers, and tailors." Nevertheless the +Germans recoiled on the slope of Valmy from before the republican army, +almost without striking a blow, nor could they be brought again to the +attack, although the French royalists implored to be allowed to storm the +hill alone, provided they could be assured of support. Then the retreat of +the Duke of Brunswick began, and this retreat was the prelude to the +Napoleonic empire, to Austerlitz, to Jena, to the dismemberment and to the +reorganization of Prussia and to the evolution of modern Germany: in +short, to the conversion of the remnants of mediæval civilization into the +capitalistic, industrial, competitive society which we have known. And all +this because of the accelerated movement caused by science. + +If it be, indeed, a fact that the victory of Château Thierry and the +subsequent retreat of the German army together with the collapse of the +German Empire indicate, as there is abundant reason to suppose that they +may, a shift in the world's social equilibrium, equivalent to the shift in +Europe presaged by Valmy, or to that which substituted Constantinople for +Rome and which was marked by the Milvian Bridge, it follows that we must +prepare ourselves for changes possibly greater than our world has seen +since it marched to Jerusalem under Godfrey de Bouillon. And the tendency +of those changes is not so very difficult, perhaps, roughly to estimate, +always premising that they are hardly compatible with undue optimism. +Supposing, for example, we consider, in certain of their simpler aspects, +some of the relations of Great Britain toward ourselves, since Great +Britain is not only our most important friend, assuming that she remain a +friend, but our most formidable competitor, should competition strain our +friendship. Also Great Britain has the social system nearest akin to our +own, and most likely to be influenced by the same so-called democratic +tendencies. For upwards of a hundred years Great Britain has been, and she +still is, absolutely dependent on her maritime supremacy for life. It was +on that issue she fought the Napoleonic wars, and when she prevailed at +Trafalgar and Waterloo she assumed economic supremacy, but only on the +condition that she should always be ready and willing to defend it, for it +is only on that condition that economic supremacy can be maintained. War +is the most potent engine of economic competition. Constantinople and +Antwerp survived and flourished on the same identical conditions long +before the day of London. She must keep her avenues of communication with +all the world open, and guard them against possible attack. So long as +America competed actively with England on the sea, even for her own trade, +her relations with Great Britain were troubled. The irritation of the +colonies with the restrictions which England put upon their commerce +materially contributed to foment the revolution, as abundantly appears in +the famous case of John Hancock's sloop Liberty, which was seized for +smuggling. So in the War of 1812, England could not endure the United +States as a competitor in her contest with France. She must be an ally, +or, in other words, she must function as a component part of the British +economic system, or she must be crushed. The crisis came with the attack +of the Leopard on the Chesapeake in 1807, after which the possibility of +maintaining peace, under such a pressure, appeared, in its true light, as +a phantasm. After the war, with more or less constant friction, the same +conditions continued until the outbreak of the Rebellion, and then Great +Britain manifested her true animus as a competitor. She waged an +unacknowledged campaign against the commerce of the United States, +building, equipping, arming, manning, and succoring a navy for the South, +which operated none the less effectively because its action was officially +repudiated. And in this secret warfare England prevailed, since when the +legislation of the United States has made American competition with +England on the sea impossible. Wherefore we have had peace with England. +We have supplied Great Britain with food and raw materials, abandoning to +England the carrying trade and an undisputed naval supremacy. Consequently +Great Britain feels secure and responds to the full force of that economic +attraction which makes America naturally, a component part of the British +economic system. But let American pretensions once again revive to the +point of causing her to attempt seriously to develop her sea power as of +yore, and the same friction would also revive which could hardly, were it +pushed to its legitimate end, eventuate otherwise than in the ultimate +form of all economic competition. + +If such a supposition seems now to be fanciful, it is only necessary to +reflect a moment on the rapidity with which national relations vary under +competition, to be assured that it is real. As Washington said, the only +force which binds one nation to another is interest. The rise of Germany, +which first created jealousy in England, began with the attack on Denmark +in 1864. Then Russia was the power which the British most feared and with +whom they were on the worst of terms. About that period nothing would have +seemed more improbable than that these relations would be reversed, and +that Russia and England would jointly, within a generation, wage fierce +war on Germany. We are very close to England now, but we may be certain +that, were we to press, as Germany pressed, on British maritime and +industrial supremacy, we should be hated too. It is vain to disguise the +fact that British fortunes in the past have hinged on American +competition, and that the wisest and most sagacious Englishmen have been +those who have been most alive to the fact. Richard Cobden, for example, +was one of the most liberal as he was one of the most eminent of British +economists and statesmen of the middle of the nineteenth century. He was a +democrat by birth and education, and a Quaker by religion. In 1835, just +before he entered public life, Cobden visited the United States and thus +recorded his impressions on his return: + +"America is once more the theatre upon which nations are contending for +mastery; it is not, however, a struggle for conquest, in which the victor +will acquire territorial dominion--the fight is for commercial supremacy, +and will be won by the cheapest.... It is from the silent and peaceful +rivalry of American commerce, the growth of its manufactures, its rapid +progress in internal improvements, ... it is from these, and not from the +barbarous policy or the impoverishing armaments of Russia, that the +grandeur of our commercial and national prosperity is endangered." +[Footnote: John Morley, _The Life of Richard Cobden_, 107, 108.] + +It is not, however, any part of my contention that nature should push her +love of competition so far as necessarily to involve us in war with Great +Britain, at least at present, for nature has various and most unlooked-for +ways of arriving at her ends, since men never can determine, certainly in +advance, what avenue will, to them, prove the least resistant. They very +often make an error, as did the Germans, which they can only correct by +enduring disaster, defeat, and infinite suffering. Nature might very well, +for example, prefer that consolidation should advance yet another step +before a reaction toward chaos should begin. + +This last war has, apparently, been won by a fusion of two economic +systems which together hold and administer a preponderating mass of fluid +capital, and which have partially pooled their resources to prevail. They +appear almost as would a gigantic lizard which, having been severed in an +ancient conflict, was now making a violent but only half-conscious effort +to cause the head and body to unite with the tail, so that the two might +function once more as a single organism, governed by a single will. Under +our present form of capitalistic life there would seem to be no reason why +this fluid capital should not fuse and by its energy furnish the motor +which should govern the world. Rome, for centuries, was governed by an +emperor, who represented the landed class of Italy, under the forms of a +republic. It is not by any means necessary that a plutocratic mass should +have a recognized political head. And America and England, like two +enormous banking houses, might in effect fuse and yet go on as separate +institutions with nominally separate boards of directors. + +But it is inconceivable that even such an expedient as this, however +successful at the outset, should permanently solve the problem, which +resolves itself once more into individual competition. It is not +imaginable that such an enormous plutocratic society as I have supposed +could conduct its complex affairs upon the basis of the average +intelligence. As in Rome, a civil service would inevitably be organized +which would contain a carefully selected body of ability. We have seen +such a process, in its initial stages, in the recent war. And such a civil +service, however selected and however trained, would, to succeed, have to +be composed of men who were the ablest in their calling, the best +educated, and the fittest: in a word, the representatives of what we call +"the big business" of the country. Such as they might handle the +railroads, the telegraph lines, the food supply, the question of +competitive shipping, and finally prices, as we have seen it done, but +only on condition that they belonged to the fortunate class by merit. + +But supposing, in the face of such a government, the unfortunate class +should protest, as they already do protest in Russia, in Germany, and even +in England and here at home, that a legal system which sanctions such a +civilization is iniquitous. Here, the discontented say, you insist on a +certain form of competition being carried to its limit. That is, you +demand intellectual and peaceful competition for which I am unfit both by +education, training, and mental ability. I am therefore excluded from +those walks in life which make a man a freeman. I become a slave to +capital. I must work, or fight, or starve according to another man's +convenience, caprice, or, in fine, according to his will. I could be no +worse off under any despot. To such a system I will not submit. But I can +at least fight. Put me on a competitive equality or I will blow your +civilization to atoms. To such an argument there is no logical answer +possible except the answer which all extreme socialists have always +advanced. The fortunate man should be taxed for all he earns above the +average wage, and the State should confiscate his accumulations at death. +Then, with a system of government education, obligatory on all, children +would start equal from birth. + +Here we come against the hereditary instinct, the creator and the +preserver of the family: the instinct which has made law and order +possible, so far as our ancestors or we have known order, as far back as +the Ice Age. If the coming world must strive with this question, or +abandon the "democratic ideal," the future promises to be stormy. + +But even assuming that this problem of individual competition be overcome, +we are as far as ever from creating a system of moral law which shall +avail us, for we at once come in conflict with the principle of abstract +justice which demands that free men shall be permitted to colonize or move +where they will. But supposing England and America to amalgamate; they now +hold or assume to control all or nearly all the vacant regions of the +earth which are suited to the white man's habitation. And the white man +cannot live and farm his land in competition with the Asiatic; that was +conclusively proved in the days of Rome. + +But it is not imaginable that Asiatics will submit to this discrimination +in silence. Nothing can probably constrain them to resignation but force, +and to apply force is to revert to the old argument of the savage or the +despot, who admits that he knows no law save that of the stronger, which +is the system, however much we have disguised it and, in short, lied about +it, under which we have lived and under which our ancestors have lived +ever since the family was organized, and under which it is probable that +we shall continue to live as long as any remnant of civilization shall +survive. + +Nevertheless, it seems to be far from improbable that the system of +industrial, capitalistic civilization, which came in, in substance, with +the "free thought" of the Reformation, is nearing an end. Very probably it +may have attained to its ultimate stages and may dissolve presently in the +chaos which, since the Reformation, has been visibly impending. Democracy +in America has conspicuously and decisively failed, in the collective +administration of the common public property. Granting thus much, it +becomes simply a question of relative inefficiency, or degradation of +type, culminating in the exhaustion of resources by waste; unless the +democratic man can supernaturally raise himself to some level more nearly +approaching perfection than that on which he stands. For it has become +self-evident that the democrat cannot change himself from a competitive to +a non-competitive animal by talking about it, or by pretending to be +already or to be about to become other than he is,--the victim of infinite +conflicting forces. + +BROOKS ADAMS, +QUINCY, _July_ 20, 1919. + + + + +THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COMMONWEALTH. + + +The mysteries of the Holy Catholic Church had been venerated for ages when +Europe burst from her mediæval torpor into the splendor of the +Renaissance. Political schemes and papal abuses may have precipitated the +inevitable outbreak, but in the dawn of modern thought the darkness faded +amidst which mankind had so long cowered in the abject terrors of +superstition. Already in the beginning of the fifteenth century many of +the ancient dogmas had begun to awaken incredulity, and sceptics learned +to mock at that claim to infallibility upon which the priesthood based +their right to command the blind obedience of the Christian world. Between +such adversaries compromise was impossible; and those who afterward +revolted against the authority of the traditions of Rome sought refuge +under the shelter of the Bible, which they grew to reverence with a +passionate devotion, believing it to have been not only directly and +verbally inspired by God, but the only channel through which he had made +known his will to men. + +Thus the movement was not toward new doctrines; on the contrary, it was +the rejection of what could no longer be believed. Calvin was no less +orthodox than St. Augustine in what he accepted; his heresy lay in the +denial of enigmas from which his understanding recoiled. The mighty +convulsion of the Reformation, therefore, was but the supreme effort of +the race to tear itself from the toils of a hierarchy whose life hung upon +its success in forcing the children to worship the myths of their +ancestral religion. + +Three hundred years after Luther nailed his theses to the church door the +logical deduction had been drawn from his great act, and Christendom had +been driven to admit that any concession of the right to reason upon +matters of faith involved the recognition of the freedom of individual +thought. But though this noble principle has been at length established, +long years of bloodshed passed before the victory was won; and from the +outset the attitude of the clergy formed the chief obstacle to the triumph +of a more liberal civilization; for howsoever bitterly Catholic and +Protestant divines have hated and persecuted each other, they have united +like true brethren in their hatred and their persecution of heretics; for +such was their inexorable destiny. + +Men who firmly believe that salvation lies within their creed alone, and +that doubters suffer endless torments, never can be tolerant. They feel +that duty commands them to defend their homes against a deadly peril, and +even pity for the sinner urges them to wring from him a recantation before +it is too late; and then, moreover, dissent must lessen the power and +influence of a hierarchy and may endanger its very existence; therefore +the priests of every church have been stimulated to crush out schism by +the two strongest passions that can inflame the mind--by bigotry and by +ambition. + +In England the Reformation was controlled by statesmen, whose object was +to invest the crown with ecclesiastical power, and who made no changes +except such as they thought necessary for their purpose. They repudiated +the papal supremacy, and adopted articles of religion sufficiently +evangelical in form, but they retained episcopacy, the liturgy, and the +surplice; the cross was still used in baptism, the people bowed at the +name of Jesus, and knelt at the communion. Such a compromise with what +they deemed idolatry was offensive to the stricter Protestants, and so +early as 1550 John Hooper refused the see of Gloucester because he would +not wear the robes of office; thus almost from its foundation the church +was divided into factions, and those who demanded a more radical reform +were nicknamed Puritans. As time elapsed large numbers who could no longer +bring themselves to conform withdrew from the orthodox communion, and +began to worship by themselves; persecution followed, and many fled to +Holland, where they formed congregations in the larger towns, the most +celebrated of them being that of John Robinson at Leyden, which afterward +founded Plymouth. But the intellectual ferment was universal, and the same +upheaval that was rending the church was shaking the foundations of the +state: power was passing into the hands of the people, but a century was +to elapse before the relations of the sovereign to the House of Commons +were fully adjusted. During this interval the Stuarts reigned and three of +the four kings suffered exile or death in the fierce contest for mastery. + +The fixed determination of Charles I. was to establish a despotism and +enforce conformity with ritualism; and the result was the Great Rebellion. + +Among the statesmen who advised him, none has met with such scant mercy +from posterity as Laud, who has been gibbeted as the impersonification of +narrowness, of bigotry, and of cruelty. The judgment is unscientific, for +whatever may be thought of the humanity or wisdom of his policy, he only +did what all have done who have attempted to impose a creed on men. + +The real grievance has never been that an observance has been required, or +an indulgence refused, but that the right to think has been denied. +Provided a boundary be fixed within which the reason must be chained, the +line drawn by Laud is as reasonable as that of Calvin; Geneva is no more +infallible than Canterbury or Rome. Comprehension is the dream of +visionaries, for some will always differ from any confession of faith, +however broad; and where there are dogmas there will be heretics till all +have perished. But in their fear and hatred of individual free thought +regarding the mysteries of religion, Laud, Calvin, and the Pope agreed. + +With the progress of the war, the Puritans, who had at first been united +in their opposition to the crown, themselves divided; one party, to which +most of the peers and of the non-conforming clergy belonged, being anxious +to reestablish the monarchy, and set up a rigid Presbyterianism; the +other, of whose spirit Cromwell was the incarnation, resolving each day +more firmly to crush the king and proclaim freedom of conscience; and it +was this doctrine of toleration which was the snare and the abomination in +the eyes of evangelical divines. + +Robert Baillie, the Scotch commissioner, while in London, anxiously +watching the rise of the power of the Independents in Parliament, with +each victory of their armies in the field wrote, "Liberty of conscience, +and toleration of all and any religion, is so prodigious an impiety that +this religious parliament cannot but abhor the very meaning of it." Nor +did his reverend brethren of the Westminster Assembly fall any whit behind +him when they rose to expound the word. In a letter of 17th May, 1644, he +thus described their doctrine: "This day was the best that I have seen +since I came to England.... After D. Twisse had begun with a brief prayer, +Mr. Marshall prayed large two hours, most divinely, confessing the sins of +the members of the assembly, in a wonderful, pathetick, and prudent way. +After, Mr. Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a psalm; thereafter, Mr. +Vines prayed near two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached an hour, and Mr. +Seaman prayed near two hours, then a psalm; after, Mr. Henderson brought +them to a sweet conference of the heat confessed in the assembly, and +other seen faults to be remedied, and the conveniency to preach against +all sects, especially Anabaptists and Antinomians. Dr. Twisse closed with +a short prayer and blessing." [Footnote: Baillie's _Letters and Journals_, +ii. 18.] + +But Cromwell, gifted with noble instincts and transcendent political +genius, a layman, a statesman, and a soldier, was a liberal from birth +till death. + +"Those that were sound in the faith, how proper was it for them to labor +for liberty, ... that men might not be trampled upon for their +consciences! Had not they labored but lately under the weight of +persecution? And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others? Is it +ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it? What greater hypocrisy than +for those who were oppressed by the bishops to become the greatest +oppressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed? I could wish +that they who call for liberty now also had not too much of that spirit, +if the power were in their hands." [Footnote: Speech at dissolution of +first Parliment, Jan. 22, 1655. Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iv. 107.] + +"If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another form, if +an Independent, for example, will despise him under Baptism, and will +revile him and reproach him and provoke him,--I will not suffer it in him. +If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist shall be censuring the +godly ministers of the nation who profess under that of Independency; or +if those that profess under Presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking +evil of them, traducing and censuring of them, as I would not be willing +to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to +impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ,--so I +will not endure any reproach to them." [Footnote: Speech made September, +1656. Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iv. 234.] + +The number of clergymen among the emigrants to Massachusetts was very +large, and the character of the class who formed the colony was influenced +by them to an extraordinary degree. Many able pastors had been deprived in +England for non-conformity, and they had to choose between silence or +exile. To men of their temperament silence would have been intolerable; +and most must have depended upon their profession for support. America, +therefore, offered a convenient refuge. The motives are less obvious which +induced the leading laymen, some of whom were of fortune and consequence +at home, to face the hardships of the wilderness. Persecution cannot be +the explanation, for a government under which Hampden and Cromwell could +live and be returned to Parliament was not intolerable; nor does it appear +that any of them had been severely dealt with. The wish of the Puritan +party to have a place of retreat, should the worst befall, may have had +its weight with individuals, but probably the influence which swayed the +larger number was the personal ascendancy of their pastors, for that +ascendancy was complete. In a community so selected, men of the type of +Baillie must have vastly outnumbered those of the stamp of Cromwell, and +in point of fact their minds were generally cast in the ecclesiastical +mould and imbued with the ecclesiastical feeling. Governor Dudley +represented them well, and at his death some lines were found in his +pocket in which their spirit yet glows in all the fierceness of its +bigotry. + + "Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch + O're such as do a Toleration hatch, + Lest that Ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice, + To poison all with heresie and vice." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 2, ch. v. section 1.] + +In former ages churches had been comprehensive to this extent: infants +had been baptized, and, when the child had become a man, he had been +admitted to the communion as a matter of course, unless his life had given +scandal; but to this system the Congregationalist was utterly opposed. He +believed that, human nature being totally depraved, some became regenerate +through grace; that the signs of grace were as palpable as any other +traits of character, and could be discerned by all the world; therefore, +none should be admitted to the sacrament who had not the marks of the +elect; and as in a well-ordered community the godly ought to rule, it +followed that none should be enfranchised but members of the church. + +To suppose such a government could be maintained in England was beyond the +dreams even of an enthusiast, and there can be little doubt that the +controlling incentive with many of those who sailed was the hope, with the +aid of their divines, of founding a religious commonwealth in the +wilderness which should harmonize with their interpretation of the +Scriptures. + +The execution of such a project was, however, far from easy. It would have +been most unsafe for the emigrants to have divulged their true designs, +since these were not only unlawful, but would have been highly offensive +to the king, and yet they were too feeble to exist without the protection +of Great Britain, therefore it was necessary to secure for themselves the +rights of English subjects, and to throw some semblance at least of the +sanction of law over the organization of their new state. Accordingly, a +patent [Footnote: March 4, 1629.] was obtained from the crown, by which +twenty-five persons were incorporated under the name of the Governor and +Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England; and as the extent of the +powers therein granted has given rise to a controversy which is not yet +closed, it is necessary to understand the nature of that instrument in +order to comprehend the bearings of the bitter strife which darkens the +history of the first fifty years of the colony. + +The germ of the written charter is so ancient as to be lost in obscurity. +During the Middle Ages, oppression was, speaking generally, the accepted +condition of society, no man not noble having the right in theory, or the +power in practice, to control his own actions without interference from +his feudal superior. Under such circumstances the only hope for the weak +was to combine, and most of the early triumphs of freedom were won by +combinations of commons against some noble, or of nobles against a king. +Organization is difficult for a peasantry, but easy for burghers, and from +the outset these seem to have united for their common defense against the +neighboring barons; and thus was born the mediæval guild. + +The ancient townsmen were not usually strong enough to fight for their +liberties, so they generally resorted to purchase; they agreed with their +lord upon a price to be paid for a privilege, and were given for their +money a grant, which, because it was written, was called a charter. + +The following charter of the Merchants' Guild of Leicester is very early +and very simple. It presupposes that there could be no doubt about the +local customs, which are therefore not enumerated, and it shows that the +guild of Leicester existed as a corporation at the Conquest, and must +already have held property in succession and been liable to suit through +two reigns:-- + +"Robert, Earl of Mellent, to Ralph, and all his barons, French and +English, of all his land in England, greeting: Know ye, that I have +granted to my merchants of Leicester their Guild Merchant, with all +customs which they held in the time of King William, of King William his +son, and now hold in the time of Henry the king. + +"Witness: R., the son of Alcitil." + +The object of these ancient writings was only to record the fact of +corporate existence; the popular custom by which the guilds were regulated +was taken for granted; but obviously they must have had succession, been +liable to suit, able to contract, and, in a word, to do all those acts +which were afterward set forth. And such has uniformly been the process by +which English jurisprudence has been shaped; a usage grows up that courts +recognize, and, by their decisions, establish as the common law; but +judicial decisions are inflexible, and, as they become antiquated, they +are themselves modified by legislation. Lawyers observed these customary +companies for some centuries before they learned what functions were +universal; but, with the lapse of time, the patents became more elaborate, +until at length a voluminous grant of each particular power was held +necessary to create a new corporation. + +A merchants' guild, like the one of Leicester, was an association of the +townsmen for their common welfare. Every trader was then called a +merchant, and as almost every burgher lived by trade, and was also a +landowner, to the extent at least of his dwelling, it followed that the +guild practically included all free male inhabitants; the guild hall was +used as the town hall, the guild ordinances were the town ordinances, and +the corporation became the government of the borough, and as such chose +persons to represent it in Parliament, when summoned by the king's writ to +send burgesses to Westminster. + +London is a corporation by prescription and not by virtue of any +particular charter, and to this day its city hall is called by the ancient +name, Guild Hall. But with the growth of wealth and population the +original fraternity divided into craft organizations (so long ago, indeed, +that no record of its existence remains), and each trade organized a +guild, with a hall of its own; and thus it came to pass that the twelve +livery companies--the Mercers, the Grocers, the Goldsmiths, the Drapers, +the Fishmongers, and the rest--became the government of the capital of +England. + +All mediæval institutions tended to aristocracy and monopoly, and, +accordingly, after the merchant guilds had split into these corporate +trade unions, boroughs waxed exclusive, and membership, instead of being +an incident of citizenship, grew to confer citizenship itself; thus the +franchise, being confined to freemen, and freedom or membership having +come to depend on birth, marriage, election, or purchase, the +constituencies which returned a majority of the House of Commons grew so +petty and corrupt as to threaten the existence of parliamentary government +itself, and the abuse at last culminated in the agitation which produced +the Reform Bill. + +When legal forms had taken shape, the land upon which a town stood was not +unusually granted to the mayor and commonalty by metes and bounds, +[Footnote: See Charter of Plymouth, granted 1439. _History of +Plymouth_, p. 50. The incorporation was by statute.] to them and their +successors forever, upon payment of a rent; and the mayor and common +council were empowered to make laws and ordinances for the local +government, and to fine, imprison, and sometimes whip and otherwise punish +offenders, so as their statutes, fines, pains, and penalties were +reasonable and not repugnant to law. [Footnote: _History of +Tiverton_, App. 5.] The foreign trading company was an offshoot of the +guild, and was intended to protect commerce. Obviously some such +organization must have been necessary, for, if property was insecure +within the realm, it was far more exposed without; and, indeed, in the +fourteenth century, English merchants domiciled on the Continent could +hardly have been safer than Europeans are now who garrison the so-called +factories upon the coast of Africa. + +At the Conquest, the Hanse merchants had a house in London, which was +afterward famous as the Steel Yard. They lived a strange life,--a +combination of that of the trader, the soldier, and the monk. Their +fortified warehouse, exposed to the attacks of the ferocious mob, was +occasionally taken and sacked; and the garrison shut up within was subject +to an iron discipline. They were forbidden to marry, no woman passed the +gates, nor did they ever sleep a night without the walls; but, always on +the watch, they lay in their cells ready to repulse a storm. For many +years these Germans seem to have monopolized the carrying trade, for it +was not till the thirteenth century that Englishmen appear to have made an +effort at competition. However, about 1296 certain London mercers are said +to have obtained a grant of privileges from John, Duke of Brabant, and to +have established a wool market at Antwerp. [Footnote: Andersen's +_History of Commerce_.] The recognition of the Flemish government was +of course necessary; but they could hardly have maintained themselves +without some support at home; for, although their warehouse was abroad, +they were English merchants, and they must have relied upon English +protection. No very early documents remain; but an elaborate charter, +granted by Edward IV. in 1463, proves that the corporation had then had a +long legal existence. [Footnote: Hakluyt's _Voyages_, i. 230.] The +crown thereby confirmed one Obrey, the governor, in his office during +pleasure, with the wages theretofore enjoyed; existing laws were approved; +the governor and merchants were empowered to elect twelve Justicers, who +were to hold courts for all merchants and mariners in those parts; and the +company was authorized to regulate the trade and control the traders, +provided no laws were passed contrary to the intent of that charter. + +Here, as in the Merchant Guild, the inevitable aristocratic revolution +took place, and the old democratic brotherhood became a strict monopoly. +The oppression was so flagrant that a petition was presented to Parliament +in 1497 against the exactions of the Merchant Adventurers, as the +association was then called, by which it appeared that interlopers, +trading to Holland and Flanders, were fined £40, whereas any subject might +have become a freeman in earlier times for an old noble, or about 6s. 8d.; +[Footnote: 12 Henry VII. ch. vi.] and the scandal was so great that the +fine was fixed at 10 marks, or £6 l3s. 4d., by statute. During the +stagnation of the Middle Ages few traces of such commercial enterprises +are to be found, but with the sixteenth century Europe awoke to a new life +and thrilled with a new energy. Trade shared in the impulse. In 1554 +Philip and Mary incorporated the Russia Company in regular modern form; in +1581 the Turkey Company was organized; in 1600 the East India Company +received its charter; and, to come directly to what is material, in 1629 +Charles I. signed the patent of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts +Bay in New England. + +Stripped of its verbiage, the provisions are simple. The stockholders, or +"freemen," as they were then called, were to meet once a quarter in a +"General Court." This General Court, or stockholders' meeting, chose the +officers, of which there were twenty, the governor, deputy governor, and +eighteen assistants or directors, on the last Wednesday in each Easter +Term. The assistants were intrusted with the business management, and were +to meet once a month or oftener; while the General Court was empowered to +admit freemen, and "to make laws and ordinances for the good and welfare +of the said company, and for the government and ordering of the said lands +and plantation, and the people inhabiting and to inhabit the same, as to +them from time to time shall be thought meet,--so as such laws and +ordinances be not contrary or repugnant to the laws and statutes of this +our realm of England." The criminal jurisdiction was limited to the +"imposition of lawful fines, mulcts, imprisonment, or other lawful +correction, according to the course of other corporations in this our +realm of England." + +The "course of corporations" referred to was well established. The Master +and Wardens of the Guild of Drapers in London, for example, could make +"such ... pains, punishments, and penalties, by corporal punishment, or +fines and amercements," ... "as shall seem ... necessary," provided their +statutes were reasonable and not contrary to the laws of the kingdom. +[Footnote: Herbert's _Livery Companies_, i. 489.] In like manner, +boroughs such as Tiverton might "impose and assess punishments by +imprisonments, etc., and reasonable fines upon offenders." [Footnote: See +_History of Tiverton_, App. 5.] + +But all lawyers knew that such grants did not convey full civil or +criminal jurisdiction, which, when thought needful, was specially +conferred, as was done in the case of the East India Company upon their +petition in 1624, [Footnote: Bruce, _Annals_, i. 252.] and in that of +Massachusetts by the charter of William and Mary. + +Such was the undoubted theory, and evidently there must always have been +some practical means of checking the abuse of power by these strong +organizations. In semi-barbarous ages the sovereign took matters into his +own hands by seizing the franchise, and even the Plantagenets repeatedly +suspended or revoked the liberties of London,--often, no doubt, for cause, +but sometimes also to make money by a resale; and a succession of these +arbitrary forfeitures demonstrated that charters to be of value must be +beyond the grantor's control. Resort was had to the courts, as a matter of +course, and finally it was settled that relief should be given by a writ +of _quo warranto_, upon which the question of the violation of +privileges could be tried; and curious records still remain of ancient +litigations of this nature. + +In 1321 complaint was made against the London Weavers for injuring the +public by passing regulations tending to raise the price of cloth. +[Footnote: _Liber Customarum_, i. 416-424.] It was alleged that the +guild, with this intent, had limited the working hours in the day, the +working days in the year, and the number of apprentices the freemen might +employ; and the prayer was that for these abuses the charter should be +annulled. + +The cause was tried before a jury, who found the truth of some of the +charges; but the judgment is lost, as the roll is imperfect. + +There was danger, moreover, to the citizen from the oppression of these +powerful bodies, as well as to the public from their usurpations; and were +authority wholly wanting, argument would be almost unnecessary to prove +that some appellate tribunal must always have had jurisdiction to pass +upon the validity of corporate legislation; for otherwise any summary +punishment might have been inflicted upon an individual, though +notoriously unlawful, and the only redress possible would have been +subsequent proceedings to vacate the charter. + +Through appeals, corporations could be controlled; and by none was this +control so stubbornly disputed, or its necessity so clearly demonstrated, +as by the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. A good +illustration is the trial of the Quaker, Wenlock Christison, for his life +in 1661. + +"William Leddra being thus dispatch'd, it was resolved to make an end also +of Wenlock Christison. He therefore was brought from the prison to the +court at Boston, where the governor John Indicot, and the deputy governor +Richard Billingham, being both present, it was told him, 'Unless you will +renounce your religion, you shall surely die.' But instead of shrinking, +he said with an undaunted courage, 'Nay, I shall not change my religion, +nor seek to save my life; neither do I intend to deny my Master; but if I +lose my life for Christ's sake, and the preaching of the gospel, I shall +save my life.' ... John Indicot asked him 'what he had to say for himself, +why he should not die?' ... Then Wenlock asked, 'By what law will you put +me to death?' The answer was, 'We have a law, and by our law you are to +die.' 'So said the Jews of Christ,' (reply'd Wenlock) 'we have a law, and +by our law he ought to die. Who empowered you to make that law?' To which +one of the board answered, 'We have a patent, and are the patentees; judge +whether we have not power to make laws.' Hereupon Wenlock asked again, +'How, have you power to make laws repugnant to the laws of England?' 'No,' +said the governor. 'Then,' (reply'd Wenlock,) 'you are gone beyond your +bounds, and have forfeited your patent; and that is more than you can +answer.' 'Are you,' ask'd he, 'subjects to the king, yea or nay?' ... To +which one said, 'Yea, we are so.' 'Well,' said Wenlock, 'so am I.' ... +'Therefore seeing that you and I are subjects to the king, I demand to be +tried by the laws of my own nation.' It was answered, 'You shall be tried +by a bench and a jury.' For it seems they began to be afraid to go on in +the former course, of trial without a jury ... But Wenlock said, 'That is +not the law, but the manner of it; for I never heard nor read of any law +that was in England to hang Quakers.' To this the governor reply'd 'that +there was a law to hang Jesuits.' To which Wenlock return'd, 'If you put +me to death, it is not because I go under the name of a Jesuit, but of a +Quaker. Therefore, I appeal to the laws of my own nation.' But instead of +taking notice of this, one said 'that he was in their hands, and had +broken their law, and they would try him.'" [Footnote: Sewel, pp. 278, +279.] + +Yet, though the ecclesiastical party in Massachusetts obstinately refused +to admit appeals to the British judiciary up to the last moment of their +power, for the obvious reason that the existence of the theocracy depended +upon the enforcement of such legislation as that under which the Quakers +suffered, there was no principle in the whole range of English +jurisprudence more firmly established. By a statute of Henry VI. passed in +1436, corporate enactments were to be submitted to the judges for +approval; and the Court of King's Bench always set aside such as were bad, +whenever the question of their validity was presented for adjudication. +[Footnote: Stat. 15 H. VI. ch. 6. Stat 19 H. VII. ch. 7. Clark's Case, 5 +Coke, 633, decided A. D. 1596. See Kyd on Corporations, ii. 107-110, where +authorities are collected. Child v. Hudson Bay Co., 2 P. W. 207.] + +But discussion is futile; the proposition is self-evident, that an +association endowed with the capacity of acting like a single man, for +certain defined objects, which shall attempt other objects, or shall seek +to compass its ends by unlawful means, violates the condition upon which +its life has been granted, transcends the limits of its existence, and +forfeits its privileges; and that under such circumstances its ordinances +are void, and none are bound to yield them their obedience. + +Approached thus from the standpoint of legal history, no doubt can exist +concerning the scope of the franchise secured by the Puritans for the +Massachusetts colony. The instrument obtained from Charles I. embodied +certain of their number in an English corporation, whose only lawful +business was the American trade, as the business of the East India Company +was trade in Hindostan. To enable them to act effectively, a tract of land +in New England, between the Merrimack and the Charles, was conveyed to +them, as the soil upon which a town stood was conveyed to the mayor and +commonalty. Within this territory they were authorized to established +their plantations and forts, which they were empowered to defend against +attack, as the Hanse merchants defended the Steel Yard in London. They +were also permitted to govern the country within their grant by reasonable +regulations calculated to preserve the peace, and of much the same +character as the municipal ordinances of towns, subject, of course, to +judicial supervision. The corporation itself was created subject to the +municipal laws of England, and could have no existence without the realm; +and though perhaps even then the American wilderness might have been held +to belong to the British empire, it formed no part of the kingdom, +[Footnote: Blackstone's _Commentaries_, i. 109.] and was altogether +beyond the limits of that jurisdiction from whose customs and statutes the +life of this imaginary being sprang. Therefore, the governing body could +legally exercise its functions only when domiciled in some English town. +[Footnote: On this subject see the able paper of Mr. Deane, in +_Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings_, December, 1869, p. +166.] + +Sir Richard Sheldon, the solicitor-general, advised the king that he was +signing a charter containing "such ... clauses for ye electing of +Governors and Officers here in England, ... and powers to make lawes and +ordinances for setling ye governement and magistracye for ye plantacon +there, ... as ... are usuallie allowed to Corporacons in England." +[Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._ 1869-70, p. 173.] And there can +be no question that his opinion was sound. + +Nothing can be imagined more ill-suited to serve as the organic law of a +new commonwealth than this instrument. No provision was made for superior +or probate courts, for a representative assembly, for the incorporation of +counties and towns, for police or taxation. In short, hardly a step could +be taken toward founding a territorial government based upon popular +suffrage without working a forfeiture of the charter by abuse of the +franchise. The colonists, it is true, afterward advanced very different +theories of construction; but that they were well aware of their legal +position is demonstrated by the fact that after some hesitation from +apprehension of consequences, they ventured on the singularly bold and +lawless measure of secretly removing their charter to America and +establishing their corporation in a land which they thought would be +beyond the process of Westminster Hall. [Footnote: 1629, Aug. 29.] The +details of the settlement are related in many books, and require only the +briefest mention here. In 1628 an association of gentlemen bought the +tract of country lying between the Merrimack and Charles from the Council +of Plymouth, and sent Endicott to take charge of their purchase. A royal +patent was, however, thought necessary for the protection of a large +colony, and one having been obtained, the Company of Massachusetts Bay was +at once organized in England, Endicott was appointed governor in America, +and six vessels sailed during the spring of 1629, taking out several +hundred persons and a "plentiful provision of godly ministers." In August +the church of Salem was gathered and Mr. Higginson was consecrated as +their teacher. In that same month Winthrop, Saltonstall, and others met at +Cambridge and signed an agreement binding themselves upon the faith of +Christians to embark for the plantation by the following March; "Provided +always that before the last of September next, the whole government, +together with the patent, ... be first by an order of court legally +transferred and established to remain with us and others which shall +inhabite upon the said plantation." [Footnote: _Hutch. Coll._, Prince +Soc. ed. i. 28.] The Company accepted the proposition, Winthrop was chosen +governor, and he anchored in Salem harbor in June. [Footnote: 1630] More +than a thousand settlers landed before winter, and the first General Court +was held at Boston in October; nor did the emigration thus begun entirely +cease until the meeting of the Long Parliament. + +From the beginning the colonists took what measures they thought proper, +without regarding the limitations of the law. Counties and towns had to be +practically incorporated, taxes were levied upon inhabitants, and in 1634 +all pretence of a General Court of freemen was dropped, and the towns +chose delegates to represent them, though the legislature was not divided +into two branches until ten years later. When the government had become +fully organized supreme power was vested in the General Court, a +legislature composed of two houses; the assistants, or magistrates, as +they were called, and the deputies. The governor, deputy governor, and +assistants were elected by a general vote; but each town sent two deputies +to Boston. + +For some years justice was dispensed by the magistrates according to the +Word of God, but gradually a judicial system was established; the +magistrate's local court was the lowest, from whence causes went by appeal +to the county courts, one of whose judges was always an assistant, and +probate jurisdiction was given to the two held at Ipswich and at Salem. +From the judgments entered here an appeal lay to the Court of Assistants, +and then to the General Court, which was the tribunal of last resort. The +clergy and gentry pertinaciously resisted the enactment of a series of +general statutes, upon which the people as steadily insisted, until at +length, in 1641, "The Body of Liberties" was approved by the legislature. +This compilation was the work of the Rev. Mr. Ward, pastor of Ipswich, and +contained a criminal code copied almost word for word from the Pentateuch, +but apart from matters touching religion, the legislation was such as +English colonists have always adopted. A major-general was elected who +commanded the militia, and in 1652 money was coined. + +The social institutions, however, have a keener interest, for they reflect +that strong cast of thought which has stamped its imprint deep into the +character of so much of the American people. The seventeenth century was +aristocratic, and the inhabitants of the larger part of New England were +divided into three classes, the commonalty, the gentry, and the clergy. +Little need be said of the first, except that they were a brave and +determined race, as ready to fight as Cromwell's saints, who made Rupert's +troopers "as stubble to their swords;" that they were intelligent, and +would not brook injustice; and that they were resolute, and would not +endure oppression. All know that they were energetic and shrewd. + +The gentry had the weight in the community that comes with wealth and +education, and they received the deference then paid to birth, for they +were for the most part the descendants of English country-gentlemen. As a +matter of course they monopolized the chief offices; and they were not +sentenced by the courts to degrading punishments, like whipping, for their +offences, as other criminals were. They even showed some wish at the +outset to create legal distinctions, such as a magistracy for life, and a +disposition to magnify the jurisdiction of the Court of Assistants, whose +seats they filled; but the action of the people was determined though +quiet, a chamber of deputies was chosen, and such schemes were heard of no +more. + +Yet notwithstanding the existence of this aristocratic element, the real +substance of influence and power lay with the clergy. It has been taught +as an axiom of Massachusetts history, that from the outset the town was +the social and political unit; but an analysis of the evidence tends to +show that the organization of the Puritan Commonwealth was ecclesiastical, +and the congregation, not the town, the basis upon which the fabric +rested. By the constitution of the corporation the franchise went with the +freedom of the company; but in order to form a constituency which would +support a sacerdotal oligarchy, it was enacted in 1631 "that for time to +come noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but +such as are members of some of the churches within ... the same." +[Footnote: _Mass. Records_, i. 87.] Thus though communicants were not +necessarily voters, no one could be a voter who was not a communicant; +therefore the town-meeting was in fact nothing but the church meeting, +possibly somewhat attenuated, and called by a different name. By this +insidious statute the clergy seized the temporal power, which they held +till the charter fell. The minister stood at the head of the congregation +and moulded it to suit his purposes and to do his will; for though he +could not when opposed admit an inhabitant to the sacrament, he could +peremptorily exclude therefrom all those of whom he disapproved, for "none +are propounded to the congregation, except they be first allowed by the +elders." [Footnote: Winthrop's reply to Vane, _Hutch. Coll._, Prince +Soc. ed. i. 101.] In such a community the influence of the priesthood must +have been overwhelming. Not only in an age without newspapers or tolerable +roads were their sermons, preached several times each week to every voter, +the most effective of political harangues; but, unlike other party +orators, they were not forced to stimulate the sluggish, or to convince +the hostile, for from a people glowing with fanaticism, each elder picked +his band of devoted servants of the church, men passionately longing to do +the will of Christ, whose commands concerning earth and heaven their +pastor had been ordained to declare. Nor was their power bounded by local +limits; though seldom holding office themselves, they were solemnly +consulted by the government on every important question that arose, +whether of war or peace, and their counsel was rarely disregarded. They +gave their opinion, no matter how foreign the subject might be to their +profession or their education; and they had no hesitation in passing upon +the technical construction of the charter with the authority of a bench of +judges. An amusing example is given by Winthrop: "The General Court +assembled again, and all the elders were sent for, to reconcile the +differences between the magistrates and deputies. When they were come the +first question put to them was, ... whether the magistrates are, by patent +and election of the people, the standing council of this commonwealth in +the vacancy of the General Court, and have power accordingly to act in all +cases subject to government, according to the said patent and the laws of +this jurisdiction; and when any necessary occasions call for action from +authority, in cases where there is no particular express law provided, +there to be guided by the word of God, till the General Court give +particular rules in such cases. The elders, having received the question, +withdrew themselves for consultation about it, and the next day sent to +know, when we would appoint a time that they might attend the court with +their answer. The magistrates and deputies agreed upon an hour "and ... +their answer was affirmative, on the magistrates behalf, in the very +words of the question, with some reasons thereof. It was delivered in +writing by Mr. Cotton in the name of them all, they being all present, and +not one dissentient." Then the magistrates propounded four more questions, +the last of which is as follows: "Whether a judge be bound to pronounce +such sentence as a positive law prescribes, in case it be apparently above +or beneath the merit of the offence?" To which the elders replied at great +length, saying that the penalty must vary with the gravity of the crime, +and added examples: "So any sin committed with an high hand, as the +gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day, may be punished with death when a +lesser punishment may serve for gathering sticks privily and in some +need." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 204, 205.] Yet though the clerical +influence was so unbounded the theocracy itself was exposed to constant +peril. In monarchies such as France or Spain the priests who rule the king +have the force of the nation at command to dispose of at their will; but +in Massachusetts a more difficult problem was presented, for the voters +had to be controlled. By the law requiring freemen to be church-members +the elders meant to grasp the key to the suffrage, but experience soon +proved that more stringent regulation was needed. + +According to the original Congregational theory each church was complete +and independent, and elected its own officers and conducted its own +worship, free from interference from without, except that others of the +same communion might offer advice or admonition. Under the theocracy no +such loose system was possible, for heresy might enter in three different +ways; first, under the early law, "blasphemers" might form a congregation +and from thence creep into the company; second, an established church +might fall into error; third, an unsound minister might be chosen, who +would debauch his flock by securing the admission of sectaries to the +sacrament. Above all, a creed was necessary by means of which false +doctrine might be instantly detected and condemned. Accordingly, one by +one, as the need for vigilance increased, laws were passed to guard these +points of danger. + +First, in 1635 it was enacted, [Footnote: 1635-6, March 3.] "Forasmuch as +it hath bene found by sad experience, that much trouble and disturbance +hath happened both to the church & civill state by the officers & members +of some churches, which have bene gathered ... in an vndue manner ... it +is ... ordered that ... this Court doeth not, nor will hereafter, approue +of any such companyes of men as shall henceforthe ioyne in any pretended +way of church fellowshipp, without they shall first acquainte the +magistrates, & the elders of the greater parte of the churches in this +jurisdiction, with their intenctions, and have their approbaction herein. +And ffurther, it is ordered, that noe person, being a member of any +churche which shall hereafter be gathered without the approbaction of the +magistrates, & the greater parte of the said churches, shallbe admitted to +the ffreedome of this commonwealthe." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ i. 168.] + +In 1648 all the elders met in a synod at Cambridge; they adopted the +Westminster Confession of Faith and an elaborate "Platform of Church +Discipline," the last clause of which is as follows: "If any church ... +shall grow schismatical, rending itself from the communion of other +churches, or shall walk incorrigibly and obstinately in any corrupt way of +their own contrary to the rule of the word; in such case the magistrate, +... is to put forth his coercive power, as the matter shall require." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 5, ch. xvii. Section 9.] + +In 1658 the General Court declared: "Whereas it is the duty of the +Christian magistrate to take care the people be fed with wholesome & sound +doctrine, & in this houre of temptation, ... it is therefore ordered, that +henceforth no person shall ... preach to any company of people, whither in +church society or not, or be ordeyned to the office of a teaching elder, +where any two organnick churches, councill of state, or Generall Court +shall declare theire dissatisfaction thereat, either in refference to +doctrine or practize... and in case of ordination... timely notice thereof +shall be given unto three or fower of the neighbouring organicke churches +for theire approbation." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iv. pt. 1, p. 328.] And +lastly, in 1679, the building of meeting-houses was forbidden, without +leave from the freemen of the town or the General Court. [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 213.] + +But legislation has never yet controlled the action of human thought. All +experience shows that every age, and every western nation, produces men +whose nature it is to follow the guidance of their reason in the face of +every danger. To exterminate these is the task of religious persecution, +for they can be silenced only by death. Thus is a dominant priesthood +brought face to face with the alternative, of surrendering its power or of +killing the heretic, and those bloody deeds that cast their sombre shadow +across the history of the Puritan Commonwealth cannot be seen in their +true bearing unless the position of the clergy is vividly before the mind. + +Cromwell said that ministers were "helpers of, not lords over, God's +people," [Footnote: Cromwell to Dundass, letter cxlviii. Carlyle's +_Cromwell_, iii. 72.] but the orthodox New Englander was the vassal +of his priest. Winthrop was the ablest and the most enlightened magistrate +the ecclesiastical party ever had, and he tells us that "I honoured a +faithful minister in my heart and could have kissed his feet." [Footnote: +_Life and Letters of Winthrop_, i. 61.] If the governor of +Massachusetts and the leader of the emigration could thus describe his +moral growth,--a man of birth, education, and fortune, who had had wide +experience of life, and was a lawyer by profession,--the awe and terror +felt by the mass of the communicants can be imagined. + +Jonathan Mitchel, one of the most famous of the earlier divines, thus +describes his flock: "They were a gracious, savoury-spirited people, +principled by Mr. Shepard, liking an humbling, mourning, heart-breaking +ministry and spirit; living in religion, praying men and women." And "he +would speak with such a transcendent majesty and liveliness, that the +people ... would often shake under his dispensations, as if they had heard +the sound of the trumpets from the burning mountain, and yet they would +mourn to think, that they were going presently to be dismissed from such +an heaven upon earth." ... "When a publick admonition was to be dispensed +unto any one that had offended scandalously... the hearers would be all +drowned in tears, as if the admonition had been, as indeed he would with +much artifice make it be directed unto them all; but such would be the +compassion, and yet the gravity, the majesty, the scriptural and awful +pungency of these his dispensations, that the conscience of the offender +himself, could make no resistance thereunto." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, +bk. 4, ch. iv. Sub-section 9, 10.] + +Their arrogance was fed by the submission of the people, and they would +not tolerate the slightest opposition even from their most devoted +retainers. The Reforming Synod was held in 1679. "When the report of a +committee on 'the evils that had provoked the Lord' came up for +consideration, 'Mr. Wheelock declared that there was a cry of injustice in +that magistrates and ministers were not rated' (taxed), 'which occasioned +a very warm discourse. Mr. Stodder' (minister of Northampton) 'charged the +deputy with saying what was not true, and the deputy governor' (Danforth) +'told him he deserved to be laid by the heels, etc.' + +"'After we broke up, the deputy and several others went home with Mr. +Stodder, and the deputy asked forgiveness of him and told him he freely +forgave him, but Mr. Stodder was high.' The next day 'the deputy owned his +being in too great a heat, and desired the Lord to forgive it, and Mr. +Stodder did something, though very little, by the deputy.'" [Footnote: +Palfrey's _History of New England_, in. 330, note 2. Extract from +_Journal_ of Rev. Peter Thacher.] Wheelock was lucky in not having to +smart more severely for his temerity, for the unfortunate Ursula Cole was +sentenced to pay £5 [Footnote: Five pounds was equivalent to a sum between +one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty dollars now. Ursula +was of course poor, or she would not have been sentenced to be whipped. +The fine was therefore extremely heavy.] or be whipped for the lighter +crime of saying "she had as lief hear a cat mew" [Footnote: Frothingham, +_History of Charlestown_, p. 208.] as Mr. Shepard preach. The daily +services in the churches consumed so much time that they became a +grievance with which the government was unable to cope. + +In 1633 the Court of Assistants, thinking "the keepeing of lectures att +the ordinary howres nowe obserued in the forenoone, to be dyvers wayes +preiudiciall to the common good, both in the losse of a whole day, & +bringing other charges & troubles to the place where the lecture is kept," +ordered that they should not begin before one o'clock. [Footnote: _Mass. +Rec._ i. 110.] The evil still continued, for only the next year it was +found that so many lectures "did spend too much time and proved +overburdensome," and they were reduced to two a week. [Footnote: Felt's +_Eccl. Hist._ i. 201.] Notwithstanding these measures, relief was not +obtained, because, as the legislature complained in 1639, lectures "were +held till night, and sometimes within the night, so as such as dwelt far +off could not get home in due season, and many weak bodies could not +endure so long, in the extremity of the heat or cold, without great +trouble and hazard of their health," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 324.] and a +consultation between the elders and magistrates was suggested. + +But to have the delights of the pulpit abridged was more than the divines +could bear. They declared roundly that their privileges were invaded; +[Footnote: _Idem_, i. 325.] and the General Court had to give way. A +few lines in Winthrop's Journal give an idea of the tax this loquacity +must have been upon the time of a poor and scattered people. "Mr. Hooker +being to preach at Cambridge, the governor and many others went to hear +him.... He preached in the afternoon, and having gone on, with much +strength of voice and intention of spirit, about a quarter of an hour, he +was at a stand, and told the people that God had deprived him both of his +strength and matter, &c. and so went forth, and about half an hour after +returned again, and went on to very good purpose about two hours." +[Footnote: Winthrop, i. 304.] Common men could not have kept this hold +upon the inhabitants of New England, but the clergy were learned, +resolute, and able, and their strong but narrow minds burned with +fanaticism and love of power; with their beliefs and under their +temptations persecution seemed to them not only their most potent weapon, +but a duty they owed to Christ--and that duty they unflinchingly +performed. John Cotton, the most gifted among them, taught it as a holy +work: "But the good that is brought to princes and subjects by the due +punishment of apostate seducers and idolaters and blasphemers is manifold. + +"First, it putteth away evill from the people and cutteth off a gangreene, +which would spread to further ungodlinesse.... + +"Secondly, it driveth away wolves from worrying and scattering the sheep +of Christ. For false teachers be wolves, ... and the very name of wolves +holdeth forth what benefit will redound to the sheep, by either killing +them or driving them away. + +"Thirdly, such executions upon such evill doers causeth all the country to +heare and feare, and doe no more such wickednesse.... Yea as these +punishments are preventions of like wickednesse in some, so are they +wholesome medicines, to heale such as are curable of these eviles.... + +"Fourthly, the punishments executed upon false prophets and seducing +teachers, doe bring downe showers of God's blessings upon the civill +state.... + +"Fifthly, it is an honour to God's Justice that such judgments are +executed...." [Footnote: _Bloody Tenent Washed_, pp. 137, 138.] + +All motives combined to drive them headlong into cruelty; for in the +breasts of the larger number, even the passion of bigotry was cool beside +the malignant hate they felt for those whose opinions menaced their +earthly power and dominion; and they never wearied of exhorting the +magistrates to destroy the enemies of the church. "Men's lusts are sweet +to them, and they would not be disturbed or disquieted in their sin. Hence +there be so many such as cry up tolleration boundless and libertinism so +as (if it were in their power) to order a total and perpetual confinement +of the sword of the civil magistrate unto its scabbard; (a notion that is +evidently distructive to this people, and to the publick liberty, peace, +and prosperity of any instituted churches under heaven.)" [Footnote: +_Eye Salve_, Election Sermon, by Mr. Shepard of Charlestown, p. 21.] +"Let the magistrates coercive power in matters of religion (therefore) be +still asserted, seing he is one who is bound to God more than any other +men to cherish his true religion; ... and how wofull would the state of +things soon be among us, if men might have liberty without controll to +profess, or preach, or print, or publish what they list, tending to the +seduction of others." [Footnote: _Eye Salve_, p. 38.] Such feelings +found their fit expression in savage laws against dissenting sects; these, +however, will be dealt with hereafter; only those which illustrate the +fundamental principles of the theocracy need be mentioned here. One chief +cause of schism was the hearing of false doctrine; and in order that the +people might not be led into temptation, but might on the contrary hear +true exposition of the word, every inhabitant was obliged to attend the +services of the established church upon the Lord's day under a penalty of +fine or imprisonment; the fine not to exceed 5s. (equal to about $5 now) +for every absence. [Footnote: 1634-35, 4 March. _Mass. Rec._ i. 140.] + +"If any Christian so called ... shall contemptuously behave himselfe +toward ye word preached, or ye messengers thereof called to dispence ye +same in any congregation, ... or like a sonn of Corah cast upon his true +doctrine or himselfe any reproach ... shall for ye first scandole be +convented ... and bound to their good behaviour; and if a second time they +breake forth into ye like contemptuous carriages, either to pay £5 to ye +publike treasury or to stand two houres openly upon a block 4 foote high, +on a lecture day, with a pap fixed on his breast with this, A Wanton +Gospeller, written in capitall letters ye others may fear & be ashamed of +breaking out into the like wickednes." [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. _Mass. +Rec._ ii. 179.] + +"Though no humane power be Lord over ye faith & consciences of men and +therefore may not constraine ym to beleeve or profes against their +conscience, yet because such as bring in damnable heresies tending to ye +subversion of ye Christian faith ... ought duely to be restrained from +such notorious impiety, if any Christian ... shall go about to subvert ... +ye Christian faith, by broaching ... any damnable heresy, as deniing ye +immortality of ye soule, or ye resurrection of ye body, or any sinn to be +repented of in ye regenerate, or any evill done by ye outward man to be +accounted sinn, or deniing yt Christ gave himselfe a ransome for or sinns +... or any other heresy of such nature & degree ... shall pay to ye common +treasury during ye first six months 20s. a month and for ye next six +months 40s. p. m., and so to continue dureing his obstinacy; and if any +such person shall endeavour to seduce others ... he shall forfeit ... for +every severall offence ... five pounds." [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. _Mass. +Rec._ ii. 177.] + +"For ye honnor of ye aetaernall God, whome only wee worshippp and serve," +(it is ordered that) "no person within this jurisdiction, whether +Christian or pagan, shall wittingly and willingly presume to blaspheme his +holy name either by wilfull or obstinate denying ye true God, or reproach +ye holy religion of God, as if it were but a polliticke devise to keepe +ignorant men in awe, ... or deny his creation or gouvernment of ye world, +or shall curse God, or shall vtter any other eminent kind of blasphemy, of +ye like nature and degree; if any person or persons whatsoeuer within our +jurisdiction shall breake this lawe they shall be putt to death." +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iii.98.] + +The special punishments for Antinomians, Baptists, Quakers, and other +sectaries were fine and imprisonment, branding, whipping, mutilation, +banishment, and hanging. Nor were the elders men to shrink from executing +these laws with the same ferocious spirit in which they were enacted. +Remonstrance and command were alike neglected. The Long Parliament warned +them to beware; Charles II. repeatedly ordered them to desist; their +trusted and dearest friend, Sir Richard Saltonstall, wrote from London to +Cotton: "It doth not a little grieve my spirit to heare what sadd things +are reported dayly of your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that +you fyne, whip, and imprison men for their consciences," [Footnote: +_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 127.] and told them their "rigid +wayes have laid you very lowe in the hearts of the saynts." Thirteen of +the most learned and eminent nonconforming ministers in England wrote to +the governor of Massachusetts imploring him that he and the General Court +would not by their violence "put an advantage into the hands of some who +seek pretences and occasions against our liberty." [Footnote: +_Magnalia_, bk. 7, ch. iv. section 4.] Winthrop, the wisest and +ablest champion the clergy ever had, hung back. Like many another +political leader, he was forced by his party into measures from which his +judgment and his heart recoiled. He tells us how, on a question arising +between him and Mr. Haynes, the elders "delivered their several reasons +which all sorted to this conclusion, that strict discipline, both in +criminal offences and in martial affairs, was more needful in plantations +than in a settled state, as tending to the honor and safety of the gospel. +Whereupon Mr. Winthrop acknowledged that he was convinced that he had +failed in over much lenity and remissness, and would endeavor (by God's +assistance) to take a more strict course thereafter." [Footnote: Winthrop, +i. 178.] But his better nature revolted from the foul task and once more +regained ascendancy just as he sunk in death. For while he was lying very +sick, Dudley came to his bedside with an order to banish a heretic: "No," +said the dying man, "I have done too much of that work already," and he +would not sign the warrant. [Footnote: _Life and Letters of Winthrop_, ii. +393.] + +Nothing could avail, for the clergy held the state within their grasp, and +shrank from no deed of blood to guard the interests of their order. + +The case of Gorton may serve as an example of a rigor that shocked even +the Presbyterian Baillie; it must be said in explanation of his story that +the magistrates condemned Gorton and his friends to death for the crime of +heresy in obedience to the unanimous decision of the elders, [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 146.] but the deputies refusing to concur, the sentence of +imprisonment in irons during the pleasure of the General Court was agreed +upon as a compromise. "Only they in New England are more strict and rigid +than we, or any church, to suppress, by the power of the magistrate, all +who are not of their way, to banishment ordinarily and presently even to +death lately, or perpetual slavery; for one Jortin, sometime a famous +citizen here for piety, having taught a number in New England to cast oft +the word and sacrament, and deny angels and devils, and teach a gross kind +of union with Christ in this life, by force of arms was brought to New +Boston, and there with ten of the chief of his followers, by the civil +court was discerned perpetual slaves, but the votes of many were for their +execution. They lie in irons, though gentlemen; and out of their prison +write to the admiral here, to deal with the parliament for their +deliverance." [Footnote: Baillie's Letters, ii. 17, 18.] + +Like all phenomena of nature, the action of the mind is obedient to law; +the cause is followed by the consequence with the precision that the earth +moves round the sun, and impelled by this resistless power his destiny is +wrought out by man. To the ecclesiastic a deep debt of gratitude is due, +for it was by his effort that the first step from barbarism was made. In +the world's childhood, knowledge seems divine, and those who first acquire +its rudiments claim, and are believed, to have received it by revelation +from the gods. In an archaic age the priest is likewise the law-giver and +the physician, for all erudition is concentrated in one supremely favored +class--the sacred caste. Their discoveries are kept profoundly secret, and +yet to perpetuate their mysteries among their descendants they found +schools which are the only repositories of learning; but the time must +inevitably come when this order is transformed into the deadliest enemy of +the civilization which it has brought into being. The power of the +spiritual oligarchy rests upon superstitious terrors which dwindle before +advancing enlightenment; hence the clergy have become reactionary, have +sought to stifle the spirit of free inquiry, and have used the schools +which they have builded as instruments to keep alive unreasoning +prejudice, or to serve their selfish ends. This, then, has been the +fiercest battle of mankind; the heroic struggle to break down the +sacerdotal barrier, to popularize knowledge, and to liberate the mind, +began ages before the crucifixion upon Calvary; it still goes on. In this +cause the noblest and the bravest have poured forth their blood like +water, and the path to freedom has been heaped with the corpses of her +martyrs. + +In that tremendous drama Massachusetts has played her part; it may be said +to have made her intellectual life; and it is the passion of the combat +which gives an interest at once so sombre and so romantic to her story. + +In the tempest of the Reformation a handful of the sternest rebels were +cast upon the bleak New England coast, and the fervor of that devotion +which led them into the wilderness inspired them with the dream of +reproducing the institutions of God's chosen people, a picture of which +they believed was divinely preserved for their guidance in the Bible. What +they did in reality was to surrender their new commonwealth to their +priests. Yet they were a race in whose bone and blood the spirit of free +thought was bred; the impulse which had goaded them to reject the Roman +dogmas was quick within them still, and revolt against the ecclesiastical +yoke was certain. The clergy upon their side trod their appointed path +with the precision of machines, and, constrained by an inexorable destiny, +they took that position of antagonism to liberal thought which has become +typical of their order. And the struggles and the agony by which this poor +and isolated community freed itself from its gloomy bondage, the means by +which it secularized its education and its government, won for itself the +blessing of free thought and speech, and matured a system of +constitutional liberty which has been the foundation of the American +Union, rise in dignity to one of the supreme efforts of mankind. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ANTINOMIANS. + + +Habit may be defined with enough accuracy for ordinary purposes as the +result of reflex action, or the immediate response of the nerves to a +stimulus, without the intervention of consciousness. Many bodily functions +are naturally reflex, and most movements may be made so by constant +repetition; they are then executed independently of the will. It is no +exaggeration to say that the social fabric rests on the control this +tendency exerts over the actions of men; and its strength is strikingly +exemplified in armies, which, when well organized, are machines, wherein +subjection to command is instinctive, and insubordination, therefore, +practically impossible. + +An analogous phenomenon is presented by the church, whose priests have +intuitively exhausted their ingenuity in weaving webs of ceremonial, as +soldiers have directed their energies to perfecting manuals of arms; and +the evidence leads to the conclusion that increasing complexity of ritual +indicates a densening ignorance and a deepening despotism. The Hindoos, +the Spaniards, and the English are types of the progression. + +Within the historic ages unnumbered methods of sacerdotal discipline have +been evolved, but whether the means used to compass the end has been the +bewildering maze of a Levitical code, or the rosary and the confessional +of Rome, the object has always been to reduce the devotee to the implicit +obedience of the trooper. And the stupendous power of these amazingly +perfect systems for destroying the capacity for original thought cannot be +fully realized until the mind has been brought to dwell upon the fact that +the greatest eras of human progress have begun with the advent of those +who have led successful insurrection; nor can the dazzling genius of these +brilliant exceptions be appreciated, unless it be remembered how +infinitely small has been the number of those among mankind who, having +been once drilled to rigid conformity, have not lapsed into automatism, +but have been endowed with the mental energy to revolt. On the other hand, +though ecclesiastics have differed widely in the details of the training +they have enforced upon the faithful, they have agreed upon this cardinal +principle: they have uniformly seized upon the education of the young, and +taught the child to revere the rites in which he was made to partake +before he could reason upon their meaning, for they understood well that +the habit of abject submission to authority, when firmly rooted in +infancy, would ripen into a second nature in after years, and would almost +invariably last till death. + +But this manual of religion, this deadening of the soul by making +mechanical prayers and genuflexions the gauge of piety, has always roused +the deepest indignation in the great reformers; and, un-appalled by the +most ghastly perils, they have never ceased to exhort mankind to cast off +the slavery of custom and emancipate the mind. Christ rebuked the +Pharisees because they rejected the commandment of God to keep their own +tradition; Paul proclaimed that men should be justified by faith without +the deeds of the law; and Luther preached that the Christian was free, +that the soul did not live because the body wore vestments or prayed with +the lips, and he denounced the tyranny of the clergy, who arrogated to +themselves a higher position than others who were Christian in the spirit. +On their side priesthoods know these leaders of rebellion by an unerring +instinct and pursue them to the death. + +The ministers of New England were formalists to the core, and the society +over which they dominated was organized upon the avowed basis of the +manifestation of godliness in the outward man. The sad countenance, the +Biblical speech, the sombre garb, the austere life, the attendance at +worship, and, above all, the unfailing deference paid to themselves, were +the marks of sanctification by which the elders knew the saints on earth, +for whom they were to open the path to fortune by making them members of +the church. + +Happily for Massachusetts, there has never been a time when all her +children could be docile under such a rule; and, among her champions of +freedom, none have been braver than those who have sprung from the ranks +of her ministry, as the fate of Roger Williams had already proved. In such +a community, before the ecclesiastical power had been solidified by time, +only a spark was needed to kindle a conflagration, and that spark was +struck by a woman. + +So early as 1634 a restless spirit was abroad, for Winthrop was then set +aside, and now, in 1636, young Henry Vane was enthusiastically elected +governor, though he was only twenty-four, and had been but a few months in +the colony. The future seemed bright and serene, yet he had hardly taken +office before the storm burst, which not only overthrew him, but was +destined to destroy that unhappy lady whom the Rev. Thomas Welde called +the American Jezebel. [Footnote: Opinions are divided as to the authorship +of the _Short Story_, but I conclude from internal evidence that the +ending at least was written by Mr. Welde.] + +John Cotton, the former rector of St. Botolph's, was the teacher of the +Boston church. By common consent the leader of the clergy, he was the most +brilliant, and, in some respects, the most powerful man in the colony. Two +years before, Anne Hutchinson, with all her family, had followed him from +her home in Lincolnshire into the wilderness, for, "when our teacher came +to New England, it was a great trouble unto me, my brother, Wheelwright, +being put by also." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist_. ii. 440.] A gentlewoman +of spotless life, with a kind and charitable heart, a vigorous +understanding and dauntless courage, her failings were vanity and a bitter +tongue toward those whom she disliked. [Footnote: Cotton, _Way of New +England Churches_, p. 52.] Unfortunately also for herself, she was one +of the enthusiasts who believe themselves subject to divine revelations, +for this pretension would probably in any event have brought upon her the +displeasure of the church. It is worth while to attempt some logical +explanation of the dislike felt by the Massachusetts elders to any +suggestion of such supernatural interposition. The half-unconscious train +of reasoning on which they based their claim to exact implicit obedience +from the people seems, when analyzed, to yield this syllogism: All +revelation is contained in the Bible; but to interpret the ancient sacred +writings with authority, a technical training is essential, which is +confined to priests; therefore no one can define God's will who is not of +the ministry. Had the possibility of direct revelation been admitted this +reasoning must have fallen; for then, obviously, the word of an inspired +peasant would have outweighed the sermon of an uninspired divine; it +follows, necessarily, that ecclesiastics so situated would have been +jealous of lay preaching, and absolutely intolerant of the inner light. + +In May, 1636, the month of Vane's election, Mrs. Hutchinson had been +joined by her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, the deprived vicar of +Bilsby. Her social influence was then at its height; her amiable +disposition had made her popular, and for some time past she had held +religious meetings for women at her house. The ostensible object of these +gatherings was to recapitulate the sermons of the week; but the step from +discussion to criticism was short, and it soon began to be said that she +cast reproach "upon the ministers, ... saying that none of them did preach +the covenant of free grace, but Master Cotton, and that they have not the +seale of the Spirit, and so were not able ministers of the New Testament." +[Footnote: _Short Story_, p. 36.] Or, to use colloquial language, she +accused the clergy of being teachers of forms, and said that, of them all, +Cotton alone appealed to the animating spirit like Luther or St. Paul. + +"A company of legall professors," quoth she, "lie poring on the law which +Christ hath abolished." [Footnote: _Wonder-Working Providence_, Poole's +ed. p. 102.] + +Such freedom of speech was, of course, intolerable; and so, as Cotton was +implicated by her imprudent talk, the elders went to Boston in a body in +October to take him to task. In the hope of adjusting the difficulty, he +suggested a friendly meeting at his house, and an interview took place. At +first Mrs. Hutchinson, with much prudence, declined to commit herself; but +the Rev. Hugh Peters besought her so earnestly to deal frankly and openly +with them that she, confiding in the sacred character of a confidential +conversation with clergymen in the house of her own religious teacher, +committed the fatal error of admitting that she saw a wide difference +between Mr. Cotton's ministry and theirs, and that they could not preach a +covenant of grace so clearly as he, because they had not the seal of the +Spirit. The progress of the new opinion was rapid, and it is clear Mrs. +Hutchinson had only given expression to a feeling of discontent which was +both wide-spread and deep. Before winter her adherents, or those who +condemned the covenant of works,--in modern language, the liberals,--had +become an organized political party, of which Vane was the leader; and +here lay their first danger. + +Notwithstanding his eminent ability, he was then but a boy, and the task +was beyond his strength. The stronghold of his party was Boston, where, +except some half-dozen, [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 212.] the whole +congregation followed him and Cotton: yet even here he met with the +powerful opposition of Winthrop and the pastor, John Wilson. In the +country he was confronted by the solid body of the clergy, whose influence +proved sufficient to hold together a majority of the voters in +substantially all the towns, so that the conservatives never lost control +of the legislature. + +The position was harassing, and his nerves gave way under the strain. In +December he called a court and one day suddenly announced that he had +received letters from England requiring his immediate return; but when +some of his friends remonstrated he "brake forth into tears and professed +that, howsoever the causes propounded for his departure were such as did +concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he would rather have +hazarded all" ... "but for the danger he saw of God's judgment to come +upon us for these differences and dissensions which he saw amongst us, and +the scandalous imputations brought upon himself, as if he should be the +cause of all." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 207.] + +Such a flight was out of the question. The weight of his name and the +protection given his supporters by the power of his family in England +could not be dispensed with, and therefore the Boston congregation +intervened. After a day's reflection he seems himself to have become +convinced that he had gone too far to recede, so he "expressed himself to +be an obedient child to the church and therefore ... durst not go away." +[Footnote: _Idem_, i. 208.] + +That a young and untried man like Vane should have grown weary of his +office and longed to escape will astonish no one who is familiar with the +character and the mode of warfare of his adversaries. + +In that society a layman could not retort upon a minister who insulted +him, nor could Vane employ the arguments with which Cromwell so +effectually silenced the Scotch divines. The following is a specimen of +the treatment to which he was probably almost daily subjected, and the +scene in this instance was the more mortifying because it took place +before the assembled legislature. + +"The ministers had met a little before and had drawn into heads all the +points wherein they suspected Mr. Cotton did differ from them, and had +propounded them to him, and pressed him to a direct answer ... to every +one; which he had promised. ... This meeting being spoke of in the court +the day before, the governour took great offence at it, as being without +his privity, &c., which this day Mr. Peter told him as plainly of (with +all due reverence), and how it had sadded the ministers' spirits, that he +should be jealous of their meetings, or seem to restrain their liberty, +&c. The governour excused his speech as sudden and upon a mistake. Mr. +Peter told him also, that before he came, within less than two years +since, the churches were in peace.... Mr. Peter also besought him humbly +to consider his youth and short experience in the things of God, and to +beware of peremptory conclusions which he perceived him to be very apt +unto." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 209.] This coarse bully was the same Hugh +Peters of whom Whitelock afterward complained that he often advised him, +though he "understood little of the law, but was very opinionative," +[Footnote: Memorials, p. 521.] and who was so terrified at the approach of +death that on his way to the scaffold he had to drink liquor to keep from +fainting. [Footnote: Burnet, i. 162.] + +"Mr. Wilson" also "made a very sad speech to the General Court of the +condition of our churches, and the inevitable danger of separation, if +these differences ... were not speedily remedied, and laid the blame upon +these new opinions ... which all the magistrates except the governour and +two others did confirm and all the ministers but two." [Footnote: +Winthrop, i. 209.] Those two were John Cotton and John Wheelwright, the +preachers of the covenant of grace. + +Their brethren might well make sad speeches, for their cup of bitterness +was full; but they must be left to describe for themselves the tempest of +fear and wrath that raged within them. "Yea, some that had beene begotten +to Christ by some of their faithfull labours in this land" (England, where +the tract was published,) "for whom they could have laid downe their +lives, and not being able to beare their absence followed after them +thither to New England to enjoy their labours, yet these falling +acquainted with those seducers, were suddenly so altered in their +affections toward those their spirituall fathers, that they would neither +heare them, nor willingly come in their company, professing they had never +received any good from them." ... "Now the faithfull ministers of Christ +must have dung cast on their faces ... must be pointed at as it were with +the finger, and reproached by name, such a church officer is an ignorant +man, and knows not Christ; such an one is under a covenant of works: such +a pastor is a proud man, and would make a good persecutor ... so that +through these reproaches occasion was given to men, to abhorre the +offerings of the Lord." [Footnote: Welde's _Short Story_, Pref. Sections +7-11.] + +"Now, one of them in a solemne convention of ministers dared to say to +their faces, that they did not preach the Covenant of Free Grace, and that +they themselves had not the seale of the Spirit.... Now, after our sermons +were ended at our publike lectures, you might have seene halfe a dozen +pistols discharged at the face of the preacher (I meane) so many +objections made by the opinionists in the open assembly against our +doctrine ... to the marvellous weakening of holy truths delivered ... in +the hearts of all the weaker sort." [Footnote: Welde's _Short Story_, +Pref. Sections 7-11.] + +John Wheelwright was a man whose character extorts our admiration, if it +does not win our love. The personal friend of Cromwell and of Vane, with a +mind vigorous and masculine, and a courage stern and determined even above +the Puritan standard of resolution and of daring, he spoke the truth which +was within him, and could neither be intimidated nor cajoled. In October +an attempt had been made to have him settled as a teacher of the Boston +church in conjunction with Wilson and Cotton, but it had miscarried +through Winthrop's opposition, and he had afterward taken charge of a +congregation that had been gathered at Mount Wollaston, in what is now +Quincy. + +On the 19th of January a fast was held on account of the public +dissensions, and on that day Wheelwright preached a great sermon in Boston +which brought on the crisis. He was afterward accused of sedition: the +charge was false, for he did not utter one seditious word; but he did that +which was harder to forgive, he struck at what he deemed the wrong with +his whole might, and those who will patiently pore over his pages until +they see the fire glowing through his rugged sentences will feel the power +of his blow. And what he told his hearers was in substance this: It maketh +no matter how seemingly holy men be according to the law, if ... they are +such as trust to their own righteousness they shall die, saith the Lord. +Do ye not after their works; for they say and do not. They make broad +their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the +uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues; and +greetings in the market place and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But +believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved, for being +justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. +And the way we must take if so be we will not have the Lord Jesus Christ +taken from us is this, we must all prepare a spiritual combat, we must put +on the whole armor of God, and must have our loins girt up and be ready to +fight, ... because of fear in the night if we will not fight the Lord +Jesus Christ may come to be surprised. + +And when his brethren heard it they sought how they might destroy him; for +they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. + +In March the legislature met, and Wheelwright was arraigned before a court +composed, according to the account of the Quaker Groom, of Henry Vane, +"twelve magistrates, twelve priests, & thirty-three deputies." [Footnote: +Groom's Glass for New England, p. 6.] His sermon was produced, and an +attempt was made to obtain an admission that by those under a covenant of +works he meant his brethren. But the accused was one whom it was hard to +entrap and impossible to frighten. He defied his judges to controvert his +doctrine, offering to prove it by the Scriptures, and as for the +application he answered that "if he were shown any that walked in such a +way as he had described to be a covenant of works, them did he mean." +[Footnote: Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 17, note 27.] Then the rest of +the elders were asked if they "did walk in such a way, and they all +acknowledged they did," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 215. Wheelwright, p. 18.] +excepting John Cotton, who declared that "brother Wheelwright's doctrine +was according to God in the parts controverted, and wholly and +altogether." [Footnote: Groom's _Glass for New England_, p. 7.] He +received ecclesiastical justice. There was no jury, and the popular +assembly that decided law and fact by a partisan vote was controlled by +his adversaries. Yet even so, a verdict of sedition was such a flagrant +outrage that the clergy found it impossible to command prompt obedience. +For two days the issue was in doubt, but at length "the priests got two of +the magistrates on their side, and so got the major part with them." +[Footnote: Felt's _Eccl. Hist._ ii. 611.] They appear, however, to +have felt too weak to proceed to sentence, for the prisoner was remanded +until the next session. + +No sooner was the judgment made known than more than sixty of the most +respected citizens of Boston signed a petition to the court in +Wheelwright's behalf, In respectful and even submissive language they +pointed out the danger of meddling with the right of free speech. "Paul +was counted a pestilent fellow, or a moover of sedition, and a ringleader +of a sect, ... and Christ himselfe, as well as Paul, was charged to bee a +teacher of New Doctrine.... Now wee beseech you, consider whether that old +serpent work not after his old method, even in our daies." [Footnote: +Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 21.] + +The charge of sedition made against them they repudiated in emphatic +words, which deserve attention, as they were afterwards held to be +criminal. + +"Thirdly, if you look at the effects of his doctrine upon the hearers, it +hath not stirred up sedition in us, not so much as by accident; wee have +not drawn the sword, as sometimes Peter did, rashly, neither have wee +rescued our innocent brother, as sometimes the Israelites did Jonathan, +and yet they did not seditiously. The covenant of free grace held forth by +our brother hath taught us rather to become humble suppliants to your +worships, and if wee should not prevaile, wee would rather with patience +give our cheekes to the smiters." [Footnote: _Idem_.] + +The liberal feeling ran so strongly in Boston that the conservatives +thought it prudent to remove the government temporarily to Cambridge, that +they might more easily control the election which was to come in May. +Vane, with some petulance, refused to entertain the motion; but Endicott +put the question, and it was carried. As the time drew near the excitement +increased, the clergy straining every nerve to bring up their voters from +the country; and on the morning of the day the feeling was so intense that +the Rev. Mr. Wilson, forgetting his dignity and his age, scrambled up a +tree and harangued the people from its branches. [Footnote: Hutch. +_Hist_. i. 62, note.] + +Yet, though the freemen were so deeply moved, there was no violence, and +Winthrop was peaceably elected governor, with a strong conservative +majority in the legislature. It so happened that just at this time a +number of the friends of Wheelwright and the Hutchinsons were on their way +from England to settle in Massachusetts. The first act of the new +government was to exclude these new-comers by passing a law forbidding any +town to entertain strangers for more than three weeks without the consent +of two of the magistrates. + +This oppressive statute caused such discontent that Winthrop thought it +necessary to publish a defence, to which Vane replied and Winthrop +rejoined. The controversy would long since have lost its interest had it +not been for the theory then first advanced by Winthrop, that the +corporation of Massachusetts, having bought its land, held it as though it +were a private estate, and might exclude whom they pleased therefrom; and +ever since this plea has been set up in justification of every excess +committed by the theocracy. + +Winthrop was a lawyer, and it is but justice to his reputation to presume +that he spoke as a partisan, knowing his argument to be fallacious. As a +legal proposition he must have been aware that it was unsound. + +Although during the reign of Charles I. monopolies were a standing +grievance with the House of Commons, yet they had been granted and +enforced for centuries; and had Massachusetts claimed the right to exclude +strangers as interlopers in trade, she would have stood upon good +precedent. Such, however, was not her contention. The legislation against +the friends of Wheelwright was passed avowedly upon grounds of religious +difference of opinion, and a monopoly in religion was unknown. + +Her commercial privileges alone were exclusive, and, provided he respected +them, a British subject had the same right to dwell in Massachusetts as in +any of the other dominions of the crown, or, indeed, in any borough which +held its land by grant, like Plymouth. To subject Englishmen to +restriction or punishment unknown to English law was as outrageous as the +same act would have been had it been perpetrated by the city of London,-- +both corporations having a like power to preserve the peace by local +ordinances, and both being controlled by the law of the land as +administered by the courts. Such arguments as those advanced by Winthrop +were only solemn quibbling to cloak an indefensible policy. To banish +freemen for demanding liberty of conscience was a still more flagrant +wrong. A precisely parallel case would have been presented had the +directors of the East India Company declared the membership of a +proprietor to be forfeited, and ordered his stock to be sold, because he +disapproved of enforcing conformity in worship among inhabitants of the +factories in Hindostan. + +Vane sailed early in August, and his departure cleared the last barrier +from the way of vengeance. Proceedings were at once begun by a synod of +all the ministers, which was held at Cambridge, for the purpose of +restoring peace to the churches. "There were about eighty opinions, some +blasphemous, others erroneous, and all unsafe, condemned by the whole +assembly.... Some of the church of Boston ... were offended at the +producing of so many errors, ... and called to have the persons named +which held those errors." To which the elders answered that all those +opinions could be proved to be held by some, but it was not thought fit to +name the parties. "Yet this would not satisfy some but they oft called for +witnesses; and because some of the magistrates declared to them ... that +if they would not forbear it would prove a civil disturbance ... they +objected.... So as he" (probably meaning Winthrop) "was forced to tell one +of them that if he would not forbear ... he might see it executed. Upon +this some of Boston departed from the assembly and came no more." +[Footnote: Winthrop, i. 238.] Once freed from their repinings all went +well, and their pastor, Mr. Wilson, soon had the satisfaction of sending +their reputed heresies "to the devil of hell from whence they came." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 3, ch. ii. Section 13.] Cotton, seeing +that all was lost, hastened to make his peace by a submission which the +Rev. Mr. Hubbard of Ipswich describes with unconscious cynicism. "If he +were not convinced, yet he was persuaded to an amicable compliance with +the other ministers; ... for, although it was thought he did still retain +his own sense and enjoy his own apprehension in all or most of the things +then controverted (as is manifest by some expressions of his ... since +that time published,"...) yet. "By that means did that reverend and worthy +minister of the gospel recover his former splendour throughout ... New +England." [Footnote: Hubbard, p. 302.] + +He was not a sensitive man, and having once determined to do penance, he +was far too astute a politician to do it by halves; he not only gave +himself up to the task of detecting the heterodoxy of his old friends, +[Footnote: Winthrop, i. 253.] but on a day of solemn fasting he publicly +professed repentance with many tears, and told how, "God leaving him for a +time, he fell into a spirituall slumber; and had it not been for the +watchfulnesse of his brethren, the elders, &c., hee might have slept on, +... and was very thankfull to his brethren for their watchfulnesse over +him." [Footnote: _Hypocrisie Unmasked_, p. 76.] Nor to the end of his +life did he feel quite at ease; "yea, such was his ingenuity and piety as +that his soul was not satisfied without often breaking forth into +affectionate bewailing of his infirmity herein, in the publick assembly, +sometimes in his prayer, sometimes in his sermon, and that with tears." +[Footnote: Norton's _Funeral Sermon_, p. 37.] + +Wheelwright was made of sterner stuff, and was inflexible. In fact, +however, the difference of dogma, if any existed, was trivial. The clergy +used the cry of heresy to excite odium, just as they called their +opponents Antinomians, or dangerous fanatics. To support these accusations +the synod gravely accepted every unsavory inference which ingenuity could +wring from the tenets of their adversaries; and these, together with the +fables invented by idle gossip, made up the long list of errors they +condemned. Though the scheme was unprincipled, it met with complete +success, and the Antinomians have come down to posterity branded as deadly +enemies of Christ and the commonwealth; yet nothing is more certain than +that they were not only good citizens, but substantially orthodox. On such +a point there is no one among the conservatives whose testimony has the +weight of Winthrop's, who says: "Mr. Cotton ... stated the differences in +a very narrow scantling; and Mr. Shepherd, preaching at the day of +election, brought them yet nearer, so as, except men of good +understanding, and such as knew the bottom of the tenents of those of the +other party, few could see where the difference was." [Footnote: Winthrop, +i. 221.] While Cotton himself complains bitterly of the falsehoods spread +about him and his friends: "But when some of ... the elders of neighbour +churches advertised me of the evill report ... I ... dealt with Mrs. +Hutchinson and others of them, declaring to them the erroneousnesse of +those tenents, and the injury done to myself in fathering them upon mee. +Both shee and they utterly denyed that they held such tenents, or that +they had fathered them upon mee. I returned their answer to the elders.... +They answered me they had but one witnesse, ... and that one both to be +known." ... [Footnote: Cotton, _Way of New England Churches_, pp. 39, 40.] +Moreover, it is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the advantage it +would have given the reactionists to have been able to fix subversive +opinions upon their prominent opponents, it was found impossible to prove +heresy in a single case which was brought to trial. The legislature chosen +in May was apparently unfit for the work now to be done, for the +extraordinary step of a dissolution was decided on, and a new election +held, under circumstances in which it was easy to secure the return of +suitable candidates. The session opened on November 2, and Wheelwright was +summoned to appear. He was ordered to submit, or prepare for sentence. He +replied that he was guilty of neither sedition nor contempt; that he had +preached only the truth of Christ, the application of which was for +others, not for him. "To which it was answered by the court that they had +not censured his doctrine, but left it as it was; but his application, by +which hee laid the magistrates and ministers and most of the people of God +in these churches under a covenant of works." [Footnote: _Short Story_, p. +24.] The prisoner was then sentenced to be disfranchised and banished. He +demanded an appeal to the king; it was refused; and he was given fourteen +days to leave Massachusetts. So he went forth alone in the bitter winter +weather and journeyed to the Piscataqua,--yet "it was marvellous he got +thither at that time, when they expelled him, by reason of the deep snow +in which he might have perished." [Footnote: Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. +_Mercurius Americanus_, p. 24.] Nor was banishment by any means the +trivial penalty it has been described. On the contrary, it was a +punishment of the utmost rigor. The exiles were forced suddenly to dispose +of their property, which, in those times, was mostly in houses and land, +and go forth among the savages with helpless women and children. Such an +ordeal might well appall even a brave man; but Wheelwright was sacrificing +his intellectual life. He was leaving books, friends, and the mental +activity, which made the world to him, to settle in the forests among +backwoodsmen; and yet even in this desolate solitude the theocracy +continued to pursue him with persevering hate. + +But there were others beside Wheelwright who had sinned, and some pretext +had to be devised by which to reach them. The names of most of his friends +were upon the petition that had been drawn up after his trial. It is true +it was a proceeding with which the existing legislature was not concerned, +since it had been presented to one of its predecessors; it is also true +that probably never, before or since, have men who have protested they +have not drawn the sword rashly, but have come as humble suppliants to +offer their cheeks to the smiters, been held to be public enemies. Such +scruples, however, never hampered the theocracy. Their justice was +trammelled neither by judges, by juries, nor by laws; the petition was +declared to be a seditious libel, and the petitioners were given their +choice of disavowing their act and making humble submission, or exile. + +Aspinwall was at once disfranchised and banished. [Footnote: _Mass. +Rec._ i. 207.] Coddington, Coggeshall, and nine more were given leave +to depart within three months, or abide the action of the court; others +were disfranchised; and fifty-eight of the less prominent of the party +were disarmed in Boston alone. [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 223.] + +Thus were the early liberals crushed in Massachusetts; the bold were +exiled, the timid were terrified; as a political organization they moved +no more till the theocracy was tottering to its fall; and for forty years +the power of the clergy was absolute in the land. + +The fate of Anne Hutchinson makes a fit ending to this sad tale of +oppression and of wrong. In November, 1637, when her friends were crushed, +and the triumphant priests felt that their victim's doom was sure, she was +brought to trial before that ghastliest den of human iniquity, an +ecclesiastical criminal court. The ministers were her accusers, who came +burning with hate to testify to the words she had spoken to them at their +own request, in the belief that the confidence she reposed was to be held +sacred. She had no jury to whose manhood she could appeal, and John +Winthrop, to his lasting shame, was to prosecute her from the judgment +seat. She was soon to become a mother, and her health was feeble, but she +was made to stand till she was exhausted; and yet, abandoned and forlorn, +before those merciless judges, through two long, weary days of hunger and +of cold, the intrepid woman defended her cause with a skill and courage +which even now, after two hundred and fifty years, kindles the heart with +admiration. The case for the government was opened by John Winthrop, the +presiding justice, the attorney-general, the foreman of the jury, and the +chief magistrate of Massachusetts Bay. He upbraided the prisoner with her +many evil courses, with having spoken things prejudicial to the honor of +the ministers, with holding an assembly in her house, and with divulging +the opinions held by those who had been censured by that court; closing in +these words, which sound strangely in the mouth of a New England judge:-- + + * * * * * + +We have thought good to send for you ... that if you be in an erroneous +way we may reduce you that so you may become a profitable member here +among us, otherwise if you be obstinate ... that then the court may take +such course that you may trouble us no further, therefore I would entreat +you ... whether you do not justify Mr. Wheelwright's sermon and the +petition. + +_Mrs. H._ I am called here to answer before you, but I hear no things +laid to my charge. + +_Gov._ I have told you some already, and more I can tell you. + +_Mrs. H._ Name one, sir. + +_Gov._ Have I not named some already? + +_Mrs. H._ What have I said or done?... + +_Gov._ You have joined with them in the faction. + +_Mrs. H._ In what faction have I joined with them? + +_Gov._ In presenting the petition.... + +_Mrs. H._ But I had not my hand to the petition. + +_Gov._ You have counselled them. + +_Mrs. H._ Wherein? + +_Gov._ Why, in entertaining them. + +_Mrs. H._ What breach of law is that, sir? + +_Gov._ Why, dishonoring of parents.... + +_Mrs. H._ I may put honor upon them as the children of God and as they do +honor the Lord. + +_Gov._ We do not mean to discourse with those of your sex but only this; +you do adhere unto them, and do endeavor to set forward this faction, and +so you do dishonor us. + +_Mrs. H._ I do acknowledge no such thing, neither do I think that I ever +put any dishonor upon you. + + * * * * * + +And, on the whole, the chief justice broke down so hopelessly in his +examination, that the deputy governor, or his senior associate upon the +bench, thought it necessary to interfere. + + * * * * * + +_Dep. Gov._ I would go a little higher with Mrs. Hutchinson. Now ... if +she in particular hath disparaged all our ministers in the land that they +have preached a covenant of works, and only Mr. Cotton a covenant of +grace, why this is not to be suffered... + +_Mrs. H._ I pray, sir, prove it, that I said they preached nothing but a +covenant of works.... + +_Dep. Gov._ If they do not preach a covenant of grace, clearly, then, they +preach a covenant of works. + +_Mrs. H._ No, sir, one may preach a covenant of grace more clearly than +another, so I said. + + * * * * * + +Dudley was faring worse than Winthrop, and the divines, who had been +bursting with impatience, could hold no longer. The Rev. Hugh Peters broke +in: "That which concerns us to speak unto, as yet we are sparing in, +unless the court command us to speak, then we shall answer to Mrs. +Hutchinson, notwithstanding our brethren are very unwilling to answer." +And without further urging, that meek servant of Christ went on to tell +how he and others had heard that the prisoner said they taught a covenant +of works, how they had sent for her, and though she was "very tender" at +first, yet upon being begged to speak plainly, she had explained that +there "was a broad difference between our Brother Mr. Cotton and +ourselves. I desired to know the difference. She answered 'that he +preaches the covenant of grace and you the covenant of works, and that you +are not able ministers of the New Testament, and know no more than the +apostles did before the resurrection.'"... + + * * * * * + +_Mrs. H._ If our pastor would show his writings you should see what I +said, and that many things are not so as is reported. + +_Mr. Wilson._ Sister Hutchinson, for the writings you speak of I have them +not.... + + * * * * * + +Five more divines followed, who, though they were "loth to speak in that +assembly concerning that gentlewoman," yet to ease their consciences in +"the relation wherein" they stood "to the Commonwealth and... unto God," +felt constrained to state that the prisoner had said they were not able +ministers of the New Testament, and that the whole of the evidence of Hugh +Peters was true, and in so doing they came to an issue of veracity with +Cotton. + +An adjournment soon followed till next day, and the presiding justice +seems to have considered his case against his prisoner as closed. + +In the morning Mrs. Hutchinson opened her defence by calling three +witnesses, Leverett, Coggeshall, and John Cotton. + + * * * * * + +_Gov._ Mr. Coggeshall was not present. + +_Mr. C._ Yes, but I was, only I desired to be silent till I should be +called. + +_Gov._ Will you ... say that she did not say so? + +_Mr. C._ Yes, I dare say that she did not say all that which they lay +against her. + +_Mr. Peters._ How dare you look into the court to say such a word? + +_Mr. C._ Mr. Peters takes upon him to forbid me. I shall be silent.... + +_Gov._ Well, Mr. Leverett, what were the words? I pray speak. + +_Mr. L._ To my best remembrance ... Mr. Peters did with much vehemency and +entreaty urge her to tell what difference there was between Mr. Cotton and +them, and upon his urging of her she said: "The fear of man is a snare, +but they that trust upon the Lord shall be safe." And ... that they did +not preach a covenant of grace so clearly as Mr. Cotton did, and she gave +this reason of it, because that as the apostles were for a time without +the Spirit so until they had received the witness of the Spirit they could +not preach a covenant of grace so clearly. + + * * * * * + +The Rev. John Cotton was then called. He was much embarrassed in giving +his evidence, but, if he is to be believed, his brethren, in their anxiety +to make out a case, had colored material facts. He closed his account of +the interview in these words: "I must say that I did not find her saying +they were under a covenant of works, nor that she said they did preach a +covenant of works." + + * * * * * + +_Gov._ You say you do not remember, but can you say she did not speak so? + +_Mr. C._ I do remember that she looked at them as the apostles before the +ascension.... + +_Dep. Gov._ They affirm that Mrs. Hutchinson did say they were not able +ministers of the New Testament. + +_Mr. C._ I do not remember it. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Hutchinson had shattered the case of the government in a style worthy +of a leader of the bar, but she now ventured on a step for which she has +been generally condemned. She herself approached the subject of her +revelations. To criticise the introduction of evidence is always simpler +than to conduct a cause, but an analysis of her position tends to show not +only that her course was the result of mature reflection, but that her +judgment was in this instance correct. She probably assumed that when the +more easily proved charges had broken down she would be attacked here; and +in this assumption she was undoubtedly right. The alternative presented to +her, therefore, was to go on herself, or wait for Winthrop to move. If she +waited she knew she should give the government the advantage of choosing +the ground, and she would thus be subjected to the danger of having fatal +charges proved against her by hearsay or distorted evidence. If she took +the bolder course, she could explain her revelations as monitions coming +to her through texts in Scripture, and here she was certain of Cotton's +support. Before that tribunal she could hardly have hoped for an +acquittal; but if anything could have saved her it would have been the +sanction given to her doctrines by the approval of John Cotton. At all +events, she saw the danger, for she closed her little speech in these +touching words: "Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my +conscience I know to be truth, I must commit myself unto the Lord." + +_Mr. Nowell._ How do you know that that was the Spirit? + +_Mrs. H._ How did Abraham know that it was God?... + +_Dep. Gov._ By an immediate voice. + +_Mrs. H._ So to me by an immediate revelation. + + * * * * * + +Then she proceeded to state how, through various texts which she cited, +the Lord showed her what He would do; and she particularly dwelt on one +from Daniel. So far all was well; she had planted herself on ground upon +which orthodox opinion was at least divided; but she now committed the one +grave error of her long and able defence. As she went on her excitement +gained upon her, and she ended by something like a defiance and +denunciation: "You have power over my body, but the Lord Jesus hath power +over my body and soul; and assure yourselves thus much, you do as much as +in you lies to put the Lord Jesus Christ from you, and if you go on in +this course you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your posterity, +and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." + + * * * * * + +_Gov._ Daniel was delivered by miracle. Do you think to be delivered so +too? + +_Mrs. H._ I do here speak it before the court. I look that the Lord should +deliver me by his providence.... + +_Dep. Gov._ I desire Mr. Cotton to tell us whether you do approve of Mrs. +Hutchinson's revelations as she hath laid them down. + +_Mr. C._ I know not whether I do understand her, but this I say, if she +doth expect a deliverance in a way of providence, then I cannot deny it. + +_Gov._ ... I see a marvellous providence of God to bring things to this +pass.... God by a providence hath answered our desires, and made her to +lay open herself and the ground of all these disturbances to be by +revelations. . . . + +_Court._ We all consent with you. + +_Gov._ Ey, it is the most desperate enthusiasm in the world.... + +_Mr. Endicott._ I speak in reference to Mr. Cotton.... Whether do you +witness for her or against her. + +_Mr. C._ This is that I said, sir, and my answer is plain, that if she +doth look for deliverance from the hand of God by his providence, and the +revelation be ... according to a word [of Scripture] that I cannot deny. + +_Mr. Endicott._ You give me satisfaction. + +_Dep. Gov._ No, no, he gives me none at all.... + +_Mr. C._ I pray, sir, give me leave to express myself. In that sense that +she speaks I dare not bear witness against it. + +_Mr. Nowell._ I think it is a devilish delusion. + +_Gov._ Of all the revelations that ever I read of I never read the like +ground laid as is for this. The enthusiasts and Anabaptists had never the +like.... + +_Mr. Peters._ I can say the same ... and I think that is very disputable +which our brother Cotton hath spoken.... + +_Gov._ I am persuaded that the revelation she brings forth is delusion. + +All the court but some two or three ministers cry out, We all believe it, +we all believe it.... + + * * * * * + +And then Coddington stood up before that angry meeting like the brave man +he was, and said, "I beseech you do not speak so to force things along, +for I do not for my own part see any equity in the court in all your +proceedings. Here is no law of God that she hath broken, nor any law of +the country that she hath broke, and therefore deserves no censure; and if +she say that the elders preach as the apostles did, why they preached a +covenant of grace and what wrong is that to them, ... therefore I pray +consider, what you do, for here is no law of God or man broken." + + * * * * * + +_Mr. Peters._ I profess I thought Mr. Cotton would never have took her +part. + +_Gov._ The court hath already declared themselves satisfied ... concerning +the troublesomeness of her spirit and the danger of her course amongst us +which is not to be suffered. Therefore if it be the mind of the court that +Mrs. Hutchinson ... shall be banished out of our liberties and imprisoned +till she be sent away let them hold up their hands. + +All but three consented. + +Those contrary minded hold up yours. Mr. Coddington and Colburn only. + +_Gov._ Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are +banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our +society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away. + +_Mrs. H._ I desire to know wherefore I am banished. + +_Gov._ Say no more, the court knows wherefore and is satisfied. +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ vol. ii. App. 2.] + + * * * * * + +With refined malice she was committed to the custody of Joseph Welde of +Roxbury, the brother of the Rev. Thomas Welde who thought her a Jezebel. +Here "divers of the elders resorted to her," and under this daily torment +rapid progress was made. Probably during that terrible interval her reason +was tottering, for her talk came to resemble ravings. [Footnote: _Brief +Apologie_, p. 59.] When this point was reached the divines saw their +object attained, and that "with sad hearts" they could give her up to +Satan. [Footnote: _Brief Apologie_, p. 59.] Accordingly they "wrote to the +church at Boston, offering to make proof of the same," whereupon she was +summoned and the lecture appointed to begin at ten o'clock. [Footnote: +Winthrop, i. 254.] + +"When she was come one of the ruling elders called her forth before the +assembly," and read to her the twenty-nine errors of which she was +accused, all of which she admitted she had maintained. "Then she asked by +what rule such an elder would come to her pretending to desire light and +indeede to entrappe her." He answered that he came not to "entrap her but +in compassion to her soule...." + +"Then presently she grew into passion ... professing withall that she held +none of these things ... before her imprisonment." [Footnote: _Brief +Apol._ pp. 59-61.] + +The court sat till eight at night, when "Mr. Cotton pronounced the +sentence of admonition ... with much zeal and detestation of her errors +and pride of spirit." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 256.] An adjournment was +then agreed on for a week and she was ordered to return to Roxbury; but +this was more than she could bear, and her distress was such that the +congregation seem to have felt some touch of compassion, for she was +committed to the charge of Cotton till the next lecture day, when the +trial was to be resumed. [Footnote: _Brief Apol._ p. 62.] At his house +her mind recovered its tone and when she again appeared she not only +retracted the wild opinions she had broached while at Joseph Welde's, but +admitted "that what she had spoken against the magistrates at the court +(by way of revelation) was rash and ungrounded." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. +258.] + +But nothing could avail her. She was in the hands of men determined to +make her expiation of her crimes a by-word of terror; her fate was sealed. +The doctrines she now professed were less objectionable, so she was +examined as to former errors, among others "that she had denied inherent +righteousness;" she "affirmed that it was never her judgment; and though +it was proved by many testimonies ... yet she impudently persisted in her +affirmation to the astonishment of all the assembly. So that ... the +church with one consent cast her out.... After she was excommunicated her +spirit, which seemed before to be somewhat dejected, revived again and she +gloried in her sufferings." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 258.] And all this +time she had been alone; her friends were far away. + +That no circumstances of horror might be lost, she and one of her most +devoted followers, Mary Dyer, were nearing their confinements during this +time of misery. Both cases ended in misfortunes over whose sickening +details Thomas Welde and his reverend brethren gloated with a savage joy, +declaring that "God himselfe was pleased to step in with his casting vote +... as clearly as if he had pointed with his finger." [Footnote: _Short +Story_, Preface, Section 5.] Let posterity draw a veil over the shocking +scene. + +Two or three days after her condemnation "the governor sent [her] a +warrant ... to depart ... she went by water to her farm at the Mount ... +and so to the island in the Narragansett Bay which her husband and the +rest of that sect had purchased of the Indians." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. +259.] + +This pure and noble but most unhappy woman had sinned against the clergy, +past forgiveness here or hereafter. They gibbeted her as Jezebel, and her +name became a reproach in Massachusetts through two hundred years. But her +crimes and the awful ending of her life are best read in the Christian +words of the Rev. Thomas Welde, whose gentle spirit so adorned his holy +office. + +"For the servants of God who came over into New England ... seeing their +ministery was a most precious sweete savour to all the saints before she +came hither, it is easie to discerne from what sinke that ill vapour hath +risen which hath made so many of her seduced party to loath now the smell +of those flowers which they were wont to find sweetnesse in. [Footnote: +_Short Story_, p. 40.] ... The Indians set upon them, and slew her and all +the family. [Footnote: Mrs. Hutchinson and her family were killed in a +general massacre of the Dutch and English by the Indians on Long Island. +Winthrop, ii. 136.] ... Some write that the Indians did burne her to death +with fire, her house and all the rest named that belonged to her; but I am +not able to affirme by what kind of death they slew her, but slaine it +seemes she is, according to all reports. I never heard that the Indians in +those parts did ever before this, commit the like outrage ...; and +therefore God's hand is the more apparently seene herein, to pick out this +wofull woman, to make her and those belonging to her, an unheard of heavie +example of their cruelty above al others." [Footnote: _Short Story_, +Preface.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. + + +With the ruin of the Antinomians, opposition to the clergy ceased within +the church itself, but many causes combined to prevent the bulk of the +people from participating in the communion. Of those who were excluded, +perhaps even the majority might have found it impossible to have secured +their pastor's approbation, but numbers who would have been gladly +received were restrained by conscientious scruples; and more shrank from +undergoing the ordeal to which they would have been obliged to submit. It +was no light matter for a pious but a sincerely honest man to profess his +conversion, and how God had been pleased to work "in the inward parts of +his soul," when he was not absolutely certain that he had indeed been +visited by the Spirit. And it is no exaggeration to say that to sensitive +natures the initiation was appalling. The applicant had first to convince +the minister of his worthiness, then his name was openly propounded, and +those who knew of any objection to his character, either moral or +religious, were asked to give notice to the presbytery of elders. If the +candidate succeeded in passing this private examination as to his fitness +the following scene took place in church:-- + +"The party appearing in the midst of the assembly ... the ruling elder +speaketh in this manner: Brethren of this congregation, this man or woman +... hath beene heretofore propounded to you, desiring to enter into church +fellowship with us, and we have not since that heard anything from any of +you to the contrary of the parties admittance but that we may goe on to +receive him: therefore now, if any of you know anything against him, why +he may not be admitted, you may yet speak.... Whereupon, sometimes men do +speak to the contrary ... and so stay the party for that time also till +this new offence be heard before the elders, so that sometimes there is a +space of divers moneths between a parties first propounding and receiving, +and some are so bashfull as that they choose rather to goe without the +communion than undergoe such publique confessions and tryals, but that is +held their fault." [Footnote: Lechford, _Plain Dealing_, pp. 6, 7.] + +Those who were thus disfranchised, Lechford, who knew what he was talking +about, goes on to say, soon began to complain that they were "ruled like +slaves;" and there can be no doubt that they had to submit to very +substantial grievances. The administration of justice especially seems to +have been defective. "Now the most of the persons at New England are not +admitted of their church, and therefore are not freemen, and when they +come to be tryed there, be it for life or limb, name or estate, or +whatsoever, they must bee tryed and judged too by those of the church, who +are in a sort their adversaries: how equall that hath been, or may be, +some by experience doe know, others may judge." [Footnote: _Plain +Dealing_, p. 23.] + +The government was in fact in the hands of a small oligarchy of saints, +[Footnote: "Three parts of the people of the country remaine out of the +church." _Plain Dealing_, p. 73. A. D. 1642.] who were, in their turn, +ruled by their priests, and as the repression of thought inevitable under +such a system had roused the Antinomians, who were voters, to demand a +larger intellectual freedom, so the denial of ordinary political rights +to the majority led to discontent. + +Since under the theocracy there was no department of human affairs in +which the clergy did not meddle, they undertook as a matter of course to +interfere with the militia, and the following curious letter written to +the magistrates by the ministers of Rowley shows how far they carried +their supervision even so late as 1689. + + * * * * * + +ROWLEY, _July_ 24th, 1689. + +_May it please your honors,_ + +The occasion of these lines is to inform you that whereas our military +company have nominated Abel Platts, for ensign, we conceive that it is our +duty to declare that we cannot approve of their choice in that he is +corrupt in his judgment with reference to the Lord's Supper, declaring +against Christ's words of justification, and hereupon hath withdrawn +himself from communion with the church in that holy ordinance some years, +besides some other things wherein he hath shown no little vanity in his +conversation and hath demeaned himself unbecomingly toward the word and +toward the dispensers of it.... + +SAMUEL PHILLIPS. +EDWARD PAISON. [Footnote: _History of Newbury_, p. 80.] + + * * * * * + +A somewhat similar difficulty, which happened in Hingham in 1645, produced +very serious consequences. A new captain had been chosen for their +company; but a dispute having arisen, the magistrates, on the question +being submitted to them, set the election aside and directed the old +officers to keep their places until the General Court should meet. +Notwithstanding this order the commotion continued to increase, and the +pastor, Mr. Peter Hubbert, "was very forward to have excommunicated the +lieutenant," who was the candidate the magistrates favored. [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 222, 223.] Winthrop happened to be deputy governor that +year, and the aggrieved officer applied to him for protection; whereupon, +as the defendants seemed inclined to be recalcitrant, several were +committed in open court, among whom were three of Mr. Hubbert's brothers. + +Forthwith the clergyman in great wrath headed a petition to which he +obtained a large number of signatures, in which he prayed the General +Court to take cognizance of the cause, since it concerned the public +liberty and the liberty of the church. + +At its next session, the legislature proceeded to examine the whole case, +and Winthrop was brought to trial for exceeding his jurisdiction as a +magistrate. A contest ensued between the deputies and assistants, which +was finally decided by the influence of the elders. The result was that +Winthrop was acquitted and Mr. Hubbert and the chief petitioners were +fined. [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 227.] + +In March the constable went to Hingham to collect the money, [Footnote: +1645-46, 18 March.] but he found the minister indisposed to submit in +silence. About thirty people had collected, and before them all Mr. +Hubbert demanded the warrant; when it was produced he declared it +worthless because not in the king's name, and then went on to add that the +government "was not more then a corporation in England, and ... had not +power to put men to death ... that for himself he had neither horn nor +hoofe of his own, nor anything wherewith to buy his children cloaths ... +if he must pay the fine he would pay it in books, but that he knew not for +what they were fined, unlesse it were for petitioning: and if they were so +waspish they might not be petitioned, then he could not tell what to say." +[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. p. 5.] + +Unluckily for Mr. Hubbert he had taken the popular side in this dispute +and had thus been sundered from his brethren, who sustained Winthrop, and +in the end carried him through in triumph; and not only this, but he was +suspected of Presbyterian tendencies, and a committee of the elders who +had visited Hingham to reconcile some differences in the congregation had +found him in grave fault. The government was not sorry, therefore, to make +him a public example, as appeared not only by these proceedings, but by +the way he was treated in the General Court the next autumn. He was +accordingly indicted for sedition, tried and convicted in June, fined +twenty pounds, and bound over to good behavior in forty pounds more. +[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, p. 6., 2 June, 1646.] Such a disturbance +as this seems to have been all that was needed to bring the latent +discontent to a focus. + +William Vassal had been an original patentee and was a member of the first +Board of Assistants, who were appointed by the king. Being, however, a man +of liberal views he had not found Massachusetts congenial; he had returned +to England after a stay of only a month, and when he came again to America +in 1635, he had settled at Scituate, the town adjoining Hingham, but in +the Plymouth jurisdiction. Having both wealth and social position he +possessed great influence, and he now determined to lead an agitation for +equal rights and liberty of conscience in both colonies at once, by +petitioning the legislatures, and in case of failure there, presenting +similar petitions to Parliament. + +Bradford was this year [Footnote: 1645.] governor of Plymouth, and Edward +Winslow was an assistant. Winslow himself had been governor repeatedly, +was a thorough-going churchman, and deep in all the councils of the +conservative party. There was, however, no religious qualification for the +suffrage in the old colony, and the complexion of its politics was +therefore far more liberal than in Massachusetts; so Vassal was able to +command a strong support when he brought forward his proposition. Winslow, +writing to his friend Winthrop at Boston, gives an amusing account of his +own and Bradford's consternation, and the expedients to which they were +forced to resort in the legislature to stave off a vote upon the petition, +when Vassal made his motion in October, 1645. + +"After this, the first excepter [Vassal] having been observed to tender +the view of a scroule from man to man, it came at length to be tendered to +myself, and withall, said he, it may be you will not like this. Having +read it, I told him I utterly abhorred it as such as would make us odious +to all Christian commonweales: But at length he told the governor +[Bradford] he had a written proposition to be propounded to the court, +which he desired the court to take into consideration, and according to +order, if thought meet, to be allowed: To this the deputies were most made +beforehand, and the other three assistants, who applauded it as their +Diana; and the sum of it was, to allow and maintaine full and free +tollerance of religion to all men that would preserve the civill peace and +submit unto government; and there was no limitation or exception against +Turke, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicholaytan, Familist, or any other, +&c. But our governor and divers of us having expressed the sad +consequences would follow, especially myselfe and Mr. Prence, yet +notwithstanding it was required, according to order, to be voted: But the +governor would not suffer it to come to vote, as being that indeed would +eate out the power of Godlines, &c.... You would have admired to have seen +how sweet this carrion relished to the pallate of most of the deputies! +What will be the issue of these things, our all ordering God onely +knows.... But if he have such a judgment for this place, I trust we shall +finde (I speake for many of us that groane under these things) a resting +place among you for the soales of our feet." [Footnote: _Hutch. +Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. i. 174.] + +As just then nothing more could be done in Plymouth, proceedings were +transferred to Massachusetts. Samuel Maverick is a bright patch of color +on the sad Puritan background. He had a dwelling at Winnisime, that "in +the yeare 1625 I fortified with a pillizado and fflankers and gunnes both +belowe and above in them which awed the Indians who at that time had a +mind to cutt off the English." [Footnote: Mass. _Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, +Oct. 1884, p. 236.] When Winthrop landed, he found him keeping open house, +so kindly and freehanded that even the grim Johnson relaxes when he speaks +of him: "a man of very loving and curteous behaviour, very ready to +entertaine strangers, yet an enemy to the reformation in hand, being +strong for the lordly prelatical power." [Footnote: _Wonder-Working +Providence_, Poole's ed. p. 37.] + +This genial English churchman entertained every one at his home on +Noddle's Island, which is now East Boston: Vane and Lord Ley, and La Tour +when he came to Boston ruined, and even Owen when he ran off with another +man's wife, and so brought a fine of £100 on his host. Josselyn says with +much feeling: "I went a shore upon Noddles Island to Mr. Samuel Maverick, +... the only hospitable man in the whole countrey." He was charitable +also, and Winthrop relates how, when the Indians were dying of the +smallpox, he, "his wife and servants, went daily to them, ministered to +their necessities, and buried their dead, and took home many of their +children." He was generous, too, with his wealth; and when the town had to +rebuild the fort on Castle Island much of the money came from him. + +But, as Endicott told the Browns, when he shipped them to England, because +their practice in adhering to their Episcopal orders tended to "mutiny," +"New England was no place for such as they." One by one they had gone,-- +the Browns first, and afterward William Blackstone, who had found it best +to leave Boston because he could not join the church; and now the pressure +on Maverick began to make him restive. Though he had been admitted a +freeman in the early days, he was excluded from all offices of importance; +he was taxed to support a church of which he disapproved, yet was forced +to attend, though it would not baptize his children; and he was so +suspected that, in March, 1635, he had been ordered to remove to Boston, +and was forbidden to lodge strangers for more than one night without leave +from a magistrate. Under such circumstances he could not but sympathize +with Vassal in his effort to win for all men equal rights before the law. +Next after him in consequence was Dr. Robert Childe, who had taken a +degree at Padua, and who, though not a freeman, had considerable interests +in the country,--a man of property and standing. There were five more +signers of the petition: Thomas Burton, John Smith, David Yale, Thomas +Fowle, and John Dand, but they do not require particular notice. They +prayed that "civil liberty and freedome be forthwith granted to all truly +English, equall to the rest of their countrymen, as in all plantations is +accustomed to be done, and as all free-borne enjoy in our native +country.... Further that none of the English nation ... be banished +unlesse they break the known lawes of England.... We therefore humbly +intreat you, in whose hands it is to help ... for the glory of God ... to +give liberty to the members of the churches of England not scandalous in +their lives ... to be taken into your congregations, and to enjoy with you +all those liberties and ordinances Christ hath purchased for them, and +into whose name they are baptized... or otherwise to grant liberty to +settle themselves here in a church way according to the best reformations +of England and Scotland. If not, we and they shall be necessitated to +apply our humble desires to the Honorable Houses of Parliament." +[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. pp. 13-15.] + +This petition was presented to the court on May 19, 1646; but the session +was near its close, and it was thought best to take no immediate steps. +The elders, however, became satisfied that the moment had come for a +thorough organization of the church, and they therefore caused the +legislature to issue a general invitation to all the congregations to send +representatives to a synod to be held at Cambridge. But notwithstanding +the inaction of the authorities, the clergy were perfectly aware of the +danger, and they passed the summer in creating the necessary indignation +among the voters: they bitterly denounced from their pulpits "the sons of +Belial, Judasses, sons of Corah," "with sundry appellations of that nature +... which seemed not to arise from a gospel spirit." Sometimes they +devoted "a whole sermon, and that not very short," to describing the +impending ruin and exhorting the magistrates "to lay hold upon" the +offenders. [Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. p. 19.] Winthrop +had been chosen governor in May, and, when the legislature met in October, +he was made chairman of a committee to draft an answer to Childe. This +document may be found in Hutchinson's Collection. As a state paper devoted +to the discussion of questions of constitutional law it has little merit, +but it may have been effective as a party manifesto. A short adjournment +followed till November, when, on reassembling, the elders were asked for +their advice upon this absorbing topic. + +"Mr. Hubbard of Hingham came with the rest, but the court being informed +that he had an hand in a petition, which Mr. Vassall carried into England +against the country in general, the governour propounded, that if any +elder present had any such hand, &c., he would withdraw himself." Mr. +Hubbert sitting still a good space, one of the deputies stated that he was +suspected, whereupon he rose and said he knew nothing of such a petition. + +Then Winthrop replied that he "must needs deliver his mind about him," and +though he had no proof about the petition, "yet in regard he had so much +opposed authority and offered such contempt to it, ... he thought he would +(in discretion) withdraw himself, &c., whereupon he went out." [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 278.] + +The ministers who remained then proceeded to define the relations of +Massachusetts toward England, and the position they assumed was very +simple. + +"I. We depend upon the state of England for protection and immunities of +Englishmen.... II. We conceive ... we have granted by patent such full and +ample power ... of making all laws and rules of our obedience, and of a +full and final determination of all cases in the administration of +justice, that no appeals or other ways of interrupting our proceedings do +lie against us." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 282.] + +In other words, they were to enjoy the privileges and safeguards of +British subjects without yielding obedience to British law. + +Under popular governments the remedy for discontent is free discussion; +under despotisms it is repression. In Massachusetts energetic steps were +promptly taken to punish the ring-leaders in what the court now declared +to be a conspiracy. The petitioners were summoned, and on being questioned +refused to answer until some charge was made. A hot altercation followed, +which ended in the defendants tendering an appeal, which was refused; and +they were committed for trial. [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 285.] A species of +indictment was then prepared in which they were charged with publishing +seditious libels against the Church of Christ and the civil government. +The gravamen of the offence was the attempt to persuade the people "that +the liberties and privileges in our charter belong to all freeborn +Englishmen inhabitants here, whereas they are granted only to such as the +governour and company shall think fit to receive into that fellowship." +[Footnote: _Idem_.] The appeal was held criminal because a denial of +the jurisdiction of the government. The trial resembled Wheelwright's. +Like him the defendants refused to make submission, but persisted +"obstinately and proudly in their evil practice;" that is to say, they +maintained the right of petition and the legality of their course. They +were therefore fined: Childe £50; Smith £40; Maverick, because he had not +yet appealed, £10; and the others £30 each; three magistrates dissented. + +Childe at once began hasty preparations to sail. To prevent him Winthrop +called the assistants together, without, however, giving the dissenting +magistrates notice, and arranged to have him arrested and searched. + +One striking characteristic of the theocracy was its love for inflicting +mental suffering upon its victims. The same malicious vindictiveness which +sent Morton to sea in sight of his blazing home, and which imprisoned Anne +Hutchinson in the house of her bitterest enemy, now suggested a scheme for +making Childe endure the pangs of disappointment, by allowing him to +embark, and then seizing him as the ship was setting sail. And though the +plan miscarried, and the arrest had to be made the night before, yet even +as it was the prisoner took his confinement very "grievously, but he could +not help it." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 294.] + +Nothing criminating was found in his possession, but in Dand's study, +which was ransacked, copies of two petitions were discovered, with a +number of queries relating to certain legal aspects of the charter, and +intended to be submitted to the Commissioners for the Plantations at +London. + +These petitions were substantially those already presented, except that, +by way of preamble, the story of the trial was told; and how the ministers +"did revile them, &c., as far as the wit or malice of man could, and that +they meddled in civil affaires beyond their calling, and were masters +rather than ministers, and ofttimes judges, and that they had stirred up +the magistrates against them, and that a day of humiliation was appointed, +wherein they were to pray against them." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 293.] + +Such words had never been heard in Massachusetts. The saints were aghast. +Winthrop speaks of the offence as "being in nature capital," and Johnson +thought the Lord's gracious goodness alone quelled this malice against his +people. + +Of course no mercy was shown. It is true that the writings were lawful +petitions by English subjects to Parliament; that, moreover, they had +never been published, but were found in a private room by means of a +despotic search. Several of the signers were imprisoned for six months and +then were punished in May:-- + + Doctor Childe, (imprisonment till paid,) £200 + John Smith, " " " 100 + John Dand, " " " 200 + Tho. Burton, " " " 100 + Samuel Maverick, for his offence in being party + to ye conspiracy, (imprisonment + till paid,) 100 + Samuel Maverick, for his offence in breaking his + oath and in appealing against ye + intent of his oath of a freeman, 50 +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iii, 113. May 26, 1647. £200 was the equivalent of +about $5,000.] + +The conspirators of the poorer class were treated with scant ceremony. A +carpenter named Joy was in Dand's study when the officers entered. He +asked if the warrant was in the king's name. "He was laid hold on, and +kept in irons about four or five days, and then he humbled himself...for +meddling in matters belonging not to him, and blessed God for these irons +upon his legs, hoping they should do him good while he lived." [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 294.] + +But though the government could oppress the men, they could not make their +principles unpopular, and the next December after Vassal and his friends +had left the colony, the orthodox Samuel Symonds of Ipswich wrote +mournfully to Winthrop: "I am informed that coppies of the petition are +spreading here, and divers (specially young men and women) are taken with +it, and are apt to wonder why such men should be troubled that speake as +they doe: not being able suddenly to discerne the poyson in the sweet +wine, nor the fire wrapped up in the straw." [Footnote: Felt's _Eccl. +Hist._ i. 593.] The petitioners, however, never found redress. Edward +Winslow had been sent to London as agent, and in 1648 he was able to write +that their "hopes and endeavours ... had been blasted by the special +providence of the Lord who still wrought for us." And Winthrop piously +adds: "As for those who went over to procure us trouble, God met with them +all. Mr. Vassall, finding no entertainment for his petitions, went to +Barbadoes," [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 321.] ... "God had brought" Thomas +Fowle "very low, both in his estate and in his reputation, since he joined +in the first petition." And "God had so blasted" Childe's "estate as he +was quite broken." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 322.] + +Maverick remained some years in Boston, being probably unable to abandon +his property; during this interval he made several efforts to have his +fine remitted, and he did finally secure an abatement of one half. He then +went to England and long afterward came back as a royal commissioner to +try his fortune once again in a contest with the theocracy. + +Dr. Palfrey has described this movement as a plot to introduce a direct +government by England by inducing Parliament to establish Presbyterianism. +By other than theological reasoning this inference cannot be deduced from +the evidence. All that is certainly known about the leaders is that they +were not of any one denomination. Maverick was an Episcopalian; Vassal was +probably an Independent like Cromwell or Milton; and though the elders +accused Childe of being a Jesuit, there is some ground to suppose that he +inclined toward Geneva. So far as the testimony goes, everything tends to +prove that the petitioners were perfectly sincere in their effort to gain +some small measure of civil and religious liberty for themselves and for +the disfranchised majority. + +Viewed from the standpoint of history and not of prejudice, the events of +these early years present themselves in a striking and unmistakable +sequence. + +They are the phenomena that regularly attend a certain stage of human +development,--the absorption of power by an aristocracy. The clergy's rule +was rigid, and met with resistance, which was crushed with an iron hand. +Was it defection from their own ranks, the deserters met the fate of +Wheelwright, of Williams, of Cotton, or of Hubbert; were politicians +contumacious, they were defeated or exiled, like Vane, or Aspinwall, or +Coddington; were citizens discontented, they were coerced like Maverick +and Childe. The process had been uninterrupted alike in church and state. +The congregations, which in theory should have included all the +inhabitants of the towns, had shrunk until they contained only a third or +a quarter of the people; while the churches themselves, which were +supposed to be independent of external interference and to regulate their +affairs by the will of the majority, had become little more than the +chattels of the priests, and subject to the control of the magistrates who +were their representatives. This system has generally prevailed; in like +manner the Inquisition made use of the secular arm. The condition of +ecclesiastical affairs is thus described by the highest living authority +on Congregationalism:-- + +"Our fathers laid it down--and with perfect truth--that the will of +Christ, and not the will of the major or minor part of a church, ought to +govern that church. But somebody must interpret that will. And they +quietly assumed that Christ would reveal his will to the elders, but would +not reveal it to the church-members; so that when there arose a difference +of opinion as to what the Master's will might be touching any particular +matter, the judgment of the elders, rather than the judgment even of a +majority of the membership, must be taken as conclusive. To all intents +and purposes, then, this was precisely the aristocracy which they affirmed +that it was not. For the elders were to order business in the assurance +that every truly humble and sincere member would consent thereto. If any +did not consent, and after patient debate remained of another judgment, he +was 'partial' and 'factious,' and continuing 'obstinate,' he was +'admonished' and his vote 'nullified;' so that the elders could have their +way in the end by merely adding the insult of the apparent but illusive +offer of cooperation to the injury of their absolute control. As Samuel +Stone of Hartford no more tersely than truly put it, this kind of +Congregationalism was simply a 'speaking Aristocracy in the face of a +silent Democracy.'" [Footnote: _Early New England Congregationalism, as +seen in its Literature_, p. 429. Dr. Dexter.] + +It is true that Vassal's petition was the event which made the ministers +decide to call a synod [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 264.] by means of an +invitation of the General Court; but it is also certain that under no +circumstances would the meeting of some such council have been long +delayed. For sixteen years the well-known process had been going on, of +the creation of institutions by custom, having the force of law; the stage +of development had now been reached when it was necessary that those +usages should take the shape of formal enactments. The Cambridge platform +therefore marks the completion of an organization, and as such is the +central point in the history of the Puritan Commonwealth. The work was +done in August, 1648: the Westminster Confession was promulgated as the +creed; the powers of the clergy were minutely defined, and the duty of the +laity stated to be "obeying their elders and submitting themselves unto +them in the Lord." [Footnote: _Cambridge Platform,_ ch. x. section 7.] The +magistrate was enjoined to punish "idolatry, blasphemy, heresy," and to +coerce any church becoming "schismatical." + +In October, 1649, the court commended the platform to the consideration of +the congregations; in October, 1651, it was adopted; and when church and +state were thus united by statute the theocracy was complete. + +The close of the era of construction is also marked by the death of those +two remarkable men whose influence has left the deepest imprint upon the +institutions they helped to mould: John Winthrop, who died in 1649, and +John Cotton in 1652. + +Winthrop's letters to his wife show him to have been tender and gentle, +and that his disposition was one to inspire love is proved by the +affection those bore him who had suffered most at his hands. Williams and +Vane and Coddington kept their friendship for him to the end. But these +very qualities, so amiable in themselves, made him subject to the +influence of men of inflexible will. His dream was to create on earth a +commonwealth of saints whose joy would be to walk in the ways of God. But +in practice he had to deal with the strongest of human passions. In 1634, +though supported by Cotton, he was defeated by Dudley, and there can be no +doubt that this was caused by the defection of the body of the clergy. The +evidence seems conclusive, for the next year Vane brought about an +interview between the two at which Haynes was present, and there Haynes +upbraided him with remissness in administering justice. [Footnote: +Winthrop, i. 178.] Winthrop agreed to leave the question to the ministers, +who the next morning gave an emphatic opinion in favor of strict +discipline. Thenceforward he was pliant in their hands, and with that day +opened the dark epoch of his life. By leading the crusade against the +Antinomians he regained the confidence of the elders and they never again +failed him; but in return they exacted obedience to their will; and the +rancor with which he pursued Anne Hutchinson, Gorton, and Childe cannot be +extenuated, and must ever be a stain upon his fame. + +As Hutchinson points out, in early life his tendencies were liberal, but +in America he steadily grew narrow. The reason is obvious. The leader of +an intolerant party has himself to be intolerant. His claim to eminence as +a statesman must rest upon the purity of his moral character, his calm +temper, and his good judgment; for his mind was not original or brilliant, +nor was his thought in advance of his age. Herein he differed from his +celebrated contemporary, for among the long list of famous men, who are +the pride of Massachusetts, there are few who in mere intellectual +capacity outrank Cotton. He was not only a profound scholar, an eloquent +preacher, and a famous controversialist, but a great organizer, and a +natural politician. He it was who constructed the Congregational +hierarchy; his publications were the accepted authority both abroad and at +home; and the system which he developed in his books was that which was +made law by the Cambridge Platform. + +Of medium height, florid complexion, and as he grew old some tendency to +be stout, but with snowy hair and much personal dignity, he seems to have +had an irresistible charm of manner toward those whom he wished to +attract. + +Comprehending thoroughly the feelings and prejudices of the clergy, he +influenced them even more by his exquisite tact than by his commanding +ability; and of easy fortune and hospitable alike from inclination and +from interest, he entertained every elder who went to Boston. He +understood the art of flattery to perfection; or, as Norton expressed it, +"he was a man of ingenuous and pious candor, rejoicing (as opportunity +served) to take notice of and testifie unto the gifts of God in his +brethren, thereby drawing the hearts of them to him...." [Footnote: +Norton's _Funeral Sermon_, p. 37.] No other clergyman has ever been able +to reach the position he held with apparent ease, which amounted to a +sort of primacy of New England. His dangers lay in the very fecundity of +his mind. Though hampered by his education and profession, he was +naturally liberal; and his first miscalculation was when, almost +immediately on landing, he supported Winthrop, who was in disgrace for the +mildness of his administration, against the austerer Dudley. + +The consciousness of his intellectual superiority seems to have given him +an almost overweening confidence in his ability to induce his brethren to +accept the broader theology he loved to preach; nor did he apparently +realize that comprehension was incompatible with a theocratic government, +and that his success would have undermined the organization he was +laboring to perfect. He thus committed the error of his life in +undertaking to preach a religious reformation, without having the +resolution to face a martyrdom. But when he saw his mistake, the way in +which he retrieved himself showed a consummate knowledge of human nature +and of the men with whom he had to deal. Nor did he ever forget the +lesson. From that time forward he took care that no one should be able to +pick a flaw in his orthodoxy; and whatever he may have thought of much of +the policy of his party, he was always ready to defend it without +flinching. + +Neither he nor Winthrop died too soon, for with the completion of the task +of organization the work that suited them was finished, and they were +unfit for that which remained to be done. An oligarchy, whose power rests +on faith and not on force, can only exist by extirpating all who openly +question their pretensions to preeminent sanctity; and neither of these +men belonged to the class of natural persecutors,--the one was too gentle, +the other too liberal. An example will show better than much argument how +little in accord either really was with that spirit which, in the regular +course of social development, had thenceforward to dominate over +Massachusetts. + +Captain Partridge had fought for the Parliament, and reached Boston at the +beginning of the winter of 1645. He was arrested and examined as a +heretic. The magistrates referred the case to Cotton, who reported that +"he found him corrupt in judgment," but "had good hope to reclaim him." +[Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 251.] An instant recantation was demanded; it was +of course refused, and, in spite of all remonstrance, the family was +banished in the snow. Winthrop's sad words were: "But sure, the rule of +hospitality to strangers, and of seeking to pluck out of the fire such as +there may be hope of, ... do seem to require more moderation and +indulgence of human infirmity where there appears not obstinacy against +the clear truth." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 251.] + +But in the savage and bloody struggle that was now at hand there was no +place for leaders capable of pity or remorse, and the theocracy found +supremely gifted chieftains in John Norton and John Endicott. + +Norton approaches the ideal of the sterner orders of the priesthood. A +gentleman by birth and breeding, a ripe scholar, with a keen though +polished wit, his sombre temper was deeply tinged with fanaticism. Unlike +so many of his brethren, temporal concerns were to him of but little +moment, for every passion of his gloomy soul was intensely concentrated on +the warfare he believed himself waging with the fiend. Doubt or compassion +was impossible, for he was commissioned by the Lord. He was Christ's +elected minister, and misbelievers were children of the devil whom it was +his sacred duty to destroy. He knew by the Word of God that all save the +orthodox were lost, and that heretics not only perished, but were the +hirelings of Satan, who tempted the innocent to their doom; he therefore +hated and feared them more than robbers or murderers. Words seemed to fail +him when he tried to express his horror: "The face of death, the King of +Terrours, the living man by instinct turneth his face from. An unusual +shape, a satanical phantasm, a ghost, or apparition, affrights the +disciples. But the face of heresie is of a more horrid aspect than all ... +put together, as arguing some signal inlargement of the power of darkness +as being diabolical, prodigeous, portentous." [Footnote: _Heart of New +Eng. Rent_, p. 46.] By nature, moreover, he had in their fullest measure +the three attributes of a preacher of a persecution,--eloquence, +resolution, and a heart callous to human suffering. To this formidable +churchman was joined a no less formidable magistrate. + +No figure in our early history looms out of the past like Endicott's. The +harsh face still looks down from under the black skull-cap, the gray +moustache and pointed beard shading the determined mouth, but throwing +into relief the lines of the massive jaw. He is almost heroic in his +ferocious bigotry and daring,--a perfect champion of the church. + +The grim Puritan soldier is almost visible as, standing at the head of his +men, he tears the red cross from the flag, and defies the power of +England; or, in that tremendous moment, when the people were hanging +breathless on the fate of Christison, when insurrection seemed bursting +out beneath his feet, and his judges shrunk aghast before the peril, we +yet hear the savage old man furiously strike the table, and, thanking God +that he at least dares to do his duty, we see him rise alone before that +threatening multitude to condemn the heretic to death. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ANABAPTISTS. + + +The Rev. Thomas Shepard, pastor of Charlestown, was such an example, "in +word, in conversation, in civility, in spirit, in faith, in purity, that +he did let no man despise his youth;" [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, +ch. ix. Section 6.] and yet, preaching an election sermon before the +governor and magistrates, he told them that "anabaptisme ... hath ever +been lookt at by the godly leaders of this people as a scab." [Footnote: +_Eye Salve_, p. 24.] While the Rev. Samuel Willard, president of Harvard, +declared that "such a rough thing as a New England Anabaptist is not to be +handled over tenderly." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 10.] + +So early as 1644, therefore, the General Court "Ordered and agreed, yt if +any person or persons within ye iurisdiction shall either openly condemne +or oppose ye baptizing of infants, or go about secretly to seduce others +from ye app'bation or use thereof, or shall purposely depart ye +congregation at ye administration of ye ordinance, ... and shall appear to +ye Co't willfully and obstinately to continue therein after due time and +meanes of conviction, every such person or persons shallbe sentenced to +banishment." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ ii. 85. 13 November, 1644.] + +The legislation, however, was unpopular, for Winthrop relates that in +October, 1645, divers merchants and others petitioned to have the act +repealed, because of the offense taken thereat by the godly in England, +and the court seemed inclined to accede, "but many of the elders ... +entreated that the law might continue still in force, and the execution of +it not suspended, though they disliked not that all lenity and patience +should be used for convincing and reclaiming such erroneous persons. +Whereupon the court refused to make any further order." [Footnote: +Winthrop, ii. 251.] And Edward Winslow assured Parliament in 1646, when +sent to England to represent the colony, that, some mitigation being +desired, "it was answered in my hearing. 'T is true we have a severe law, +but wee never did or will execute the rigor of it upon any.... But the +reason wherefore wee are loath either to repeale or alter the law is, +because wee would have it ... to beare witnesse against their judgment, +... which we conceive ... to bee erroneous." [Footnote: _Hypocrisie +Unmasked_, 101.] + +Unquestionably, at that time no one had been banished; but in 1644 "one +Painter, for refusing to let his child be baptized, ... was brought before +the court, where he declared their baptism to be anti-Christian. He was +sentenced to be whipped, which he bore without flinching, and boasted that +God had assisted him." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 208, note.] Nor was +his a solitary instance of severity. Yet, notwithstanding the scorn and +hatred which the orthodox divines felt for these sectaries, many very +eminent Puritans fell into the errors of that persuasion. Roger Williams +was a Baptist, and Henry Dunster, for the same heresy, was removed from +the presidency of Harvard, and found it prudent to end his days within the +Plymouth jurisdiction. Even that great champion of infant baptism, +Jonathan Mitchell, when thrown into intimate relations with Dunster, had +doubts. + +"That day ... after I came from him I had a strange experience; I found +hurrying and pressing suggestions against Pædobaptism, and injected +scruples and thoughts whether the other way might not be right, and infant +baptism an invention of men; and whether I might with good conscience +baptize children and the like. And these thoughts were darted in with some +impression, and left a strange confusion and sickliness upon my spirit. +Yet, methought, it was not hard to discern that they were from the _Evil +One_; ... And it made me fearful to go needlessly to Mr. D.; for methought +I found a venom and poison in his insinuations and discourses against +Pædobaptism." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 10.] + +Henry Dunster was an uncommon man. Famed for piety in an age of +fanaticism, learned, modest, and brave, by the unremitting toil of +thirteen years he raised Harvard from a school to the position which it +has since held; and though very poor, and starving on a wretched and ill- +paid pittance, he gave his beloved college one hundred acres of land at +the moment of its sorest need. [Footnote: Quincy's _History of Harvard_, +i. 15.] Yet he was a criminal, for he would not baptize infants, and he +met with the "lenity and patience" which the elders were not unwilling +should be used toward the erring. + +He was indicted and convicted of disturbing church ordinances, and +deprived of his office in October, 1654. He asked for leave to stay in the +house he had built for a few months, and his petition in November ought to +be read to understand how heretics were made to suffer:-- + +"1st. The time of the year is unseasonable, being now very near the +shortest day, and the depth of winter. + +"2d. The place unto which I go is unknown to me and my family, and the +ways and means of subsistance.... + +"3d. The place from which I go hath fire, fuel, and all provisions for man +and beast, laid in for the winter.... The house I have builded upon very +damageful conditions to myself, out of love for the college, taking +country pay in lieu of bills of exchange on England, or the house would +not have been built.... + +"4th. The persons, all beside myself, are women and children, on whom +little help, now their minds lie under the actual stroke of affliction and +grief. My wife is sick, and my youngest child extremely so, and hath been +for months, so that we dare not carry him out of doors, yet much worse now +than before.... Myself will willingly bow my neck to any yoke of personal +denial, for I know for what and for whom, by grace I suffer." [Footnote: +_History of Harvard_, i. 18.] + +He had before asked Winthrop to cause the government to pay him what it +owed, and he ended his prayer in these words: "Considering the poverty of +the country, I am willing to descend to the lowest step; and if nothing +can comfortably be allowed, I sit still appeased; desiring nothing more +than to supply me and mine with food and raiment." [Footnote: _Idem_, +i. 20.] He received that mercy which the church has ever shown to those +who wander from her fold; he was given till March, and then, with dues +unpaid, was driven forth a broken man, to die in poverty and neglect. + +But Jonathan Mitchell, pondering deeply upon the wages he saw paid at his +very hearthstone, to the sin of his miserable old friend, snatched his own +soul from Satan's jaws. And thenceforward his path lay in pleasant places, +and he prospered exceedingly in the world, so that "of extream lean he +grew extream fat; and at last, in an extream hot season, a fever arrested +him, just after he had been preaching.... Wonderful were the lamentations +which this deplorable death fill'd the churches of New England withal.... +Yea ... all New England shook when that pillar fell to the ground." +[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 16.] + +Notwithstanding, therefore, clerical promises of gentleness, Massachusetts +was not a comfortable place of residence for Baptists, who, for the most +part, went to Rhode Island; and John Clark [Footnote: For sketch of +Clark's life see _Allen's Biographical Dictionary_.] became the +pastor of the church which they formed at Newport about 1644. He had been +born about 1610, and had been educated in London as a physician. In 1637 +he landed at Boston, where he seems to have become embroiled in the +Antinomian controversy; at all events, he fared so ill that, with several +others, he left Massachusetts 'resolving, through the help of Christ, to +get clear of all [chartered companies] and be of ourselves.' In the course +of their wanderings they fell in with Williams, and settled near him. + +Clark was perhaps the most prominent man in the Plantations, filled many +public offices, and was the commissioner who afterward secured for the +colony the famous charter that served as the State Constitution till 1842. + +Obediah Holmes, who succeeded him as Baptist minister of Newport, is less +well known. He was educated at Oxford, and when he emigrated he settled at +Salem; from thence he went to Seaconk, where he joined the church under +Mr. Newman. Here he soon fell into trouble for resisting what he +maintained was an "unrighteous act" of his pastor's; in consequence he and +several more renounced the communion, and began to worship by themselves; +they were baptized and thereafter they were excommunicated; the inevitable +indictment followed, and they, too, took refuge in Rhode Island. +[Footnote: Holmes's Narrative, Backus, i. 213.] + +William Witter [Footnote: For the following events, see "_Ill Newes from +New England" Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, vol. ii.] of Lynn was an +aged Baptist, who had already been prosecuted, but, in 1651, being blind +and infirm, he asked the Newport church to send some of the brethren to +him, to administer the communion, for he found himself alone in +Massachusetts. [Footnote: Backus, i. 215.] Accordingly Clark undertook the +mission, with Obediah Holmes and John Crandall. + +They reached Lynn on Saturday, July 19, 1651, and on Sunday stayed within +doors in order not to disturb the congregation. A few friends were +present, and Clark was in the midst of a sermon, when the house was +entered by two constables with a warrant signed by Robert Bridges, +commanding them to arrest certain "erroneous persons being strangers." The +travellers were at once seized and carried to the tavern, and after dinner +they were told that they must go to church. + +Gorton, like many another, had to go through this ordeal, and he speaks of +his Sundays with much feeling: "Only some part of those dayes they brought +us forth into their congregations, to hear their sermons ... which was +meat to be digested, but only by the heart or stomacke of an ostrich." +[Footnote: _Simplicitie's Defence_, p. 57.] + +The unfortunate Baptists remonstrated, saying that were they forced into +the meeting-house, they should be obliged to dissent from the service, but +this, the constable said, was nothing to him, and so he carried them away. +On entering, during the prayer, the prisoners took off their hats, but +presently put them on again and began reading in their seats. Whereupon +Bridges ordered the officers to uncover their heads, which was done, and +the service was then quietly finished. When all was over, Clark asked +leave to speak, which, after some hesitation, was granted, on condition he +would not discuss what he had heard. He began to explain how he had put on +his hat because he could not judge that they were gathered according to +the visible order of the Lord; but here he was silenced, and the three +were committed to custody for the night. On Tuesday they were taken to +Boston, and on the 31st were brought before Governor Endicott. Their trial +was of the kind reserved by priests for heretics. No jury was impanelled, +no indictment was read, no evidence was heard, but the prisoners were +reviled by the bench as Anabaptists, and when they repudiated the name +were asked if they did not deny infant baptism. The theological argument +which followed was cut short by a recommitment to await sentence. + +That afternoon John Cotton exhorted the judges from the pulpit. He +expounded the law, and commanded them to do their duty; he told them that +the rejection of infant baptism would overthrow the church; that this was +a capital crime, and therefore the captives were "foul murtherers." +[Footnote: _Ill Newes_, p. 56.] Thus inspired, the court came in toward +evening. + +The record recites a number of misdemeanors, such as wearing the hat in +church, administering the communion to the excommunicated, and the like, +but no attempt was made to prove a single charge. [Footnote: _Ill Newes_, +pp. 31-44.] The reason is obvious: the only penalty provided by statute +for the offence of being a Baptist was banishment, hence the only legal +course would have been to dismiss the accused. Endicott condemned them to +fines of twenty, thirty, and five pounds, respectively, or to be whipped. +Clark understood his position perfectly, and from the first had demanded +to be shown the law under which he was being tried. He now, after +sentence, renewed the request. Endicott well knew that in acting as the +mouthpiece of the clergy he was violating alike justice, his oath of +office, and his honor as a judge; and, being goaded to fury, he broke out: +You have deserved death; I will not have such trash brought into our +jurisdiction. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 33.] Holmes tells the rest: "As I +went from the bar, I exprest myself in these words,--I blesse God I am +counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus; whereupon John Wilson +(their pastor, as they call him) strook me before the judgement seat, and +cursed me, saying, The curse of God ... goe with thee; so we were carried +to the prison." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 47.] + +All the convicts maintained that their liberty as English subjects had +been violated, and they refused to pay their fines. Clark's friends, +however, alarmed for his safety, settled his for him, and he was +discharged. + +Crandall was admitted to bail, but being misinformed as to the time of +surrender, he did not appear, his bond was forfeited, and on his return to +Boston he found himself free. + +Thus Holmes was left to face his punishment alone. Actuated apparently by +a deep sense of duty toward himself and his God, he refused the help of +friends, and steadfastly awaited his fate. As he lay in prison he suffered +keenly as he thought of his birth and breeding, his name, his worldly +credit, and the humiliation which must come to his wife and children from +his public shame; then, too, he began to fear lest he might not be able to +bear the lash, might flinch or shed tears, and bring contempt on himself +and his religion. Yet when the morning came he was calm and resolute; +refusing food and drink, that he might not be said to be sustained by +liquor, he betook himself to prayer, and when his keeper called him, with +his Bible in his hand, he walked cheerfully to the post. He would have +spoken a few words, but the magistrate ordered the executioner to do his +office quickly, for this fellow would delude the people; then he was +seized and stripped, and as he cried, "Lord, lay not this sin unto their +charge," he received the first blow. [Footnote: _Ill Newes_, pp. 48, 56.] + +They gave him thirty lashes with a three-thonged whip, of such horrible +severity that it was many days before he could endure to have his +lacerated body touch the bed, and he rested propped upon his hands and +knees. [Footnote: Backus, i. 237, note. MS. of Gov. Jos. Jencks.] Yet, in +spite of his torture, he stood firm and calm, showing neither pain nor +fear, breaking out at intervals into praise to God; and his dignity and +courage so impressed the people that, in spite of the danger, numbers +flocked about him when he was set free, in sympathy and admiration. John +Spur, being inwardly affected by what he saw and heard, took him by the +hand, and, with a joyful countenance, said: "Praised be the Lord," and so +went back with him. That same day Spur was arrested, charged with the +crime of succoring a heretic. Then said the undaunted Spur: "Obediah +Holmes I do look upon as a godly man: and do affirm that he carried +himself as did become a Christian, under so sad an affliction." "We will +deal with you as we have dealt with him," said Endicott. "I am in the +hands of God," answered Spur; and then his keeper took him to his prison. +[Footnote: _Ill Newes_, p. 57.] + +Perhaps no persecutor ever lived who was actuated by a single motive: +Saint Dominic probably had some trace of worldliness; Henry VIII. some +touch of bigotry; and this was preeminently true of the Massachusetts +elders. Doubtless there were among them men like Norton, whose fanaticism +was so fierce that they would have destroyed the heretic like the wild +beast, as a child of the devil, and an abomination to God. But with the +majority worldly motives predominated: they were always protesting that +they did not constrain men's consciences, but only enforced orderly +living. Increase Mather declared: in "the same church there have been +Presbyterians, Independents, Episcopalians, and Antipædobaptists, all +welcome to the same table of the Lord when they have manifested to the +judgment of Christian charity a work of regeneration in their souls." +[Footnote: _Vindication of New Eng._ p. 19.] And Winslow solemnly +assured Parliament, "Nay, some in our churches" are "of that judgment, and +as long as they [Baptists] carry themselves peaceably as hitherto they +doe, wee will leave them to God." [Footnote: _Hypocrisie Unmasked_, p. +101. A. D. 1646.] + +Such statements, although intended to convey a false impression, contained +this much truth: provided a man conformed to all the regulations of the +church, paid his taxes, and held his tongue, he would not, in ordinary +circumstances, have been molested under the Puritan Commonwealth. But the +moment he refused implicit obedience, or, above all, if he withdrew from +his congregation, he was shown no mercy, because such acts tended to shake +the temporal power. John Wilson, pastor of Boston, was a good example of +the average of his order. On his death-bed he was asked to declare what he +thought to be the worst sins of the country. "'I have long feared several +sins, whereof one,' he said, 'was Corahism: that is, when people rise up +as Corah against their ministers, as if they took too much upon them, when +indeed they do but rule for Christ, and according to Christ.'" [Footnote: +_Magnalia_, bk. 3, ch. iii. Section 17.] Permeated with this love of +power, and possessed of a superb organization, the clergy never failed to +act on public opinion with decisive effect whenever they saw their worldly +interests endangered. Childe has described the attack which overwhelmed +him, and Gorton gives a striking account of their process of inciting a +crusade:-- + +"These things concluded to be heresies and blasphemies.... The ministers +did zealously preach unto the people the great danger of such things, and +the guilt such lay under that held them, stirring the people up to labour +to find such persons out and to execute death upon them, making persons so +execrable in the eyes of the people, whom they intimated should hold such +things, yea some of them naming some of us in their pulpits, that the +people that had not seen us thought us to be worse by far in any respect +then those barbarous Indians are in the country.... Whereupon we heard a +rumor that the Massachusets was sending out an army of men to cut us off." +[Footnote: _Simplicitie's Defence_, p. 32.] + +The persecution of the Baptists lays bare this selfish clerical policy. +The theory of the suppression of heresy as a sacred duty breaks down when +it is conceded that the heretic may be admitted to the orthodox communion +without sin; therefore the motives for cruelty were sordid. The ministers +felt instinctively that an open toleration would impair their power; not +only because the congregations would divide, but because these sectaries +listened to "John Russell the shoemaker." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 26.] +Obviously, were cobblers to usurp the sacerdotal functions, the +superstitious reverence of the people for the priestly office would not +long endure: and it was his crime in upholding this sacrilegious practice +which made the Rev. Thomas Cobbett cry out in his pulpit "against Gorton, +that arch-heretick, who would have al men to be preachers." [Footnote: +_Simplicities Defence_, p. 32. See _Ne Sutor_, p. 26.] + +Therefore, though Winslow solemnly protested before the Commissioners at +London that Baptists who lived peaceably would be left unmolested, yet +such of them as listened to "foul-murtherers" [Footnote: "_Ill Newes_," +_Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, vol. ii. p. 56.] were denounced by the +divines as dangerous fanatics who threatened to overthrow the government, +and were hunted through the country like wolves. + +Thomas Gould was an esteemed citizen of Charles-town, but, unfortunately +for himself, he had long felt doubt concerning infant baptism; so when, in +1655, a child was born to him, he "durst not" have it christened. "The +elder pressed the church to lay me under admonition, which the church was +backward to do. Afterward I went out at the sprinkling of children, which +was a great trouble to some honest hearts, and they told me of it. But I +told them I could not stay, for I lookt upon it as no ordinance of Christ. +They told me that now I had made known my judgment I might stay.... So I +stayed and sat down in my seat when they were at prayer and administring +the service to infants. Then they dealt with me for my unreverent +carriage." [Footnote: Gould's Narrative, Backus, i. 364-366.] That is to +say, his pastor, Mr. Symmes, caused him to be admonished and excluded from +the communion. In October, 1656, he was presented to the county court for +"denying baptism to his child," convicted, admonished, and given till the +next term to consider of his error; and gradually his position at +Charlestown became so unpleasant that he went to church at Cambridge, +which was a cause of fresh offence to Mr. Symmes. [Footnote: _History of +Charlestown_, Frothingham, p. 164.] + +From this time forward for several years, though no actual punishment +seems to have been inflicted, Gould was subjected to perpetual annoyance, +and was repeatedly summoned and admonished, both by the courts and the +church, until at length he brought matters to a crisis by withdrawing, and +with eight others forming a church, on May 28, 1665. + +He thus tells his story: "We sought the Lord to direct us, and taking +counsel of other friends who dwelt among us, who were able and godly, they +gave us counsel to congregate ourselves together; and so we did, ... to +walk in the order of the gospel according to the rule of Christ, yet +knowing it was a breach of the law of this country.... After we had been +called into one or two courts, the church understanding that we were +gathered into church order, they sent three messengers from the church to +me, telling me the church required me to come before them the next Lord's +day." [Footnote: Gould's Narrative, Backus, i. 369.] That Sunday he could +not go, but he promised to attend on the one following; [Footnote: Gould's +Narrative, Backus, i. 371.] and his wife relates what was then done: "The +word was carried to the elder, that if they were alive and well they would +come the next day, yet they were so hot upon it that they could not stay, +but master Sims, when he was laying out the sins of these men, before he +had propounded it to the church, to know their mind, the church having no +liberty to speak, he wound it up in his discourse, and delivered them up +to Satan, to the amazement of the people, that ever such an ordinance of +Christ should be so abused, that many of the people went out; and these +were the excommunicated persons." [Footnote: Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, +i. 384.] The sequence is complete: so long as Gould confined his heresy to +pure speculation upon dogma he was little heeded; when he withheld his +child from baptism and went out during the ceremony he was admonished, +denied the sacrament, and treated as a social outcast; but when he +separated, he was excommunicated and given to the magistrate to be +crushed. + +Passing from one tribunal to another the sectaries came before the General +Court in October, 1665: such as were freemen were disfranchised, and all +were sentenced, upon conviction before a single magistrate of continued +schism, to be imprisoned until further order. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 291.] The following April they were fined four pounds +and put in confinement, where they lay till the 11th of September, when +the legislature, after a hearing, ordered them to be discharged upon +payment of fines and costs. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, +p. 316.] + +How many Baptists were prosecuted, and what they suffered, is not known, +as only an imperfect record remains of the fortunes of even the leaders of +the movement; this much, however, is certain, they not only continued +contumacious, but persecution added to their numbers. So at length the +clergy decided to try what effect a public refutation of these heretics +would have on popular opinion. Accordingly the governor and council, +actuated by "Christian candor," ordered the Baptists to appear at the +meeting-house, at nine o'clock in the morning, on the 14th of April, 1668; +and six ministers were deputed to conduct the disputation. [Footnote: +Backus, i. 375.] + +During the immolation of Dunster the Rev. Mr. Mitchell had made up his +mind that he "would have an argument able to remove a mountain" before he +would swerve from his orthodoxy; he had since confirmed his faith by +preaching "more than half a score ungainsayable sermons" "in defence of +this comfortable truth," and he was now prepared to maintain it against +all comers. Accordingly this "worthy man was he who did most service in +this disputation; whereof the effect was, that although the erring +brethren, as is usual in such cases, made this their last answer to the +arguments which had cast them into much confusion: 'Say what you will we +will hold our mind.' Yet others were happily established in the right ways +of the Lord." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 10.] + +Such is the account of Cotton Mather: but the story of the Baptists +presents a somewhat different view of the proceedings. "It is true there +were seven elders appointed to discourse with them.... and when they were +met, there was a long speech made by one of them of what vile persons they +were, and how they acted against the churches and government here, and +stood condemned by the court. The others desiring liberty to speak, they +would not suffer them, but told them they stood there as delinquents and +ought not to have liberty to speak.... Two days were spent to little +purpose; in the close, master Jonathan Mitchel pronounced that dreadful +sentence against them in Deut. xvii. 8, to the end of the 12th, and this +was the way they took to convince them, and you may see what a good effect +it had." [Footnote: Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, i. 384, 385.] + +The sentence pronounced by Mitchell was this: "And the man that will do +presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to +minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man +shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel." [Footnote: +_Deut._ xvii. 12.] + +On the 27th of May, 1668, Gould, Turner, and Farnum, "obstinate & +turbulent Annabaptists," were banished under pain of perpetual +imprisonment. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. ii, pp. 373-375.] +They determined to stay and face their fate: afterward they wrote to the +magistrates:-- + + * * * * * + +HONOURED SIRS: ... After the tenders of our service according to Christ, +his command to your selves and the country, wee thought it our duty and +concernment to present your honours with these few lines to put you in +remembrance of our bonds: and this being the twelfth week of our +imprisonment, wee should be glad if it might be thought to stand with the +honour and safety of the country, and the present government thereof, to +be now at liberty. For wee doe hereby seriously profess, that as farre as +wee are sensible or know anything of our own hearts, wee do prefer their +peace and safety above our own, however wee have been resented otherwise: +and wherein wee differ in point of judgment wee humbly beeseech you, let +there be a bearing with us, till god shal reveale otherwise to us; for +there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them +understanding, therefore if wee are in the dark, wee dare not say that wee +doe see or understand, till the Lord shall cleare things up to us. And to +him wee can appeale to cleare up our innocency as touching the government, +both in your civil and church affaires. That it never was in our hearts to +thinke of doing the least wrong to either: but have and wee hope, by your +assistance, shal alwaies indeavour to keepe a conscience void of offence +towards god and men. And if it shal be thought meete to afforde us our +liberty, that wee may take that care, as becomes us, for our families, wee +shal engage ourselves to be alwayes in a readines to resigne up our +persons to your pleasure. Hoping your honours will be pleased seriously to +consider our condition, wee shall commend both you and it to the wise +disposing and blessing of the Almighty, and remaine your honours faithful +servants in what we may. + +THO: GOLD +WILL: TURNER +JOHN FARNUM. [Footnote: _Mass. Archives_, x. 220.] + + * * * * * + +Such were the men whom the clergy daily warned their congregations "would +certainly undermine the churches, ruine order, destroy piety, and +introduce prophaneness." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 11.] And when they +appealed to their spotless lives and their patience under affliction, they +were told "that the vilest hereticks and grossest blasphemers have +resolutely and cheerfully (at least sullenly and boastingly) suffered as +well as the people of God." [Footnote: _Ne Sutor_, p. 9.] + +The feeling of indignation and of sympathy was, notwithstanding, strong; +and in spite of the danger of succoring heretics, sixty-six inhabitants, +among whom were some of the most respected citizens of Charlestown, +petitioned the legislature for mercy: "They being aged and weakly men; ... +the sense of this their ... most deplorable and afflicted condition hath +sadly affected the hearts of many ... Christians, and such as neither +approve of their judgment or practice; especially considering that the men +are reputed godly, and of a blameless conversation.... We therefore most +humbly beseech this honored court, in their Christian mercy and bowels of +compassion, to pity and relieve these poor prisoners." [Footnote: Backus, +i. 380, 381.] On November 7, 1668, the petition was voted "scandalous & +reproachful," the two chief promoters were censured, admonished, and fined +ten and five pounds respectively; the others were made, under their own +hands, to express their sorrow, "for giving the court such just ground of +offence." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 413.] + +The shock was felt even in England. In March, 1669, thirteen of the most +influential dissenting ministers wrote from London earnestly begging for +moderation lest they should be made to suffer from retaliation; but their +remonstrance was disregarded. [Footnote: Backus, i. 395.] What followed is +not exactly known; the convicts would seem to have lain in jail about a +year, and they are next mentioned in a letter to Clark written in +November, 1670, in which he was told that Turner had been again arrested, +but that Gould had eluded the officers, who were waiting for him in +Boston; and was on Noddle's Island. Subsequently all were taken and +treated with the extremest rigor; for in June, 1672, Russell was so +reduced that it was supposed he could not live, and he was reported to +have died in prison. Six months before Gould and Turner had been thought +past hope; their sufferings had brought them all to the brink of the +grave. [Footnote: Backus, i. 398-404, 405.] But relief was at hand: the +victory for freedom had been won by the blood of heretics, as devoted, as +fearless, but even unhappier than they; and the election of Leverett, in +1673, who was opposed to persecution, marks the moment when the hierarchy +admitted their defeat. During his administration the sectaries usually met +in private undisturbed; and soon every energy of the theocracy became +concentrated on the effort to repulse the ever contracting circle of +enemies who encompassed it. + +During the next few years events moved fast. In 1678 the ecclesiastical +power was so shattered that the Baptists felt strong enough to build a +church; but the old despotic spirit lived even in the throes of death, and +the legislature passed an act forbidding the erection of unlicensed +meeting-houses under penalty of confiscation. Nevertheless it was +finished, but on the Sunday on which it was to have been opened the +marshal nailed the doors fast and posted notices forbidding all persons to +enter, by order of the court. After a time the doors were broken open, and +services were held; a number of the congregation were summoned before the +court, admonished, and forbidden to meet in any public place; [Footnote: +June 11, 1680. _Mass. Rec._ v. 271.] but the handwriting was now glowing +on the wall, priestly threats had lost their terror; the order was +disregarded; and now for almost two hundred years Massachusetts has been +foremost in defending the equal rights of men before the law. + +The old world was passing away, a new era was opening, and a few words are +due to that singular aristocracy which so long ruled New England. For two +centuries Increase Mather has been extolled as an eminent example of the +abilities and virtues which then adorned his order. In 1681, when all was +over, he published a solemn statement of the attitude the clergy had held +toward the Baptists, and from his words posterity may judge of their +standard of morality and of truth. + +"The Annabaptists in New England have in their narrative lately published, +endeavoured to ... make themselves the innocent persons and the Lord's +servants here no better than persecutors.... I have been a poor labourer +in the Lord's Vineyard in this place upward of twenty years; and it is +more than I know, if in all that time, any of those that scruple infant +baptism, have met with molestation from the magistrate merely on account +of their opinion." [Footnote: Preface to _Ne Sutor_.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE QUAKERS. + + +The lower the organism, the less would seem to be the capacity for +physical adaptation to changed conditions of life; the jelly-fish dies in +the aquarium, the dog has wandered throughout the world with his master. +The same principle apparently holds true in the evolution of the +intellect; for while the oyster lacks consciousness, the bee modifies the +structure of its comb, and the swallow of her nest, to suit unforeseen +contingencies, while the dog, the horse, and the elephant are capable of a +high degree of education. [Footnote: _Menial Evolution in Animals_, +Romanes, Am. ed. pp. 203-210.] + +Applying this law to man, it will be found to be a fact that, whereas the +barbarian is most tenacious of custom, the European can adopt new fashions +with comparative ease. The obvious inference is, that in proportion as the +brain is feeble it is incapable of the effort of origination; therefore, +savages are the slaves of routine. Probably a stronger nervous system, or +a peculiarity of environment, or both combined, served to excite +impatience with their surroundings among the more favored races, from +whence came a desire for innovation. And the mental flexibility thus +slowly developed has passed by inheritance, and has been strengthened by +use, until the tendency to vary, or think independently, has become an +irrepressible instinct among some modern nations. Conservatism is the +converse of variation, and as it springs from mental inertia it is always +a progressively salient characteristic of each group in the descending +scale. The Spaniard is less mutable than the Englishman, the Hindoo than +the Spaniard, the Hottentot than the Hindoo, and the ape than the +Hottentot. Therefore, a power whose existence depends upon the fixity of +custom must be inimical to progress, but the authority of a sacred caste +is altogether based upon an unreasoning reverence for tradition,--in +short, on superstition; and as free inquiry is fatal to a belief in those +fables which awed the childhood of the race, it has followed that +established priesthoods have been almost uniformly the most conservative +of social forces, and that clergymen have seldom failed to slay their +variable brethren when opportunity has offered. History teems with such +slaughters, some of the most instructive of which are related in the Old +Testament, whose code of morals is purely theological. + +Though there may be some question as to the strict veracity of the author +of the Book of Kings, yet, as he was evidently a thorough churchman, there +can be no doubt that he has faithfully preserved the traditions of the +hierarchy; his chronicle therefore presents, as it were, a perfect mirror, +wherein are reflected the workings of the ecclesiastical mind through many +generations. According to his account, the theocracy only triumphed after +a long and doubtful struggle. Samuel must have been an exceptionally able +man, for, though he failed to control Saul, it was through his intrigues +that David was enthroned, who was profoundly orthodox; yet Solomon lapsed +again into heresy, and Jeroboam added to schism the even blacker crime of +making "priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of +Levi," [Footnote: I Kings xii. 31.] and in consequence he has come down to +posterity as the man who made Israel to sin. Ahab married Jezebel, who +introduced the worship of Baal, and gave the support of government to a +rival church. She therefore roused a hate which has made her immortal; but +it was not until the reign of her son Jehoram that Elisha apparently felt +strong enough to execute a plot he had made with one of the generals to +precipitate a revolution, in which the whole of the house of Ahab should +be murdered and the heretics exterminated. The awful story is told with +wonderful power in the Bible. + +"And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and +said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, +and go to Ramoth-gilead: and when thou comest thither, look out there +Jehu, ... and make him arise up ... and carry him to an inner chamber; +then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the +Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.... + +"So the young man ... went to Ramoth-gilead.... And he said, I have an +errand to thee, O captain.... + +"And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, +and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee +king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. + +"And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the +blood of my servants the prophets.... + +"For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: ... and I will make the house +of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ... and the dogs +shall eat Jezebel.... + +"Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: ... And he said, Thus +spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king +over Israel. + +"Then they hasted, ... and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king. So +Jehu ... conspired against Joram.... + +"But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which +the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.... + +"So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there.... + +"And Joram ... went out ... in his chariot, ... against Jehu.... And it +came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he +answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and +her witchcrafts are so many? + +"And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is +treachery, O Ahaziah. + +"And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his +arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his +chariot.... + +"But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the +garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the +chariot. And they did so.... + +"And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted +her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. + +"And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew +his master?... + +"And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her +blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trod her under +foot.... + +"And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, ... to the +elders, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying, ... If ye be +mine, ... take ye the heads of ... your master's sons, and come to me to +Jezreel by to-morrow this time.... And it came to pass, when the letter +came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, +and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.... + +"And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate +until the morning.... + +"So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all +his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none +remaining. + +"And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the +shearing house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of +Judah.... + +"And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at +the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any +of them.... + +"And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in +Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, +which he spake to Elijah. + +"And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab +served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call +unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; +let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever +shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the +intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.... + +"And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, +so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the +house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another.... + +"And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt +offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay +them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; +and the guard and the captains cast them out.... + +"Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel." [Footnote: 2 _Kings_ ix., x.] + +Viewed from the standpoint of comparative history, the policy of +theocratic Massachusetts toward the Quakers was the necessary consequence +of antecedent causes, and is exactly parallel with the massacre of the +house of Ahab by Elisha and Jehu. The power of a dominant priesthood +depended on conformity, and the Quakers absolutely refused to conform; nor +was this the blackest of their crimes: they believed that the Deity +communicated directly with men, and that these revelations were the +highest rule of conduct. Manifestly such a doctrine was revolutionary. The +influence of all ecclesiastics must ultimately rest upon the popular +belief that they are endowed with attributes which are denied to common +men. The syllogism of the New England elders was this: all revelation is +contained in the Bible; we alone, from our peculiar education, are capable +of interpreting the meaning of the Scriptures: therefore we only can +declare the will of God. But it was evident that, were the dogma of "the +inner light" once accepted, this reasoning must fall to the ground, and +the authority of the ministry be overthrown. Necessarily those who held so +subversive a doctrine would be pursued with greater hate than less harmful +heretics, and thus contemplating the situation there is no difficulty in +understanding why the Rev. John Wilson, pastor of Boston, should have +vociferated in his pulpit, that "he would carry fire in one hand and +faggots in the other, to burn all the Quakers in the world;" [Footnote: +_New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 124.] why the Rev. John Higginson +should have denounced the "inner light" as "a stinking vapour from hell;" +[Footnote: _Truth and Innocency Defended_, ed. 1703, p. 80.] why the +astute Norton should have taught that "the justice of God was the devil's +armour;" [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 9.] and why +Endicott sternly warned the first comers, "Take heed you break not our +ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure to stretch by a halter." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] + +Nevertheless, this view has not commended itself to those learned +clergymen who have been the chief historians of the Puritan commonwealth. +They have, on the contrary, steadily maintained that the sectaries were +the persecutors, since the company had exclusive ownership of the soil, +and acted in self-defence. + +The case of Roger Williams is thus summed up by Dr. Dexter: "In all +strictness and honesty he persecuted them--not they him; just as the +modern 'Come-outer,' who persistently intrudes his bad manners and +pestering presence upon some private company, making himself, upon +pretence of conscience, a nuisance there; is--if sane--the persecutor, +rather than the man who forcibly assists, as well as courteously requires, +his desired departure." [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 90.] + +Dr. Ellis makes a similar argument regarding the Quakers: "It might appear +as if good manners, and generosity and magnanimity of spirit, would have +kept the Quakers away. Certainly, by every rule of right and reason, they +ought to have kept away. They had no rights or business here.... Most +clearly they courted persecution, suffering, and death; and, as the +magistrates affirmed, 'they rushed upon the sword.' Those magistrates +never intended them harm, ... except as they believed that all their +successive measures and sharper penalties were positively necessary to +secure their jurisdiction from the wildest lawlessness and absolute +anarchy." [Footnote: _Mass. and its Early History_, p. 110] His conclusion +is: "It is to be as frankly and positively affirmed that their Quaker +tormentors were the aggressive party; that they wantonly initiated the +strife, and with a dogged pertinacity persisted in outrages which drove +the authorities almost to frenzy...." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 104] + +The proposition that the Congregationalists owned the territory granted by +the charter of Charles I. as though it were a private estate, has been +considered in an earlier chapter; and if the legal views there advanced +are sound, it is incontrovertible, that all peaceful British subjects had +a right to dwell in Massachusetts, provided they did not infringe the +monopoly in trade. The only remaining question, therefore, is whether the +Quakers were peaceful. Dr. Ellis, Dr. Palfrey, and Dr. Dexter have +carefully collected a certain number of cases of misconduct, with the view +of proving that the Friends were turbulent, and the government had +reasonable grounds for apprehending such another outbreak as one which +occurred a century before in Germany and is known as the Peasants' War. +Before, however, it is possible to enter upon a consideration of the +evidence intelligently, it is necessary to fix the chronological order of +the leading events of the persecution. + +The twenty-one years over which it extended may be conveniently divided +into three periods, of which the first began in July, 1656, when Mary +Fisher and Anne Austin came to Boston, and lasted till December, 1661, +when Charles II. interfered by commanding Endicott to send those under +arrest to England for trial. Hitherto John Norton had been preeminent, but +in that same December he was appointed on a mission to London, and as he +died soon after his return, his direct influence on affairs then probably +ceased. He had been chiefly responsible for the hangings of 1659 and 1660, +but under no circumstances could they have been continued, for after four +heretics had perished, it was found impossible to execute Wenlock +Christison, who had been condemned, because of popular indignation. + +Nevertheless, the respite was brief. In June, 1662, the king, in a letter +confirming the charter, excluded the Quakers from the general toleration +which he demanded for other sects, and the old legislation was forthwith +revived; only as it was found impossible to kill the schismatics openly, +the inference, from what occurred subsequently, is unavoidable, that the +elders sought to attain their purpose by what their reverend historians +call "a humaner policy," [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 134.] +or, in plain English, by murdering them by flogging and starvation. Nor +was the device new, for the same stratagem had already been resorted to by +the East India Company, in Hindostan, before they were granted full +criminal jurisdiction. [Footnote: Mill's _British India_, i. 48, note.] + +The Vagabond Act was too well contrived for compassing such an end, to +have been an accident, and portions of it strongly suggest the hand of +Norton. It was passed in May, 1661, when it was becoming evident that +hanging must be abandoned, and its provisions can only be explained on the +supposition that it was the intention to make the infliction of death +discretionary with each magistrate. It provided that any foreign Quaker, +or any native upon a second conviction, might be ordered to receive an +unlimited number of stripes. It is important also to observe that the whip +was a two-handed implement, armed with lashes made of twisted and knotted +cord or catgut. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 357, note.] +There can be no doubt, moreover, that sundry of the judgments afterward +pronounced would have resulted fatally had the people permitted their +execution. During the autumn following its enactment this statute was +suspended, but it was revived in about ten months. + +Endicott's death in 1665 marks the close of the second epoch, and ten +comparatively tranquil years followed. Bellingham's moderation may have +been in part due to the interference of the royal commissioners, but a +more potent reason was the popular disgust, which had become so strong +that the penal laws could not be enforced. + +A last effort was made to rekindle the dying flame in 1675, by fining +constables who failed in their duty to break up Quaker meetings, and +offering one third of the penalty to the informer. Magistrates were +required to sentence those apprehended to the House of Correction, where +they were to be kept three days on bread and water, and whipped. +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 60.] Several suffered during this revival, +the last of whom was Margaret Brewster. At the end of twenty-one years the +policy of cruelty had become thoroughly discredited and a general +toleration could no longer be postponed; but this great liberal triumph +was only won by heroic courage and by the endurance of excruciating +torments. Marmaduke Stevenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer, and William +Leddra were hanged, several were mutilated or branded, two at least are +known to have died from starvation and whipping, and it is probable that +others were killed whose fate cannot be traced. The number tortured under +the Vagabond Act is unknown, nor can any estimate be made of the misery +inflicted upon children by the ruin and exile of parents. + +The early Quakers were enthusiasts, and therefore occasionally spoke and +acted extravagantly; they also adopted some offensive customs, the most +objectionable of which was wearing the hat; all this is immaterial. The +question at issue is not their social attractiveness, but the cause whose +consequence was a virulent persecution. This can only be determined by an +analysis of the evidence. If, upon an impartial review of the cases of +outrage which have been collected, it shall appear probable that the +conduct of the Friends was sufficiently violent to make it credible that +the legislature spoke the truth, when it declared that "the prudence of +this court was exercised onely in making provission to secure the peace & +order heere established against theire attempts, whose designe (wee were +well assured by our oune experjence, as well as by the example of theire +predecessors in Munster) was to vndermine & ruine the same;" [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 385.] then the reverend historians of +the theocracy must be considered to have established their proposition. +But if, on the other hand, it shall seem apparent that the intense +vindictiveness of this onslaught was due to the bigotry and greed of power +of a despotic priesthood, who saw in the spread of independent thought a +menace to the ascendency of their order, then it must be held to be +demonstrated that the clergy of New England acted in obedience to those +natural laws, which have always regulated the conduct of mankind. + + +CHRONOLOGY. + + +1656, July. First Quakers came to Boston. + +1656, 14 Oct. First act against Quakers passed. Providing that ship- +masters bringing Quakers should be fined £100. Quakers to be whipped and +imprisoned till expelled. Importers of Quaker books to be fined. Any +defending Quaker opinions to be fined, first offence, 40s.; second, £4; +third, banishment. + +1657, 14 Oct. By a supplementary act; Quakers returning after one +conviction for first offence, for men, loss of one ear; imprisonment till +exile. Second offence, loss other ear, like imprisonment. For females; +first offence, whipping, imprisonment. Second offence, idem. Third +offence, men and women alike; tongue to be bored with a hot iron, +imprisonment, exile. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 309.] + +1658. In this year Rev. John Norton actively exerted himself to secure +more stringent legislation; procured petition to that effect to be +presented to court. + +1658, 19 Oct. Enacted that undomiciled Quakers returning from banishment +should be hanged. Domiciled Quakers upon conviction, refusing to +apostatize, to be banished, under pain of death on return. [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 346.] + +Under this act the following persons were hanged: + +1659, 27 Oct. Robinson and Stevenson hanged. + +1660, 1 June. Mary Dyer hanged. (Previously condemned, reprieved, and +executed for returning.) + +1660-1661, 14 Mar. William Leddra hanged. + +1661, June. Wenlock Christison condemned to death; released. + +1661, 22 May. Vagabond Act. Any person convicted before a county +magistrate of being an undomiciled or vagabond Quaker to be stripped naked +to the middle, tied to the cart's tail, and flogged from town to town to +the border. Domiciled Quakers to be proceeded against under Act of 1658 to +banishment, and then treated as vagabond Quakers. The death penalty was +still preserved but not enforced. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, +p. 3.] + +1661, 9 Sept. King Charles II. wrote to Governor Endicott directing the +cessation of corporal punishment in regard to Quakers, and ordering the +accused to be sent to England for trial. + +1661. 27 Nov. Vagabond Act suspended. + +1662. 28 June. The company's agents, Bradstreet and Norton, received from +the king his letter of pardon, etc., wherein, however, Quakers are +excepted from the demand made for religious toleration. + +1662, 8 Oct. Encouraged by the above letter the Vagabond law revived. + +1664-5, 15 March. Death of John Endicott. Bellingham governor. +Commissioners interfere on behalf of Quakers in May. The persecution +subsides. + +1672, 3 Nov. Persecution revived by passage of law punishing persons found +at Quaker meeting by fine or imprisonment and flogging. Also fining +constables for neglect in making arrests and giving one third the fine to +informers. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 60.] + +1677, Aug. 9. Margaret Brewster whipped for entering the Old South in +sackcloth. + + +TURBULENT QUAKERS. + + +1656, Mary Prince. 1662, Deborah Wilson. +1658, Sarah Gibbons. 1663, Thomas Newhouse. + " Dorothy Waugh. " Edward Wharton. +1660, John Smith. 1664, Hannah Wright. [Footnote: Uncertain.] +1661, Katherine Chatham. " Mary Tomkins. + " George Wilson. 1665, Lydia Wardwell. +1662, Elizabeth Hooton. 1677, Margaret Brewster. + +"It was in the month called July, of this present year [1656] when Mary +Fisher and Ann Austin arrived in the road before Boston, before ever a law +was made there against the Quakers; and yet they were very ill treated; +for before they came ashore, the deputy governor, Richard Bellingham (the +governor himself being out of town) sent officers aboard, who searched +their trunks and chests, and took away the books they found there, which +were about one hundred, and carried them ashore, after having commanded +the said women to be kept prisoners aboard; and the said books were, by an +order of the council, burnt in the market-place by the hangman.... And +then they were shut up close prisoners, and command was given that none +should come to them without leave; a fine of five pounds being laid on any +that should otherwise come at, or speak with them, tho' but at the window. +Their pens, ink, and paper were taken from them, and they not suffered to +have any candle-light in the night season; nay, what is more, they were +stript naked, under pretence to know whether they were witches [a true +touch of sacerdotal malignity] tho' in searching no token was found upon +them but of innocence. And in this search they were so barbarously misused +that modesty forbids to mention it: And that none might have communication +with them a board was nailed up before the window of the jail. And seeing +they were not provided with victuals, Nicholas Upshal, one who had lived +long in Boston, and was a member of the church there, was so concerned +about it, (liberty being denied to send them provision) that he purchased +it of the jailor at the rate of five shillings a week, lest they should +have starved. And after having been about five weeks prisoners, William +Chichester, master of a vessel, was bound in one hundred pound bond to +carry them back, and not suffer any to speak with them, after they were +put on board; and the jailor kept their beds ... and their Bible, for his +fees." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 160.] + +Endicott was much dissatisfied with the forbearance of Bellingham, and +declared that had he "been there ... he would have had them well whipp'd." +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 10.] No exertion was spared, +nevertheless, to get some hold upon them, the elders examining them as to +matters of faith, with a view to ensnare them as heretics. In this, +however, they were foiled. + +On the authority of Hutchinson, Dr. Dexter [Footnote: _As to Roger +Williams_, p. 127.] and r. Palfrey complain [Footnote: Palfrey, ii. +464.] that Mary Prince reviled two of the ministers, who "with much +moderation and tenderness endeavored to convince her of her errors." +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 181.] A visitation of the clergy was a +form of torment from which even the boldest recoiled; Vane, Gorton, +Childe, and Anne Hutchinson quailed under it, and though the Quakers +abundantly proved that they could bear stripes with patience, they could +not endure this. She called them "Baal's priests, the seed of the +serpent." Dr. Ellis also speaks of "stinging objurgations screamed out ... +from between the bars of their prisons." [Footnote: _Mem. Hist. of +Boston_, i. 182.] He cites no cases, but he probably refers to the same +woman who called to Endicott one Sunday on his way from church: "Woe unto +thee, thou art an oppressor." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 181.] If +she said so she spoke the truth, for she was illegally imprisoned, was +deprived of her property, and subjected to great hardship. + +In October, 1656, the first of the repressive acts was passed, by which +the "cursed" and "blasphemous" intruders were condemned to be "comitted to +the house of correction, and at theire entrance to be seuerely whipt and +by the master thereof to be kept constantly to worke, and none suffered to +converse or speak with them;" [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, +p. 278.] and any captain knowingly bringing them within the jurisdiction +to be fined one hundred pounds, with imprisonment till payment. + +"When this law was published at the door of the aforenamed Nicholas +Upshall, the good old man, grieved in spirit, publickly testified against +it; for which he was the next morning sent for to the General Court, where +he told them that: 'The execution of that law would be a forerunner of a +judgment upon their country, and therefore in love and tenderness which he +bare to the people and place, desired them to take heed, lest they were +found fighters against God.' For this, he, though one of their church- +members, and of a blameless conversation, was fined £20 and £3 more for +not coming to church, whence the sense of their wickedness had induced him +to absent himself. They also banished him out of their jurisdiction, +allowing him but one month for his departure, though in the winter season, +and he a weakly ancient man: Endicott the governor, when applied to on his +behalf for a mitigation of his fine, churlishly answered, 'I will not bate +him a groat.'" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 181.] + +Although, after the autumn of 1656, whippings, fines, and banishments +became frequent, no case of misconduct is alleged until the 13th of the +second month, 1658, when Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh broke two bottles +in Mr. Norton's church, after lecture, to testify to his emptiness; +[Footnote: This charge is unproved.] both had previously been imprisoned +and banished, but the ferocity with which Norton at that moment was +forcing on the persecution was the probable incentive to the trespass. +"They were sent to the house of correction, where, after being kept three +days without any food, they were cruelly whipt, and kept three days longer +without victuals, though they had offered to buy some, but were not +suffered." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 184.] + +In 1661 Katharine Chatham walked through Boston, in sackcloth. This was +during the trial of Christison for his life, when the terror culminated, +and hardly needs comment. + +George Wilson is charged with having "rushed through the streets of +Boston, shouting: 'The Lord is coming with fire and sword!'" [Footnote: +_As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] The facts appear to be these: in 1661, +just before Christison's trial, he was arrested, without any apparent +reason, and, as he was led to prison, he cried, that the Lord was coming +with fire and sword to plead with Boston. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, +ed. 1703, p. 351.] At the general jail delivery [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 19. Order passed 28 May, 1661.] in anticipation of the +king's order, he was liberated, but soon rearrested, "sentenced to be tied +to the cart's tail," and flogged with so severe a whip that the Quakers +wanted to buy it "to send to England for the novelty of the cruelty, but +that was not permitted." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 224.] + +Elizabeth Hooton coming from England in 1661, with Joan Brooksup, "they +were soon clapt up in prison, and, upon their discharge thence, being +driven with the rest two days' journey into the vast, howling wilderness, +and there left ... without necessary provisions." [Footnote: Besse, ii. +228, 229.] They escaped to Barbadoes. "Upon their coming again to Boston, +they were presently apprehended by a constable, an ignorant and furious +zealot, who declared, 'It was his delight, and he could rejoice in +following the Quakers to their execution as much as ever.'" Wishing to +return once more, she obtained a license from the king to buy a house in +any plantation. Though about sixty, she was seized at Dover, where the +Rev. Mr. Rayner was settled, put into the stocks, and imprisoned four days +in the dead of winter, where she nearly perished from cold. [Footnote: +Besse, ii. 229.] Afterward, at Cambridge, she exhorted the people to +repentance in the streets, [Footnote: "Repentance! Repentance! A day of +howling and sad lamentation is coming upon you all from the Lord."] and +for this crime, which is cited as an outrage to Puritan decorum, +[Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] she was once more apprehended +and "imprisoned in a close, stinking dungeon, where there was nothing +either to lie down or sit on, where she was kept two days and two nights +without bread or water," and then sentenced to be whipped through three +towns. "At Cambridge she was tied to the whipping-post, and lashed with +ten stripes with a three-stringed whip, with three knots at the end: At +Watertown she was laid on with ten stripes more with rods of willow: At +Dedham, in a cold frosty morning, they tortured her aged body with ten +stripes more at a cart's tail." The peculiar atrocity of flogging from +town to town lay in this: that the victim's wounds became cold between the +times of punishment, and in winter sometimes frozen, which made the +torture intolerably agonizing. Then, as hanging was impossible, other +means were tried to make an end of her: "Thus miserably torn and beaten, +they carried her a weary journey on horseback many miles into the +wilderness, and toward night left her there among wolves, bears, and other +wild beasts, who, though they did sometimes seize on living persons, were +yet to her less cruel than the savage-professors of that country. When +those who conveyed her thither left her, they said, 'They thought they +should never see her more.'" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 229. See _New England +Judged_, p. 413.] + +The intent to kill is obvious, and yet Elizabeth Hooton suffered less than +many of those convicted and sentenced after public indignation had forced +the theocracy to adopt what their reverend successors are pleased to call +the "humaner policy" of the Vagabond Act. [Footnote: _As to Roger +Williams_, p. 134.] + +Any want of deference to a clergyman is sure to be given a prominent place +in the annals of Massachusetts; and, accordingly, the breaking of bottles +in church, which happened twice in twenty-one years, is never omitted. + +In 1663 "John Liddal, and Thomas Newhouse, having been at meeting" (at +Salem), "were apprehended and ... sentenced to be whipt through three +towns as vagabonds," which was accordingly done. + +"Not long after this, the aforesaid Thomas Newhouse was again whipt +through the jurisdiction of Boston for testifying against the persecutors +in their meeting-house there; at which time he, in a prophetick manner, +having two glass bottles in his hands, threw them down, saying, 'so shall +you be dashed in pieces.'" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 232.] + +The next turbulent Quaker is mentioned in this way by Dr. Dexter: "Edward +Wharton was 'pressed in spirit' to repair to Dover and proclaim 'Wo, +vengeance, and the indignation of the Lord' upon the court in session +there." [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] This happened in +the summer of 1663, and long ere then he had seen and suffered the +oppression that makes men mad. He was a peaceable and industrious +inhabitant of Salem; in 1659 he had seen Robinson and Stevenson done to +death, and, being deeply moved, he said, "the guilt of [their] blood was +so great that he could not bear it;" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 205.] he was +taken from his home, given twenty lashes and fined twenty pounds; the next +year, just at the time of Christison's trial, he was again seized, led +through the country like a notorious offender, and thrown into prison, +"where he was kept close, night and day, with William Leddra, sometimes in +a very little room, little bigger than a saw-pit, having no liberty +granted them." + +"Being brought before their court, he again asked, 'What is the cause, and +wherefore have I been fetcht from my habitation, where I was following my +honest calling, and here laid up as an evil-doer?' They told him, that +'his hair was too long, and that he had disobeyed that commandment which +saith, Honour thy father and mother.' He asked, 'Wherein?' 'In that you +will not,' said they, 'put off your hat to magistrates.' Edward replied, +'I love and own all magistrates and rulers, who are for the punishment of +evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.'" [Footnote: Besse, +ii. 220.] + +Then Rawson pronounced the sentence: "You are upon pain of death to depart +this jurisdiction, it being the 11th of this instant March, by the one and +twentieth of the same, on the pain of death.... 'Nay [said Wharton], I +shall not go away; therefore be careful what you do.'" [Footnote: Besse, +ii. 221.] + +And he did not go, but was with Leddra when he died upon the tree. On the +day Leddra suffered, Christison was brought before Endicott, and commanded +to renounce his religion; but he answered: "Nay, I shall not change my +religion, nor seek to save my life; ... but if I lose my life for Christ's +sake and the preaching of the gospel, I shall save it." They then sent him +back to prison to await his doom. At the next court he was brought to the +bar, where he demanded an appeal to England; but in the midst a letter was +brought in from Wharton, signifying, "That whereas they had banished him +on pain of death, yet he was at home in his own house at Salem, and +therefore proposing, 'That they would take off their wicked sentence from +him, that he might go about his occasions out of their jurisdiction.'" +[Footnote: Besse, ii. 222, 223.] + +Endicott was exasperated to frenzy, for he felt the ground crumbling +beneath him; he put the fate of Christison to the vote, and failed to +carry a condemnation. "The governor seeing this division, said, 'I could +find it in my heart to go home;' being in such a rage, that he flung +something furiously on the table. ...Then the governor put the court to +vote again; but this was done confusedly, which so incensed the governor +that he stood up and said, 'You that will not consent record it: I thank +God I am not afraid to give judgment...Wenlock Christison, hearken to your +sentence: You must return unto the place from whence you came, and from +thence to the place of execution, and there you must be hang'd until you +are dead, dead, dead.'" [Footnote: Sewel, p. 279.] Thereafter Wharton +invoked the wrath of God against the theocracy. + +To none of the enormities committed, during these years are the divines +more keenly alive than to the crime of disturbing what they call "public +Sabbath worship;" [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 139.] and since +their language conveys the impression that such acts were not only very +common, but also unprovoked, whereas the truth is that they were rare, it +cannot fail to be instructive to relate the causes which led to the +interruption of the ordination of that Mr. Higginson, who called the +"inner light" "a stinking vapour from hell." [Footnote: Ordained July 8, +1660. _Annals of Salem_.] + +John and Margaret Smith were members of the Salem church, and John was a +freeman. In 1658, Margaret became a Quaker, and though in feeble health, +she was cast into prison, and endured the extremities of privation; her +sufferings and her patience so wrought upon her husband that he too became +a convert, and a few weeks before the ceremony wrote to Endicott: + +"O governour, governour, do not think that my love to my wife is at all +abated, because I sit still silent, and do not seek her ... freedom, which +if I did would not avail.... Upon examination of her, there being nothing +justly laid to her charge, yet to fulfil your wills, it was determined, +that she must have ten stripes in the open market place, it being very +cold, the snow lying by the walls, and the wind blowing cold.... My love +is much more increased to her, because I see your cruelty so much enlarged +to her." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 208, 209.] + +Yet, though laboring under such intense excitement, the only act of +insubordination wherewith this man is charged was saying in a loud voice +during the service, "What you are going about to set up, our God is +pulling down." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 187.] + +Dr. Dexter also speaks with pathos of the youth of some of the criminals. + +"Hannah Wright, a mere girl of less than fifteen summers, toiled ... from +Oyster Bay ... to Boston, that she might pipe in the ears of the court 'a +warning in the name of the Lord.'" [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams,_ p. +133.] This appears to have happened in 1664, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 234. +_New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 461.] yet the name of Hannah Wright is +recorded among those who were released in the general jail delivery in +1661, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 224.] when she was only twelve; and her sister +had been banished. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 461.] + +But of all the scandals which have been dwelt on for two centuries with +such unction, none have been made more notorious than certain +extravagances committed by three women; and regarding them, the reasoning +of Dr. Dexter should be read in full. + +"The Quaker of the seventeenth century ... was essentially a coarse, +blustering, conceited, disagreeable, impudent fanatic; whose religion +gained subjective comfort in exact proportion to the objective comfort of +which it was able to deprive others; and which broke out into its choicest +exhibitions in acts which were not only at that time in the nature of a +public scandal and nuisance, but which even in the brightest light of this +nineteenth century ... would subject those who should be guilty of them to +the immediate and stringent attention of the police court. The disturbance +of public Sabbath worship, and the indecent exposure of the person-- +whether conscience be pleaded for them or not--are punished, and rightly +punished, as crimes by every civilized government." [Footnote: _As to +Roger Williams_, pp. 138, 139.] + +This paragraph undoubtedly refers to Mary Tomkins, who "on the First Day +of the week at Oyster River, broke up the service of God's house ... the +scene ending in deplorable confusion;" [Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, +p. 133.] and to Lydia Wardwell and Deborah Wilson, who appeared in public +naked. + +Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose came to Massachusetts in 1662; landing at +Dover, they began preaching at the inn, to which a number of people +resorted. Mr. Rayner, hearing the news, hurried to the spot, and in much +irritation asked them what they were doing there? This led to an argument +about the Trinity, and the authority of ministers, and at last the +clergyman "in a rage flung away, calling to his people, at the window, to +go from amongst them." [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 362.] +Nothing was done at the moment, but toward winter the two came back from +Maine, whither they had gone, and then Mr. Rayner saw his opportunity. He +caused Richard Walden to prosecute them, and as the magistrate was +ignorant of the technicalities of the law, the elder acted as clerk, and +drew up for him the following warrant:-- + + * * * * * + +To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, +Wenham, Linn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vagabond Quakers +are carried out of this jurisdiction. You and every of you are required, +in the King's Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anne +Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart's +tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip them on +their backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them in each +town, and so to convey them from constable to constable, till they come +out of this jurisdiction, as you will answer it at your peril: and this +shall be your warrant. + +Per me RICHARD WALDEN. +At Dover, dated December the 22d, 1662. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 227.] + + * * * * * + +The Rev. John Rayner pronounced judgment of death by flogging, for the +weather was bitter, the distance to be walked was eighty miles, and the +lashes were given with a whip, whose three twisted, knotted thongs cut to +the bone. + +"So, in a very cold day, your deputy, Walden, caused these women to be +stripp'd naked from the middle upward, and tyed to a cart, and after a +while cruelly whipp'd them, whilst the priest stood and looked, and +laughed at it.... They went with the executioner to Hampton, and through +dirt and snow at Salisbury, half way the leg deep, the constable forced +them after the cart's tayl at which he whipp'd them." [Footnote: _New +England Judged_, pp. 366, 367.] + +Had the Reverend John Rayner but followed the cart, to see that his three +hundred and thirty lashes were all given with the same ferocity which +warmed his heart to mirth at Dover, before his journey's end he would +certainly have joyed in giving thanks to God over the women's gory +corpses, freezing amid the snow. His negligence saved their lives, for +when the ghastly pilgrims passed through Salisbury, the people to their +eternal honor set the captives free. + +Soon after, on Sunday,--"Whilst Alice Ambrose was at prayer, two +constables ... came ... and taking her ... dragged her out of doors, and +then with her face toward the snow, which was knee deep, over stumps and +old trees near a mile; when they had wearied themselves they ... left the +prisoner in an house ... and fetched Mary Tomkins, whom in like manner +they dragged with her face toward the snow....On the next morning, which +was excessive cold, they got a canoe ... and so carried them to the +harbour's mouth, threatning, that 'They would now so do with them, as that +they would be troubled with them no more.' The women being unwilling to +go, they forced them down a very steep place in the snow, dragging Mary +Tomkins over the stumps of trees to the water side, so that she was much +bruised, and fainted under their hands: They plucked Alice Ambrose into +the water, and kept her swimming by the canoe in great danger of drowning, +or being frozen to death. They would in all probability have proceeded in +their wicked purpose to the murthering of those three women, had they not +been prevented by a sudden storm, which drove them back to the house +again. They kept the women there till near midnight, and then cruelly +turned them out of doors in the frost and snow, Alice Ambrose's clothes +being frozen hard as boards.... It was observable that those constables, +though wicked enough of themselves, were animated by a ruling elder of +their church, whose name corresponded not with his actions, for he was +called Hate-evil Nutter, he put those men forward, and by his presence +encouraged them." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 228.] + +Subsequently, Mary Tomkins committed the breach of the peace complained +of, which was an interruption of a sermon against Quaker preaching. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 386.] + +Deborah Wilson, one of the women who went abroad naked, was insane, the +fact appearing of record subsequently as the judgment of the court. She +was flogged. [Footnote: _Quaker Invasion_, p. 104.] + +Lydia Wardwell was the daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman. She married +Eliakim Wardwell, son of Thomas Wardwell, who was also a citizen. They +became Quakers; and the story begins when the poor young woman had been a +wife just three years. "At Hampton, Priest Seaborn Cotton, understanding +that one Eliakim Wardel had entertained Wenlock Christison, went with some +of his herd to Eliakim's house, having like a sturdy herdsman put himself +at the head of his followers, with a truncheon in his hand." Eliakim was +fined for harboring Christison, and "a pretty beast for the saddle, worth +about fourteen pound, was taken ... the overplus of [Footnote: Sewel, p. +340.] which to make up to him, your officers plundred old William Marston +of a vessel of green ginger, which for some fine was taken from him, and +forc'd it into Eliakim's house, where he let it lie and touched it not; +... and notwithstanding he came not to your invented worship, but was +fined ten shillings a day's absence, for him and his wife, yet was he +often rated for priest's hire; and the priest (Seaborn Cotton, old John +Cotton's son) to obtain his end and to cover himself, sold his rate to a +man almost as bad as himself, ... who coming in pretence of borrowing a +little corn for himself, which the harmless honest man willingly lent him; +and he finding thereby that he had corn, which was his design, Judas-like, +he went ... and measured it away as he pleased." + +"Another time, the said Eliakim being rated to the said priest, Seaborn +Cotton, the said Seaborn having a mind to a pied heifer Eliakim had, as +Ahab had to Naboth's vineyard, sent his servant nigh two miles to fetch +her; who having robb'd Eliakim of her, brought her to his master."... + +"Again the said Eliakim was had to your court, and being by them fined, +they took almost all his marsh and meadow-ground from him to satisfie it, +which was for the keeping his cattle alive in winter ... and [so] seized +and took his estate, that they plucked from him most of that he had." +[Footnote: _New England Judged,_ ed. 1703, pp. 374-376.] Lydia Wardwell, +thus reduced to penury, and shaken by the daily scenes of unutterable +horror through which she had to pass, was totally unequal to endure the +strain under which the masculine intellect of Anne Hutchinson had reeled. +She was pursued by her pastor, who repeatedly commanded her to come to +church and explain her absence from communion. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 235.] +The miserable creature, brooding over her blighted life and the torments +of her friends, became possessed with the delusion that it was her duty to +testify against the barbarity of flogging naked women; so she herself went +in among them naked for a sign. There could be no clearer proof of +insanity, for it is admitted that in every other respect her conduct was +exemplary. + +Her judges at Ipswich had her bound to a rough post of the tavern, in +which they sat, and then, while the splinters tore her bare breasts, they +had her flesh cut from her back with the lash. [Footnote: _New England +Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 377.] + +"Thus they served the wife, and the husband escaped not free; ... he +taxing Simon Broadstreet, ... for upbraiding his wife ... and telling +Simon of his malitious reproaching of his wife who was an honest woman ... +and of that report that went abroad of the known dishonesty of Simon's +daughter, Seaborn Cotton's wife; Simon in a fierce rage, told the court, +'That if such fellows should be suffered to speak so in the court, he +would sit there no more:' So to please Simon, Eliakim was sentenc'd to be +stripp'd from his waste upward, and to be bound to an oak-tree that stood +by their worship-house, and to be whipped fifteen lashes; ... as they were +having him out ... he called to Seaborn Cotton ... to come and see the +work done (so far was he from being daunted by their cruelty), who hastned +out and followed him thither, and so did old Wiggins, one of the +magistrates, who when Eliakim was tyed to the tree and stripp'd, said ... +to the whipper... 'Whip him a good;' which the executioner cruelly +performed with cords near as big as a man's little finger;... Priest +Cotton standing near him ... Eliakim ... when he was loosed from the tree, +said to him, amongst the people, 'Seaborn, hath my py'd heifer calv'd +yet?' Which Seaborn, the priest, hearing stole away like a thief." +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 377-379.] + +As Margaret Brewster was the last who is known to have been whipped, so is +she one of the most famous, for she has been immortalized by Samuel +Sewall, an honest, though a dull man. + +"July 8, 1677. New Meeting House Mane: In sermon time there came in a +female Quaker, in a canvas frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a +Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two +other followed. It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I +ever saw. Isaiah 1. 12, 14." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, +v. 43.] + +In 1675 the persecution had been revived, and the stories the woman heard +of the cruelties that were perpetrated on those of her own faith inspired +her with the craving to go to New England to protest against the wrong; so +she journeyed thither, and entered the Old South one Sunday morning +clothed in sackcloth, with ashes on her head. + +At her trial she asked for leave to speak: "Governour, I desire thee to +hear me a little, for I have something to say in behalf of my friends in +this place: ... Oh governour! I cannot but press thee again and again, to +put an end to these cruel laws that you have made to fetch my friends from +their peaceable meetings, and keep them three days in the house of +correction, and then whip them for worshipping the true and living God: +Governour! Let me entreat thee to put an end to these laws, for the desire +of my soul is, that you may act for God, and then would you prosper, but +if you act against the Lord and his blessed truth, you will assuredly come +to nothing, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." ... + +"Margaret Brewster, You are to have your clothes stript off to the middle, +and to be tied to a cart's tail at the South Meeting House, and to be +drawn through the town, and to receive twenty stripes upon your naked +body." + +"The will of the Lord be done: I am contented." ... + +_Governour._ "Take her away." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 263, 264.] + +So ends the sacerdotal list of Quaker outrages, for, after Margaret +Brewster had expiated her crime of protesting against the repression of +free thought, there came a toleration, and with toleration a deep +tranquillity, so that the very name of Quaker has become synonymous with +quietude. The issue between them and the Congregationalists must be left +to be decided upon the legal question of their right as English subjects +to inhabit Massachusetts; and secondarily upon the opinion which shall be +formed of their conduct as citizens, upon the testimony of those witnesses +whom the church herself has called. But regarding the great fundamental +struggle for liberty of individual opinion, no presentation of the +evidence could be historically correct which did not include at least one +example of the fate that awaited peaceful families, under this +ecclesiastical government, who roused the ire of the priests. + +Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick were an aged couple, members of the Salem +church, and Lawrence was a freeman. Josiah, their eldest son, was a man; +but they had beside a younger boy and girl named Daniel and Provided. + +The father and mother were first arrested in 1657 for harboring two +Quakers; Lawrence was soon released, but a Quaker tract was found upon +Cassandra. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 183.] Although no attempt seems to have +been made to prove heresy to bring the case within the letter of the law, +the paper was treated as a heretical writing, and she was imprisoned for +seven weeks and fined forty shillings. + +Persecution made converts fast, and in Salem particularly a number +withdrew from the church and began to worship by themselves. All were soon +arrested, and the three Southwicks were again sent to Boston, this time to +serve as an example. They arrived on the 3d of February, 1657; without +form of trial they were whipped in the extreme cold weather and imprisoned +eleven days. Their cattle were also seized and sold to pay a fine of £4 +l3s. for six weeks' absence from worship on the Lord's day. + +The next summer, Leddra, who was afterwards hanged, and William Brend went +to Salem, and several persons were seized for meeting with them, among +whom were the Southwicks. A room was prepared for the criminals in the +Boston prison by boarding up the windows and stopping ventilation. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 64.] They were refused +food unless they worked to pay for it; but to work when wrongfully +confined was against the Quaker's conscience, so they did not eat for five +days. On the second day of fasting they were flogged, and then, with +wounds undressed, the men and women together were once more locked in the +dark, close room, to lie upon the bare boards, in the stifling July heat; +for they were not given beds. On the fourth day they were told they might +go if they would pay the jail fees and the constables; but they refused, +and so were kept in prison. On the morrow the jailer, thinking to bring +them to terms, put Brend in irons, neck and heels, and he lay without food +for sixteen hours upon his back lacerated with flogging. + +The next day the miserable man was ordered to work, but he lacked the +strength, had he been willing, for he was weak from starvation and pain, +and stiffened by the irons. And now the climax came. The jailer seized a +tarred rope and beat him till it broke; then, foaming with fury, he +dragged the old man down stairs, and, with a new rope, gave him ninety- +seven blows, when his strength failed; and Brend, his flesh black and +beaten to jelly, and his bruised skin hanging in bags full of clotted +blood, was thrust into his cell. There, upon the floor of that dark and +fetid den, the victim fainted. But help was at hand; an outcry was raised, +the people could bear no more, the doors were opened, and he was rescued. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 66.] + +The indignation was deep, and the government was afraid. Endicott sent his +own doctor, but the surgeon said that Brend's flesh would "rot from off +his bones," and he must die. And now the mob grew fierce and demanded +justice on the ruffian who had done this deed, and the magistrates nailed +a paper on the church door promising to bring him to trial. + +Then it was that the true spirit of his order blazed forth in Norton, for +the jailer was fashioned in his own image, and he threw over him the +mantle of the holy church. He made the magistrates take the paper down, +rebuking them for their faintness of heart, saying to them:-- + +William "Brend endeavoured to beat our gospel ordinances black and blue, +if he then be beaten black and blue, it is but just upon him, and I will +appear in his behalf that did so." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 186.] And the man +was justified, and commanded to whip "the Quakers in prison ... twice a +week, if they refused to work, and the first time to add five stripes to +the former ten, and each time to add three to them.... Which order ye sent +to the jaylor, to strengthen his hands to do yet more cruelly; being +somewhat weakened by the fright of his former doings." [Footnote: _New +England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 67.] + +After this the Southwicks, being still unable to obtain their freedom, +sent the following letter to the magistrates, which is a good example of +the writings of these "coarse, blustering, ... impudent fanatics:"-- +[Footnote: _As to Roger Williams_, p. 138.] + + * * * * * + +_This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem._ + +FRIENDS, + +Whereas it was your pleasures to commit us, whose names are under-written, +to the house of correction in Boston, altho' the Lord, the righteous Judge +of heaven and earth, is our witness, that we had done nothing worthy of +stripes or of bonds; and we being committed by your court, to be dealt +withal as the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term us; +and having some of us, suffered your law and pleasures, now that which we +do expect, is, that whereas we have suffered your law, so now to be set +free by the same law, as your manner is with strangers, and not to put us +in upon the account of one law, and execute another law upon us, of which, +according to your own manner, we were never convicted as the law +expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of your new law, we should +have expected the jaylor's order to have been on that account, which that +it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the punishment which +we bare, as four of us were whipp'd, among whom was one that had formerly +been whipp'd, so now also according to your former law. Friends, let it +not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in you lies, +our families to ruine. It's not unknown to you the season, and the time of +the year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and +families may be exposed unto; and also such as live on trade; we know if +the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you, these things would take +impression on your spirits. What our lives and conversations have been in +that place, is well known; and what we now suffer for, is much for false +reports, and ungrounded jealousies of heresie and sedition. These thing +lie upon us to lay before you. As for our parts, we have true peace and +rest in the Lord in all our sufferings, and are made willing in the power +and strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in this cause of God, +for which we suffer; Yea and we do find (through grace) the enlargements +of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves and +families, for the disposing of us according to his infinite wisdom and +pleasure, in whose love is our rest and life. + +From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made captives by the +wills of men, although made free by the Son, John 8, 36. In which we +quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th month, 1658. + +LAWRENCE | +CASSANDRA | SOUTHWICK +JOSIAH | +SAMUEL SHATTOCK +JOSHUA BUFFUM. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 74.] + + * * * * * + +What the prisoners apprehended was being kept in prison and punished under +an _ex post facto_ law, and this was precisely what was done. When +brought into court they demanded to be told the crime wherewith they were +charged. They were answered: "It was 'Entertaining the Quakers who were +their enemies; not coming to their meetings; and meeting by themselves.' +They adjoyned, 'That as to those things they had already fastned their law +upon them.' ... So ye had nothing left but the hat, for which (then) ye +had no law. They answered--that they intended no offence to ye in coming +thither ... for it was not their manner to have to do with courts. And as +for withdrawing from their meetings, or keeping on their hats, or doing +anything in contempt of them, or their laws, they said, the Lord was their +witness ... that they did it not. So ye rose up, and bid the jaylor take +them away." [Footnote: _New England Judged,_ ed. 1703, p. 85.] + +An acquittal seemed certain; yet it was intolerable to the clergy that +these accursed blasphemers should elude them when they held them in their +grasp; wherefore, the next day, the Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching at +Thursday lecture, thus taught Christ's love for men: "Suppose ye should +catch six wolves in a trap ... [there were six Salem Quakers] and ye +cannot prove that they killed either sheep or lambs; and now ye have them +they will neither bark nor bite: yet they have the plain marks of wolves. +Now I leave it to your consideration whether ye will let them go alive, +yea or nay." [Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 85, 86.] + +Then the divines had a consultation, "and your priests were put to it, how +to prove them as your law had said: and ye had them before you again, and +your priests were with you, every one by his side (so came ye to your +court) and John Norton must ask them questions, on purpose to ensnare +them, that by your standing law for hereticks, ye might condemn them (as +your priests before consulted) and when this would not do (for the Lord +was with them, and made them wiser than your teachers) ye made a law to +banish them, upon pain of death...." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 87.] + +After a violent struggle, the ministers, under Norton's lead, succeeded, +on the 19th of October, 1658, in forcing the capital act through the +legislature, which contained a clause making the denial of reverence to +superiors, or in other words, the wearing the hat, evidence of Quakerism. +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 100, 101; _Mass. Rec._ vol. +iv. pt. 1, p. 346.] + +On that very day the bench ordered the prisoners at Ipswich to be brought +to the bar, and the Southwicks were bidden to depart before the spring +elections. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 349.] They did +not go, and in May were once more in the felon's dock. They asked what +wrong they had done. The judges told them they were rebellious for not +going as they had been commanded. The old man and woman piteously pleaded +"that they had no otherwhere to go," nor had they done anything to deserve +banishment or death, though £100 (all they had in the world) had been +taken from them for meeting together. [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. +1703, p. 106.] + +"Major-General Dennison replied, that 'they stood against the authority of +the country, in not submitting to their laws: that he should not go about +to speak much concerning the error of their judgments: but,' added he, +'you and we are not able well to live together, and at present the power +is in our hand, and therefore the stronger must send off.'" [Footnote: +Besse, ii. 198.] + +The father, mother, and son were banished under pain of death. The aged +couple were sent to Shelter Island, but their misery was well-nigh done; +they perished within a few days of each other, tortured to death by +flogging and starvation. + +Josiah was shipped to England, but afterward returned, was seized, and in +the "seventh month, 1661, you had him before you, and at which according +to your former law, he should have been tried for his life." + +"But the great occasion you took against him, was his hat, which you +commanded him to pull off: 'He told your governour he could not.' You +said, 'He would not.' He told you, 'It was a cross to his will to keep it +on; ... and that he could not do it for conscience sake.' ... But your +governour told him, 'That he was to have been tryed for his life, but that +you had made your late law to save his life, which, you said, was mercy to +him.' Then he asked you, 'Whether you were not as good to take his life +now, as to whip him after your manner, twelve or fourteen times at the +cart's tail, through your towns, and then put him to death afterward?'" He +was condemned to be flogged through Boston, Roxbury, and Dedham; but he, +when he heard the judgment, "with arms stretched out, and hands spread +before you, said, 'Here is my body, if you want a further testimony of the +truth I profess, take it and tear it in pieces ... it is freely given up, +and as for your sentence I matter it not.'" [Footnote: _New England +Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 354-356.] + +This coarse, blustering, impudent fanatic had, indeed, "with a dogged +pertinacity persisted in outrages which "had driven" the authorities +almost to frenzy; "therefore they tied him to a cart and lashed him for +fifteen miles, and while he "sang to the praise of God," his tormentor +swung with all his might a tremendous two-handed whip, whose knotted +thongs were made of twisted cat-gut; [Footnote: _New England Judged_, +ed. 1703, p. 357, note.] thence he was carried fifteen miles from any +town into the wilderness." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 225.] + +An end had been made of the grown members of the family, but the two +children were still left. To reach them, the device was conceived of +enforcing the penalty for not attending church, since "it was well known +they had no estate, their parents being already brought to poverty by +their rapacious persecutors." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 223.] + +Accordingly, they were summoned and asked to account for their absence +from worship. Daniel answered "that if they had not so persecuted his +father and mother perhaps he might have come." [Footnote: _New England +Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 381.] They were fined; and on the day on which +they lost their parents forever, the sale as slaves of this helpless boy +and girl was authorized to satisfy the debt. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 366.] + +Edmund Batter, treasurer of Salem, brought the children to the town, and +went to a shipmaster who was about to sail, to engage a passage to +Barbadoes. The captain made the excuse that they would corrupt his ship's +company. "Oh, no," said Batter, "you need not fear that, for they are poor +harmless creatures, and will not hurt any body." ... "Will they not so?" +broke out the sailor, "and will ye offer to make slaves of so harmless +creatures?" [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 112.] + +Thus were free-born English subjects and citizens of Massachusetts dealt +with by the priesthood that ruled the Puritan Commonwealth. + +None but ecclesiastical partisans can doubt the bearing of such evidence. +It was the mortal struggle between conservatism and liberality, between +repression and free thought. The elders felt it in the marrow of their +bones, and so declared it in their laws, denouncing banishment under pain +of death against those "adhering to or approoving of any knoune Quaker, or +the tenetts & practices of the Quakers, ... manifesting thereby theire +compliance with those whose designe it is to ouerthrow the order +established in church and commonwealth." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. +pt. 1, p. 346.] + +Dennison spoke with an unerring instinct when he said they could not live +together, for the faith of the Friends was subversive of a theocracy. +Their belief that God revealed himself directly to man led with logical +certainty to the substitution of individual judgment for the rules of +conduct dictated by a sacred class, whether they claimed to derive their +authority from their skill in interpreting the Scriptures, or from +traditions preserved by Apostolic Succession. Each man, therefore, became, +as it were, a priest unto himself, and they repudiated an ordained +ministry. Hence, their crime resembled that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, +who "made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons +of Levi;" [Footnote: Jeroboam's sin is discussed in _Ne Sutor_, p. +25; _Divine Right of Infant Baptism_, p. 26.] and it was for this +reason that John Norton and John Endicott resolved upon their +extermination, even as Elisha and Jehu conspired to exterminate the house +of Ahab. + +That they failed was due to no mercy for their victims, nor remorse for +the blood they made to flow, but to their inability to control the people. +Nothing is plainer upon the evidence, than that popular sympathy was never +with the ecclesiastics in their ferocious policy; and nowhere does the +contrast of feeling shine out more clearly than in the story of the +hanging of Robinson and Stevenson. + +The figure of Norton towers above his contemporaries. He held the +administration in the hollow of his hand, for Endicott was his mouthpiece; +yet even he, backed by the whole power of the clergy, barely succeeded in +forcing through the Chamber of Deputies the statute inflicting death. + +"The priests and rulers were all for blood, and they pursued it.... This +the deputies withstood, and it could not pass, and the opposition grew +strong, for the thing came near. Deacon Wozel was a man much affected +therewith; and being not well at that time that he supposed the vote might +pass, he earnestly desired the speaker ... to send for him when it was to +be, lest by his absence it might miscarry. The deputies that were against +the ... law, thinking themselves strong enough to cast it out, forbore to +send for him. The vote was put and carried in the affirmative,--the +speaker and eleven being in the negative and thirteen in the affirmative: +so one vote carried it; which troubled Wozel so ... that he got to the +court, ... and wept for grief, ... and said 'If he had not been able to +go, he would have crept upon his hands and knees, rather than it should +have been.'" [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 101, 102.] + +After the accused had been condemned, the people, being strongly moved, +flocked about the prison, so that the magistrates feared a rescue, and a +guard was set. + +As the day approached the murmurs grew, and on the morning of the +execution the troops were under arms and the streets patrolled. Stevenson +and Robinson were loosed from their fetters, and Mary Dyer, who also was +to die, walked between them; and so they went bravely hand in hand to the +scaffold. The prisoners were put behind the drums, and their voices +drowned when they tried to speak; for a great multitude was about them, +and at a word, in their deep excitement, would have risen. [Footnote: +_Idem_, pp. 122, 123.] + +As the solemn procession moved along, they came to where the Reverend John +Wilson, the Boston pastor, stood with others of the clergy. Then Wilson +"fell a taunting at Robinson, and, shaking his hand in a light, scoffing +manner, said, 'Shall such Jacks as you come in before authority with your +hats on?' with many other taunting words." Then Robinson replied, "Mind +you, mind you, it is for the not putting off the hat we are put to death." +[Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 124.] + +When they reached the gallows, Robinson calmly climbed the ladder and +spoke a few words. He told the people they did not suffer as evil-doers, +but as those who manifested the truth. He besought them to mind the light +of Christ within them, of which he testified and was to seal with his +blood. + +He had said so much when Wilson broke in upon him: "Hold thy tongue, be +silent; thou art going to dye with a lye in thy mouth." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 125.] Then they seized him and bound him, and so he died; +and his body was "cast into a hole of the earth," where it lay uncovered. + +Even the voters, the picked retainers of the church, were almost equally +divided, and beyond that narrow circle the tide of sympathy ran strong. + +The Rev. John Rayner stood laughing with joy to see Mary Tomkins and Alice +Ambrose flogged through Dover, on that bitter winter day; but the men of +Salisbury cut those naked, bleeding women from the cart, and saved them +from their awful death. + +The Rev. John Norton sneered at the tortures of Brend, and brazenly +defended his tormentor; but the Boston mob succored the victim as lie lay +fainting on the boards of his dark cell. + +The Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching the word of God, told his hearers to +kill the Southwicks like wolves, since he could not have their blood by +law; but the honest sailor broke out in wrath when asked to traffic in the +flesh of our New England children. + +The Rev. John Wilson jeered at Robinson on his way to meet his death, and +reviled him as he stood beneath the gibbet, over the hole that was his +grave; but even the savage Endicott knew well that all the trainbands of +the colony could not have guarded Christison to the gallows from the +dungeon where he lay condemned. + +Yet awful as is this Massachusetts tragedy, it is but a little fragment of +the sternest struggle of the modern world. The power of the priesthood +lies in submission to a creed. In their onslaughts on rebellion they have +exhausted human torments; nor, in their lust for earthly dominion, have +they felt remorse, but rather joy, when slaying Christ's enemies and their +own. The horrors of the Inquisition, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the +atrocities of Laud, the abominations of the Scotch Kirk, the persecution +of the Quakers, had one object,--the enslavement of the mind. + +Freedom of thought is the greatest triumph over tyranny that brave men +have ever won; for this they fought the wars of the Reformation; for this +they have left their bones to whiten upon unnumbered fields of battle; for +this they have gone by thousands to the dungeon, the scaffold, and the +stake. We owe to their heroic devotion the most priceless of our +treasures, our perfect liberty of thought and speech; and all who love our +country's freedom may well reverence the memory of those martyred Quakers +by whose death and agony the battle in New England has been won. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE SCIRE FACIAS. + + +Had the Puritan Commonwealth been in reality the thing which its +historians have described; had it been a society guided by men devoted to +civil liberty, and as liberal in religion as was consistent with the +temper of their age, the early relations of Massachusetts toward Great +Britain might now be a pleasanter study for her children. Cordiality +toward Charles I. would indeed have been impossible, for the Puritans well +knew the fate in store for them should the court triumph. Gorges was the +representative of the despotic policy toward America, and so early as +1634, probably at his instigation, Laud became the head of a commission, +with absolute control over the plantations, while the next year a writ of +_quo warranto_ was brought against the patent. [Footnote: See introduction +to _New Canaan_, Prince Soc. ed.] With Naseby, however, these dangers +vanished, and thenceforward there would have been nothing to mar an +affectionate confidence in both Parliament and the Protector. + +In fact, however, Massachusetts was a petty state, too feeble for +independence, yet ruled by an autocratic priesthood whose power rested +upon legislation antagonistic to English law; therefore the ecclesiastics +were jealous of Parliament, and had little love for Cromwell, whom they +found wanting in "a thorough testimony against the blasphemers of our +days." [Footnote: Diary of Hull, Palfrey, ii. 400, 401, and note.] + +The result was that the elders clung obstinately to every privilege which +served their ends, and repudiated every obligation which conflicted with +their ambition. Clerical political morality seldom fails to be +instructive, and the following example is typical of that peculiar mode of +reasoning. The terms of admission to ordinary corporations were fixed by +each organization for itself, but in case of injustice the courts could +give relief by setting aside unreasonable ordinances, and sometimes +Parliament itself would interfere, as it did upon the petition against the +exactions of the Merchant Adventurers. Now there was nothing upon which +the theocracy more strongly insisted than that "our charter doeth expresly +give vs an absolute & free choyce of our oune members;" [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 287.] because by means of a religious test the ministers +could pack the constituencies with their tools; but on the other hand they +as strenuously argued "that no appeals or other ways of interrupting our +proceedings do lie against us," [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 283.] because +they well knew that any bench of judges before whom such questions might +come would annul the most vital of their statutes as repugnant to the +British Constitution. + +Unfortunately for these churchmen, their objects, as ecclesiastical +politicians, could seldom be reconciled with their duty as English +subjects. At the outset, though made a corporation within the realm, they +felt constrained to organize in America to escape judicial supervision. +They were then obliged to incorporate towns and counties, to form a +representative assembly, and to levy general taxes and duties, none of +which things they had power to do. Still, such irregularities as these, +had they been all, most English statesmen would have overlooked as +unavoidable. But when it came to adopting a criminal code based on the +Pentateuch, and, in support of a dissenting form of worship, fining and +imprisoning, whipping, mutilating, and hanging English subjects without +the sanction of English law; when, finally, the Episcopal Church itself +was suppressed, and peaceful subjects were excluded from the corporation +for no reason but because they partook of her communion, and were +forbidden to seek redress by appealing to the courts of their king, it +seems impossible that any self-respecting government could have long been +passive. + +At the Restoration Massachusetts had grown arrogant from long impunity. +She thought the time of reckoning would never come, and even in trivial +matters seemed to take a pride in slighting Great Britain and in vaunting +her independence. Laws were enacted in the name of the Commonwealth, the +king's name was not in the writs, nor were the royal arms upon the public +buildings; even the oath of allegiance was rejected, though it was +unobjectionable in form. She had grown to believe that were offence taken +she had only to invent pretexts for delay, to have her fault forgotten in +some new revolution. General Denison, at the Quaker trials, put the +popular belief in a nut-shell: "This year ye will go to complain to the +Parliament, and the next year they will send to see how it is; and the +third year the government is changed." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 280.] + +But, beside these irritating domestic questions, the corporation was +bitterly embroiled with its neighbors. Samuel Gorton and his friends were +inhabitants of Rhode Island, and were, no doubt, troublesome to deal with; +but their particular offence was ecclesiastical. An armed force was sent +over the border and they were seized. They were brought to Boston and +tried on the charge of being "blasphemous enemies of the true religion of +our Lord Jesus Christ, and of all his holy ordinances, and likewise of all +civil government among his people, and particularly within this +jurisdiction." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 146.] All the magistrates but +three thought that Gorton ought to die, but he was finally sentenced to an +imprisonment of barbarous cruelty. The invasion of Rhode Island was a +violation of an independent jurisdiction, the arrest was illegal, the +sentence an arbitrary outrage. [Footnote: See paper of Mr. Charles Deane, +_New Eng. Historical and Genealogical Register_, vol. iv.] + +Massachusetts was also at feud in the north, and none of her quarrels +brought more serious results than this with the proprietors of New +Hampshire and Maine. The grant in the charter was of all lands between the +Charles and Merrimack, and also all lands within the space of three miles +to the northward of the said Merrimack, or to the northward of any part +thereof, and all lands lying within the limits aforesaid from the Atlantic +to the South Sea. + +Clearly the intention was to give a margin of three miles beyond a river +which was then supposed to flow from west to east, and accordingly the +territory to the north, being unoccupied, was granted to Mason and Gorges. +Nor was this construction questioned before 1639--the General Court having +at an early day measured off the three miles and marked the boundary by +what was called the Bound House. + +Gradually, however, as it became known that the Merrimack rose to the +north, larger claims were made. In 1641 the four New Hampshire towns were +absorbed with the consent of their inhabitants, who thus gained a regular +government; another happy consequence was the settlement of sundry eminent +divines, by whose ministrations the people "were very much civilized and +reformed." [Footnote: Neal's New England, i. 210.] + +In 1652 a survey was made of the whole river, and 43° 40' 12" was fixed as +the latitude of its source. A line extended east from three miles north of +this point came out near Portland, and the intervening space was forthwith +annexed. The result of such a policy was that Charles had hardly been +crowned before complaints poured in from every side. Quakers, Baptists, +Episcopalians, all who had suffered persecution, flocked to the foot of +the throne; and beside these came those who had been injured in their +estates, foremost of whom were the heirs of Mason and Gorges. The pressure +was so great and the outcry so loud that, in September, 1660, it was +thought in London a governor-general would be sent to Boston; [Footnote: +Leverett to Endicott. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 40.] and, in point +of fact, almost the first communication between the king and his colony +was his order to spare the Quakers. + +The outlook was gloomy, and there was hesitation as to the course to +pursue. At length it was decided to send Norton and Bradstreet to England +to present an address and protect the public interests. The mission was +not agreeable; Norton especially was reluctant, and with reason, for he +had been foremost in the Quaker persecutions, and was probably aware that +in the eye of English law the executions were homicide. + +However, after long vacillation, "the Lord so encouraged and strengthened" +his heart that he ventured to sail. [Footnote: Feb. 11, 1661-2. Palfrey, +ii. 524.] So far as the crown was concerned apprehension was needless, for +Lord Clarendon was prime minister, whose policy toward New England was +throughout wise and moderate, and the agents were well received. Still +they were restless in London, and Sewel tells an anecdote which may partly +account for their impatience to be gone. + +"Now the deputies of New England came to London, and endeavored to clear +themselves as much as possible, but especially priest Norton, who bowed no +less reverently before the archbishop, than before the king.... + +"They would fain have altogether excused themselves; and priest Norton +thought it sufficient to say that he did not assist in the bloody trial, +nor had advised to it. But John Copeland, whose ear was cut off at Boston, +charged the contrary upon him: and G. Fox, the elder, got occasion to +speak with them in the presence of some of his friends, and asked Simon +Broadstreet, one of the New England magistrates, 'whether he had not a +hand in putting to death those they nicknamed Quakers?' He not being able +to deny this confessed he had. Then G. Fox asked him and his associates +that were present, 'whether they would acknowledge themselves to be +subjects to the laws of England? and if they did by what law they had put +his friends to death?' They answered, 'They were subjects to the laws of +England; and they had put his friends to death by the same law, as the +Jesuits were put to death in England.' Hereupon G. Fox asked, 'whether +they did believe that those his friends, whom they had put to death, were +Jesuits, or jesuitically affected?' They said 'Nay.' 'Then,' replied G. +Fox, 'ye have murdered them; for since ye put them to death by the law +that Jesuits are put to death here in England, it plainly appears, you +have put them to death arbitrarily, without any law.' Thus Broadstreet, +finding himself and his company ensnar'd by their own words, ask'd, 'Are +you come to catch us?' But he told them 'They had catch'd themselves, and +they might justly be questioned for their lives; and if the father of +William Robinson (one of those that were put to death) were in town, it +was probable he would question them, and bring their lives into jeopardy. +For he not being of the Quakers persuasion, would perhaps not have so much +regard to the point of forbearance, as they had.' Broadstreet seeing +himself thus in danger began to flinch and to sculk; for some of the old +royalists were earnest with the Quakers to prosecute the New England +persecutors. But G. Fox and his friends said, 'They left them to the Lord, +to whom vengeance belonged, and he would repay it.' Broadstreet however, +not thinking it safe to stay in England, left the city, and with his +companions went back again to New England." [Footnote: Sewel, p. 288.] + +The following June the agents were given the king's answer [Footnote: +1662, June 28.] to their address and then sailed for home. It is certainly +a most creditable state paper. The people of Massachusetts were thanked +for their good will, they were promised oblivion for the past, and were +assured that they should have their charter confirmed to them and be safe +in all their privileges and liberties, provided they would make certain +reforms in their government. They were required to repeal such statutes as +were contrary to the laws of England, to take the oath of allegiance, and +to administer justice in the king's name. And then followed two +propositions that were crucial: "And since the principle and foundation of +that charter was and is the freedom of liberty of conscience, wee do +hereby charge and require you that that freedom and liberty be duely +admitted," especially in favor of those "that desire to use the Book of +Common Prayer." And secondly, "that all the freeholders of competent +estates, not vicious in conversations, orthodox in religion (though of +different perswasions concerning church government) may have their vote in +the election of all officers civill or millitary." [Footnote: Hutch. +Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 101-103.] + +However judicious these reforms may have been, or howsoever strictly they +conformed with the spirit of English law, was immaterial. They struck at +the root of the secular power of the clergy, and they roused deep +indignation. The agents had braved no little danger, and had shown no +little skill in behalf of the commonwealth; and the fate of John Norton +enables us to realize the rancor of theological feeling. The successor of +Cotton, by general consent the leading minister, in some respects the most +eminent man in Massachusetts, he had undertaken a difficult mission +against his will, in which he had acquitted himself well; yet on his +return he was so treated by his brethren and friends that he died in the +spring of a broken heart. [Footnote: April 5, 1663.] + +The General Court took no notice of the king's demands except to order the +writs to run in the royal name. [Footnote: Oct. 8, 1662. _Mass. Rec._ +vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 58.] And it is a sign of the boldness, or else of the +indiscretion, of those in power, that this crisis was chosen for striking +a new coin, [Footnote: 1662, May 7.]--an act confessedly illegal and +certain to give offence in England, both as an assumption of sovereignty +and an interference with the currency. + +From the first Lord Clarendon paid some attention to colonial affairs, and +he appears to have been much dissatisfied with the condition in which he +found them. At length, in 1664, he decided to send a commission to New +England to act upon the spot. + +Great pressure must have been brought by some who had suffered, for Samuel +Maverick, the Episcopalian, who had been fined and imprisoned in 1646 for +petitioning with Childe, was made a member. Colonel Richard Nichols, the +head of the board, was a man of ability and judgment; the choice of Sir +Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwright was less judicious. + +The commissioners were given a public and private set of instructions, +[Footnote: Public Instructions, Hutch. _Hist._ i. 459.] and both were +admirable. They were to examine the condition of the country and its laws, +and, if possible, to make some arrangement by which the crown might have a +negative at least upon the choice of the governor; they were to urge the +reforms already demanded by the king, especially a larger toleration, for +"they doe in truth deny that liberty of conscience to each other, which is +equally provided for and granted to every one of them by their charter." +[Footnote: Private Instructions _O'Callaghan Documents_, iii. 58.] +They were directed to be conciliatory toward the people, and under no +circumstances to meddle with public worship, nor were they to press for +any sudden enforcement of the revenue acts. On one point alone they were +to insist: they were instructed to sit to hear appeals in causes in which +the parties alleged they had been wronged by colonial decisions. + +Unquestionably the chancellor was right in principle. The only way whereby +such powerful corporations as the trade-guilds or the East India Company +could be kept from acts of oppression was through the appellate +jurisdiction, by which means their enactments could be brought before the +courts, and those annulled which in the opinion of the judges transcended +the charters. The Company of Massachusetts Bay was a corporation having +jurisdiction over many thousand English subjects, only a minority of whom +were freemen and voters. So long, therefore, as she remained within the +empire, the crown was bound to see that the privileges of the English +Constitution were not denied within her territory. Yet, though this is +true, it is equally certain that the erection of a commission of appeal +without an act of Parliament was irregular. The stretch of prerogative, +nevertheless, cannot be considered oppressive when it is remembered that +Massachusetts was a corporation which had escaped from the realm to avoid +judicial process, and which refused to appear and plead; hence Lord +Clarendon had but this alternative: he could send judges to sit upon the +spot, or he could proceed against the charter in London. The course he +chose may have been illegal, but it was the milder of the two. + +The commissioners landed on July 23, 1664, but they did not stay in +Boston. Their first business was to subdue the Dutch at New York, and they +soon left to make the attack. The General Court now recurred, for the +first time, to the dispatch which their agents had brought home, and +proceeded to amend the law relating to the franchise. They extended the +qualification by enacting that Englishmen who presented a certificate +under the hands of the minister of the town that they were orthodox in +religion and not vicious in life, and who paid, beside, 10s. at a +single rate, might become freemen, as well as those who were church- +members. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 117.] The effect +of such a change could hardly have been toward liberality, rather, +probably, toward concentration of power in the church. However slight, +there was some popular control over the rejection of an applicant to join +a congregation; but giving a certificate was an act that must have +depended on the pastor's will alone. + +The court then drew up an address to the king: "If your poore subjects, +... doe... prostrate themselues at your royal feete, & begg yor favor, wee +hope it will be graciously accepted by your majestje, and that as the high +place you sustejne on earth doeth number you here among the gods, [priests +can cringe as well as torture] so you will jmitate the God of heaven, in +being ready... to receive their crjes...," [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. +iv. pt. 2, p. 129.] And he was implored to reflect on the affliction +of heart it was to them, that their sins had provoked God to permit their +adversaries to procure a commission, under the great seal, to four persons +to hear appeals. When this address reached London it caused surprise. The +chancellor was annoyed. He wrote to America, pointing out that His Majesty +would hardly think himself well used at complaints before a beginning had +been made, and a demand that his commission should be revoked before his +commissioners had been able to deliver their instructions. "I know," he +said, "they are expressly inhibited from intermedling with, or instructing +the administration of justice, according to the formes observed there; but +if in truth, in any extraordinary case, the proceedings there have been +irregular, and against the rules of justice, as some particular cases, +particularly recommended to them by His Majesty, seeme to be, it cannot be +presumed that His Majesty hath or will leave his subjects of New England, +without hope of redresse by an appeale to him, which his subjects of all +his other kingdomes have free liberty to make." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ +i. 465.] + +The campaign against New York was short and successful, and the +commissioners were soon at leisure. As they had reason to believe that +Massachusetts would prove stubborn, they judged it wiser to begin with the +more tractable colonies first. They therefore went to Plymouth, [Footnote: +Feb. 1664-5.] and, on their arrival, according to their instructions, +submitted the four following propositions:-- + +First. That all householders should take the oath of allegiance, and that +justice should be administered in the king's name. + +Second. That all men of competent estates and civil conversation, though +of different judgments, might be admitted to be freemen, and have liberty +to choose and be chosen officers, both civil and military. + +Third. That all men and women of orthodox opinions, competent knowledge, +and civil lives not scandalous, should be admitted to the Lord's Supper +[and have baptism for their children, either in existing churches or their +own]. + +Fourth. That all laws ... derogatory to his majesty should be repealed. +[Footnote: Palfrey, ii. 601.] + +Substantially the same proposals were made subsequently in Rhode Island +and Connecticut. They were accepted without a murmur. A few appeal cases +were heard, and the work was done. + +The commissioners reported their entire satisfaction to the government, +the colonies sent loyal addresses, and Charles returned affectionate +answers. + +Massachusetts alone remained to be dealt with, but her temper was in +striking contrast to that of the rest of New England. The reason is +obvious. Nowhere else was there a fusion of church and state. The people +had, therefore, no oppressive statutes to uphold, nor anything to conceal. +Provided the liberty of English subjects was secured to them they were +content to obey the English Constitution. On the other hand, Massachusetts +was a theocracy, the power of whose priesthood rested on enactments +contrary to British institutions, and which, therefore, would have been +annulled upon appeal. Hence the clerical party were wild with fear and +rage, and nerved themselves to desperate resistance. + +"But alasse, sir, the commission impowering those commisioners to heare +and determine all cases whatever, ... should it take place, what would +become of our civill government which hath binn, under God, the heade of +that libertie for our consciences for which the first adventurers ... bore +all ... discouragements that encountered them ... in this wildernes." +Rather than submit, they protested they had "sooner leave our place and +all our pleasant outward injoyments." [Footnote: Court to Boyle. _Hutch. +Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 113.] + +Under such conditions a direct issue was soon reached. The General Court, +in answer to the commissioners' proposals, maintained that the observance +of their charter was inconsistent with appeals; that they had already +provided an oath of allegiance; that they had conformed to his majesty's +requirements in regard to the franchise; and lastly, in relation to +toleration, there was no equivocation. "Concerning the vse of the Common +Prayer Booke"... we had not become "voluntary exiles from our deare native +country, ... could wee haue seene the word of God, warranting us to +performe our devotions in that way, & to haue the same set vp here; wee +conceive it is apparent that it will disturbe our peace in our present +enjoyments." [Footnote: 1665. _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 2, p.200] + +Argument was useless. The so-called oath of allegiance was not that +required by Parliament; the alteration in the franchise was a sham; while +the two most important points, appeals to England and toleration in +religion, were rejected. The commissioners, therefore, asked for a direct +answer to this question: "Whither doe yow acknowledge his majestjes +comission ... to be of full force?" [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. +pt. 2, p.204] They were met by evasion. On the 23d of May they gave notice +that they should sit the next morning to hear the case of Thos. Deane et +al. vs. The Gov. & Co. of Mass. Bay, a revenue appeal. Forthwith the +General Court proclaimed by trumpet that the hearing would not be +permitted. + +Coercion was impossible, as no troops were at hand. The commissioners +accordingly withdrew and went to Maine, which they proceeded to sever from +Massachusetts. [Footnote: June, 1665] In this they followed the king's +instructions, who himself acted upon the advice of the law officers of the +crown, who had given an opinion sustaining the claim of Gorges. [Footnote: +Charles II.'s letter to Inhabitants of Maine. _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. +ed. ii. 110; Palf. ii. 622.] + +The triumph was complete. All that the English government was then able to +do was to recall the commissioners, direct that agents should be sent to +London at once, and forbid interference with Maine. No notice was taken of +the order to send agents; and in 1668 possession was again taken of the +province, and the courts of the company once more sat in the county of +York. [Footnote: July, 1668. Report of Com. _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. +2, p. 401.] + +This was the culmination of the Puritan Commonwealth. The clergy were +exultant, and the Rev. Mr. Davenport of New Haven wrote in delight to +Leverett:-- + +"Their claiming power to sit authoritatively as a court for appeales, and +that to be managed in an arbitrary way, was a manifest laying of a +groundworke to undermine your whole government established by your +charter. If you had consented thereunto, you had plucked downe with your +owne hands that house which wisdom had built for you and your +posterity.... As for the solemnity of publishing it, in three places, by +sounding a trumpet, I believe you did it upon good advice, ... for +declaring the courage and resolution of the whole countrey to defend their +charter liberties and priviledges, and not to yeeld up theire right +voluntarily, so long as they can hold it, in dependence upon God in +Christ, whose interest is in it, for his protection and blessing, who will +be with you while you are with him." [Footnote: Davenport to Leverett. +_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 119.] + +Although the colonists were alarmed at their own success, there was +nothing to fear. At no time before or since could England have been so +safely defied. In 1664 war was begun against Holland; 1665 was the year of +the plague; 1666 of the fire. In June, 1667, the Dutch, having dispersed +the British fleets, sailed up the Medway, and their guns were heard in +London. Peace became necessary, and in August Clarendon was dismissed from +office. The discord between the crown and Parliament paralyzed the nation, +and the wastefulness of Charles kept him always poor. By the treaty of +Dover in 1670 he became a pensioner of Louis XIV. The Cabal followed, +probably the worst ministry England ever saw; and in 1672, at Clifford's +suggestion, the exchequer was closed and the debt repudiated to provide +funds for the second Dutch war. In March fighting began, and the +tremendous battles with De Ruyter kept the navy in the Channel. At length, +in 1673, the Cabal fell, and Danby became prime minister. + +Although during these years of disaster and disgrace Massachusetts was not +molested by Great Britain, they were not all years during which the +theocracy could tranquilly enjoy its victory. + +So early as 1671 the movements of the Indians began to give anxiety; and +in 1675 Philip's War broke out, which brought the colony to the brink of +ruin, and in which the clergy saw the judgment of God against the +Commonwealth, for tenderness toward the Quakers. [Footnote: _Reforming +Synod, Magnalia_, bk. 5, pt. 4.] + +With the rise of Danby a more regular administration opened, and, as +usual, the attention of the government was fixed upon Massachusetts by the +clamors of those who demanded redress for injuries alleged to have been +received at her hands. In 1674 the heirs of Mason and Gorges, in despair +at the reoccupation of Maine, proposed to surrender their claim to the +king, reserving one third of the product of the customs for themselves. +The London merchants also had become restive under the systematic +violation of the Navigation Acts. The breach in the revenue laws had, +indeed, been long a subject of complaint, and the commissioners had +received instructions relating thereto; but it was not till this year that +these questions became serious. + +The first statute had been passed by the Long Parliament, but the one that +most concerned the colonies was not enacted till 1663. The object was not +only to protect English shipping, but to give her the entire trade of her +dependencies. To that end it was made illegal to import European produce +into any plantation except through England; and, conversely, colonial +goods could only be exported by being landed in England. + +The theory upon which this legislation was based is exploded; enforced, it +would have crippled commerce; but it was then, and always had been, a dead +letter at Boston. New England was fast getting its share of the carrying +trade. London merchants already began to feel the competition of its cheap +and untaxed ships, and manufacturers to complain that they were undersold +in the American market, by goods brought direct from the Continental +ports. A petition, therefore, was presented to the king, to carry the law +into effect. No colonial office then existed; the affairs of the +dependencies were assigned to a committee of the Privy Council, called the +Lords of Committee of Trade and Plantations; and on these questions being +referred by them to the proper officers, the commissioners of customs +sustained the merchants; the attorney-general, the heirs of Mason and +Gorges. [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 281; Chalmers's _Political Annals of +the United Colonies_, p. 262.] The famous Edward Randolph now appears. +The government was still too deeply embarrassed to act with energy. A +temporizing policy was therefore adopted; and as the experiment of a +commission had failed, Randolph was chosen as a messenger to carry the +petitions and opinions to Massachusetts; together with a letter from the +king, directing that agents should be sent in answer thereto. After +delivering them, he was ordered to devote himself to preparing a report +upon the country. He reached Boston June 10, 1676. Although it was a time +of terrible suffering from the ravages of the Indian war, the temper of +the magistrates was harsher than ever. + +The repulse of the commissioners had convinced them that Charles was not +only lazy and ignorant, but too poor to use force; and they also believed +him to be so embroiled with Parliament as to make his overthrow probable. +Filled with such feelings, their reception of Randolph was almost brutal. +John Leverett was governor, who seems to have taken pains to mark his +contempt in every way in his power. Randolph was an able, but an +unscrupulous man, and probably it would not have been difficult to have +secured his good-will. Far however from bribing, or even flattering him, +they so treated him as to make him the bitterest enemy the Puritan +Commonwealth ever knew. + +Being admitted into the council chamber, he delivered the letter. +[Footnote: Randolph's Narrative. _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. +240.] The governor opened it, glanced at the signature, and, pretending +never to have heard of Henry Coventry, asked who he might be. He was told +he was his majesty's principal secretary of state. He then read it aloud +to the magistrates. Even the fierce Endicott, when he received the famous +"missive" from the Quaker Shattock, "laid off his hat ... [when] he look'd +upon the papers," [Footnote: Sewel, p. 282.] as a mark of respect to his +king; but Leverett and his council remained covered. Then the governor +said "that the matters therein contained were very inconsiderable things +and easily answered, and it did no way concern that government to take any +notice thereof;" and so Randolph was dismissed. Five days after he was +again sent for, and asked whether he "intended for London by that ship +that was ready to saile?" If so, he could have a duplicate of the answer +to the king, as the original was to go by other hands. He replied that he +had other business in charge, and inquired whether they had well +considered the petitions, and fixed upon their agents so soon. Leverett +did not deign to answer, but told him "he looked upon me as Mr. Mason's +agent, and that I might withdraw." The next day he saw the governor at his +own house, who took occasion, when Randolph referred to the Navigation +Acts, to expound the legal views of the theocracy. "He freely declared to +me that the lawes made by your majestie and your Parliament obligeth them +in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony, that the +legislative power is and abides in them solely ... and that all matters in +difference are to be concluded by their finall determination, without any +appeal to your majestie, and that your majestie ought not to retrench +their liberties, but may enlarge them." [Footnote: Randolph's Narrative. +_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 243.] One last interview took +place when Randolph went for dispatches for England, after his return from +New Hampshire; then he "was entertained by" Leverett "with a sharp reproof +for publishing the substance of my errand into those parts, contained in +your majestie's letters, ... telling me that I designed to make a +mutiny.... I told him, if I had done anything amisse, upon complaint made +to your majestie he would certainly have justice done him."... + +"At my departure ... he ... intreated me to give a favourable report of +the country and the magistrates thereof, adding that those that blessed +them God would blesse, and those that cursed them God would curse." And +that "they were a people truely fearing the Lord and very obedient to your +majestie." [Footnote: _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 248.] And +so the royal messenger was dismissed in wrath, to tell his story to the +king. + +The legislature met in August, 1676, and a decision had to be made +concerning agents. On the whole, the clergy concluded it would be wiser to +obey the crown, "provided they be, with vtmost care & caution, qualified +as to their instructions." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 99.] +Accordingly, after a short adjournment, the General Court chose William +Stoughton and Peter Bulkely; and having strictly limited their power to a +settlement of the territorial controversy, they sent them on their +mission. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 114.] + +Almost invariably public affairs were seen by the envoys of the Company in +a different light from that in which they were viewed by the clerical +party at home, and these particularly had not been long in London before +they became profoundly alarmed. There was, indeed, reason for grave +apprehension. The selfish and cruel policy of the theocracy had borne its +natural fruit: without an ally in the world, Massachusetts was beset by +enemies. Quakers, Baptists, and Episcopalians whom she had persecuted and +exiled; the heirs of Mason and Gorges, whom she had wronged; Andros, whom +she had maligned; [Footnote: He had been accused of countenancing aid to +Philip when governor of New York. O'Callaghan Documents, iii. 258.] and +Randolph, whom she had insulted, wrought against her with a government +whose sovereign she had offended and whose laws she had defied. Even her +English friends had been much alienated. [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 278, +279.] + +The controversy concerning the boundary was referred to the two chief +justices, who promptly decided against the Company; [Footnote: See +Opinion; Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 504.] and the easy acquiescence of the +General Court must raise a doubt as to their faith in the soundness of +their claims. And now again the fatality which seemed to pursue the +theocracy in all its dealings with England led it to give fresh +provocation to the king by secretly buying the title of Gorges for twelve +hundred and fifty pounds. [Footnote: May, 1677. Chalmers's _Annals_, +pp. 396, 397. See notes, Palfrey, iii. 312.] + +Charles had intended to settle Maine on the Duke of Monmouth. It was a +worthless possession, whose revenue never paid for its defence; yet so +stubborn was the colony that it made haste to anticipate the crown and +thus become "Lord Proprietary" of a burdensome province at the cost of a +slight which was never forgiven. Almost immediately the Privy Council had +begun to open other matters, such as coining and illicit trade; and the +attorney-general drew up a list of statutes which, in his opinion, were +contrary to the laws of England. The agents protested that they were +limited by their instructions, but were sharply told that his majesty did +not think of treating with his own subjects as with foreigners, and it +would be well to intimate the same to their principals. [Footnote: +Palfrey, iii. 309.] In December, 1677, Stoughton wrote in great alarm that +something must be done concerning the Navigation Acts or a breach would be +inevitable. [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 288.] And the General Court +saw reason in this emergency to increase the tension by reviving the +obnoxious oath of fidelity to the country, [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. +154.]--the substitute for the oath of allegiance,--and thus gave Randolph +a new and potent weapon. In the spring [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 316, 317; +Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 439.] the law officers gave an opinion that +the misdemeanors alleged against Massachusetts were sufficient to avoid +her patent; and the Privy Council, in view of the encroachments and +injuries which she had continually practised on her neighbors, and her +contempt of his majesty's commands, advised that a _quo warranto_ should +be brought against the charter. Randolph was appointed collector at +Boston. [Footnote: 1678, May 31.] + +Even Leverett now saw that some concessions must be made, and the General +Court ordered the oath of allegiance to be taken; nothing but perversity +seems to have caused the long delay. [Footnote: Oct. 2, 1678. _Mass. +Rec._ v. 193. See Palfrey, iii. 320, note 2.] The royal arms were also +carved in the court-house; and this was all, for the clergy were +determined upon those matters touching their authority. The agents were +told, "that which is farr more considerable then all these is the interest +of the Lord Jesus & of his churches ... which ought to be farr dearer to +us than our liues; and ... wee would not that by any concessions of ours, +or of yours... the least stone should be put out of the wall." [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 202.] + +Both agents and magistrates were, nevertheless, thoroughly frightened, and +being determined not to yield, in fact, they resorted to a policy of +misrepresentation, with the hope of deceiving the English government. +[Footnote: See Answers of Agents, Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 450.] Stoughton +and Bulkely had already assured the Lords of Committee that the "rest of +the inhabitants were very inconsiderable as to number, compared with those +that were acknowledged church-members." [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 318.] +They were in fact probably as five to one. The General Court had been +censured for using the word Commonwealth in official documents, as +intimating independence. They hastened to assure the crown that it had +not of late been used, and should not be thereafter; [Footnote: _Mass. +Rec._ v. 198. And see, in general, the official correspondence, pp. +197-203.] yet in November, 1675, commissions were thus issued. [Footnote: +Palfrey, iii. 322.] But the breaking out of the Popish plot began to +absorb the whole attention of the government at London; and the agents, +after receiving a last rebuke for the presumption of the colony in buying +Maine, were at length allowed to depart. [Footnote: Nov. 1679.] + +Nearly half a century had elapsed since the emigration, and with the +growth of wealth and population changes had come. In March, John Leverett, +who had long been the head of the high-church party, died, and the +election of Simon Bradstreet as his successor was a triumph for the +opposition. Great as the clerical influence still was, it had lost much of +its old despotic power, and the congregations were no longer united in +support of the policy of their pastors. This policy was singularly +desperate. Casting aside all but ecclesiastical considerations, the clergy +consistently rejected any compromise with the crown which threatened to +touch the church. Almost from the first they had recognized that +substantial independence was necessary in order to maintain the theocracy. +Had the colony been strong, they would doubtless have renounced their +allegiance; but its weakness was such that, without the protection of +England, it would have been seized by France. Hence they resorted to +expedients which could only end in disaster, for it was impossible for +Massachusetts, while part of the British Empire, to refuse obedience at +her pleasure to laws which other colonies cheerfully obeyed. + +Without an ally, no resistance could be made to England, when at length +her sovereignty should be asserted; and an armed occupation and military +government were inevitable upon a breach. + +Though such considerations are little apt to induce a priesthood to +surrender their temporal power, they usually control commercial +communities. Accordingly, Boston and the larger towns favored concession, +while the country was the ministers' stronghold. The result of this +divergence of opinion was that the moderate party, to which Bradstreet and +Dudley belonged, predominated in the Board of Assistants, while the +deputies remained immovable. The branches of the legislature thus became +opposed; no course of action could be agreed on, and the theocracy drifted +to its destruction. + +The duplicity characteristic of theological politics grew daily more +marked. In May, 1679, a law had been passed forbidding the building of +churches without leave from the freemen of the town or the General Court. +[Footnote: Mass. Rec. v. 213.] On the 11th of June, 1680, three persons +representing the society of Baptists were summoned before the legislature, +charged with the crime of erecting a meeting-house. They were admonished +and forbidden to meet for worship except with the established +congregations; and their church was closed. [Footnote: Mass. Rec. v. 271.] +That very day an address was voted to the king, one passage of which is as +follows: "Concerning liberty of conscience, ... that after all, a +multitude of notorious errors ... be openly broached, ... amongst us, as +by the Quakers, &c., wee presume his majesty doeth not intend; and as for +other Prottestant dissenters, that carry it peaceably & soberly, wee trust +there shallbe no cause of just complaint against us on their behalfe." +[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 287.] + +Meanwhile Randolph had renewed his attack. He declared that in spite of +promises and excuses the revenue laws were not enforced; that his men were +beaten, and that he hourly expected to be thrown into prison; whereas in +other colonies, he asserted, he was treated with great respect. [Footnote: +June, 1680. Palfrey, iii. 340.] There can be no doubt ingenuity was used +to devise means of annoyance, and certainly the life he was made to lead +was hard. In March [Footnote: March 15, 1680-1.] he sailed for home, and +while in London he made a series of reports to the government which seem +to have produced the conviction that the moment for action had come. In +December he returned, commissioned as deputy-surveyor and auditor-general +for all New England, except New Hampshire. When Stoughton and Bulkely were +dismissed, the colony had been commanded to send new agents within six +months. In September, 1680, another royal letter had been written, in +which the king dwelt upon the misconduct of his subjects, "when ... we +signified unto you our gracious inclination to have all past deeds +forgotten... wee then little thought that those markes of our grace and +favour should have found no better acceptance amoung you.... We doe +therefore by these our letters, strictly command and require you, as you +tender your allegiance unto us, and will deserve the effects of our grace +and favour (which wee are enclyned to afford you) seriously to reflect +upon our commands; ... and particularly wee doe hereby command you to send +over, within three months after the receipt hereof, such... persons as you +shall think fitt to choose, and that you give them sufficient instructions +to attend the regulation and settlement of that our government." +[Footnote: Sept. 30. _Hutch. Coll. _, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 261.] + +The General Court had not thought fit to regard these communications, and +now Randolph came charged with a long and stern dispatch, in which agents +were demanded forthwith, "in default whereof, we are fully resolved, in +Trinity Term next ensuing, to direct our attorney-general to bring a quo +warranto in our court of kings-bench, whereby our charter granted unto +you, with all the powers thereof, may be legally evicted and made void; +and so we bid you farewel." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 449.] + +Hitherto the clerical party had procrastinated, buoyed up by the hope that +in the fierce struggle with the commons Charles might be overthrown; but +this dream ended with the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, and +further inaction became impossible. Joseph Dudley and John Richards were +chosen agents, and provided with instructions bearing the peculiar tinge +of ecclesiastical statesmanship. + +They were directed to represent that appeals would be intolerable; and, +for their private guidance, the legislature used these words: "We +therefore doe not vnderstand by the regulation of the gouernment, that any +alteration of the patent is intended; yow shall therefore neither doe nor +consent to any thing that may violate or infringe the liberties & +priuiledges granted to us by his majesties royall charter, or the +gouernment established thereby; but if any thing be propounded that may +tend therevnto, yow shall say, yow haue received no instruction in that +matter." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 349.] With reference to the +complaints made against the colony, they were to inform the king "that wee +haue no law prohibbiting any such as are of the perswasion of the church +of England, nor haue any euer desired to worship God accordingly that haue +been denyed." [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 347. March 23.] + +Such a statement cannot be reconciled with the answer made the +commissioners; and the laws compelled Episcopalians to attend the +Congregational worship, and denied them the right to build churches of +their own. + +"As for the Annabaptists, they are now subject to no other poenal statutes +then those of the Congregational way." This sophistry is typical. The law +under which the Baptist church was closed applied in terms to all +inhabitants, it is true; but it was contrived to suppress schism, it was +used to coerce heretics, and it was unrepealed. Moreover, it would seem as +though the statute inflicting banishment must then have still been in +force. + +The assurances given in regard to the reform of the suffrage were +precisely parallel:-- + +"For admission of ffreemen, wee humbly conceive it is our liberty, by +charter, to chuse whom wee will admitt into our oune company, which yet +hath not binn restrayned to Congregational men, but others haue been +admitted, who were also provided for according to his majestjes +direction." [Footnote: 1681-2, March 23.] + +Such insincerity gave weight to Randolph's words when he wrote: "My lord, +I have but one thing to reminde your lordship, that nothing their agents +can say or doe in England can be any ground for his majestie to depend +upon." [Footnote: Randolph to Clarendon. _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. +ed. ii. 277] + +With these documents and one thousand pounds for bribery, soon after +increased to three, [Footnote: Chalmers's _Annals_, p. 461.] Dudley +and Richards sailed. Their powers were at once rejected at London as +insufficient, and the decisive moment came. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. +413.] The churchmen of Massachusetts had to determine whether to accept +the secularization of their government or abandon every guaranty of +popular liberty. The clergy did not hesitate before the momentous +alternative: they exerted themselves to the utmost, and turned the scale +for the last time. [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 303, note.] In fresh +instructions the agents were urged to do what was possible to avert, or at +least delay, the stroke; but they were forbidden to consent to appeals, or +to alterations in the qualifications required for the admission of +freemen. [Footnote: 1683, March 30. _Mass. Rec._ v. 390.] They had +previously been directed to pacify the king by a present of two thousand +pounds; and this ill-judged attempt at bribery had covered them with +ridicule. [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 303, note.] + +Further negotiation would have been futile. Proceedings were begun at +once, and Randolph was sent to Boston to serve the writ of _quo warranto_; +[Footnote: 1683, July 20.] he was also charged with a royal declaration +promising that, even then, were submission made, the charter should be +restored with only such changes as the public welfare demanded. [Footnote: +_Mass. Rec._ v. 422, 423.] Dudley, who was a man of much political +sagacity, had returned and strongly urged moderation. The magistrates were +not without the instincts of statesmanship: they saw that a breach with +England must destroy all safeguards of the common freedom, and they voted +an address to the crown accepting the proffered terms. [Footnote: 1683, 15 +Nov. Hutch. _Hist._ i. 304.] But the clergy strove against them: the +privileges of their order were at stake; they felt that the loss of their +importance would be "destructive to the interest of religion and of +Christ's kingdom in the colony," [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 381.] and they +roused their congregations to resist. The deputies did not represent the +people, but the church. They were men who had been trained from infancy by +the priests, who had been admitted to the communion and the franchise on +account of their religious fervor, and who had been brought into public +life because the ecclesiastics found them pliable in their hands. The +influence which had moulded their minds and guided their actions +controlled them still, and they rejected the address. [Footnote: Nov. 30. +Palfrey, iii. 385.] Increase Mather took the lead. He stood up at a great +meeting in the Old South, and exhorted the people, "telling them how their +forefathers did purchase it [the charter], and would they deliver it up, +even as Ahab required Naboth's vineyard, Oh! their children would be bound +to curse them." [Footnote: Palfrey, iii. 388, note 1.] + +All that could be resolved on was to retain Robert Humphrys of the Middle +Temple to interpose such delays as the law permitted; but no attempt was +made at defence upon the merits of their cause, probably because all knew +well that no such defence was possible. + +Meanwhile, for technical reasons, the _quo warranto_ had been abandoned, +and a writ of _scire facias_ had been issued out of chancery. On June 18, +1684, the lord keeper ordered the defendant to appear and plead on the +first day of the next Michaelmas Term. The time allowed was too short for +an answer from America, and judgment was entered by default. [Footnote: +Decree entered June 21, 1684; confirmed, Oct. 23. Palfrey, iii. 393, +note.] The decree was arbitrary, but no effort was made to obtain relief. +The story, however, is best told by Humphrys himself:-- + +"It is matter of astonishment to me, to think of the returnes I haue had +from you in the affaire of your charter; that a prudent people should +think soe little, in a thing of the greatest moment to them. + +"Which charge I humbly justify in the following particulars, and yet at +the same time confess that all you could haue done would but haue gained +more time, and spent more money, since the breaches assigned against you, +were as obvious as vnanswerable, soe as all the service your councill and +friends could haue done you here, would haue onely served to deplore, not +prevent the inevitable loss. + +"When I sent you the lord keeper's order of the 18th of June 1684 +requireing your appeareing peromptorily the first day of Michaelmas Tearme +then next, and pleading to yssue ... you may remember I sent with it such +drafts of lettres of attorney, to pass vnder your comon seale as were +essentially necessary to empower and justify such appearance, and pleading +for you here, which you could not imagine but that you must haue had due +time to returne them in, noe law compelling impossibilities. + +"When the first day of that Michaelmas Tearme came, and your lettres of +attorney neither were, nor indeed could be return'd ... I applyd by +councill to the Court of Chancery to enlarge that time urgeing the +impossibility of hauing a returne from you in the time allotted.... But it +is true my lord keeper cutt the ground from under us which wee stood upon, +by telling us the order of the 18th of June was a surprize upon his +lordship and that he ought not to haue granted it, for that every +corporacon ought to haue an attorney in every court to appeare to his +majesties suite, and that London had such.... However certainely you ought +when my lettres were come to you, nunc pro tune, to haue past the lettres +of attorney I sent you under your comon seale and sent them me, and not to +haue stopt them upon any private surmises from other hands then his you +had entrusted in that matter; and the rather for that the judgments of +law, espetially those taken by defaults for non appearances, are not like +the laws of the Medes and Persians irrevocable, but are often on just +grounds sett aside by the court here, and the defendants admitted to plead +as if noe such judgments had been entred vp, and the very order it selfe +of the 18th of June guies you a home instance of it. + +"And indeed I did therefore forbeare giueing you an account of a further +time being denyd, and the entry of judgment against you, expecting you +would before such lettre could haue reacht you haue sent me the lettres of +attorney vnder your corporacon seale that the court might haue been moved +to admitt your appearance and plea and waiued the judgment. + +"But instead of those lettres of attorney under your seale you sent me an +address to his late majesty, I confess judiciously drawne. But it is my +wonder in which of your capacityes you could imagine it should be +presented to his majesty, for if as a corporacon, a body politique, it +should have been putt under your corporacon seale if as a private comunity +it should haue been signed by your order. But the paper has neither +private hand nor publique seale to it and soe must be lost.... + +"In this condicon what could a man doe for you, nothing publiquely for he +had noe warrant from you to justify the accon." [Footnote: _Mass. +Archives_, cvi. 343.] + +So perished the Puritan Commonwealth. The child of the Reformation, its +life sprang from the assertion of the freedom of the mind; but this great +and noble principle is fatal to the temporal power of a priesthood, and +during the supremacy of the clergy the government was doomed to be both +persecuting and repressive. Under no circumstance could the theocracy have +endured: it must have fallen by revolt from within if not by attack from +without. That Charles II. did in fact cause its overthrow gives him a +claim to our common gratitude, for he then struck a decisive blow for the +emancipation of Massachusetts; and thus his successor was enabled to open +before her that splendid career of democratic constitutional liberty which +was destined to become the basis of the jurisprudence of the American +Union. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE WITCHCRAFT. + + +The history of the years between the dissolution of the Company of +Massachusetts Bay and the reorganization of the country by William III. in +1692 has little bearing upon the development of the people; for the +presidency of Dudley and the administration of Andros were followed by a +revolution that paralyzed all movement. During the latter portion of this +interval the colony was represented at London by three agents, of whom +Increase Mather was the most influential, who used every effort to obtain +the reëstablishment of the old government; they met, however, with +insuperable obstacles. Quietly to resume was impossible; for the obstinacy +of the clergy, in refusing all compromise with Charles II., had caused the +patent to be cancelled; and thus a new grant had become necessary. Nor was +this all, for the attorney and solicitor general, with whom the two chief +justices concurred, [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. 139] gave it as their +opinion that, supposing no decree had been rendered, and the same powers +were exercised as before, a writ of _scire facias_ would certainly be +issued, upon which a similar judgment would inevitably be entered. These +considerations, however, became immaterial, as the king was a statesman, +and had already decided upon his policy. His views had little in common +with those held by the Massachusetts ecclesiastics, and when the Rev. Mr. +Mather first read the instrument in which they had been embodied, he +declared he "would sooner part with his life than consent unto such +minutes." [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. 134.] He grew calmer, however, when +told that his "consent was not expected nor desired;" and with that +energy and decision for which he was remarkable, at once secured the +patronage. + +The constitutional aspect of the Provincial Charter is profoundly +interesting, and it will be considered in its legal bearings hereafter. +Its political tendencies, however, first demand attention, for it wrought +a complete social revolution, since it overthrew the temporal power of the +church. Massachusetts, Maine, and Plymouth were consolidated, and within +them toleration was established, except in regard to Papists; the +religious qualification was swept away, and in its stead freeholders of +forty shillings per annum, or owners of personal property to the value of +forty pounds sterling, were admitted to the franchise; the towns continued +to elect the house of representatives, and the whole Assembly chose the +council, subject to the approval of the executive. [Footnote: Hutch. +_Hist._ ii. 15, 16] The governor, lieutenant-governor, and secretary +were appointed by the crown; the governor had a veto, and the king +reserved the right to disallow legislation within three years of the date +of its enactment. Thus the theocracy fell at a single blow; and it is +worthy of remark that thenceforward prosecutions for sedition became +unknown among the people of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Yet, though +the clerical oligarchy was no longer absolute, the ministers still exerted +a prodigious influence upon opinion. Not only did they speak with all the +authority inherited with the traditions of the past; not only had they or +their predecessors trained the vast majority of the people from their +cradles to reverence them more than anything on earth, but their compact +organization was as yet unimpaired, and at its head stood the two Mathers, +the pastors of the Old North Church. Thus venerated and thus led, the +elders were still able to appeal to the popular superstition and +fanaticism with terrible effect. + +Widely differing judgments have been formed of these two celebrated +divines; the ecclesiastical view is perhaps well summed up by the Rev. +John Eliot, who thus describes the President of Harvard: "He was the +father of the New England clergy, and his name and character were held in +veneration, not only by those, who knew him, but by succeeding +generations." [Footnote: _Biographical Dictionary_, p. 312.] All must +admit his ability and learning, while in sanctimoniousness of deportment +he was unrivalled. His son Cotton says he had such a "gravity as made all +sorts of persons, wherever he came, to be struck with a sensible awe of +his presence, ... yea, if he laughed on them, they believed it not." "His +very countenance carried the force of a sermon with it." [Footnote: +_Parentator_, p. 40.] He kept a strict account of his mental condition, +and always was pleased when able to enter in his diary at the end of the +day, "heart serious." He was unctuous in his preaching, and wept much in +the pulpit; he often mentions being "quickened at the Lord's table [during +which] tears gushed from me before the Lord," [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. +48.] but of his self-sacrifice, his mercy, and his truth, his own acts and +words are the best evidence that remain. + +When the new government was about to be put in operation, an extraordinary +amount of patronage lay at the disposal of the crown; for, beside the +regular executive officers, the entire council had to be named, since they +could not be elected until a legislature had been organized to choose +them. Increase Mather, Elisha Cooke, and Thomas Oakes were acting as +agents, and all had been bitterly opposed to the new charter; but of the +three, the English ministers thought Mather the most important to secure. +And now an odd coincidence happened in the life of this singular man. He +suddenly one day announced himself convinced that the king's project was +not so intolerable as to be unworthy of support; and then it very shortly +transpired that he had been given all the spoil before the patent had +passed the seals. [Footnote: Palfrey, iv. 85.] The proximity of these +events is interesting as bearing on the methods of ecclesiastical +statesmen, and it is also instructive to observe how thorough a master of +the situation this eminent divine proved himself to be. He not only +appointed all his favorite henchmen to office, but he rigidly excluded his +colleagues at London, who had continued their opposition, and every one +else who had any disposition to be independent. His creature, Sir William +Phips, was made governor; William Stoughton, who was bred for the church, +and whose savage bigotry endeared him to the clergy, was lieutenant- +governor; and the council was so packed that his excellent son broke into +a shout of triumph when he heard the news:-- + +"The time has come! the set time has come! I am now to receive an answer +of so many prayers. All the councellors of the province are of my own +father's nomination; and my father-in-law, with several related unto me, +and several brethren of my own church are among them. The governor of the +province is not my enemy, but one whom I baptized; namely, Sir William +Phips, one of my own flock, and one of my dearest friends." [Footnote: +Cotton Mather's _Diary_; Quincy's _History of Harvard_, i. 60.] +Such was the government the theocracy left the country as its legacy when +its own power had passed away, and dearly did Massachusetts rue that fatal +gift in her paroxysms of agony and blood. + +At the close of the seventeenth century the belief in witchcraft was +widespread, and among the more ignorant well-nigh universal. The +superstition was, moreover, fostered by the clergy, who, in adopting this +policy, were undoubtedly actuated by mixed motives. Their credulity +probably made them for the most part sincere in the unbounded confidence +they professed in the possibility of compacts between the devil and +mankind; but, nevertheless, there is abundant evidence in their writings +of their having been keenly alive to the fact that men horror-stricken at +the sight of the destruction of their wives and children by magic would +grovel in the submission of abject terror at the feet of the priest who +promised to deliver them. + +The elders began the agitation by sending out a paper of proposals for +collecting stories of apparitions and witchcrafts, and in obedience to +their wish Increase Mather published his "Illustrious Providences" in +1683-4. Two chapters of this book were devoted to sorceries, and the +reverend author took occasion to intimate his opinion that those who might +doubt the truth of his relations were probably themselves either heretics +or wizards. This movement of the clergy seems to have highly inflamed the +popular imagination, [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ ii. 24.] yet no immediate +disaster followed; and the nervous exaltation did not become deadly until +1688. In the autumn of that year four children of a Boston mason named +Goodwin began to mimic the symptoms they had so often heard described; the +father, who was a pious man, called in the ministers of Boston and +Charlestown, who fasted and prayed, and succeeded in delivering the +youngest, who was five. Meanwhile, one of the daughters had "cried out +upon" an unfortunate Irish washerwoman, with whom she had quarrelled. +Cotton Mather was now in his element. He took the eldest girl home with +him and tried a great number of interesting experiments as to the relative +power of Satan and the Lord; among others he gravely relates how when the +sufferer was tormented elsewhere he would carry her struggling to his own +study, into which entering, she stood immediately upon her feet, and cried +out, "They are gone! They are gone! They say they cannot--God won't let +'em come here." [Footnote: _Memorable Providences_, pp. 27, 28] + +It is not credible that an educated and a sane man could ever have +honestly believed in the absurd stuff which he produced as evidence of the +supernatural; his description of the impudence of the children is amazing. + +"They were divers times very near burning or drowning of themselves, but +... by their own pittiful and seasonable cries for help still procured +their deliverance: which made me consider, whether the little ones had not +their angels, in the plain sense of our Saviour's intimation.... And +sometimes, tho' but seldome, they were kept from eating their meals, by +having their teeth sett when they carried any thing to their mouthes." +[Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 15-17.] + +And it was upon such evidence that the washerwoman was hanged. There is an +instant in the battle as the ranks are wavering, when the calmness of the +officers will avert the rout; and as to have held their soldiers then is +deemed their highest honor, so to have been found wanting is their +indelible disgrace; the people stood poised upon the panic's brink, their +pastors lashed them in. + +Cotton Mather forthwith published a terrific account of the ghostly +crisis, mixed with denunciations of the Sadducee or Atheist who +disbelieved; and to the book was added a preface, written by the four +other clergymen who had assisted with their prayers, the character of +which may be judged by a single extract. "The following account will +afford to him that shall read with observation, a further clear +confirmation, that, there is both a God, and a devil, and witchcraft: that +there is no outward affliction, but what God may, (and sometimes doth) +permit Satan to trouble his people withal." [Footnote: _Memorable +Providences_, Preface.] Not content with this, Mather goaded his +congregation into frenzy from the pulpit. "Consider also, the misery of +them whom witchcraft may be let loose upon. What is it to fall into the +hands of devils?... O what a direful thing is it, to be prickt with pins, +and stab'd with knives all over, and to be fill'd all over with broken +bones? 'Tis impossible to reckon up the varieties of miseries which those +monsters inflict where they can have a blow. No less than death, and that +a languishing and a terrible death will satisfie the rage of those +formidable dragons." [Footnote: _Discourse on Witchcraft_, p. 19.] The +pest was sure to spread in a credulous community, fed by their natural +leaders with this morbid poison, and it next broke out in Salem village in +February, 1691-2. A number of girls had become intensely excited by the +stories they had heard, and two of them, who belonged to the family of the +clergyman, were seized with the usual symptoms. Of Mr. Parris it is enough +to say that he began the investigation with a frightful relish. Other +ministers were called in, and prayer-meetings lasting all day were held, +with the result of throwing the patients into convulsions. [Footnote: +Calef's _More Wonders_, p. 90 _et seq._] Then the name of the witch was +asked, and the girls were importuned to make her known. They refused at +first, but soon the pressure became too strong, and the accusations began. +Among the earliest to be arrested and examined was Goodwife Cory. Mr. +Noyes, teacher of Salem, began with prayer, and when she was brought in +the sufferers "did vehemently accuse her of afflicting them, by biting, +pinching, strangling, &c., and they said, they did in their fits see her +likeness coming to them, and bringing a book for them to sign." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 92] By April the number of informers and of the suspected had +greatly increased and the prisons began to fill. Mr. Parris behaved like a +madman; not only did he preach inflammatory sermons, but he conducted the +examinations, and his questions were such that the evidence was in truth +nothing but what he put in the mouths of the witnesses; yet he seems to +have been guilty of the testimony it was his sacred duty to truly record +[Footnote: _Grounds of Complaint against Parris_, Section 6; _More +Wonders_, p. 96 (_i.e._ 56).]. And in all this he appears to have had the +approval and the aid of Mr. Noyes. Such was the crisis when Sir William +Phips landed on the 14th of May, 1692; he was the Mathers' tool, and the +result could have been foretold. Uneducated and credulous, he was as clay +in the hands of his creators; and his first executive act was to cause the +miserable prisoners to be fettered. Jonathan Cary has described what +befell his wife: "Next morning the jaylor put irons on her legs (having +received such a command) the weight of them was about eight pounds; these +irons and her other afflictions, soon brought her into convulsion fits, so +that I thought she would have died that night." [Footnote: _More Wonders_, +p. 97] + +At the beginning of June the governor, by an arbitrary act, created a +court to try the witches, and at its head put William Stoughton. Even now +it is impossible to read the proceedings of this sanguinary tribunal +without a shudder, and it has left a stain upon the judiciary of +Massachusetts that can never be effaced. + +Two weeks later the opinion of the elders was asked, as it had been of +old, and they recommended the "speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as +have rendered themselves obnoxious," [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ ii. 53.] +nor did their advice fall upon unwilling ears. Stoughton was already +at work, and certain death awaited all who were dragged before that cruel +and bloodthirsty bigot; even when the jury acquitted, the court refused to +receive the verdict. The accounts given of the legal proceedings seem +monstrous. The preliminary examinations were conducted amid such "hideous +clamours and screechings," that frequently the voice of the defendant was +drowned, and if a defence was attempted at a trial, the victim was +browbeaten and mocked by the bench. [Footnote: _More Wonders_, p. 102.] + +The ghastly climax was reached in the case of George Burroughs, who had +been the clergyman at Wells. At his trial the evidence could hardly be +heard by reason of the fits of the sufferers. "The chief judge asked the +prisoner, who he thought hindered these witnesses from giving their +testimonies? and he answered, he supposed it was the devil. That +honourable person then replied, How comes the devil so loath to have any +testimony born against you? Which cast him into very great confusion." +Presently the informers saw the ghosts of his two dead wives, whom they +charged him with having murdered, stand before him "crying for vengeance;" +yet though much appalled, he steadily denied that they were there. He also +roused his judges' ire by asserting that "there neither are, nor ever +were, witches." [Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 115-119.] + +He and those to die with him were carried through the streets of Salem in +a cart. As he climbed the ladder he called God to witness he was innocent, +and his words were so pathetic that the people sobbed aloud, and it seemed +as though he might be rescued even as he stood beneath the tree. Then when +at last he swung above them, Cotton Mather rode among the throng and told +them of his guilt, and how the fiend could come to them as an angel of +light, and so the work went on. They cut him down and dragged him by his +halter to a shallow hole among the rocks, and threw him in, and there they +lay together with the rigid hand of the wizard Burroughs still pointing +upward through his thin shroud of earth. [Footnote: _More Wonders_, +pp. 103, 104.] + +By October it seemed as though the bonds of society were dissolving; +nineteen persons had been hanged, one had been pressed to death, and eight +lay condemned; a number had fled, but their property had been seized and +they were beggars; the prisons were choked, while more than two hundred +were accused and in momentary fear of arrest; [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 110.] +even two dogs had been killed. The plague propagated itself; for the +only hope for those cried out upon was to confess their guilt and turn +informers. Thus no one was safe. Mr. Willard, pastor of the Old South, who +began to falter, was threatened; the wife of Mr. Hale, pastor of Beverly, +who had been one of the great leaders of the prosecutions, was denounced; +Lady Phips herself was named. But the race who peopled New England had a +mental vigor which even the theocracy could not subdue, and Massachusetts +had among her sons liberal and enlightened men, whose voice was heard, +even in the madness of the terror. Of these, the two Brattles, Robert +Calef, and John Leverett were the foremost; and they served their mother +well, though the debt of gratitude and honor which she owes them she has +never yet repaid. + +On the 8th, four days before the meeting of the legislature, and probably +at the first moment it could be done with safety, Thomas Brattle wrote an +admirable letter, [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, v. 61.] in +which he exposed the folly and wickedness of the delusion with all +the energy the temper of the time would bear; had he miscalculated, his +error of judgment would probably have cost him his life. At the meeting of +the General Court the illegal and blood-stained commission came to an end, +and as the reaction slowly and surely set in, Phips began to feel alarm +lest he should he called to account in England; accordingly, he tried to +throw the blame on Stoughton: "When I returned, I found people much +dissatisfied at the proceedings of the court; ... The deputy-governor, +[Stoughton] notwithstanding, persisted vigorously in the same method.... +When I put an end to the court, there was at least fifty persons in +prison, in great misery by reason of the extreme cold and their +poverty.... I permitted a special superior court to be held at Salem, ... +on the third day of January, the lieutenant-governor being chief judge.... +All ... were cleared, saving three.... The deputy-governor signed a +warrant for their speedy execution, and also of five others who were +condemned at the former court.... But ... I sent a reprieve; ... the +lieutenant-governor upon this occasion was enraged and filled with +passionate anger, and refused to sit upon the bench at a superior court, +at that time held at Charlestown; and, indeed, hath from the beginning +hurried on these matters with great precipitancy, and by his warrant hath +caused the estates, goods, and chattels of the executed to be seized and +disposed of without my knowledge or consent." [Footnote: Phips to the Earl +of Nottingham, Feb. 21, 1693. Palfrey, iv. 112, note 2.] Some months +earlier, also, just before the meeting of the legislature, he had called +on Cotton Mather to defend him against the condemnation he had even then +begun to feel, and the elder had responded with a volume which remains as +a memorial of him and his compeers [Footnote: _Wonders of the Invisible +World_.] He gave thanks for the blood that had already flowed, and +prayed to God for more." They were some of the gracious words, inserted in +the advice, which many of the neighbouring ministers, did this summer +humbly lay before our honourable judges: 'We cannot but with all +thankfulness, acknowledge the success which the merciful God has given +unto the sedulous and assiduous endeavours of our honourable rulers, to +detect the abominable witchcrafts which have been committed in the +country; humbly praying that the discovery of those mysterious and +mischievous wickednesses, may be perfected.' If in the midst of the many +dissatisfactions among us, the publication of these trials, may promote +such a pious thankfulness unto God, for justice being so far, executed +among us, I shall rejoyce that God is glorified; and pray that no wrong +steps of ours may ever sully any of his glorious works." [Footnote: +_Wonders of the Invisible World_, pp. 82, 83.] + +"These witches ... have met in hellish randez-vouszes.... In these hellish +meetings, these monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing +than to destroy the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these parts of +the world.... We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed +might be very glorious, for the exterminating of those, accursed +things,... But if we make this day quarrelsome,... Alas, O Lord, my flesh +trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments." [Footnote: +_Idem_, pp. 49-60.] + +While reading such words the streets of Salem rise before the eyes, with +the cart dragging Martha Cory to the gallows while she protests her +innocence, and there, at her journey's end, at the gibbet's foot, stands +the Rev. Nicholas Noyes, pointing to the dangling corpses, and saying: +"What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there." +[Footnote: _More Wonders_, p. 108.] + +The sequence of cause and effect is sufficiently obvious. Although at a +moment when the panic had got beyond control, even the most ultra of the +clergy had been forced by their own danger to counsel moderation, the +conservatives were by no means ready to abandon their potent allies from +the lower world; the power they gave was too alluring. "'Tis a strange +passage recorded by Mr. Clark, in the life of his father, That the people +of his parish refusing to be reclaimed from their Sabbath breaking, by all +the zealous testimonies which that good man bore against it; at last [one +night] ... there was heard a great noise, with rattling of chains, up and +down the town, and an horrid scent of brimstone.... Upon which the guilty +consciences of the wretches, told them, the devil was come to fetch them +away; and it so terrify'd them, that an eminent reformation follow'd the +sermons which that man of God preached thereupon." [Footnote: _Wonders +of the Invisible World_, p. 65.] They therefore saw the constant +acquittals, the abandonment of prosecutions, and the growth of incredulity +with regret. The next year Cotton Mather laid bare the workings of their +minds with cynical frankness. "The devils have with most horrendous +operations broke in upon our neighbourhood, and God has at such a rate +overruled all the fury and malice of those devils, that ... the souls of +many, especially of the rising generation, have been thereby waken'd unto +some acquaintance with religion; our young people who belonged unto the +praying meetings, of both sexes, apart would ordinarily spend whole nights +by the whole weeks together in prayers and psalms upon these occasions; +... and some scores of other young people, who were strangers to real +piety, were now struck with the lively demonstrations of hell ... before +their eyes.... In the whole--the devil got just nothing, but God got +praises, Christ got subjects, the Holy Spirit got temples, the church got +addition, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits." [Footnote: +_More Wonders_, p. 12.] + +Mather prided himself on what he had done. "I am not so vain as to say +that any wisdom or virtue of mine did contribute unto this good order of +things; but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder this good." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 12.] Men with such beliefs, and lured onward by +such temptations, were incapable of letting the tremendous power +superstition gave them slip from their grasp without an effort on their +own behalf; and accordingly it was not long before the Mathers were once +more at work. On the 10th of September, 1693, or about nine months after +the last spasms at Salem, and when the belief in enchantments was fast +falling into disrepute, a girl named Margaret Rule was taken with the +accustomed symptoms in Boston. Forthwith these two godly divines repaired +to her bedside, and this is what took place:-- + + * * * * * + +Then Mr. M---- father and son came up, and others with them, in the whole +were about thirty or forty persons, they being sat, the father on a stool, +and the son upon the bedside by her, the son began to question her: + +Margaret Rule, how do you do? Then a pause without any answer. + +_Question._ What. Do there a great many witches sit upon you? +_Answer._ Yes. + +_Question._ Do you not know that there is a hard master? + +Then she was in a fit. He laid his hand upon her face and nose, but, as he +said, without perceiving breath; then he brush'd her on the face with his +glove, and rubb'd her stomach (her breast not being covered with the bed +clothes) and bid others do so too, and said it eased her, then she +revived. + +_Q._ Don't you know there is a hard master? _A._ Yes. + +_Reply._ Don't serve that hard master, you know who. + +_Q._ Do you believe? Then again she was in a fit, and he again rub'd +her breast &c.... He wrought his fingers before her eyes and asked her if +she saw the witches? _A._ No.... + +_Q._ Who is it that afflicts you? _A._ I know not, there is a +great many of them.... + +_Q._ You have seen the black man, hant you? _A._ No. + +_Reply._ I hope you never shall. + +_Q._ You have had a book offered you, hant you? + +_A._ No. + +_Q._ The brushing of you gives you ease, don't it? + +_A._ Yes. She turn'd herselfe, and a little groan'd. + +_Q._ Now the witches scratch you, and pinch you, and bite you, don't +they? _A._ Yes. Then he put his hand upon her breast and belly, viz. +on the clothes over her, and felt a living thing, as he said; which moved +the father also to feel, and some others. + +_Q._ Don't you feel the live thing in the bed? + +_A._ No.... + +_Q._ Shall we go to pray ... spelling the word. + +_A._ Yes. The father went to prayer for perhaps half an hour, chiefly +against the power of the devil and witchcraft, and that God would bring +out the afflicters.... After prayer he [the son] proceeded. + +_Q._ You did not hear when we were at prayer did you? _A._ Yes. + +_Q._ You don't hear always? you don't hear sometimes past a word or +two, do you? _A._ No. Then turning him about said, this is just +another Mercy Short.... + +_Q._ What does she eat or drink? _A._ Not eat at all; but drink +rum. [Footnote: _More Wonders_, pp. 13, 14.] + + * * * * * + +To sanctify to the godly the ravings of this drunken and abandoned wench +was a solemn joy to the heart of this servant of Christ, who gave his life +to "unwearied cares and pains, to rescue the miserable from the lions and +bears of hell," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 10.] therefore he prepared +another tract. But his hour was well-nigh come. Though it was impossible +that retribution should be meted out to him for his crimes, at least he +did not escape unscathed, for Calef and the Brattles, who had long been on +his father's track and his, now seized him by the throat. He knew well +they had been with him in the chamber of Margaret Rule, that they had +gathered all the evidence; and so when Calef sent him a challenge to stand +forth and defend himself, he shuffled and equivocated. + +At length a rumor spread abroad that a volume was to be published exposing +the whole black history, and then the priest began to cower. His Diary is +full of his prayers and lamentations. "The book is printed, and the +impression is this week arrived here.... I set myself to humble myself +before the Lord under these humbling and wondrous dispensations, and +obtain the pardon of my sins, that have rendered me worthy of such +dispensations.... + +"28d. 10m. Saturday.--The Lord has permitted Satan to raise an +extraordinary storm upon my father and myself. All the rage of Satan +against the holy churches of the Lord falls upon us. First Calf's book, +and then Coleman's, do set the people in a mighty ferment. All the +adversaries of the churches lay their heads together, as if, by blasting +of us, they hoped utterly to blow up all. The Lord fills my soul with +consolations, inexpressible consolations, when I think on my conformity to +my Lord Jesus Christ in the injuries and reproaches that are cast upon +me.... + +"5d. 2m. Saturday [1701].--I find the enemies of the churches are set with +an implacable enmity against myself; and one vile fool, namely, R. Calf, +is employed by them to go on with more of his filthy scribbles to hurt my +precious opportunities of glorifying my Lord Jesus Christ. I had need be +much in prayer unto my glorious Lord that he would preserve his poor +servant from the malice of this evil generation, and of that vile man +particularly." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._ 1855-58, pp. 290-293.] + +"More Wonders of the Invisible World" appeared in 1700, and such was the +terror the clergy still inspired it is said it had to be sent to London to +be printed, and when it was published no bookseller in Boston dared to +offer it in his shop. [Footnote: _Some Few Remarks_, p. 9.] Yet though it +was burnt in the college yard by the order of Increase Mather, it was +widely read, and dealt the deathblow to the witchcraft superstition +of New England. It did more than this: it may be said to mark an era in +the intellectual development of Massachusetts, for it shook to its centre +that moral despotism which the pastors still kept almost unimpaired over +the minds of their congregations, by demonstrating to the people the +necessity of thinking for themselves. But what the fate of its authors +would have been had the priests still ruled may be guessed by the +onslaught made on them by those who sat at the Mathers' feet. "Spit on, +Calf; thou shalt be but like the viper on Pauls hand, easily shaken off, +and without any damage to the servant of the Lord." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 22.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BRATTLE CHURCH. + + +If the working of the human mind is mechanical, the quality of its action +must largely depend upon the training it receives. Viewed as civilizing +agents, therefore, systems of education might be tested by their tendency +to accelerate or retard the intellectual development of the race. The +proposition is capable of being presented with almost mathematical +precision; the receptive faculty begins to fail at a comparatively early +age; thereafter new opinions are assimilated with increasing difficulty +until the power is lost. This progressive period of life, which is at best +brief, may, however, be indefinitely shortened by the interposition of +artificial obstacles, which have to be overcome by a waste of time and +energy, before the reason can act with freedom; and when these obstacles +are sufficiently formidable, the whole time is consumed and men are +stationary. The most effectual impediments are those prejudices which are +so easily implanted in youth, and which acquire tremendous power when +based on superstitious terrors. Herein, then, lies the radical divergence +between theological and scientific training: the one, by inculcating that +tradition is sacred, that accurate investigation is sacrilege, certain to +be visited with terrific punishment, and that the highest moral virtue is +submission to authority, seeks to paralyze exact thought, and to produce a +condition in which dogmatic statements of fact, and despotic rules of +conduct, will be received with abject resignation; the other, by +stimulating the curiosity, endeavors to provoke inquiry, and, by +encouraging a scrutiny of what is obscure, tries to put the mind in an +impartial and questioning attitude toward all the phenomena of the +universe. + +The two methods are irreconcilable, and spring from the great primary +instincts which are called conservatism and liberality. Necessarily the +movement of any community must correspond exactly with the preponderance +of liberalism. Where the theological incubus is unresisted it takes the +form of a sacred caste, as among the Hindoos; appreciable advance then +ceases, except from some external pressure, such as conquest. The same +tendencies in a mitigated form are seen in Spain, whereas Germany is +scientific. + +Such being the ceaseless conflict between these natural forces, the +vantage-points for which the opposing parties have always struggled in +western Europe are the pulpits and the universities. Through women the +church can reach children at their most impressionable age, while at the +universities the teachers are taught. Obviously, if a priesthood can +control both positions their influence must be immense. At the beginning +of any movement the conservatives are almost necessarily in possession, +and their worst reverses have come from defection from within; for unless +their organization is so perfect as not only to be animated by a single +purpose, but capable of being controlled by a single will, liberals will +penetrate within the fold, and if they can maintain their footing and +preach with the authority of the ancient tradition it leads to revolution. +It was thus the Reformation was accomplished. + +The clergy of Massachusetts, with the true priestly instinct, took in the +bearings of their situation from the instant they recognized that their +political supremacy was passing away, and in order to keep their +organization in full vigor they addressed themselves with unabated energy +to enforcing the discipline which had been established; at the same time +they set the ablest of their number on guard at Harvard. But the task was +beyond their strength; they might as well have tried to dam the rising +tide with sand. + +There is a limit to the capacity of even the most gifted man, and Increase +Mather committed a fatal error when he tried to be professor, clergyman, +and statesman at once. He was, it is true, made president in 1685, but the +next year John Leverett and William Brattle were chosen tutors and +fellows, who soon developed into ardent liberals; so it happened that when +the reverend rector went abroad in 1688, in his character of politician, +he left the college in the complete control of his adversaries. He was +absent four years, and during this interval the man was educated who was +destined to overthrow the Cambridge Platform, the corner-stone of the +conservative power. + +Benjamin Colman was one of Leverett's favorite pupils and the intimate +friend of Pemberton. As he was to be a minister, he stayed at Cambridge +until he took his master's degree in 1695; he then sailed at once for +England in the Swan. When she had been some weeks at sea she was attacked +by a French privateer, who took her after a sharp action. During the fight +Colman attracted attention by his coolness; but he declared that though he +fired like the rest, "he was sensible of no courage but of a great deal of +fear; and when they had received two or three broadsides he wondered when +his courage would come, as he had heard others talk." [Footnote: _Life +of B. Colman_, p. 6.] + +After the capture the Frenchmen stripped him and put him in the hold, and +had it not been for a Madame Allaire, who kept his money for him, he might +very possibly have perished from the exposure of an imprisonment in +France, for his lungs were delicate. Moreover, at this time of his life he +was always a pauper, for he was not only naturally generous, but so +innocent and confiding as to fall a victim to any clumsy sharper. Of +course he reached London penniless and in great depression of spirits; but +he soon became known among the dissenting clergy, and at length settled at +Bath, where he preached two years. He seems to have formed singularly +strong friendships while in England, one of which was with Mr. Walter +Singer, at whose house he passed much time, and who wrote him at parting, +"Methinks there is one place vacant in my affections, which nobody can +fill beside you. But this blessing was too great for me, and God has +reserved it for those that more deserved it.--I cannot but hope sometimes +that Providence has yet in store so much happiness for me, that I shall +yet see you." [Footnote: _Life of B. Colman_, p. 48.] + +Meanwhile opinion was maturing fast at home; the passions of the +witchcraft convulsion had gone deep, and in 1697 a movement began under +the guidance of Leverett and the Brattles to form a liberal Congregational +church. The close on which the meetinghouse was to stand was conveyed by +Thomas Brattle to trustees on January 10, 1698, and from the outset there +seems to have been no doubt as to whom the pastor should be. On the 10th +of May, 1699, a formal invitation was dispatched to Colman by a committee, +of which Thomas Brattle was chairman, and it was accompanied by letters +from many prominent liberals. Leverett wrote, "I shall exceedingly rejoice +at your return to your country. We want persons of your character. The +affair offered to your consideration is of the greatest moment." William +Brattle was even more emphatic, while Pemberton assured him that "the +gentlemen who solicit your return are mostly known to you--men of repute +and figure, from whom you may expect generous treatment; ... I believe +your return will be pleasing to all that know you, I am sure it will be +inexpressibly so to your unfeigned friend and servant." [Footnote: _Life +of B. Colman_, pp. 43, 44.] It was, however, thought prudent to have +him ordained in London, since there was no probability that the clergy of +Massachusetts would perform the rite. When he landed in November, after an +absence of four years, he was in the flush of early manhood, highly +trained for theological warfare, having seen the world, and by no means in +awe of his old pastor, the reverend president of Harvard. + +The first step after his arrival was to declare the liberal policy, and +this was done in a manifesto which was published almost at once. [Footnote: +_History of Brattle St. Church_, p. 20.] The efficiency of the +Congregational organization depended upon the perfection of the guard +which the ministers and the congregations mutually kept over each other. +On the one hand no dangerous element could creep in among the people +through the laxness of the elder, since all candidates for the communion +had to pass through the ordeal of a public examination; on the other the +orthodoxy of the ministers was provided for, not only by restricting the +elective body to the communicants, but by the power of the ordained clergy +to "except against any election of a pastor who ... may be ... unfit for +the common service of the gospel." [Footnote: Propositions determined by +the Assembly of Ministers. _Magnalia_, bk. 5, Hist. Remarks, Section +8.] + +The declaration of the Brattle Street "undertakers" cut this system at the +root, for they announced their intention to dispense with the relation of +experiences, thus practically throwing their communion open to all +respectable persons who would confess the Westminster Creed; and more +fatal still, they absolutely destroyed the homogeneousness of the +ecclesiastical constituency: "We cannot confine the right of chusing a +minister to the male communicants alone, but we think that every baptized +adult person who contributes to the maintenance, should have a vote in +electing." [Footnote: _History of Brattle St. Church_, p. 25, Prop. +16.] + +They also proposed several innovations of minor importance, such as +relaxing the baptismal regulations, and somewhat changing the established +service by having the Bible read without comment. + +Their temporal power was gone, toleration was the law of the land they had +once possessed, and now an onslaught was to be made upon the intellectual +ascendency which the clergy felt certain of maintaining over their people, +if only they could enforce obedience in their own ranks. The danger, too, +was the more alarming because so insidious; for, though their propositions +seemed reasonable, it was perfectly obvious that should the liberals +succeed in forcing their church within the pale of the orthodox communion, +discipline must end, and the pulpits might at any time be filled with men +capable of teaching the most subversive doctrines. Although such might be +the inexorable destiny of the Massachusetts hierarchy, it was not in +ecclesiastical human nature to accept the dispensation with meekness, and +the utterances of the conservative divines seem hardly to breathe the +spirit of that gospel they preached at such interminable length. + +Yet it was very difficult to devise a scheme of resistance. They were +powerless to coerce; for, although Increase Mather had taken care, when at +the summit of his power, to have a statute passed which had the effect of +reënacting the Cambridge Platform, it had been disapproved by the king; +therefore, moral intimidation was the only weapon which could be employed. +Now, aside from the fact that men like Thomas Brattle and Leverett were +not timorous, their position was at this moment very strong from the stand +they had taken in the witchcraft troubles, and worst of all, they were +openly supported by William Brattle, who was already a minister, and by +Pemberton, who was a fellow of Harvard, and soon to be ordained. + +The attack was, however, begun by Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Noyes, of +witchcraft memory, in a long rebuke, whose temper may be imagined from +such a sentence as this: "We cannot but think you might have entered upon +your declaration with more reverence and humility than so solemnly to +appeal to God, your judge, that you do it with all the sincerity and +seriousness the nature of your engagement commands from you; seeing you +were most of you much unstudied in the controversial points of church +order and discipline, and yet did not advise with the neighboring churches +... but with a great deal of confidence and freedom, set up by +yourselves." The letter then goes on to adjure them to revoke the +manifesto, and adjust matters with the "neighbouring elders," "that so the +right hand of fellowship may be given to your pastor by other pastors, ... +and that you may not be the beginning of a schism that will dishonour God, +... and be a matter of triumph to the bad." [Footnote: _History of Brattle +St. Church_, pp. 29-37.] + +Cotton Mather's Diary, however, gives the most pleasing view of the high +churchmen:-- + +"1699. 7th, 10th m. (Dec.) I see another day of temptation begun upon the +town and land. A company of headstrong men in the town, the chief of whom +are full of malignity to the holy ways of our churches, have built in the +town another meetinghouse. To delude many better meaning men in their own +company, and the churches in the neighbourhood, they passed a vote in the +foundation of the proceedings that they would not vary from the practice +of these churches, except in one little particular. + +"But a young man born and bred here, and hence gone for England, is now +returned hither at their invitation, equipped with an ordination to +qualify him for all that is intended on his returning and arriving here; +these fallacious people desert their vote, and without the advice or +knowledge of the ministers in the vicinity, they have published, under the +title of a manifesto, certain articles that utterly subvert our churches, +and invite an ill party, through all the country, to throw all into +confusion on the first opportunities. This drives the ministers that would +be faithful unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and his interests in the churches, +unto a necessity of appearing for their defence. No little part of these +actions must unavoidably fall to my share. I have already written a large +monitory letter to these innovators, which, though most lovingly penned, +yet enrages their violent and imperious lusts to carry on the apostacy." + +"1699. 5th d. 11th m. (Saturday.) I see Satan beginning a terrible shake +in the churches of New England, and the innovators that had set up a new +church in Boston (a new one indeed!) have made a day of temptation among +us. The men are ignorant, arrogant, obstinate, and full of malice and +slander, and they fill the land with lies, in the misrepresentations +whereof I am a very singular sufferer. Wherefore I set apart this day +again for prayer in my study, to cry mightily unto God." [Footnote: +_History of Harvard_, Quincy, i. 486, 487, App. x.] + +"21st d. 11th m. The people of the new church in Boston, who, by their +late manifesto, went on in an ill way, and in a worse frame, and the town +was filled with sin, and especially with slanders, wherein especially my +father and myself were sufferers. We two, with many prayers and studies, +and with humble resignation of our names unto the Lord, prepared a +faithful antidote for our churches against the infection of the example, +which we feared this company had given them, and we put it into the press. +But when the first sheet was near composed at the press, I stopped it, +with a desire to make one attempt more for the bringing of this people to +reason. I drew up a proposal, and, with another minister, carried it unto +them, who at first rejected it, but afterward so far embraced it, as to +promise that they will the next week publicly recognize their covenant +with God and one another, and therewithall declare their adherence to the +Heads of Agreement of the United Brethren in England, and request the +communion of our churches in that foundation." [Footnote: _History of +Harvard_, i. 487, App. x.] + +This last statement is marked by the exuberance of imagination for which +the Mathers are so famed. In truth, Dr. Mather had nothing to do with the +settlement. The facts were these: after Brattle Street Church was +organized, the congregation voted that Mr. Colman should ask the ministers +of the town to keep a day of prayer with them. On the 28th of December, +1699, they received the following suggestive answer:-- + + * * * * * + +MR. COLMAN: + +Whereas you have signified to us that your society have desired us to join +with them in a public fast, in order to your intended communion, our +answer is, that as we have formerly once and again insinuated unto you, +that if you would in due manner lay aside what you call your manifesto, +and resolve and declare that you will keep to the heads of agreement on +which the United Brethren in London have made their union, and then +publicly proceed with the presence, countenance, and concurrence of the +New England churches, we should be free to give you our fellowship and our +best assistance, which things you have altogether declined and neglected +to do; thus we must now answer, that, if you will give us the satisfaction +which the law of Christ requires for your disorderly proceedings, we shall +be happy to gratify your desires; otherwise, we may not do it, lest ... we +become partakers of the guilt of those irregularities by which you have +given just cause of offence.... + +INCREASE MATHER. +JAMES ALLEN. [Footnote: _History of Brattle St. Church_, p. 55.] + + * * * * * + +Under the theocracy a subservient legislature would have voted the +association "a seditious conspiracy," and the country would have been +cleared of Leverett, Colman, the Brattles, and their abettors; but in 1700 +the priests no longer manipulated the constituencies, and there was actual +danger to the conservative cause from their violence; therefore Stoughton +exerted himself to muzzle the Mathers, and he did succeed in quieting them +for the moment, though Sewall seems to intimate that they submitted with +no very good grace: [1699/1700.] "January 24th. The Lt Govr [Stoughton] +calls me with him to Mr. Willards, where out of two papers Mr. Wm Brattle +drew up a third for an accommodation to bring on an agreement between the +new-church and our ministers; Mr. Colman got his brethren to subscribe +it.... January 25th. Mr. I. Mather, Mr. C. Mather, Mr. Willard, Mr. +Wadsworth, and S. S. wait on the Lt Govr at Mr. Coopers: to confer about +the writing drawn up the evening before. Was some heat; but grew calmer, +and after lecture agreed to be present at the fast which is to be observed +January 31." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, vi. 2.] + +Humility has sometimes been extolled as the crowning grace of Christian +clergymen, but Cotton Mather's Diary shows the intolerable arrogance of +the early Congregational divines. + +"A wonderful joy filled the hearts of our good people far and near, that +we had obtained thus much from them. Our strife seemed now at an end; +there was much relenting in some of their spirits, when they saw our +condescension, our charity, our compassion. We overlooked all past +offences. We kept the public fast with them ... and my father preached +with them on following peace with holiness, and I concluded with prayer." +[Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 487, App. x.] + +Yet, although there had been this ostensible reconciliation, those who +have appreciated the sensitiveness to sin, of him whom Dr. Eliot calls the +patriarch and his son, must already feel certain they were incapable of +letting Colman's impiety pass unrebuked; indeed, the Diary says the +"faithful antidote" was at that moment in the press, and it was not long +before it was published, sanctified by their prayers. The patriarch began +by telling how he was defending the "cause of Christ and of his churches +in New England," and "if we espouse such principles... we then give away +the whole Congregational cause at once." [Footnote: _Order of the +Gospel_, pp. 8, 9.] He assured his hearers that a "wandering Levite" +like Colman was no more a pastor than he who "has no children is a +father," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 102.] he was shocked at the +abandonment of the relation of experiences, and was so scandalized at +reading the Bible without comment he could only describe it as "dumb." In +a word, there was nothing the new congregation had done which was not +displeasing to the Lord; but if they had offended in one particular more +than another it was in establishing a man in "the pastoral office without +the approbation of neighbouring churches or elders." [Footnote: +_Idem_, p. 8.] To this solemn admonition Colman and William Brattle +had the irreverence to prepare a reply smacking of levity; nevertheless, +they began with a grave and noble definition of their principles. "The +liberties and privileges which our Lord Jesus Christ has given to his +church ... consist ... in ... that our consciences be not imposed on by +men or their traditions." "We are reflected on as casting dishonour on our +parents, & their pious design in the first settlement of this land.... +Some have made this the great design, to be freed from the impositions of +men in the worship of God.... In this we are risen up to make good their +grounds." [Footnote: _Gospel Order Revived_, Epistle Dedicatory.] + +They then went on to expose the abuse of public relations of experiences: +"But this is the misery, the more meek and fearful are hereby kept out of +God's house, while the more conceited and presumptuous never boggle at +this, or anything else. But it seems there is a gross corruption of this +laudable practice which the author does well to censure; and that is, when +some, who have no good intention of their own, get others to devise a +relation for them." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] They even dared to +intimate that it did not savor of modesty for the patriarch "to think any +one of his sermons, or short comments, can edifie more than the reading of +twenty chapters." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 15.] And then they added some +sentences, which were afterward declared by the venerable victim to be as +scurrilous as other portions of the pamphlet were profane. + +"We are assured, the author is esteemed more a Presbyterian than a +Congregational man, by scores of his friends in London. He is lov'd and +reverenced for a moderate spirit, a peaceable disposition, and a temper so +widely different from his late brothers in London.... Did our reverend +author appear the same here, we should be his easie proselites too. But we +are loath to say how he forfeits that venerable character, which might +have consecrated his name to posterity, more than his learning, or other +honorary titles can." [Footnote: _Gospel Order Revived_, pp. 34, 35.] + +No printer in Boston dared to be responsible for this ribaldry, and when +it came home from New York and was actually cast before the people, words +fail to convey the condition into which the patriarch was thrown. At last +his emotions found a vent in a tract which he prepared jointly with his +son. + +"A moral heathen would not have done as he has done. [Footnote: +_Collection of Some of the More Offensive Matters_, Preface.]... There is +no one thing, which does more threaten or disgrace New-England, than want +of due respect unto superiors. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 10.]... It is a +disgrace to the name of Presbyterian, that such as he is should pretend +unto it. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 12.]... and if our children should learn +from them, ... we may tremble to think, what a flood of profaneness and +atheism would break in upon us, and ripen us for the dreadfullest +judgments of God. [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 7.]... They assault him [the aged +president] with a volley of rude jeers and taunts, as if they were so many +children of Bethel." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 8.] Among these taunts some +struck deep, for they are quoted at length. "'Abundance of people have +long obstinately believed, that the contest on his part, is more for +lordship and dominion, than for truth.' But there are many more such +passages, which laid altogether, would make a considerable dung-hil." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] They dwelt with pathos upon those sacred rites +desecrated by these "unsanctified" "young men" in their "miserable +pamphlet." "The Lord is exceedingly glorified, and his people are edified, +by the accounts, which the candidates, of the communion in our churches +give of that self-examination which is by plain institution ... a +qualification, of the communicants. Now these think it not enough to +charge the churches, which require & expect such accounts, with +exceedingly provoking the Lord. But of the tears dropt by holy souls +on those occasions, they say with a scoff, 'whether they be for joy or +grief, we are left in the dark.'" [Footnote: _Collection of Some of the +More Offensive Matters_, p. 6.] But the suffering divines found peace +in knowing that Christ himself would inflict the punishment upon these +abandoned men which the priests would have meted out with holy joy had +they still possessed the power. + +"Considering that the things contained in their pamphlet, are a deep +apostasy, in conjunction with such open impiety, and profane scurrility +against the holy wayes in which our fathers walked, in case it become the +sin of the land, (as it will do if not duely testified against) we may +fear that some heavy judgment will come upon the whole land. And will not +the holy Lord Jesus Christ, who walks in the midst of his golden +candlesticks, make all the churches to know ... that these men have +provoked the Lord!" [Footnote: _Idem_, pp. 18, 19.] + +Yet, notwithstanding the Mathers' piteous prayers, God heeded them not, +and the rising tide that was sweeping over them soon drowned their cries. +Brattle Street congregation became an honored member of the orthodox +communion, the principles which animated its founders spread apace, and +the name of Benjamin Colman waxed great in the land. The liberals had +penetrated the stronghold of the church. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HARVARD COLLEGE. + + +For more than two centuries one ceaseless anthem of adulation has been +chanted in Massachusetts in honor of the ecclesiastics who founded Harvard +University, and this act has not infrequently been cited as +incontrovertible proof that they were both liberal and progressive at +heart. The laudation of ancestors is a task as easy as it is popular; but +history deals with the sequence of cause and effect, and an examination of +facts, apart from sentiment, tends to show that in building a college the +clergy were actuated by no loftier motive than intelligent self-interest, +if, indeed, they were not constrained thereto by the inexorable exigencies +of their position. + +The truth of this proposition becomes apparent if the soundness of the +following analysis be conceded. + +There would seem to be a point in the pathway of civilization where every +race passes more or less completely under the dominion of a sacred caste; +when and how the more robust have emerged into freedom is uncertain, but +enough is known to make it possible to trace the process by which this +insidious power is acquired, and the means by which it is perpetuated. A +flood of light has, moreover, been shed on this class of subjects by the +recent remarkable investigations among the Zuñis. [Footnote: Made by Mr. +F. H. Cushing, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution.] + +Most American Indians are in the matriarchal period of development, which +precedes the patriarchal; and it is then, should they become sedentary, +that caste appears to be born. Some valuable secret, such as a cure for +the bite of the rattlesnake, is discovered, and this gives the finder, and +chosen members of his clan with whom he shares it, a peculiar sanctity in +the eyes of the rest of the tribe. Like facts, however, become known to +other clans, and then coalitions are made which take the form of esoteric +societies, and from these the stronger savages gradually exclude the +weaker and their descendants. Meanwhile an elaborate ritual is developed, +and so an hereditary priesthood comes into life, which always claims to +have received its knowledge by revelation, and which teaches that +resistance to its will is sacrilege. Nevertheless the sacerdotal power is +seldom firmly established without a struggle, the memory whereof is +carefully preserved as a warning of the danger of incurring the divine +wrath. A good example of such a myth is the fable of the rebellious Zuñi +fire-priest, who at the prayer of his orthodox brethren was destroyed with +all his clan by a boiling torrent poured from the burning mountain, sacred +to their order, by the avenging gods. Compare this with the story of +Korah; and it is interesting to observe how the priestly chronicler, in +order to throw the profounder awe about his class, has made the great +national prophet the author of the exclusion of the body of the Levites +from the caste, in favor of his own brother. "And they gathered themselves +together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too +much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, ... wherefore then +lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? + +"And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face." Then he told Korah and +his followers, who were descendants of Levi and legally entitled to act as +priests by existing customs, to take censers and burn incense, and it +would appear whether the Lord would respect their offering. So every man +took his censer, and Korah and two hundred and fifty more stood in the +door of the tabernacle. + +Then Moses said, if "the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with +all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye +shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.... + +"And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, +and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. + +"They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and +the earth closed upon them:... And all Israel that were round about them +fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up +also." [Footnote: _Numbers_ xvi.] Traces of a similar conflict are +found in Hindoo sacred literature, and probably the process has been well- +nigh universal. The caste, therefore, originates in knowledge, real and +pretended, kept by secret tradition in certain families, and its power is +maintained by systematized terrorism. But to learn the mysteries and +ritual requires a special education, hence those destined for the +priesthood have careful provision made for their instruction. The youthful +Zuñi is taught at the sacred college at the shrine of his order; the pious +Hindoo lives for years with some famous Brahmin; as soon as the down came +on the cheek, the descendants of Aaron were taken into the Temple at +Jerusalem, and all have read how Hannah carried the infant Samuel to the +house of the Lord at Shiloh, and how the child did minister unto the Lord +before Eli the priest. + +These facts seem to lead to well-defined conclusions when applied to New +England history. In their passionate zeal the colonists conceived the idea +of reproducing, as far as they could, the society of the Pentateuch, or, +in other words, of reverting to the archaic stage of caste; and in point +of fact they did succeed in creating a theocratic despotism which lasted +in full force for more than forty years. Of course, in the seventeenth +century such a phase of feeling was ephemeral; but the phenomena which +attended it are exceptionally interesting, and possibly they are somewhat +similar to those which accompany the liberation of a primitive people. + +The knowledge which divided the Massachusetts clergy from other men was +their supposed proficiency in the interpretation of the ancient writings +containing the revelations of God. For the perpetuation of this lore a +seminary was as essential to them as an association of priests for the +instruction of neophytes is to the Zuni now, or as the training at the +Temple was to the Jews. In no other way could the popular faith in their +special sanctity be sustained. It is also true that few priesthoods have +made more systematic use of terror. The slaughter of Anne Hutchinson and +her family was exultingly declared to be the judgment of God for defaming +the elders. Increase Mather denounced the disobedient Colman in the words +of Moses to Korah; Cotton Mather revelled in picturing the torments of the +bewitched; and, even in the last century Jonathan Edwards frightened +people into convulsions by his preaching. On the other hand, it is obvious +that the reproduction of the Mosaic law could not in the nature of things +have been complete; and the two weak points in the otherwise strong +position of the clergy were that the spirit of their age did not permit +them to make their order hereditary, nor, although their college was a +true theological school, did they perceive the danger of allowing any lay +admixture. The tendency to weaken the force of the discipline is obvious, +yet they were led to abandon the safe Biblical precedent, not only by +their own early associations, but by their hatred of anything savoring of +Catholicism. + +Men to be great leaders must exalt their cause above themselves; and if so +godly a man as the Rev. Increase Mather can be said to have had a human +failing it was an inordinate love of money and of flattery. The first of +these peculiarities showed itself early in life when, as his son says, he +was reluctant to settle at the North Church, because of "views he had of +greater service elsewhere." [Footnote: _Parentator_, p. 25.] In other +words, the parish was not liberal; for it seems "the deacons ... were not +spirited like some that have succeeded them; and the leaders of the more +honest people also, were men of a low, mean, sordid spirit.... For one of +his education, and erudition, and gentlemanly spirit, and conversation, to +be so creepled and kept in such a depressing poverty!--In these +distresses, it was to little purpose for him to make his complaint unto +man! If he had, it would have been basely improved unto his disadvantage." +[Footnote: _Idem_, p. 30.] His diary teemed with repinings. "Oh! that +the Lord Jesus, who hears my complaints before him, would either give an +heart to my people to look after my comfortable subsistance among them, or +... remove me to another people, who will take care of me, that so I may +be in a capacity to attend his work, and glorify his name in my +generation." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 33.] However, matters mended with +him, for we are assured that "the Glorious One who knew the works, and the +service and the patience of this tempted man, ordered it, that several +gentlemen of good estate, and of better spirit, were become the members of +his church;" and from them he had "such filial usages... as took away from +him all room of repenting, that he had not under his temptations +prosecuted a removal from them." [Footnote: _Parentator_, pp. 34, 35.] + +The presidency of Harvard, though nominally the highest place a clergyman +could hold in Massachusetts, had always been one of poverty and self- +denial; for the salary was paid by the legislature, which, as the +unfortunate Dunster had found, was not disposed to be generous. Therefore, +although Mr. Mather was chosen president in 1685, and was afterward +confirmed as rector by Andros, he was far too pious to be led again into +those temptations from which he had been delivered by the interposition of +the Glorious One; and the last thing he proposed was to go into residence +and give up his congregation. Besides, he was engrossed in politics and +went to England in 1688, where he stayed four years. Meanwhile the real +control of education was left in the hands of Leverett, who was appointed +tutor in 1686, and of William Brattle, who was in full sympathy with his +policy. Among the many powers usurped by the old trading company was that +of erecting corporations; hence the effect of the judgment vacating the +patent had been to annul the college charter which had been granted by the +General Court; [Footnote: 23 May, 1650. _Mass. Rec._ iii. 195.] and +although the institution had gone on much as usual after the Revolution, +its position was felt to be precarious. Such being the situation when the +patriarch came home in 1692 in the plenitude of power, he conceived the +idea of making himself the untrammelled master of the university, and he +forthwith caused a bill to be introduced into the legislature which would +certainly have produced that result. [Footnote: _Province Laws_, 1692-93, +c. 10.] Nor did he meet with any serious opposition in Massachusetts, +where his power was, for the moment, well-nigh supreme. His difficulty lay +with the king, since the fixed policy of Great Britain was to foster +Episcopalianism, and of course to obtain some recognition for that sect at +Cambridge. And so it came to pass that all the advantage he reaped by the +enactment of this singular law was a degree of Doctor of Divinity +[Footnote: Sept. 5, 1692. Quincy's _History of Harvard_, i. 71.] which he +gave himself between the approval of the bill by Phips and its rejection +at London. The compliment was the more flattering, however, as it was the +first ever granted in New England. But the clouds were fast gathering over +the head of this good man. Like many another benefactor of his race, he +was doomed to experience the pangs inflicted by ingratitude, and indeed +his pain was so acute he seldom lost an opportunity of giving it public +expression; to use his own words of some years later, "these are the last +lecture sermons... to be preached by me.... The ill treatment which I have +had from those from whom I had reason to have expected better, have +discouraged me from being any more concerned on such occasions." +[Footnote: Address to Sermon, _The Righteous Man a Blessing_, 1702.] + +Certainly he was in a false position; he was necessarily unappreciated by +the liberals, and he had not only alienated many staunch conservatives by +his acceptance of the charter, but he had embittered them, by rigorously +excluding all except his particular faction from Phips's council. To his +deep chagrin, the elections of 1693 went in favor of many of these +thankless men, and his discontent soon took the form of an intense longing +to go abroad in some official position which would give him importance. +The only possible opening seemed to be to get himself made agent to +negotiate a charter for Harvard; and therefore he soon had "angelical" +suggestions that God needed him in England to glorify his name. + +"1693. September 3d. As I was riding to preach at Cambridge, I prayed to +God,--begged that my labors might be blessed to the souls of the students; +at the which I was much melted. Also saying to the Lord, that some +workings of his Providence seemed to intimate, that I must be returned to +England again; ... I was inexpressibly melted, and that for a considerable +time, and a stirring suggestion, that to England I must go. In this there +was something extraordinary, either divine or angelical." + +"December 30th. Meltings before the Lord this day when praying, desiring +being returned to England again, there to do service to his name, and +persuasions that the Lord will appear therein." + +"1694. January 27th. Prayers and supplications that tidings may come from +England, that may be some direction to me, as to my returning thither or +otherwise, as shall be most for his glory." + +"March 13th. This morning with prayers and tears I begged of God that I +might hear from my friends and acquaintance in England something that +should encourage and comfort me. Such tidings are coming, but I know not +what it is. God has heard me." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 475, +476, App. ix.] + +His craving to escape from the country was increased by the nagging of the +legislature; for so early as December, 1693, the representatives passed +the first of a long series of resolves, "that the president of Harvard +College for the time being shall reside there, as hath been accustomed in +time past." [Footnote: _Court Rec._ vi. 316.] Now this was precisely +what the Reverend Doctor was determined he would not do; nor could he +resign without losing all hope of his agency; so it is not surprising that +as time went on he wrestled with the Deity. + +1698. "September 25th. This day as I was wrestling with the Lord, he gave +me glorious and heart-melting persuasions, that he has work for me to do +in England, for the glory of his name. My soul rejoiceth in the Lord." +[Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 480, App. ix.] + +Doubtless his trials were severe, but the effect upon his temper was +unfortunate. He brought forward scheme after scheme, and the corporation +was made to address the legislature, and then the legislature was pestered +to accede to the prayer of the corporation, until everybody was wrought to +a pitch of nervous irritation; he himself was always jotting in his Diary +what he had on foot, mixed with his hopes and prayers. + +"1696. December 11th. I was with the representatives in the General Court, +and did acquaint them with my purpose of undertaking a voyage for England +in the spring (if the Lord will), in order to the attainment of a good +settlement for the college." + +"December 28th. The General Court have done nothing for the poor +college.... The corporation are desirous that I should go to England on +the college's account." + +1696. "April 19th (Sabbath.) In the morning, as I was praying in my +closet, my heart was marvellously melted with the persuasion, that I +should glorify Christ in England." + +"1697. June 7th. Discourse with ministers about the college, and the +corporation unanimously desired me to take a voyage for England on the +college's account." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 476, App. ix.] + +But of what the senior tutor was doing with the rising generation he took +no note at all. His attention was probably first attracted by rumors of +the Brattle Church revolt, for not till 1697 was he able to divert his +thoughts from himself long enough to observe that all was not as it should +be at Cambridge. Then, at length, he made an effort to get rid of Leverett +by striking his name from the list of fellows when a bill for +incorporation was brought into the legislature; but this crafty politician +had already become too strong in the house of representatives, of which he +was soon after made speaker. + +Two years later, however, the conservative clergy made a determined effort +and prepared a bill containing a religious test, which they supported with +a petition praying "that, in the charter for the college, our holy +religion may be secured to us and unto our posterity, by a provision, that +no person shall be chosen president, or fellow, of the college, but such +as declare their adherence unto the principles of reformation, which were +espoused and intended by those who first settled the country ... and have +hitherto been the general profession of New England." [Footnote: +_Idem_, i. 99.] This time they narrowly missed success, for the bill +passed the houses, but was vetoed by Lord Bellomont. + +Hitherto Cotton Mather had shown an unfilial lack of interest in his +father's ambition to serve the public; but this summer he also began to +have assurances from God. One cause for his fervor may have been the death +of the Rev. Mr. Morton, who was conceded to stand next in succession to +the presidency, and he therefore supposed himself to be sure of the office +should a vacancy occur. [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 102.] + +"1699. 7th d. 4th m. (June.) The General Court has, divers times of late +years, had under consideration the matter of the settlement of the +college, which was like still to issue in a voyage of my father to +England, and the matter is now again considered. I have made much prayer +about it many and many a time. Nevertheless, I never could have my mind +raised unto any particular faith about it, one way or another. But this +day, as I was (may I not say) in the spirit, it was in a powerful manner +assured me from heaven, that my father should one day be carried into +England, and that he shall there glorify the Lord Jesus Christ;... And +thou, O Mather the younger, shalt live to see this accomplished!" +[Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 482, 483, App. x.] + +"16th d. 5th m. (July.) Being full of distress in my spirit, as I was at +prayer in my study at noon, it was told me from heaven, that my father +shall be carried from me unto England, and that my opportunities to +glorify the Lord Jesus Christ will, on that occasion, _be gloriously +accommodated_." + +"18th d. 5th m.... And now behold a most unintelligible dispensation! At +this very time, even about noon, instead of having the bill for the +college enacted, as was expected, the governor plainly rejected it, +because of a provision therein, made for the religion of the country." + +After the veto the patriarch seems to have got the upper hand for a +season, and to have made some arrangement by which he evicted his +adversary, as appears by a very dissatisfied letter written by Leverett in +August, 1699: "As soon as I got home I was informed, that Rev. President +(I. M.), held a corporation at the college the 7th inst., and the said +corporation, after the publication of the _new settlement_, made +choice of Mr. Flynt to be one of the tutors at college.... I have not the +late act for incorporating the college at hand, nor have I seen the new +temporary settlement; but I perceive, that all the members of the late +corporation were not notified to be at the meeting. I can't say how legal +these late proceedings are; but it is wonderful, that an establishment for +so short a time as till October next, should be made use of so soon to +introduce an unnecessary addition to that society." [Footnote: _History +of Harvard_, i. 500, App. xvi.] + +A long weary year passed, during which Dr. Mather must have suffered +keenly from the public ingratitude; still, at its end he was happy, since +he felt certain of being rewarded by the Lord; for, just as the earl's +administration was closing, he had succeeded by unremitting toil in so +adjusting the legislature as to think the spoil his own; when, alas, +suddenly, without warning, in the most distressing manner, the prize +slipped into Bellomont's pocket. How severely his faith was tried appears +from his son's Diary. + +"1700. 16th d. 4th mo. (Lord's Day.) I am going to relate one of the most +astonishing things that ever befell in all the time of my pilgrimage. + +"A particular faith had been unaccountably produced in my father's heart, +and in my own, that God will carry him unto England, and there give him a +short but great opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, before his +entrance into the heavenly kingdom. There appears no probability of my +father's going thither but in an agency to obtain a charter for the +college. This matter having been for several years upon the very point of +being carried in the General Assembly, hath strangely miscarried when it +hath come to the birth. It is now again before the Assembly, in +circumstances wherein if it succeed not, it is never like to be revived +and resumed any more.... + +"But the matter in the Assembly being likely now to come unto nothing, I +was in this day in extreme distress of spirit concerning it.... After I +had finished all the other duties of this day, I did in my distress cast +myself prostrate on my study floor before the Lord.... I spread before him +the consequences of things, and the present posture and aspect of them, +and, having told the Lord, that I had always taken a particular faith to +be a work of heaven on the minds of the faithful, but if it should prove a +deceit in that remarkable instance which was now the cause of my agony, I +should be cast into a most wonderful confusion; I then begged of the Lord, +that, if my particular faith about my father's voyage to England were not +a delusion, he would be pleased to renew it upon me. All this while my +heart had the coldness of a stone upon it, and the straitness that is to +be expected from the lone exercise of reason. But now all on the sudden I +felt an inexpressible force to fall on my mind, an afflatus, which cannot +be described in words; _none knows it but he that has it_.... It was +told me, that the Lord Jesus Christ loved my father, and loved me, and +that he took delight in us, as in two of his faithful servants, and that +he had not permitted us to be deceived in our particular faith, but that +my father should be carried into England, and there glorify the Lord Jesus +Christ before his passing into glory.... + +"Having left a flood of tears from me, by these rages from the invisible +world, on my study floor, I rose and went into my chair. There I took up +my Bible, and the first place that I opened was at Acts xxvii. 23-25, +'There stood by me an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, +Fear not, thou must be brought before Caesar.' ... A new flood of tears +gushed from my flowing eyes, and I broke out into these expressions. +'What! shall my father yet appear before Caesar! Has an angel from heaven +told me so! And must I believe what has been told me! Well then, it shall +be so! It shall be so!'" + +"And now what shall I say! When the affair of my father's agency after +this came to a turning point in the court, it strangely miscarried! All +came to nothing! Some of the Tories had so wrought upon the governor, +that, though he had first moved this matter, and had given us both +directions and promises about it, yet he now (not without base +unhandsomeness) deferred it. The lieutenant-governor, who had formerly +been for it, now (not without great ebullition of unaccountable prejudice +and ingratitude) appeared, with all the little tricks imaginable, to +confound it. It had for all this been carried, had not some of the council +been inconveniently called off and absent. But now the whole affair of the +college was left unto the management of the Earl of Bellamont, so that all +expectation of a voyage for my father unto England, on any such occasion, +is utterly at an end." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 484-486, +App. x.] + +During all these years the legislature had been steadily passing +resolutions requiring the president to go into residence; and in 1698 they +went so far as to vote him the liberal salary, for that age, of two +hundred pounds, and appointed a committee to wait upon him. Judge Sewall +describes the interview:-- + +"Mr. President expostulated with Mr. Speaker ... about the votes being +alter'd from 250 [£.?]." ... "We urg'd his going all we could; I told him +of his birth and education here; that he look'd at work rather than wages, +all met in desiring him.... Objected want of a house, bill for corporation +not pass'd ... must needs preach once every week, which he preferred +before the gold and silver of the West-Indies. I told him would preach +twice aday to the students. He said that [exposition] was nothing like +preaching." [Footnote: Sewall's _Diary_. _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, +v. 487.] And in this the patriarch spoke the truth; for if there was +anything he loved more than money it was the incense of adulation which +steamed up to his nostrils from a great congregation. Of course he +declined; and yet this importunity pained the good man, not because there +was any conflict in his mind between his duty to a cause he held sacred +and his own interest, but because it was "a thing contrary to the faith +marvellously wrought into my soul, that God will give me an opportunity to +serve and glorify Christ in England, I set the day apart to cry to heaven +about it." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, vi. 481, App. ix.] + +There were limits, however, even to the patience of the Massachusetts +Assembly with an orthodox divine; and no sooner was the question of the +agency decided by the appointment of Bellomont, than it addressed itself +resolutely to the seemingly hopeless task of forcing Dr. Mather to settle +in Cambridge or resign his office. On the 10th of July, 1700, they voted +him two hundred and twenty pounds a year, and they appointed a committee +to obtain from him a categorical answer. This time he thought it prudent +to feign compliance; and after a "suitable place... for the reception and +entertainment of the president" had been prepared at the public expense, +he moved out of town and stayed till the 17th of October, when he went +back to Boston, and wrote to tell Stoughton his health was suffering. His +disingenuousness seems to have given Leverett the opportunity for which he +had been waiting; and his acting as chairman of a committee appointed by +the representatives suggests his having forced the issue; it was resolved +that, should Mr. Mather be absent from the college, his duties should +devolve upon Samuel Willard, the vice-president; [Footnote: _History of +Harvard_, i. 111; _Court Rec._ vii. 172, 175.] and in March the committee +apparently reported the president's house to be in good condition. +Stimulated by this hint, the doctor went back to Cambridge and stayed a +little more than three months, when he wrote a characteristic note to +Stoughton, who was acting governor. "I promised the last General Court to +take care of the college until the Commencement. Accordingly I have been +residing in Cambridge these three months. I am determined (if the Lord +will) to return to Boston the next week, and no more return to reside in +Cambridge; for it is not reasonable to desire me to be (as, out of respect +to the public interest, I have been six months within this twelve) any +longer absent from my family.... I do therefore earnestly desire, that the +General Court would... think of another president.... It would be fatal to +the interest of religion, if a person disaffected to the order of the +Gospel, professed and practised in these churches, should preside over +this society. I know the General Assembly, out of their regard to the +interest of Christ, will take care to prevent it." [Footnote: _History of +Harvard_, i. 501, App. xvii.] Yet though he himself begged the legislature +to select his successor, in his inordinate vanity he did not dream of +being taken at his word; so when he was invited to meet both houses in the +council chamber he explained with perfect cheerfulness how "he was now +removed from Cambridge to Boston, and ... did not think fitt to continue +his residence there, ... but, if the court thought fit to desire he should +continue his care of the colledge as formerly, he would do so." [Footnote: +_Court Records_, vii. 229.] + +Increase Mather delighted to blazon himself as Christ's foremost champion +in the land. He predicted, and with reason, that should those who had been +already designated succeed him at Harvard, it would be fatal to that cause +to which his life was vowed. The alternative was presented of serving +himself or God, and to him it seemed unreasonable of his friends to expect +of him a choice. And yet when, as was his wont, he would describe himself +from the pulpit, as a refulgent beacon blazing before New England, he +would use such words as these: "Every ... one of a publick spirit ... will +deny himself as to his worldly interests, provided he may thereby promove +the welfare of his people.... He will not only deny himself, but if called +thereto, will encounter the greatest difficulties and dangers for the +publicks sake." [Footnote: Sermon, _The Publick Spirited Man_, pp. 7, 9.] + +The man had presumed too far; the world was wearying of him. On September +6, 1701, the government was transferred to Samuel Willard, the vice- +president, and Harvard was lost forever. [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, +i. 116.] + +No education is so baleful as the ecclesiastical, because it breeds the +belief in men that resistance to their will is not only a wrong to their +country and themselves, but a sacrilege toward God. The Mathers were now +to give an illustration of the degree to which the theocratic training +debauched the mind; and it is only necessary to observe that Samuel +Sewall, who tells the story, was educated for the ministry, and was +perhaps as staunch a conservative as there was in the province. + +1701, "October 20. Mr. Cotton Mather came to Mr. Wilkins's shop, and there +talked very sharply against me as if I had used his father worse than a +neger; spake so loud that people in the street might hear him.... I had +read in the morn Mr. Dod's saying; Sanctified afflictions are good +promotions. I found it now a cordial." + +"October 9. I sent Mr. Increase Mather a hanch of very good venison; I +hope in that I did not treat him as a negro." + +"October 2, 1701. I, with Major Walley and Capt. Samuel Checkly, speak +with Mr. Cotton Mather at Mr. Wilkins's.... I told him of his book of the +Law of Kindness for the Tongue, whether this were correspondent with that. +Whether correspondent with Christ's rule: + +"He said, having spoken to me before there was no need to speak to me +again; and so justified his reviling me behind my back. Charg'd the +council with lying, hypocrisy, tricks, and I know not what all. I ask'd +him if it were done with that meekness as it should; Answer'd, Yes. +Charg'd the council in general, and then shew'd my share, which was my +speech in council; viz. If Mr. Mather should goe to Cambridge again to +reside there with a resolution not to read the Scriptures, and expound in +the Hall: I fear the example of it will do more hurt than his going +thither will doe good. This speech I owned.... I ask'd him if I should +supose he had done somthing amiss in his church as an officer; whether it +would be well for me to exclaim against him in the street for it." + +"Thorsday October 23. Mr. Increase Mather said at Mr. Wilkins's, If I am a +servant of Jesus Christ, some great judgment will fall on Capt. Sewall, or +his family." [Footnote: Sewall's _Diary. Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, +vi. 43-45.] + +Had the patriarch been capable of a disinterested action, for the sake of +those principles he professed to love, he would have stopped Willard's +presidency, no matter at what personal cost, for he knew him to be no +better than a liberal in disguise, and he had already quarrelled bitterly +with him in 1697 when he was trying to eject Leverett. Sewall noted on +"Nov. 20.... Mr. Willard told me of the falling out between the president +and him about chusing fellows last Monday. Mr. Mather has sent him word, +he will never come to his house more till he give him satisfaction." +[Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, v. 464.] But they had in +reality separated years before; for when, in the witchcraft terror, +Willard was cried out upon, and had to look a shameful death in the face, +he learned to feel that the men who were willing to risk their lives to +save him were by no means public enemies. And so, as the vice-president +lived in Boston, the administration of the college was left very much to +Leverett and the Brattles, who were presently reinstated. + +Joseph Dudley was the son of that old governor who wrote the verses about +the cockatrice to be hatched by toleration, yet he inherited very little +of his father's disposition. He was bred for the ministry, and as the +career did not attract him, he turned to politics, in which he made a +brilliant opening. At first he was the hope of the high churchmen, but +they afterward learned to hate him with a rancor exceptional even toward +their enemies. And he gave them only too good a handle against him, for he +was guilty of the error of selling himself without reserve to the Andros +government. At the Revolution he suffered a long imprisonment, and +afterward went to England, where he passed most of William's reign. There +his ability soon brought him forward, he was made lieutenant-governor of +the Isle of Wight, was returned to Parliament, and at last appointed +governor by Queen Anne. Though Massachusetts owes a deeper debt to few of +her chief magistrates, there are few who have found scantier praise at the +hands of her historians. He was, it is true, an unscrupulous politician +and courtier, but his mind was broad and vigorous, his policy wise and +liberal, and at the moment of his power his influence was of inestimable +value. + +Among his other gifts, he was endowed with infinite tact, and when working +for his office he managed not only to conciliate the Mathers, but even to +induce the son to write a letter in his favor; and so when he arrived in +1702 they were both sedulous in their attentions in the expectation of +controlling him. A month had not passed, however, before this ominous +entry was made in the younger's diary:-- + +"June 16, 1702. I received a visit from Governour Dudley.... I said to him +... I should be content, I would approve it, ... if any one should say to +your excellency, 'By no means let any people have cause to say, that you +take all your measures from the two Mr. Mathers.' By the same rule I may +say without offence,' By no means let any people say, that you go by no +measures in your conduct, but Mr. Byfield's and Mr. Leverett's.'... The +WRETCH went unto those men and told them, that I had advised him to be no +ways advised by them; and inflamed them into an implacable rage against +me." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 137.] + +Leverett, on the contrary, now reached his zenith; from the house he +passed into the council and became one of Dudley's most trusted advisers. +The Mathers were no match for these two men, and few routs have been more +disastrous than theirs. Lord Bellomont's sudden death had put an end to +all hope of obtaining a charter by compromise with England, and no further +action had been taken, when, on September 12, 1707, Willard died. On the +28th of October the fellows met and chose John Leverett president of +Harvard College; and then came a demonstration which proved not only +Increase Mather's prescience, when he foretold how a liberal university +would kill a disciplined church, but which shows the mighty influence a +devoted teacher can have upon his age. Thirty-nine ministers addressed +Governor Dudley thus:-- + +"We have lately, with great joy, understood the great and early care that +our brethren, who have the present care and oversight of the college at +Cambridge, have taken, ... by their unanimous choice of Mr. John Leverett, +... to be the president ... Your Excellency personally knows Mr. Leverett +so well, that we shall say the less of him. However, we cannot but give +this testimony of our great affection to and esteem for him; that we are +abundantly satisfied ... of his religion, learning, and other excellent +accomplishments for that eminent service, a long experience of which we +had while he was senior fellow of that house; for that, under the wise and +faithful government of him, and the Rev. Mr. Brattle, of Cambridge, the +greatest part of the now rising ministry in New England were happily +educated; and we hope and promise ourselves, through the blessing of the +God of our fathers, to see religion and learning thrive and flourish in +that society, under Mr. Leverett's wise conduct and influence, as much as +ever yet it hath done." [Footnote: _History of Harvard_, i. 504, App. xx.] + +His salary was only one hundred and fifty pounds a year; but the man +worked for love of a great cause, and did not stop to haggle. Nor were he +and Dudley of the temper to leave a task half done. Undoubtedly at the +governor's instigation, a resolve was introduced into the Assembly +reviving the Act of 1650 by which the university had been incorporated, +and it is by the sanction of this lawless and masterly feat of +statesmanship that Harvard has been administered for almost two hundred +years. + +Sewall tells how Dudley went out in state to inaugurate his friend. "The +governour prepared a Latin speech for instalment of the president. Then +took the president by the hand and led him down into the hall;... The +governour sat with his back against a noble fire.... Then the governour +read his speech ... and mov'd the books in token of their delivery. Then +president made a short Latin speech, importing the difficulties +discouraging, and yet that he did accept: ... Clos'd with the hymn to the +Trinity. Had a very good dinner upon 3 or 4 tables.... Got home very well. +_Laus Deo._" [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth series, vi. 209.] + +Nor did Dudley fail to provide the new executive with fit support. By the +old law he had revived the corporation was reduced to seven; of this board +Leverett himself was one, and on the day he took his office both the +Brattles and Pemberton were also appointed. And more than this, when, a +few years later, Pemberton died, the arch-rebel, Benjamin Colman, was +chosen in his place. The liberal triumph was complete, and in looking back +through the vista of the past, there are few pages of our history more +strongly stamped with the native energy of the New England mind than this +brilliant capture of Harvard, by which the ancient cradle of bigotry and +superstition was made the home of American liberal thought. As for the +Mathers, when they found themselves beaten in fair fight, they conceived a +revenge so dastardly that Pemberton declared with much emotion he would +humble them, were he governor, though it cost him his head. Being unable +longer to withstand Dudley by honorable means, they tried to blast him by +charging him with felony. Their letters are too long to be reproduced in +full; but their purport may be guessed by the extracts given, and to this +day they remain choice gems of theocratic morality. + + * * * * * + +SIR, That I have had a singular respect for you, the Lord knows; but that +since your arrival to the government, my charitable expectations have been +greatly disappointed, I may not deny.... + +1st. I am afraid you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of bribery and +unrighteousness.... + +2d. I am afraid that you have not been true to the interest of your +country, as God (considering his marvellous dispensations towards you) and +his people have expected from you.... + +3d. I am afraid that you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of much +hypocrisy and falseness in the affair of the college.... + +4th. I am afraid that the guilt of innocent blood is still crying in the +ears of the Lord against you. I mean the blood of Leister and Milburn. My +Lord Bellamont said to me, that he was one of the committee of Parliament +who examined the matter; and that those men were not only murdered, but +barbarously murdered.... + +5th. I am afraid that the Lord is offended with you, in that you +ordinarily forsake the worship of God in the holy church to which you are +related, in the afternoon on the Lord's day, and after the publick +exercise, spend the whole time with some persons reputed very ungodly men. +I am sure your father did not so.... Would you choose to be with them or +such as they are in another world, unto which you are hastening?... I am +under pressures of conscience to bear a publick testimony without respect +of persons.... I trust in Christ that when I am gone, I shall obtain a +good report of my having been faithful before him. To his mercy I commend +you, and remain in him, + +Yours to serve, +I. MATHER. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 126.] +BOSTON, _January_ 20, 1707-8. +To the Governour. + + * * * * * + +BOSTON, _Jan_. 20, 1707-8. + +Sir, There have appeared such things in your conduct, that a just concern +for the welfare of your excellency seems to render it necessary, that you +should be _faithfully_ advised of them.... You will give me leave to +write nothing, but in a style, whereof an ignorant mob, to whom (as well +as the General Assembly) you think fit to communicate what _fragments_ you +please of my letters, must be _competent judges_. I must proceed +accordingly.... I weakly believed that the wicked and horrid things done +before the righteous Revolution, had been heartily repented of; and that +the rueful business at New York, which many illustrious persons ... called +a barbarous murder, ... had been considered with such a repentance, as +might save you and your family from any further storms of heaven for the +revenging of it.... Sir, your _snare_ has been that thing, the _hatred_ +whereof is most expressly required of the _ruler_, namely COVETOUSNESS. +When a governour shall make his government more an engine to enrich +himself, than to _befriend his country_, and shall by the unhallowed +hunger of riches be prevailed withal to do many wrong, base, dishonourable +things; it is a covetousness which will shut out from the kingdom of +heaven; and sometimes the _loss of a government on earth_ also is the +punishment of it.... The main channel of that covetousness has been the +reign of bribery, which you, sir, have set up in the land, where it was +hardly known, till you brought it in fashion.... And there lie affidavits +before the queen and council, which affirm that you have been guilty of it +in very many instances. I do also know that you have.... + +Sir, you are sensible that there is a judgment to come, wherein the +glorious Lord will demand, how far you aimed at serving him in your +government; ... how far you did in your government encourage those that +had most of his image upon them, or place your eyes on the wicked of the +land. Your _age_ and _health_, as well as other circumstances, greatly +invite you, sir, to entertain _awful thoughts_ of this matter, and +solicit the divine mercy through the only sacrifice.... Yet if the +troubles you brought on yourself should procure your abdication and recess +unto a more private condition, and your present _parasites_ forsake +you, as you _may be sure they will_, I should think it my duty to do +you all the good offices imaginable. + +Finally, I can forgive and forget injuries; and I hope I am somewhat ready +for _sunset_; the more for having discharged the duty of this letter.... + +Your humble and faithful servant, + +COTTON MATHER. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 128.] + + * * * * * + +But these venomous priests had tried their fangs upon a resolute and an +able man. Dudley shook them off like vermin. + + * * * * * + +GENTLEMEN, Yours of the 20th instant I received; and the contents, both as +to the matter and manner, astonish me to the last degree. I must think you +have extremely forgot your own station, as well as my character; otherwise +it had been impossible to have made such an open breach upon all the laws +of decency, honour, justice, and Christianity, as you have done in +treating me with an air of superiority and contempt, which would have been +greatly culpable towards a Christian of the lowest order, and is +insufferably rude toward one whom divine Providence has honoured with the +character of your governour.... + +Why, gentlemen, have you been so long silent? and suffered sin to lie upon +me years after years? You cannot pretend any new information as to the +main of your charge; for you have privately given your tongues a loose +upon these heads, I am well assured, when you thought you could serve +yourselves by exposing me. Surely murder, robberies, and other such +flaming immoralities were as reprovable then as now.... + +Really, gentlemen, conscience and religion are things too solemn, +venerable, or sacred, to be played with, or made a covering for actions so +disagreeable to the gospel, as these your endeavours to expose me and my +most faithful services to contempt; nay, to unhinge the government.... + +I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or sixty good +ministers, your equals in the province, have a share in the government of +the college, and advise thereabouts as well as yourselves, and I hope all +will be well.... + +I am your humble servant, + +J. DUDLEY. + +To the Reverend Doctors Mathers. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first +series, iii. 135.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE LAWYERS. + + +In the age of sacred caste the priest is likewise the law-maker and the +judge, and as succeeding generations of ecclesiastics slowly spin the +intricate web of their ceremonial code, they fail not to teach the people +that their holy ordinances were received of yore from divine lips by some +great prophet. This process is beautifully exemplified in the Old +Testament: though the complicated ritualism of Leviticus was always +reverently attributed to Moses, it was evidently the work of a much later +period; for the present purpose, however, its date is immaterial, it +suffices to follow the account the scribes thought fit to give in Kings. + +Long after the time of Solomon, Josiah one day sent to inquire about some +repairs then being made at the Temple, when suddenly, "Hilkiah the high +priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in +the house of the Lord." And he gave the book to Shaphan. + +"And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book... he +rent his clothes." And he was greatly alarmed for fear of the wrath of the +Lord, because their fathers had not hearkened unto the words of this book; +as indeed it was impossible they should, since they knew nothing about it. +So, to find out what was best to be done, he sent Hilkiah and others to +Huldah the prophetess, who told them that the wrath of the Lord was indeed +kindled, and he would bring evil unto the land; but, because Josiah's +heart had been tender, and he had humbled himself, and rent his clothes, +and wept when he had heard what was spoken, he should be gathered into his +grave in peace, and his eyes should not see the evil. [Footnote: 2 _Kings_ +xxii.] + +Such is an example of the process whereby a compilation of canonical +statutes is brought into practical operation by adroitly working upon the +superstitions fears of the civil magistrate; at an earlier period the +priests administer justice in person. + +Eli judged Israel forty years, and Samuel went on circuit all the days of +his life; "and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, +and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places." [Footnote: 1 +_Samuel_ iv., vii.] But, sooner or later, the time must come when a +soldier is absolutely necessary, both to fight foreign enemies and to +enforce obedience at home; and then some chief is set up whom the clergy +think they can control: thus Samuel anointed Saul to be captain over the +Lord's inheritance. [Footnote: 1 _Samuel_ x.] So long as the king is +submissive to authority all goes well, but any insubordination is promptly +punished; and this was the fate of Saul. On one occasion, when he was in +difficulty and Samuel happened to be away, he was so rash as to sacrifice +a burnt offering himself; his presumption offended the prophet, who +forthwith declared that his kingdom should not continue. [Footnote: 1 +_Samuel_ xiii.] After this the relations between them went from bad to +worse, and it was not long before the priest began to intrigue with David, +whom he presently anointed. [Footnote: _Idem_, xvi.] The end of it was +that Saul was defeated in battle, as Samuel's ghost foretold, for not +obeying "the voice of the Lord;" and after a struggle between the houses +of Saul and David, all the elders of Israel went to Hebron, where David +made a league with them, and in return they anointed him king. [Footnote: +2 _Samuel_ v.]. + +Thenceforward, or from the moment when a layman assumed control of the +temporal power, the Jewish chronicles teem with the sins and the disasters +of those rulers who did not walk in the way of their fathers, or who, in +other words, were restive under ecclesiastical dictation. + +So long as this period lasts, during which the sovereign is forced to obey +the behests of the priesthood, an arbitrary despotism is inevitable; nor +can the foundation of equal justice and civil liberty be laid until first +the military, and then the legal profession, has become distinct and +emancipated from clerical control, and jurisprudence has grown into the +recognized calling of a special class. + +These phenomena tend to explain the peculiar and original direction taken +by legal thought in Massachusetts, for they throw light upon the +influences under which her first generation of lawyers grew up, whose +destiny it was to impress upon her institutions the form they have ever +since retained. + +The traditions inherited from the theocracy were vicious in the extreme. +For ten years after the settlement the clergy and their aristocratic +allies stubbornly refused either to recognize the common law or to enact a +code; and when at length further resistance to the demands of the freemen +was impossible, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward drew up "The Body of Liberties," +which, though it perhaps sufficiently defined civil obligations, contained +this extraordinary provision concerning crimes:-- + +"No mans life shall be taken away, no mans honour or good name shall be +stayned, no mans person shall be arested, restrayned, banished, +dismembred, nor any wayes punished, ... unlesse it be by virtue or equitie +of some expresse law of the country waranting the same, ... or in case of +the defect of a law in any parteculer case by the word of God. And in +capitall cases, or in cases concerning dismembring or banishment according +to that word to be judged by the Generall Court." [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. +Coll._ third series, viii. 216] + +The whole of the subtle policy, whereof this legislation forms a part, +well repays attentive study. The relation of the church to the state was +not unlike that of Samuel toward Saul, for no public man could withstand +its attack, as was demonstrated by the fate of Vane. Much of the story has +been told already in describing the process whereby the clergy acquired a +substantial ascendency over the executive and legislature, through their +command of the constituencies which it was the labor of their lives to +fill with loyal retainers. Nothing therefore remains to be done but to +trace the means they employed to invest their order with judicial +attributes. + +From the outset lawyers were excluded from practice, so the magistrates +were nothing but common politicians who were nominated by the priests; +thus the bench was not only filled with trusty partisans without +professional training or instincts, but also, as they were elected +annually, they were practically removable at pleasure should they by any +chance rebel. Upon these points there is abundant evidence: "The +government was first by way of charter, which was chiefly managed by the +preachers, who by their power with the people made all the magistrates & +kept them so intirely under obedience, that they durst not act without +them. Soe that whensoever anything strange or unusuall was brought before +them, they would not determine the matter without consulting the +preachers, for should any bee soe sturdy as to presume to act of himself +without takeing advice & directions, he might bee sure of it, his +magistracy ended with the year. He could bee noe magistrate for them, that +was not approved and recommended from the pulpit, & he could expect little +recommendation who was not the preacher's most humble servant. Soe they +who treated, caressed & presented the preachers most, were the rulers & +magistrates among the people." [Footnote: An Account of the Colonies, +etc., Lambeth MSS. Perry's _Historical Collections_, iii. 48.] + +From the decisions of such a judiciary the only appeal lay to a popular +assembly, which could always be manipulated. Obviously, ecclesiastical +supervision over the ordinary course of litigation was amply provided for. +The adjudication of the more important controversies was reserved; for it +was expressly enacted that doubtful questions and the higher crimes should +be judged according to the Word of God. This master-stroke resembled +Hilkiah's when he imposed his book on Josiah; for on no point of +discipline were the ministers so emphatic as on the sacred and absolute +nature of their prerogative to interpret the Scriptures; nor did they fail +to impress upon the people that it was a sin akin to sacrilege for the +laity to dispute their exposition of the Bible. + +The deduction to be drawn from these premises is plain. The assembled +elders, acting in their advisory capacity, constituted a supreme tribunal +of last resort, wholly superior to carnal precedent, and capable of +evolving whatsoever decrees they deemed expedient from the depths of their +consciousness. [Footnote: See Gorton's case, Winthrop, ii. 146.] The +result exemplifies the precision with which a cause operating upon the +human mind is followed by its consequence; and the action of this +resistless force is painfully apparent in every state prosecution under +the Puritan Commonwealth, from Wheelwright's to Margaret Brewster's. The +absorption of sacerdotal, political, and juridical functions by a single +class produces an arbitrary despotism; and before judges greedy of earthly +dominion, flushed by the sense of power, unrestrained by rules of law or +evidence, and unopposed by a resolute and courageous bar, trials must +become little more than conventional forms, precursors of predetermined +punishments. + +After a period of about half a century these social conditions underwent +radical change, but traditions remained that deeply affected the +subsequent development of the people, and produced a marked bent of +thought in the lawyers who afterward wrote the Constitution. + +At the accession of William III. great progress had been made in the +science of colonial government; charters had been granted to Connecticut +and Rhode Island in 1662 and 1663, which, except in the survival of the +ancient and meaningless jargon of incorporation, had a decidedly modern +form. By these regular local representative governments were established +with full power of legislation, save in so far as limited by clauses +requiring conformity with the law of England; and they served their +purpose well, for both were kept in force many years after the Revolution, +Rhode Island's not having been superseded until 1843. + +The stubborn selfishness of the theocracy led to the adoption of a less +liberal policy toward Massachusetts. The nomination of the executive +officers was retained by the crown, and the governor was given very +substantial means of maintaining his authority; he could reject the +councillors elected by the Assembly; he appointed the judges and sheriffs +with the advice of this body, whose composition he could thus in a measure +control; he had a veto, and was commander-in-chief. Appeals to the king in +council were also provided for in personal actions where the matter in +difference exceeded three hundred pounds. + +On the other hand, the legislature made all appropriations, including +those for the salaries of the governor and judges, and was only limited in +its capacity to enact statutes by the clause invariably inserted in these +patents. + +This, therefore, is the precise moment when the modern theory of +constitutional limitations first appears defined; distinct from the +ancient corporate precedents. By a combination of circumstances also, a +sufficient sanction for the written law happened to be provided, thus +making the conception complete, for the tribunal of last resort was an +English court sustained by ample physical force; nevertheless the great +principle of coordinate departments of government was not yet understood, +and substantial relief against legislative usurpation had to be sought in +a foreign jurisdiction. To lawyers of our own time it is self-evident that +the restrictions of an organic code must be futile unless they are upheld +by a judiciary not only secure in tenure and pay, but removed as far as +may be from partisan passions. This truth, however, remained to be +discovered amid the abuses of the eighteenth century, for the position of +the provincial bench was unsatisfactory in the last degree. The justices +held their commissions at the king's pleasure, but their salaries were at +the mercy of the deputies; they were therefore subject to the caprice of +antagonistic masters. Nor was this the worst, for the charter did not +isolate the judicial office. Under the theocracy the policy of the clergy +had been to suppress the study of law in order to concentrate their own +power; hence no training was thought necessary for the magistrate, no +politician was considered incompetent to fill the judgment-seat because of +ignorance of his duty, and the office-hunter, having got his place by +influence, was deemed at liberty to use it as a point of vantage, from +whence to prosecute his chosen career. For example, the first chief +justice was Stoughton, who was appointed by Phips, probably at the +instigation of Increase Mather. As he was bred for the church, he could +have had no knowledge to recommend him, and his peculiar qualifications +were doubtless family connections and a narrow and bigoted mind; he was +also lieutenant-governor, a member of the council, and part of the time +commander-in-chief. + +Thomas Danforth was the senior associate, who is described by Sewall as "a +very good husbandman, and a very good Christian, and a good councillor;" +but his reputation as a jurist rested upon a spotless record, he having +been the most uncompromising of the high church managers. + +Wait Winthrop was a soldier, and was not only in the council, but so +active in public life that years afterward, while on the bench, he was set +up as a candidate for governor in opposition to Dudley. + +John Richards was a merchant, who had been sent to England as agent in +1681, just when the troubles came to a crisis; but the labors by which he +won the ermine seem plain enough, for he was bail for Increase Mather when +sued by Randolph, and was appointed by Phips. Samuel Sewall was brought up +to preach, took to politics on the conservative side, and was regularly +chosen to the council. + +This motley crew, who formed the first superior court, had but one trait +in common: they belonged to the clique who controlled the patronage; and +as it began so it continued to the end, for Hutchinson, the last chief +justice but one, was a merchant; yet he was also probate judge, +lieutenant-governor, councillor, and leader of the Tories. In so +intelligent a community such prostitution of the judicial office would +have been impossible but for the pernicious tradition that the civil +magistrate needed no special training to perform his duty, and was to take +his law from those who expounded the Word of God. + +And there was another inheritance, if possible, more baleful still. The +legislature, under the Puritan Commonwealth, had been the court of last +resort, and it was by no means forward to abandon its prerogative. It was +consequently always ready to listen to the complaints of suitors who +thought themselves aggrieved by the decisions of the regular tribunals, +and it was fond of altering the course of justice to make it conform to +what the members were pleased to call equity. This abuse finally took such +proportions that Hutchinson remonstrated vigorously in a speech to the +houses in 1772. + +"Much time is usually spent ... in considering petitions for new trials at +law, for leave to sell the real estates of persons deceased, by their +executors, or administrators, and the real estates of minors, by their +guardians. All such private business is properly cognizable by the +established judicatories.... A legislative body ... is extremely improper +for such decisions. The polity of the English government seldom admits of +the exercise of this executive and judiciary power by the legislature, and +I know of nothing special in the government of this province, to give +countenance to it." [Footnote: Mass. State Papers, 1765-1775, p. 314.] + +The disposition to interfere in what did not concern them was probably +aggravated by the presence of judicial politicians in the popular +assemblies, who seem to have been unable to resist the temptation of +intriguing to procure legislation to affect the litigation before them. +But the simplest way to illustrate the working of the system in all its +bearings will be to give a history of a celebrated case finally taken on +appeal to the Privy Council. The cause arose in Connecticut, it is true, +but the social condition of the two colonies was so similar as to make +this circumstance immaterial. + +Wait Winthrop, [Footnote: This report of Winthrop v. Lechmere is taken +from a MS. brief in the possession of Hon. R. C. Winthrop.] grandson of +the first John Winthrop, died intestate in 1717, leaving two children, +John, of New London, and Anne, wife of Thomas Lechmere, of Boston. The +father intended his son should take the land according to the family +tradition, and in pursuance of this purpose he put him in actual +possession of the Connecticut property in 1711; but he neglected to make a +will. + +By the common law of England real estate descended to the eldest son of +him who was last seised; but in 1699 the Assembly had passed a statute of +distribution, copied from a Massachusetts act, which directed the probate +court, after payment of debts, to make a "distribution of ... all the +residue ... of the real and personal estate by equal portions to and among +the children ... except the eldest son ... who shall have two shares." + +Here, then, at the threshold, the constitutional question had to be met, +as to whether the colonial enactment was not in conflict with the +restriction in the charter, and therefore void. Winthrop took out letters +of administration, and Lechmere became one of the sureties on his bond. +There was no disagreement about the personalty, but the son's claim to the +land was disputed, though suit was not brought against him till 1723. + +The litigation began in Boston, but was soon transferred to New London, +where, in July, 1724, Lechmere petitioned for an account. Winthrop +forthwith exhibited an inventory of the chattels, and moved that it should +be accepted as final; but the judge of probate declined so to rule. Then +Lechmere prayed for leave to sue on the bond in the name of the judge. His +prayer was granted, and he presently began no less than six actions in +different forms. + +Much time was consumed in disposing of technicalities, but at length two +test cases were brought before the superior court. One, being in substance +an action on the bond, was tried on the general issue, and the verdict was +for the defendant. The other was a writ of partition, wherein Anne was +described as co-heir with her brother. It was argued on demurrer to the +declaration, and the defendant again prevailed. + +Thus, so far as judicial decision could determine private rights to +property, Winthrop had established his title; but he represented the +unpopular side in the controversy, and his troubles were just beginning. +Christopher Christophers was the judge of probate, he was also a justice +of the superior court, and a member of the Assembly, of which body the +plaintiff's counsel was speaker. In April, 1725, when Lechmere had finally +exhausted his legal remedies, he addressed a petition to the legislature, +where he had this strong support, and which was not to meet till May, +stating the impossibility of obtaining relief by ordinary means, and +asking to have one of the judgments set aside and a new trial ordered, in +such form as to enable him to maintain his writ of partition, +notwithstanding the solemn decision against him by the court of last +resort. The defendant in vain protested that no error was alleged, no new +evidence produced, nor any matter of equity advanced which might justify +interference: the Assembly had determined to sustain the statute of +distributions, and it accordingly resolved that in cases of this +description relief ought to be given in probate by means of a new grant of +administration, to be executed according to the terms of the act. + +Winthrop was much alarmed, and with reason, for he saw at once the +intention of the legislature was to induce the judges to assume an +unprecedented jurisdiction; he therefore again offered his account, which +Christophers rejected, and he appealed from the decision. Lechmere also +applied for administration on behalf of his wife; and upon his prayer +being denied, pending a final disposition of Winthrop's cause, he too went +up. In March, 1725-6, final judgment was rendered, the judges holding that +both real and personal property should be inventoried. Winthrop thereupon +entered his appeal to the Privy Council, whose jurisdiction was +peremptorily denied. + +From what afterward took place, the inference is that Christophers shrank +from assuming alone so great a responsibility as now devolved upon him, +and persuaded his brethren to share it with him; for the superior court +proceeded to issue letters of administration to Lechmere, and took his +bond, drawn to themselves personally, for the faithful performance of his +trust. This was a most high-handed usurpation, for the function of the +higher tribunal in these matters was altogether appellate, it having +nothing to do with such executive business as taking bonds, which was the +province of the judge of probate. + +However this may have been, progress was thenceforward rapid. In April +Lechmere produced a schedule of debts, which have at this day a somewhat +suspicious look, and when they were allowed, he petitioned the legislature +for leave to sell land to pay them. Winthrop appeared and presented a +remonstrance, which "the Assembly, observing the common course of justice, +and the law of the colony being by application to the said Assembly, when +the judgments of the superior courts are grievous to any person... +dismissed," and immediately passed an act authorizing the sale, and making +the administrators' deed good to convey a title. + +Then Winthrop was so incautious as to make a final effort: he filed a +protest and caution against any illegal interference with his property +pending his appeal, declaring the action already taken to be contrary to +the common and statute law of England, and to the tenor of the charter. + +The Assembly being of the opinion that this protest "had in it a great +show of contempt," caused Winthrop to be arrested and brought to the bar; +there he not only defended his representations as reasonable, but avowed +his determination to lay all these proceedings before the king in council. +"This was treated as an insolent contemptuous and disorderly behaviour" in +the prisoner, "as declaring himself _coram non judice_, and putting +himself on a par with them, and impeaching their authoritys and the +charter; and his said protest was declared to be full of reflections, and +to terrifie so far as in him lay all the authorities established by the +charter." So they imprisoned him three days and fined him twenty pounds +for his contemptuous words. + +This leading case was afterward elaborately argued in London, and judgment +was entered for Winthrop, upon the ground that the statute of distribution +was in conflict with the charter and therefore void; but as Connecticut +resolutely refused to abandon its own policy, the utmost confusion +prevailed for seventeen years regarding the settlement of estates. During +all this time the local government made unremitting efforts to obtain +relief, and seems to have used pecuniary as well as legal arguments to +effect its purpose; at all events, it finally secured a majority in the +Privy Council, who reversed Winthrop v. Lechmere, in Clark v. Tousey. The +same question was raised in Massachusetts in 1737, in Phillips v. Savage, +but enough influence was brought to bear to prevent an adverse decision. +[Footnote: _Conn. Coll. Rec._ vii. 191, note; _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._ +1860-62, pp. 64-80, 165-171.] A possible distinction between the two cases +also lay in the fact that the Massachusetts act had received the royal +assent. + +The history of this litigation is interesting, not only as illustrating +the defects in provincial justice, but as showing the process by which the +conception of constitutional limitations became rooted in the minds of the +first generation of lawyers; and in point of fact, they were so thoroughly +impregnated with the theory as to incline to carry it to unwarrantable +lengths. For example, so justly eminent a counsel as James Otis, in his +great argument on the Writs of Assistance in 1761, solemnly maintained the +utterly untenable proposition that an act of Parliament "against the +Constitution is void: an act against natural equity is void: and if an act +of Parliament should be made, in the very words of this petition, it would +be void." [Footnote: Quincy's _Reports_, p. 474.] While so sound a man, +otherwise, as John Adams wrote, in 1776, to Mr. Justice Cushing: "You have +my hearty concurrence in telling the jury the nullity of acts of +Parliament.... I am determined to die of that opinion, let the _jus +gladii_ say what it will." [Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, ix. 390.] + +On looking back at Massachusetts as she was in the year 1700, permeated +with the evil theocratic traditions, without judges, teachers, or books, +the mind can hardly fail to be impressed with the unconquerable energy +which produced great jurists from such a soil; and yet in 1725 Jeremiah +Gridley graduated from Harvard, who may fairly be said to have been the +progenitor of a famous race; for long before the Revolution, men like +Prat, Otis, and John Adams could well have held their own before any court +of Common Law that ever sat. Such powerful counsel naturally felt a +contempt for the ignorant politicians who for the most part presided over +them, which they took little pains to hide. Ruggles one day had an aged +female witness who could find no chair and complained to him of +exhaustion. He told her to go and sit on the bench. His honor, in some +irritation, calling him to account, he replied: "I really thought that +place was made for old women." Hutchinson says of himself: "It was an +eyesore to some of the bar to have a person at the head of the law who had +not been bred to it." But he explains with perfect simplicity how his +occupation as chief justice "engaged his attention, and he applied his +intervals to reading the law." [Footnote: _Diary and Letters of Thomas +Hutchinson_, p. 66.] + +The British supremacy closed with the evacuation of Boston, and the colony +then became an independent state; yet in that singularly homogeneous +community, which had always been taught to regard their royal patents as +the bulwark of their liberties, no one seems to have seriously thought it +possible to dispense with a written instrument to serve as the basis of +the social organization. Accordingly, in 1779, the legislature called a +convention to draft a Constitution; and it was the good fortune of the +lawyers, who were chosen as delegates, to have an opportunity, not only to +correct those abuses from which the administration of justice had so long +suffered, but to carry into practical operation their favorite theory, of +the limitation of legislative power by the intervention of the courts. The +course pursued was precisely what might have been predicted of the +representatives of a progressive yet sagacious people. Taking the old +charter as the foundation whereon to build, they made only such +alterations as their past experience had shown them to be necessary; they +adopted no fanciful schemes, nor did they lightly depart from a system +with which they were acquainted; and their almost servile fidelity to +their precedent, wherever it could be folio wed, is shown by the following +extracts relating to the legislative and executive departments. + + +CHARTER. + + +And we doe further for vs our heires and successors give and grant to the +said governor and the Great and Generall Court or Assembly of our said +province or territory for the time being full power and authority from +time to time to make ordaine and establish all manner of wholsome and +reasonable orders laws statutes and ordinances directions and instructions +either with penalties or without (soe as the same be not repugnant or +contrary to the lawes of this our realme of England) as they shall judge +to be for the good and welfare of our said province or territory and for +the gouernment and ordering thereof and of the people inhabiting or who +shall inhabit the same and for the necessary support and defence of the +government thereof. + + +CONSTITUTION. + + +And further, full power and authority are hereby given and granted to the +said General Court, from time to time, to make, ordain, and establish, all +manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, and ordinances, +directions and instructions, either with penalties or without; so as the +same be not repugnant or contrary to this constitution, as they shall +judge to be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth, and for the +government and ordering thereof, and of the subjects of the same, and for +the necessary support and defence of the government thereof. + + +CHARTER. + + +The governour of our said province for the time being shall have authority +from time to time at his discretion to assemble and call together the +councillors or assistants of our said province for the time being and that +the said governour with the said assistants or councillors or seaven of +them at the least shall and may from time to time hold and keep a councill +for the ordering and directing the affaires of our said province. + + +CONSTITUTION. + + +The governour shall have authority, from time to time at his discretion, +to assemble and call together the councillors of this commonwealth for the +time being; and the governour, with the said councillors, or five of them +at least, shall, and may, from time to time, hold and keep a council, for +the ordering and directing the affairs of the commonwealth, agreeably to +the constitution and the laws of the land. + + * * * * * + +The clause concerning the council is curious as an instance of the +survival of an antiquated form. In the province the body had a use, for it +was a regular upper chamber; but when, in 1779, a senate was added, it +became an anomalous and meaningless third house; yet it is still regularly +elected, though its inutility is obvious. So long ago as 1814 John Adams +had become very tired of it; he then wrote: "This constitution, which +existed in my handwriting, made the governor annually elective, gave him +the executive power, shackled with a council, that I now wish was +annihilated." [Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, vi. 465.] + +On the other hand, the changes made are even more interesting, as an +example of the evolution of institutions. The antique document was +simplified by an orderly arrangement and division into sections; the +obsolete jargon of incorporation was eliminated, which had come down from +the mediaeval guilds; in the dispute with England the want of a bill of +rights had been severely felt, so one was prefixed; and then the +convention, probably out of regard to symmetry, blotted their otherwise +admirable work by creating an unnecessary senate. But viewed as a whole, +the grand original conception contained in this instrument, making it loom +up a landmark in history, is the theory of the three coordinate +departments in the administration of a democratic commonwealth, which has +ever since been received as the corner-stone of American constitutional +jurisprudence. + +Though this assertion may at first sight seem too sweeping, it is borne +out by the facts. During the first sessions of the Continental Congress no +question was more pressing than the reorganization of the colonies should +they renounce their allegiance to the crown, nor was there one in regard +to which the majority of the delegates were more at sea. From, their +peculiar education the New Englanders were exceptions to the general rule, +and John Adams in particular had thought out the problem in all its +details. His conversation so impressed some of his colleagues that he was +asked to put his views in a popular form. His first attempt was a short +letter to Richard Henry Lee, in November, 1775, in which he starts with +this proposition as fundamental: "A legislative, an executive, and a +judicial power comprehend the whole of what is meant and understood by +government. It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, +that the efforts in human nature towards tyranny can alone be checked and +restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution." +[Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, iv. 186.] + +His next tract, written in 1776 at the request of Wythe of Virginia, was +printed and widely circulated, and similar communications were sent in +reply to applications from New Jersey, North Carolina, and possibly other +States. The effect of this discussion is apparent in all of the ten +constitutions afterward drawn, with the exception of Pennsylvania's, which +was a failure; but none of them passed beyond the tentative or embryonic +stage. It therefore remained for Massachusetts to present the model, which +in its main features has not yet been superseded. + +A first attempt was deservedly rejected by the people, and the work was +not done until 1779; but the men who then met in convention at Cambridge +knew precisely what they meant to do. Though the executive and the +legislature were a direct inheritance, needing but little change, a deep +line was drawn between the three departments, and the theory of the +coordinate judiciary was first brought to its maturity within the +jurisdiction where it had been born. To attain this cherished object was +the chief labor of the delegates, for to the supreme court was to be +intrusted the dangerous task of grappling with the representative chambers +and enforcing the popular charter. Therefore they made the tenure of the +judges permanent; they secured their pay; to obtain impartiality they +excluded them from political office; while on the other hand they confined +the legislature within its proper sphere, to the end that the government +they created might be one of laws and not of men. + +The experiment has proved one of those memorable triumphs which mark an +era. Not only has the great conception of New England been accepted as the +fundamental principle of the Federal Union, but it has been adopted by +every separate State; and more than this, during the one hundred and six +years since the people of our Commonwealth wrote their Constitution, they +have had as large a measure of liberty and safety under the law as men +have ever known on earth. There is no jurisdiction in the world where +justice has been purer or more impartial; nor, probably, has there ever +been a community, of equal numbers, which has produced more numerous or +more splendid specimens of juridical and forensic talent. + +When freed from the incubus of the ecclesiastical oligarchy the range of +intellectual activity expanded, and in 1780 Massachusetts may be said, +without exaggeration, to have led the liberal movement of the world; for +not only had she won almost in perfection the three chief prizes of modern +civilization, liberty of speech, toleration, and equality before the law; +but she had succeeded in formulating those constitutional doctrines by +which, during the nineteenth century, popular self-government has reached +the highest efficiency it has ever yet attained. + +A single example, however, must suffice to show what the rise of the class +of lawyers had done for individual security and liberty in that +comparatively short interval of ninety years. + +Theocratic justice has been described; the trials of Wheelwright, and of +Anne Hutchinson, of Childe, of Holmes, and of Christison have been +related; and also the horrors perpetrated before that ghastly tribunal of +untrained bigots, which condemned the miserable witches undefended and +unheard. [Footnote: In England, throughout the eighteenth century, counsel +were allowed to speak in criminal trials, in cases of treason and +misdemeanor only. Nor is the conduct of Massachusetts in regard to witches +peculiar. Parallel atrocities might probably be adduced from the history +of every European nation, even though the procedure of the courts were +more regular than was that of the Commission of Phips. The relation of the +priest to the sorcerer is a most interesting phenomenon of social +development; but it would require a treatise by itself.] For the honor of +our Common wealth let the tale be told of a state prosecution after her +bar was formed. + +In 1768 the British Ministry saw fit to occupy Boston with a couple of +regiments, a force large enough to irritate, but too small to overawe, the +town. From the outset bad feeling prevailed between the citizens and the +soldiers, but as the time went on the exasperation increased, and early in +1770 that intense passion began to glow which precedes the outbreak of +civil war. Yet though there were daily brawls, no blood was shed until the +night of the 5th of March, when a rabble gathered about the sentry at the +custom-house in State Street. He became frightened and called for help, +Captain Preston turned out the guard, the mob pelted them, and they fired +on the people without warning. A terrific outbreak was averted by a +species of miracle, but the troops had to be withdrawn, and Preston and +his men were surrendered and indicted for murder. + +John Adams, who was a liberal, heart and soul, had just come into leading +practice. His young friend Josiah Quincy was even more deeply pledged to +the popular cause. On the morning after the massacre, Preston, doubtless +at Hutchinson's suggestion, sent Adams a guinea as a retaining fee, which, +though it seemed his utter ruin to accept, he did not dream of refusing. +What Quincy went through may be guessed from his correspondence with his +father. + + * * * * * + +BRAINTREE, March 22, 1770. + +MY DEAR SON, I am under great affliction at hearing the bitterest +reproaches uttered against you, for having become an advocate for those +criminals who are charged with the murder of their fellow-citizens. Good +God! Is it possible? I will not believe it. + +Just before I returned home from Boston, I knew, indeed, that on the day +those criminals were committed to prison, a sergeant had inquired for you +at your brother's house; but I had no apprehension that it was possible an +application would be made to you to undertake their defence. Since then I +have been told that you have actually engaged for Captain Preston; and I +have heard the severest reflections made upon the occasion, by men who had +just before manifested the highest esteem for you, as one destined to be a +saviour of your country. I must own to you, it has filled the bosom of +your aged and infirm parent with anxiety and distress, lest it should not +only prove true, but destructive of your reputation and interest; and I +repeat, I will not believe it, unless it be confirmed by your own mouth, +or under your own hand. + +Your anxious and distressed parent, + +JOSIAH QUINCY. + + * * * * * + +BOSTON, March 26, 1770. + +HONOURED SIR, I have little leisure, and less inclination, either to know +or to take notice of those ignorant slanderers who have dared to utter +their "bitter reproaches" in your hearing against me, for having become an +advocate for criminals charged with murder.... Before pouring their +reproaches into the ear of the aged and infirm, if they had been friends, +they would have surely spared a little reflection on the nature of an +attorney's oath and duty.... + +Let such be told, sir, that these criminals, charged with murder, are not +yet legally proved guilty, and therefore, however criminal, are entitled, +by the laws of God and man, to all legal counsel and aid; that my duty as +a man obliged me to undertake; that my duty as a lawyer strengthened the +obligation.... This and much more might be told with great truth; and I +dare affirm that you and this whole people will one day rejoice that I +became an advocate for the aforesaid "criminals," charged with the murder +of our fellow-citizens. + +I never harboured the expectation, nor any great desire, that all men +should speak well of me. To enquire my duty, and to do it, is my aim.... +When a plan of conduct is formed with an honest deliberation, neither +murmuring, slander, nor reproaches move.... There are honest men in all +sects,--I wish their approbation;--there are wicked bigots in all +parties,--I abhor them. + +I am, truly and affectionately, your son, + +JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr. [Footnote: _Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr._ pp. 26, 27.] + + * * * * * + +Many of the most respected citizens asserted and believed that the +soldiers had fired with premeditated malice, for the purpose of revenge; +and popular indignation was so deep and strong that even the judges were +inclined to shrink. As Hutchinson was acting governor at the time, the +chief responsibility fell on Benjamin Lynde, the senior associate, who was +by good fortune tolerably competent. He was the son of the elder Lynde, +who, with the exception of Paul Dudley, was the only provincial chief +justice worthy to be called a lawyer. + +The juries were of course drawn from among those men who afterward fought +at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and, like the presiding judge and the +counsel, they sympathized with the Revolutionary cause. Yet the prisoners +were patiently tried according to the law and the evidence; all that +skill, learning, and courage could do for them was done, the court charged +impartially, and the verdicts were, Not guilty. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE REVOLUTION. + + +Status appears to be that stage of civilisation whence advancing +communities emerge into the era of individual liberty. In its most perfect +development it takes the form of caste, and the presumption is the +movement toward caste begins upon the abandonment of a wandering life, and +varies in intensity with the environment and temperament of each race, the +feebler sinking into a state of equilibrium, when change by spontaneous +growth ceases to be perceptible. So long as the brain remains too feeble +for sustained original thought, and man therefore lacks the energy to +rebel against routine, this condition of existence must continue, and its +inevitable tendency is toward rigid distinctions of rank, and as a +necessary consequence toward the limitation of the range of ambition, by +the conventional lines dividing the occupations of the classes. Such at +least in a general way was the progression of the Jews, and in a less +marked degree of the barbarians who overran the Roman Empire. Yet even +these, when they acquired permanent abodes, gravitated strongly enough +toward caste to produce a social system based on monopoly and privilege +which lasted through many centuries. On the other hand, the democratic +formula of "equality before the law" best defines the modern conception of +human relations, and this maxim indicates a tone of thought directly the +converse of that which begot status; for whereas the one strove to raise +impassable barriers against free competition in the struggle for +existence, the ideal of the other is to offer the fullest scope for the +expansion of the faculties. + +As in Western Europe church and state alike rested upon the customs of the +Middle Ages, a change so fundamental must have wrought the overthrow, not +only of the vastest vested interests, but of the profoundest religious +prejudices, consequently, it could not have been accomplished peaceably; +and in point of fact the conservatives were routed in two terrific +outbreaks, whereof the second was the sequence of the first, though +following it after a considerable interval of time. By the wars of the +Reformation freedom of thought was gained; by the revolutions of the +eighteenth century, which swept away the incubus of feudalism, liberty of +action was won; and as Massachusetts had been colonized by the radicals of +the first insurrection, it was not unnatural that their children should +have led the second. So much may be readily conceded, and yet the +inherited tendency toward liberalism alone would have been insufficient to +have inspired the peculiar unanimity of sentiment which animated her +people in their resistance to Great Britain, and which perhaps was +stronger among her clergy, whose instincts regarding domestic affairs were +intensely conservative, than among any other portion of her population. +The reasons for this phenomenon are worthy of investigation, for they are +not only interesting in themselves, but they furnish an admirable +illustration of the irresistible action of antecedent and external causes +on the human mind. + +Under the Puritan Commonwealth the church gave distinction and power, and +therefore monopolized the ability which sought professional life; but +under the provincial government new careers were opened, and intellectual +activity began to flow in broader channels. John Adams illustrates the +effect produced by the changed environment; when only twenty he made this +suggestive entry in his Diary: "The following questions may be answered +some time or other, namely,--Where do we find a precept in the Gospel +requiring Ecclesiastical Synods? Convocations? Councils? Decrees? Creeds? +Confessions? Oaths? Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trumpery +that we find religion encumbered with in these days?" [Footnote: _Works +of J. Adams_, ii. 5.] + +Such men became lawyers, doctors, or merchants; theology ceased to occupy +their minds; and gradually the secular thought of New England grew to be +coincident with that of the other colonies. + +Throughout America the institutions favored individuality. No privileged +class existed among the whites. Under the careless rule of Great Britain +habits of personal liberty had taken root, which showed themselves in the +tenacity wherewith the people clung to their customs of self-government; +and so long as these usages were respected, under which they had always +lived, and which they believed to be as well established as Magna Charta, +there were not in all the king's broad dominions more loyal subjects than +men like Washington, Jefferson, and Jay. + +The generation now living can read the history of the Revolution +dispassionately, and to them it is growing clear that our ancestors were +technically in the wrong. For centuries Parliament has been theoretically +absolute; therefore it might constitutionally tax the colonies, or do +whatsoever else with them it pleased. Practically, however, it is self- +evident that the most perfect despotism must be limited by the extent to +which subjects will obey, and this is a matter of habit; rebellions, +therefore, are usually caused by the conservative instinct, represented by +the will of the sovereign, attempting to enforce obedience to customs +which a people have outgrown. + +In 1776, though the Middle Ages had passed, their traditions still +prevailed in Europe, and probably the antagonism between this survival of +a dead civilization and the modern democracy of America was too deep for +any arbitrament save trial by battle. Identically the same dispute had +arisen in England the century before, when the commons rebelled against +the prerogatives of the crown, and Cromwell fought like Washington, in the +cause of individual emancipation; but the movement in Great Britain was +too radical for the age, and was followed by a reaction whose force was +not spent when George III. came to the throne. + +Precedent is only inflexible among stationary races, and advancing nations +glory in their capacity for change; hence it is precisely those who have +led revolt successfully who have won the brightest fame. If, therefore, it +be admitted that they should rank among mankind's noblest benefactors, who +have risked their lives to win the freedom we enjoy, and which seems +destined to endure, there are few to whom posterity owes a deeper debt +than to our early statesmen; nor, judging their handiwork by the test of +time, have many lived who in genius have surpassed them. In the fourth +article of their Declaration of Rights, the Continental Congress resolved +that the colonists "are entitled to a free and exclusive power of +legislation in their several provincial legislatures, ... in all cases of +taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their +sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, +... we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of Parliament as +are, _bona fide_, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce." + +In 1778 a statute was passed, of which an English jurist wrote in 1885: +"One act, indeed, of the British Parliament might, looked at in the light +of history, claim a peculiar sanctity. It is certainly an enactment of +which the terms, we may safely predict, will never be repealed and the +spirit never be violated.... It provides that Parliament' will not impose +any duty, tax or assessment whatever, payable in any of his majesty's +colonies ... except only such duties as it may be expedient to impose for +the regulation of commerce.'" [Footnote: _The Law of the Constitution_, +Dicey, p. 62.] + +Thus is the memory of their grievance held sacred by the descendants of +their adversaries after the lapse of a century, and the local self- +government for which they pleaded has become the immutable policy of the +empire. The principles they laid down have been equally enduring, for they +proclaimed the equality of men before the law, the corner-stone of modern +civilization, and the Constitution they wrote still remains the +fundamental charter of the liberties of the republic of the United States. + +Nevertheless it remains true that secular liberalism alone could never +have produced the peculiarly acrimonious hostility to Great Britain +wherein Massachusetts stood preeminent, whose causes, if traced, will be +found imbedded at the very foundation of her social organization, and to +have been steadily in action ever since the settlement. Too little study +is given to ecclesiastical history, for probably nothing throws so much +light on certain phases of development; and particularly in the case of +this Commonwealth the impulses which moulded her destiny cannot be +understood unless the events that stimulated the passions of her clergy +are steadily kept in view. + +The early aggrandizement of her priests has been described; the inevitable +conflict with the law into which their ambition plunged them, and the +overthrow of the theocracy which resulted therefrom, have been related; +but the causes that kept alive the old exasperation with England +throughout the eighteenth century have not yet been told. + +The influence of men like Leverett and Colman tended to broaden the +church, but necessarily the process was slow; and there is no lack of +evidence that the majority of the ministers had little relish for the +toleration forced upon them by the second charter. It is not surprising, +therefore, to find the sectaries soon again driven to invoke the +protection of the king. + +Though doubtless some monastic orders have been vowed to poverty, it will +probably be generally conceded that a life of privation has not found +favor with divines as a class; and one of the earliest acts of the +provincial legislature bid each town choose an able and orthodox minister +to dispense the Word of God, who should be "suitably encouraged" by an +assessment on all inhabitants without distinction. This was for many years +a bitter grievance to the dissenting minority; but there was worse to +come; for sometimes the majority were heterodox, when pastors were elected +who gave great scandal to their evangelical brethren. Therefore, for the +prevention of "atheism, irreligion and prophaness," [Footnote: _Province +Laws_, 1715, c. 17.] it was enacted in 1775 that the justices of the +county should report any town without an orthodox minister, and thereupon +the General Court should settle a candidate recommended to them by the +ordained elders, and levy a special tax for his support. Nor could men +animated by the fervent piety which raised the Mathers to eminence in +their profession be expected to sit by tamely while blasphemers not only +worshipped openly, but refused to contribute to their incomes. + +"We expect no other but Satan will show his rage against us for our +endeavors to lessen his kingdom of darkness. He hath grievously afflicted +me (by God's permission) by infatuating or bewitching three or four who +live in a corner of my parish with Quaker notions, [who] now hold a +separate meeting by themselves." [Footnote: Rev. S. Danforth, 1720. +_Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, i.] + +The heretics, on their side, were filled with the same stubborn spirit +which had caused them "obstinately and proudly" to "persecute" Norton and +Endicott in earlier days. In 1722 godly preachers were settled at +Dartmouth and Tiverton, under the act, the majority of whose people were +Quakers and Baptists; and the Friends tell their own story in a petition +they presented to the crown in 1724: "That the said Joseph Anthony and +John Siffon were appointed assessors of the taxes for the said town of +Tiverton, and the said John Akin and said Philip Tabor for the town of +Dartmouth, but some of the said assessors being of the people called +Quakers, and others of them also dissenting from the Presbyterians and +Independents, and greatest part of the inhabitants of the said towns being +also Quakers or Anabaptists ... the said assessors duly assessed the other +taxes ... relating to the support of government ... yet they could not in +conscience assess any of the inhabitants of the said towns anything for or +towards the maintenance of any ministers. + +"That the said Joseph Anthony, John Siffon, John Akin and Philip Tabor, +(on pretence of their non-compliance with the said law) were on the 25th +of the month called May, 1723, committed to the jail aforesaid, where they +still continue prisoners under great sufferings and hardships both to +themselves and families, and where they must remain and die, if not +relieved by the king's royal clemancy and favour." [Footnote: Gough's +_Quakers_, iv. 222, 223.] + +A hearing was had upon this petition before the Privy Council, and in +June, 1724, an order was made directing the remission of the special taxes +and the release of the prisoners, who were accordingly liberated in +obedience thereto, after they had been incarcerated for thirteen months. + +The blow was felt to be so severe that the convention of ministers the +next May decided to convene a synod, and Dr. Cotton Mather was appointed +to draw up a petition to the legislature. + +"Considering the great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the +growth of many miscarriages, which we fear may have provoked the glorious +Lord in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress us.... It is +humbly desired that ... the ... churches ... meet by their pastors ... in +a synod, and from thence offer their advice upon.... What are the +miscarriages whereof we have reason to think the judgments of heaven, upon +us, call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the most +evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop unto those or the like +miscarriages." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ 3d ed. ii. 292, note.] + +The "evangelical expedient" was of course to revive the Cambridge +Platform; nor was such a scheme manifestly impossible, for the council +voted "that the synod ... will be agreeable to this board, and the +reverend ministers are desired to take their own time, for the said +assembly; and it is earnestly wished the issue thereof may be a happy +reformation." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Opinions_, i. 8.] In the house +of representatives this resolution was read and referred to the next +session. + +Meanwhile the Episcopalian clergymen of Boston, in much alarm, presented a +memorial to the General Court, remonstrating against the proposed measure; +but the council resolved "it contained an indecent reflection on the +proceedings of that board," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] and dismissed +it. Nothing discouraged, the remonstrants applied for protection to the +Bishop of London, who brought the matter to the attention of the law +officers of the crown. In their opinion to call a synod would be "a +contempt of his majesty's prerogative," and if "notwithstanding, ... they +shall continue to hold their assembly, ... the principal actors therein +[should] be prosecuted ... for a misdemeanour." [Footnote: Chalmers's +_Opinions_, p. 13.] + +Steadily and surely the coil was tightening which was destined to strangle +the established church of Massachusetts; but the resistance of the +ministers was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to the +outbreak of the Revolution. They believed it would be impossible for them +to remain a dominant priesthood if Episcopalianism, supported by the +patronage of the crown, should be allowed to take root in the land; yet +the Episcopalians represented conservatism, therefore they were forced to +become radicals, and the liberalism they taught was fated to destroy their +power. + +Meanwhile their sacred vineyard lay open to attack upon every side. At +Boston the royal governors went to King's Chapel and encouraged the use of +the liturgy, while an inroad was made into Connecticut from New York. +Early in the century a certain Colonel Heathcote organized a regular +system of invasion. He was a man eminently fitted for the task, being +filled with zeal for the conversion of dissenters. "I have the charity to +believe that, after having heard one of our ministers preach, they will +not look upon our church to be such a monster as she is represented; and +being convinced of some of the cheats, many of them may duly consider of +the sin of schism." [Footnote: Conn. _Church Documents_, i. 12.] + +"They have abundance of odd kind of laws, to prevent any dissenting ... +and endeavour to keep the people in as much blindness and unacquaintedness +with any other religion as possible, but in a more particular manner the +church, looking upon her as the most dangerous enemy they have to grapple +withal, and abundance of pains is taken to make the ignorant think as bad +as possible of her; and I really believe that more than half the people in +that government think our church to be little better than the Papist, and +they fail not to improve every little thing against us." [Footnote: Conn. +_Church Documents_, i. 9.] + +He had little liking for the elders, whom he described as being "as +absolute in their respective parishes as the Pope of Rome;" but he felt +kindly toward "the passive, obedient people, who dare not do otherwise +than obey." [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 10.] He explained the details of +his plan in his letters, and though he was aware of the difficulties, he +did not despair, his chief anxiety being to get a suitable missionary. He +finally chose the Rev. Mr. Muirson, and in 1706 began a series of +proselytizing tours. Nevertheless, the clergyman was wroth at the +treatment he received. + + * * * * * + +HONOR'D SIR, I entreat your acceptance of my most humble and hearty thanks +for the kind and Christian advice you were pleased to tender me in +relation to Connecticut.... I know that meekness and moderation is most +agreeable to the mind of our blessed Saviour, Christ, who himself was meek +and lowly, and would have all his followers to learn that lesson of +him.... I have duly considered all these things, and have carried myself +civilly and kindly to the Independent party, but they have ungratefully +resented my love; yet I will further consider the obligations that my holy +religion lays upon me, to forgive injuries and wrongs, and to return good +for their evil.... I desired only a liberty of conscience might be allowed +to the members of the National Church of England; which, notwithstanding, +they seemed unwilling to grant, and left no means untried, both foul and +fair, to prevent the settling the church among them; for one of their +justices came to my lodging and forewarned me, at my peril, from +preaching, telling me that I did an illegal thing in bringing in new ways +among them; the people were likewise threatened with prison, and a +forfeiture of £5 for coming to hear me. It will require more time than you +will willingly bestow on these lines to express how rigidly and severely +they treat our people, by taking their estates by distress, when they do +not willingly pay to support their ministers.... They tell our people that +they will not suffer the house of God to be defiled with idolatrous +worship and superstitious ceremonies.... They say the sign of the cross is +the mark of the beast and the sign of the devil, and that those who +receive it are given to the devil.... + +Honored sir, your most assured friend, ... + +GEO. MUIRSON. +RYE, _9th January_, 1707-8. [Footnote: _Conn. Church Documents_, i. 29.] + + * * * * * + +However, in spite of his difficulties, he was able to boast that "I have +... in one town, ... baptized about 32, young and old, and administered +the Holy Sacrament to 18, who never received it before. Each time I had a +numerous congregation." [Footnote: _Conn. Church Documents_, i. 23.] + +The foregoing correspondence was with the secretary of the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel, which had been incorporated in 1701, and had +presently afterward appointed Colonel Heathcote as their agent. They could +have chosen no more energetic representative, nor was it long before his +exertions began to bear fruit. In 1707 nineteen inhabitants of Stratford +sent a memorial to the Bishop of London, the forerunner of many to come. +"Because by reason of the said laws we are not able to support a minister, +we further pray your lordship may be pleased to send one over with a +missionary allowance from the honourable corporation, invested with full +power, so as that he may preach and we hear the blessed Gospel of Jesus +Christ, without molestation and terror." [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 34.] + +The Anglican prelates conceived it to be their duty to meddle with the +religious concerns of New England; therefore, by means of the organization +of the venerable society, they proceeded to plant a number of missions +throughout the country, whose missionaries were paid from the corporate +funds. Whatever opinion may be formed of the wisdom of a policy certain to +exasperate deeply so powerful and so revengeful a class as the +Congregational elders, there can be no doubt the Episcopalians achieved a +measure of success, in the last degree alarming, not only among the laity, +but among the clergy themselves. Mr. Reed, pastor of Stratford, was the +first to go over, and was of course deprived of his parish; his defection +was followed in 1722 by that of the rector of Yale and six other +ministers; and the Rev. Joseph Webb, who thought the end was near, wrote +in deep affliction to break the news to his friends in Boston. + + * * * * * + +FAIRFIELD, _Oct._ 2, 1722. + +REVEREND AND HONOURED SIR, The occasion of my now giving you the trouble +of these few lines is to me, and I presume to many others, melancholy +enough. You have perhaps heard before now, or will hear before these come +to hand, (I suppose) of the revolt of several persons of figure among us +unto the Church of England. There's the Rev. Mr. Cutler, rector of our +college, and Mr. Daniel Brown, the tutor thereof. There are also of +ordained ministers, pastors of several churches among us, the Rev. +Messieurs following, viz. John Hart of East Guilford, Samuel Whittlesey of +Wallingford, Jared Eliot of Kennelworth, ... Samuel Johnson of West-Haven, +and James Wetmore of North-Haven. They are the most of them reputed men of +considerable learning, and all of them of a virtuous and blameless +conversation. I apprehend the axe is hereby laid to the root of our civil +and sacred enjoyments; and a doleful gap opened for trouble and confusion +in our churches.... It is a very dark day with us; and we need pity, +prayers and counsel. [Footnote: Rev. Joseph Webb to Dr. C. Mather. +_Mass. Hist. Coll._ second series, ii. 131.] + + * * * * * + +From the tone in which these tidings were received it is plain that the +charity and humility of the golden age of Massachusetts were not yet +altogether extinct among her ecclesiastics. The ministers published their +"sentiments" in a document beginning as follows:-- + +"These new Episcopalians have declared their desire to introduce an +usurpation and a superstition into the church of God, clearly condemned in +the sacred Scriptures, which our loyalty and chastity to our Saviour, +obliges us to keep close unto; and a tyranny, from which the whole church, +which desires to be reformed, has groaned that it may be delivered.... The +scandalous conjunction of these unhappy men with the Papists is, perhaps, +more than what they have themselves duly considered." [Footnote: The +Sentiments of the Several Ministers in Boston. _Mass. Hist. Coll._ +second series, ii. 133.] In "A Faithful Relation" of what had happened it +was observed: "It has caused some indignation in them," (the people) "to +see the vile indignity cast by these cudweeds upon those excellent +servants of God, who were the leaders of the flock that followed our +Saviour into this wilderness: and upon the ministry of them, and their +successours, in which there has been seen for more than forescore years +together, the power and blessing of God for the salvation of many +thousands in the successive generations; with a success beyond what any of +them which set such an high value on the Episcopal ordination could ever +boast of!... It is a sensible addition, unto their horrour, to see the +horrid character of more than one or two, who have got themselves +qualified with Episcopal ordination, ... and come over as missionaries, +perhaps to serve scarce twenty families of such people, in a town of +several hundred families of Christians, better instructed than the very +missionaries: to think, that they must have no other ministers, but such +as are ordained, and ordered by them, who have sent over such tippling +sots unto them: instead of those pious and painful and faithful +instructors which they are now blessed withal!" [Footnote: "A Faithful +Relation of a Late Occurrence." _Mass. Hist. Coll._ second series, ii. +138, 139.] + +Only three of the converts had the fortitude to withstand the pressure to +which they were exposed: Cutler, Johnson, and Brown went to England for +ordination; there Brown died of small-pox, but Cutler returned to Boston +as a missionary, and as he, too, possessed a certain clerical aptitude for +forcible expression, it is fitting he should relate his own experiences:-- + +"I find that, in spite of malice and the basest arts our godly enemies can +easily stoop to, that the interest of the church grows and penetrates into +the very heart of this country.... This great town swarms with them +"(churchmen)," and we are so confident of our power and interest that, out +of four Parliament-men which this town sends to our General Assembly, the +church intends to put up for two, though I am not very sanguine about our +success in it.... My church grows faster than I expected, and, while it +doth so, I will not be mortified by all the lies and affronts they pelt me +with. My greatest difficulty ariseth from another quarter, and is owing to +the covetous and malicious spirit of a clergyman in this town, who, in +lying and villany, is a perfect overmatch for any dissenter that I know; +and, after all the odium that he contracted heretofore among them, is +fully reconciled and endeared to them by his falsehood to the church." +[Footnote: Dr. Timothy Cutler to Dr. Zachary Grey, April 2, 1725, Perry's +_Collection_, iii. 663.] + +Time did not tend to pacify the feud. There was no bishop in America, and +candidates had to be sent to England for ordination; nor without such an +official was it found possible to enforce due discipline; hence the +anxiety of Dr. Johnson, and, indeed, of all the Episcopalian clergy, to +have one appointed for the colonies was not unreasonable. Nevertheless, +the opposition they met with was acrimonious in the extreme, so much so as +to make them hostile to the charters themselves, which they thought +sheltered their adversaries. + +"The king, by his instructions to our governor, demands a salary; and if +he punishes our obstinacy by vacating our charter, I shall think it an +eminent blessing of his illustrious reign." [Footnote: Dr. Cutler to Dr. +Grey, April 20, 1731. Perry's _Coll._ iii.] + +Whitefield came in 1740, and the tumult of the great revival roused fresh +animosities. + +"When Mr. Whitefield first arrived here the whole town was alarmed.... The +conventicles were crowded; but he chose rather our Common, where +multitudes might see him in all his awful postures; besides that, in one +crowded conventicle, before he came in, six were killed in a fright. The +fellow treated the most venerable with an air of superiority. But he +forever lashed and anathematized the Church of England; and that was +enough. + +"After him came one Tennent, a monster! impudent and noisy, and told them +all they were damn'd, damn'd, damn'd! This charmed them, and in the most +dreadful winter that i ever saw, people wallowed in the snow night and day +for the benefit of his beastly brayings; and many ended their days under +these fatigues. Both of them carried more money out of these parts than +the poor could be thankful for." [Footnote: Dr. Cutler to Dr. Grey, Sept. +24, 1743. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 676.] + +The excitement was followed by its natural reaction conversions became +numerous, and the unevangelical temper this bred between the rival +clergymen is painfully apparent in a correspondence wherein Dr. Johnson +became involved. Mr. Gold, the Congregationalist minister of Stratford, +whom he called a dissenter, had said of him "that he was a thief, and +robber of churches, and had no business in the place; that his church +doors stood open to all mischief and wickedness, and other words of like +import." He therefore wrote to defend himself: "As to my having no +business here, I will only say that to me it appears most evident that I +have as much business here at least as you have,--being appointed by a +society in England incorporated by royal charter to provide ministers for +the church people in America; nor does his majesty allow of any +establishment here, exclusive of the church, much less of anything that +should preclude the society he has incorporated from providing and sending +ministers to the church people in these countries." [Footnote: _Life of +Dr. Samuel Johnson_, p. 108.] To which Mr. Gold replied:-- + + * * * * * + +As for the pleas which you make for Col. Lewis, and others that have broke +away disorderly from our church, I think there's neither weight nor truth +in them; nor do I believe such poor shifts will stand them nor you in any +stead in the awful day of account; and as for your saying that as bad as +you are yet you lie open to conviction,--for my part I find no reason to +think you do, seeing you are so free and full in denying plain matters of +fact.... I don't think it worth my while to say anything further in the +affair, and as you began the controversy against rule or justice, so I +hope modesty will induce you to desist; and do assure you that if you see +cause to make any more replies, my purpose is, without reading of them, to +put them under the pot among my other thorns and there let one flame +quench the matter.... HEZ. GOLD. + +STRATFORD, _July_ 21, 1741. [Footnote: _Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson,_ +p. 111.] + + * * * * * + +And so by an obvious sequence of cause and effect it came to pass that the +clergy were early ripe for rebellion, and only awaited their opportunity. +Nor could it have been otherwise. An autocratic priesthood had seen their +order stripped of its privileges one by one, until nothing remained but +their moral empire over their parishioners, and then at last not only did +an association of rival ecclesiastics send over emissaries to steal away +their people, but they proposed to establish a bishop in the land. The +thought was wormwood. He would be rich, he would live in a palace, he +would be supported by the patronage and pomp of the royal governors; the +imposing ceremonial would become fashionable; and in imagination they +already saw themselves reduced to the humble position of dissenters in +their own kingdom. Jonathan Mayhew was called a heretic by his more +conservative brethren, but he was one of the ablest and the most acrid of +the Boston ministers. He took little pains to disguise his feelings, and +so early as 1750 he preached a sermon, which was once famous, wherein he +told his hearers that it was their duty to oppose the encroachment of the +British prelates, if necessary, by force. + +"Suppose, then, it was allowed, in general, that the clergy were a useful +order of men; that they ought to be esteemed very highly in love for their +work's sake, and to be decently supported by those they serve, 'the +laborer being worthy of his reward.' Suppose, further, that a number of +reverend and right reverend drones, who worked not; who preached, perhaps, +but once a year, and then not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the divine +right of tithes, the dignity of their office as ambassadors of Christ, ... +suppose such men as these, spending their lives in effeminacy, luxury, and +idleness; ... suppose this should be the case, ... would not everybody be +astonished at such insolence, injustice, and impiety?" [Footnote: +"Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission," Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton's +_American Pulpit_, pp. 71, 72.] "Civil tyranny is usually small in its +beginning, like 'the drop of a bucket,' till at length, like a mighty +torrent... it bears down all before it.... Thus it is as to ecclesiastical +tyranny also--the most cruel, intolerable, and impious of any. From small +beginnings, 'it exalts itself above all that is called God and that is +worshipped.' People have no security against being unmercifully priest- +ridden but by keeping all imperious bishops, and other clergymen who love +to 'lord it over God's heritage,' from getting their foot into the stirrup +at all.... For which reason it becomes every friend to truth and human +kind, every lover of God and the Christian religion, to bear a part in +opposing this hateful monster." [Footnote: Preface to "A Discourse +concerning Unlimited Submission," Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton's _Amer. +Pulpit_, pp. 50, 51.] + +Between these envenomed priests peace was impossible; each year brought +with it some new aggression which added fuel to the flame. In 1763, Mr. +Apthorp, missionary at Cambridge, published a pamphlet, in answer, as he +explained, to "some anonymous libels which appeared in our newspapers ... +grossly reflecting on the society & their missionaries, & in particular on +the mission at Cambridge." [Footnote: East Apthorp to the Secretary, June +25, 1763. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 500.] + +By this time the passions of the Congregationalist divines had reached a +point when words seemed hardly adequate to give them expression. The Rev. +Ezra Stiles wrote to Dr. Mayhew in these terms:-- + +"Shall we be hushed into silence, by those whose tender mercies are +cruelty; and who, notwithstanding their pretence of moderation, wish the +subversion of our churches, and are combined, in united, steady and +vigorous effort, by all the arts of subtlety and intreague, for our ruin?" +[Footnote: Dr. Ezra Stiles to Dr. Mayhew, 1763. _Life of Mayhew_, p. 246.] + +Mr. Stiles need have felt no anxiety, for, according to Mr. Apthorp, "this +occasion was greedily seized, ... by a dissenting minister of Boston, a +man of a singular character, of good abilities, but of a turbulent & +contentious disposition, at variance, not only with the Church of England, +but in the essential doctrines of religion, with most of his own party." +[Footnote: East Apthorp to the Secretary. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 500.] +He alluded to a tract written by Dr. Mayhew in answer to his pamphlet, in +which he reproduced the charge made by Mr. Stiles: "The society have long +had a formal design to dissolve and root out all our New-England churches; +or, in other words, to reduce them all to the Episcopal form." [Footnote: +_Observations on the Charter, etc. of the Society_, p. 107.] And +withal he clothed his thoughts in language which angered Mr. Caner:-- + +"A few days after, Mr. Apthorpe published the enclosed pamphlet, in +vindication of the institution and conduct of the society, which +occasioned the ungenteel reflections which your grace will find in Dr. +Mayhew's pamphlet, in which, not content with the personal abuse of Mr. +Apthorpe, he has insulted the missions in general, the society, the Church +of England, in short, the whole rational establishment, in so dirty a +manner, that it seems to be below the character of a gentleman to enter +into controversy with him. In most of his sermons, of which he published a +great number, he introduces some malicious invectives against the society +or the Church of England, and if at any time the most candid and gentle +remarks are made upon such abuse, he breaks forth into such bitter and +scurrilous personal reflections, that in truth no one cares to have +anything to do with him. His doctrinal principles, which seem chiefly +copied from Lord Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, &c., are so offensive to the +generalty of the dissenting ministers, that they refuse to admit him a +member of their association, yet they appear to be pleased with his +abusing the Church of England." [Footnote: Rev. Mr. Caner to the +Archbishop of Canterbury, June 8, 1763. Perry's _Coll._ iii. 497, +498.] + +The Archbishop of Canterbury himself now interfered, and tried to calm the +tumult by a candid and dignified reply to Dr. Mayhew, in which he labored +to show the harmlessness of the proposed bishopric. + +"Therefore it is desired, that two or more bishops may be appointed for +them, to reside where his majesty shall think most convenient [not in New +England, but in one of the Episcopalian colonies]; that they may have no +concern in the least with any person who do not profess themselves to be +of the Church of England, but may ordain ministers for such as do; ... and +take such oversight of the Episcopal clergy, as the Bishop of London's +commissaries in those parts have been empowered to take, and have taken, +without offence. But it is not desired in the least that they should hold +courts ... or be vested with any authority, now exercised either by +provincial governors or subordinate magistrates, or infringe or diminish +any privileges and liberties enjoyed by any of the laity, even of our own +communion." [Footnote: _An Answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations_, etc. +Dr. Secker, p. 51.] + +But the archbishop should have known that the passions of rival +ecclesiastics are not to be allayed. The Episcopalians had become so +exasperated as to want nothing less than the overthrow of popular +government. Dr. Johnson wrote in 1763: "Is there then nothing more that +can be done either for obtaining bishops or demolishing these pernicious +charter governments, and reducing them all to one form in immediate +dependence on the king? I cannot help calling them pernicious, for they +are indeed so as well for the best good of the people themselves as for +the interests of true religion." [Footnote: _Life of Samuel Johnson_, +p. 279.] + +The Congregationalists, on the other hand, inflamed with jealousy, were +ripe for rebellion. On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act became law, and the +clergy threw themselves into the combat with characteristic violence. +Oliver had been appointed distributor, but his house was attacked and he +was forced to resign. The next evening but one the rabble visited +Hutchinson, who was lieutenant-governor, and broke his windows; and there +was general fear of further rioting. In the midst of this crisis., on the +25th of August, Dr. Mayhew preached a sermon in the West Meeting-house +from the text, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." +[Footnote: _Galatians_ v. 12.] I That this discourse was in fact an +incendiary harangue is demonstrated by what followed. At nightfall on the +26th a fierce mob forced the cellars of the comptroller of the customs, +and got drunk on the spirits stored within; then they went on to +Hutchinson's dwelling: "The doors were immediately split to pieces with +broad axes, and a way made there, and at the windows, for the entry of the +mob; which poured in, and filled, in an instant, every room.... They +continued their possession until daylight; destroyed ... everything ... +except the walls, ... and had begun to break away the brick-work." +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ iii. 124.] His irreplaceable collection of +original papers was thrown into the street; and when a bystander +interfered in the hope of saving some of them, "answer was made, that it +had been resolved to destroy everything in the house; and such resolve +should be carried to effect." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 125, note.] Malice so +bitter bears the peculiar ecclesiastical tinge, and is explained by the +confession of one of the ring-leaders, who, when subsequently arrested, +said he had been excited by the sermon, "and that he thought he was doing +God service." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 123.] + +The outbreak met with general condemnation, and Dr. Mayhew, who saw he had +gone too far, tried to excuse himself:-- + +"SIR,--I take the freedom to write you a few lines, by way of condolence, +on account of the almost unparalleled outrages committed at your house +last evening; and the great damage which I understand you have suffered +thereby. God is my witness, that, from the bottom of my heart, I detest +these proceedings; that I am most sincerely grieved at them, and have a +deep sympathy with you and your distressed family on this occasion." +[Footnote: Mayhew to Hutchinson. _Life of Mayhew_, p. 420.] + +Nevertheless, the repeal of the Stamp Act, which pacified the laity, left +the clergy as hot as ever; and so early as 1768, when no one outside of +the inmost ecclesiastical circle yet dreamed of independence, but when the +Rev. Andrew Eliot thought the erection of the bishopric was near, he +frankly told Hollis he anticipated war. + +"You will see by this pamphlet, how we are cajoled. A colony bishop is to +be a more innocent creature than ever a bishop was, since diocesan bishops +were introduced to lord it over God's heritage. ... Can the A-b-p, and his +tools, think to impose on the colonists by these artful +representations.... The people of New England are greatly alarmed; the +arrival of a bishop would raise them as much as any one thing.... Our +General Court is now sitting. I have hinted to some of the members, that +it will be proper for them to express their fears of the setting up an +hierarchy here. I am well assured a motion will be made to this +purpose.... I may be mistaken, but I am persuaded the dispute between +Great Britain and her colonies will never be _amicably_ settled.... I +sent you a few hasty remarks on the A-b-p's sermon. ... I am more and more +convinced of the meanness, art--if he was not in so high a station, I +should say, falsehood--of that Arch-Pr-l-te." [Footnote: Thomas Seeker. +Andrew Eliot to Thomas Hollis, Jan. 5, 1768. _Mass. Hist. Coll._ +fourth series, iv. 422.] An established priesthood is naturally the +firmest support of despotism; but the course of events made that of +Massachusetts revolutionary. This was a social factor whose importance it +is hard to overestimate; for though the influence of the elders had much +declined during the eighteenth century, their political power was still +immense; and it is impossible to measure the degree in which the drift of +feeling toward independence would have been arrested had they been +thoroughly loyal. At all events, the evidence tends to show that it is +most improbable the first blood would have been shed in the streets of +Boston had it been the policy of Great Britain to conciliate the +Congregational Church; if, for example, the liberals had been forced to +meet the issue of taxation upon a statute designed to raise a revenue for +the maintenance of the evangelical clergy. How potent an ally King George +lost by incurring their hatred may be judged by the devotion of the +Episcopalian pastors, many of whom were of the same blood as their +Calvinistic brethren, often, like Cutler and Johnson, converts. They all +showed the same intensity of feeling; all were Tories, not one wavered; +and they boasted that they were long able to hold their parishioners in +check. + +In September, 1765, those of Connecticut wrote to the secretary, "although +the commotions and disaffection in this country are very great at present, +relative to what they call the imposition of stamp duties, yet ... the +people of the Church of England, in general, in this colony, as we hear, +... and those, in particular, under our respective charges, are of a +contrary temper and conduct; esteeming it nothing short of rebellion to +speak evil of dignities, and to avow opposition to this last act of +Parliament.... + +"We think it our incumbent duty to warn our hearers, in particular, of the +unreasonableness and wickedness of their taking the least part in any +tumult or opposition to his majesty's acts, and we have obvious reasons +for the fullest persuasion, that they will steadily behave themselves as +true and faithful subjects to his majesty's person and government." +[Footnote: _Conn. Church Doc._ ii. 81.] + +Even so late as April, 1775, Mr. Caner, at Boston, felt justified in +making a very similar report to the society: "Our clergy have in the midst +of these confusions behaved I think with remarkable prudence. None of them +have been hindered from exercising the duties of their office since Mr. +Peters, tho' many of them have been much threat'ned; and as their people +have for the most part remained firm and steadfast in their loyalty and +attachment to goverment, the clergy feel themselves supported by a +conscious satisfaction that their labors have not been in vain." +[Footnote: Perry's _Coll._ iii. 579.] + +Nor did they shrink because of danger from setting an example of passive +obedience to their congregations. The Rev. Dr. Beach graduated at Yale in +1721 and became the Congregational pastor of Newtown. He was afterward +converted, and during the war was forbidden to read the prayers for the +royal family; but he replied, "that he would do his duty, preach and pray +for the king, till the rebels cut out his tongue." [Footnote: _O'Callaghan +Documents_, iii. 1053, 8vo ed.] + +In estimating the energy of a social force, such as ecclesiasticism, the +indirect are often more striking than the direct manifestations of power, +and this is eminently true of Massachusetts; for, notwithstanding her +ministers had always been astute and indefatigable politicians, their +greatest triumphs were invariably won by some layman whose mind they had +moulded and whom they put forward as their champion. From John Winthrop, +who was the first, an almost unbroken line of these redoubtable partisans +stretched down to the Revolution, where it ended with him who is perhaps +the most celebrated of all. + +Samuel Adams has been called the last of the Puritans. He was indeed the +incarnation of those qualities which led to eminence under the theocracy. +A rigid Calvinist, reticent, cool, and brave, matchless in intrigue, and +tireless in purpose, his cause was always holy, and therefore sanctified +the means. + +Professor Hosmer thus describes him: "It was, however, as a manager of men +that Samuel Adams was greatest. Such a master of the methods by which a +town-meeting may be swayed, the world has never seen. On the best of terms +with the people, the shipyard men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as +the merchants and ministers, he knew precisely what springs to touch. He +was the prince of canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which his +father was the inventor.... As to his tact, was it ever surpassed?" +[Footnote: Hosmer's _Samuel Adams_, p. 363.] A bigot in religion, he +had the flexibility of a Jesuit; and though he abhorred Episcopalians, he +proposed that Mr. Duché should make the opening prayer for Congress, in +the hope of soothing the southern members. Strict in all ceremonial +observances, he was loose in money matters; yet even here he stood within +the pale, for Dr. Cotton Mather was looser, [Footnote: See Letter on +behalf of Dr. Cotton Mather to Sewall, _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth +series, ii. 122.] who was the most orthodox of divines. + +The clergy instinctively clave to him, and gave him their fullest +confidence. When there was any important work to do they went to him, and +he never failed them. On January 5, 1768, the Rev. Dr. Eliot told Hollis +he had suggested to some of the members of the legislature to remonstrate +against the bishops. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, iv. +422.] A week later the celebrated letter of instructions of the house +to the agent, De Berdt, was reported, which, was written by Adams; and it +is interesting to observe how, in the midst of a most vigorous protest on +the subject, he broke out: "We hope in God such an establishment will +never take place in America, and we desire you would strenuously oppose +it." [Footnote: _Mass. State Papers_, 1765-1775, p. 132.] + +The subtle but unmistakable flavor of ecclesiasticism pervades his whole +long agitation. He handled the newspapers with infinite skill, and the way +in which he used the toleration granted the Canadian Catholics after the +conquest, as a goad wherewith to inflame the dying Puritan fanaticism, was +worthy of St. Ignatius. He moved for the committee who reported the +resolutions of the town of Boston in 1772; his spirit inspired them, and +in these also the grievance of Episcopacy plays a large part. How strong +his prejudices were may be gathered from a few words: "We think therefore +that every design for establishing ... a bishop in this province, is a +design both against our civil and religious rights." [Footnote: _Votes +and Proceedings of Boston_, Nov. 20, 1772, p. 28.] + +The liberals, as loyal subjects of Great Britain, grieved over her policy +as the direst of misfortunes, which indeed they might be driven to resist, +but which they strove to modify. + +Washington wrote in 1774: "I am well satisfied, ... that it is the ardent +wish of the warmest advocates for liberty, that peace and tranquillity, +upon constitutional grounds, may be restored, and the horrors of civil +discord prevented." [Footnote: Washington to Mackenzie. _Washington's +Writings_, ii. 402.] Jefferson affirmed: "Before the commencement of +hostilities ... I never had heard a whisper of a disposition to separate +from Great Britain; and after that, its possibility was contemplated with +affliction by all." While John Adams solemnly declared: "For my own part, +there was not a moment during the Revolution, when I would not have given +everything I possessed for a restoration to the state of things before the +contest began, provided we could have had a sufficient security for its +continuance." [Footnote: Note of Sparks, _Washington's Writings_, ii. +501.] + +In such feelings Samuel Adams had no share. In each renewed aggression he +saw the error of his natural enemy, which brought ever nearer the +realization of the dream of independence he had inherited from the past; +for the same fierce passion burned within him that had made Endicott +mutilate his flag, and Leverett read his king's letter with his hat on; +and the guns of Lexington were music in his ears. + +He was not a lawyer, nor a statesman, in the true meaning of the word, but +he was a consummate agitator; and if this be remembered, his career +becomes clear. When he conceived the idea of the possibility of +independence is uncertain; probably soon after the passage of the Stamp +Act, but the evidence is strong that so early as 1768 he had deliberately +resolved to precipitate some catastrophe which would make reconciliation +impossible, and obviously an armed collision would have suited his purpose +best. + +Troops were then first ordered to Boston, and at one moment he was tempted +to cause their landing to be resisted. An old affidavit is still extant, +presumably truthful enough, which brings him vividly before the mind as he +went about the town lashing up the people. + +"Mr. Samuel Adams ... happened to join the same party ... trembling and in +great agitation.... The informant heard the said Samuel Adams then say ... +'If you are men, behave like men. Let us take up arms immediately, and be +free, and seize all the king's officers. We shall have thirty thousand men +to join us from the country.' ... And before the arrival of the troops ... +at the house of the informant ... the said Samuel Adams said: 'We will not +submit to any tax, nor become slaves.... The country was first settled by +our ancestors, therefore we are free and want no king.' ... The informant +further sayeth, that about a fortnight before the troops arrived, the +aforesaid Samuel Adams, being at the house of the informant, the informant +asked him what he thought of the times. The said Adams answered, with +great alertness, that, on lighting the beacon, we should be joined with +thirty thousand men from the country with their knapsacks and bayonets +fixed, and added, 'We will destroy every soldier that dare put his foot on +shore. His majesty has no right to send troops here to invade the country, +and I look upon them as foreign enemies!'" [Footnote: Wells's _Samuel +Adams_, i. 210, 211.] + +Maturer reflection must have convinced him his design was impracticable, +for he certainly abandoned it, and the two regiments disembarked in peace; +but their position was unfortunate. Together they were barely a thousand +strong, and were completely at the mercy of the populous and hostile +province they had been sent to awe. + +The temptation to a bold and unscrupulous revolutionary leader must have +been intense. Apparently it needed but a spark to cause an explosion; the +rabble of Boston could be fierce and dangerous when roused, as had been +proved by the sack of Hutchinson's house; and if the soldiers could be +goaded into firing on the citizens, the chances were they would be +annihilated in the rising which would follow, when a rupture would be +inevitable. But even supposing the militia abstained from participating in +the outbreak, and the tumult were suppressed, the indignation at the +slaughter would be deep enough to sustain him in making demands which the +government could not grant. + +Hutchinson and the English officers understood the danger, and for many +months the discipline was exemplary, but precautions were futile. Though +he knew full well how to be all things to all men, the natural +affiliations of Samuel Adams were with the clergy and the mob, and in the +ship-yards and rope-walks he reigned supreme. Nor was he of a temper to +shrink from using to the utmost the opportunity his adversaries had put in +his hands, and he forthwith began a series of inflammatory appeals in the +newspapers, whereof this is a specimen: "And are the inhabitants of this +town still to be affronted in the night as well as the day by soldiers +arm'd with muskets and fix'd bayonets?... Will the spirits of people, as +yet unsubdued by tyranny, unaw'd by the menaces of arbitary power, submit +to be govern'd by military force?" [Footnote: Vindex, _Boston Gazette_, +Dec. 5, 1768.] + +In 1770 it was notorious that "endeavors had been systematically pursued +for many months, by certain busy characters, to excite quarrels, +rencounters, and combats, single or compound, in the night, between the +inhabitants of the lower class and the soldiers, and at all risks to +enkindle an immortal hatred between them." [Footnote: Autobiography of +John Adams. _Works of J. Adams_, ii. 229.] And it is curious to +observe how the British always quarrelled with the laborers about the +wharves; and how these, the closest friends of Adams, were all imbued with +the theory he maintained, that the military could not use their weapons +without the order of a civil magistrate. Little by little the animosity +increased, until on the 2d of March there was a very serious fray at +Gray's rope-walk, which was begun by one of the hands, who knocked down +two soldiers who spoke to him in the street. Although Adams afterward +labored to convince the public that the tragedy which happened three days +later was the result of a deliberately matured conspiracy to murder the +citizens for revenge, there is nothing whereon to base such a charge; on +the contrary, the evidence tends to exonerate the troops, and the verdicts +show the opinion of the juries. There was exasperation on both sides, but +the rabble were not restrained by discipline, and on the night of the 5th +of March James Crawford swore he he saw at Calf's corner "about a dozen +with sticks, in Quaker Lane and Green's Lane, met many going toward King +Street. Very great sticks, pretty large cudgells, not common walking +canes.... At Swing bridge the people were walking from all quarters with +sticks. I was afraid to go home, ... the streets in such commotion as I +hardly ever saw in my life. Uncommon sticks such as a man would pull out +of an hedge.... Thomas Knight at his own door, 8 or 10 passed with sticks +or clubs and one of them said 'D--n their bloods, let us go and attack the +main guard first.'" [Footnote: Kidder's _Massacre_, p. 10.] The crown +witnesses testified that the sentry was surrounded by a crowd of thirty or +forty, who pelted him with pieces of ice "hard and large enough to hurt +any man; as big as one's fist." And ha said "he was afraid, if the boys +did not disperse, there would be trouble." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 138.] +When the guard came to his help the mob grew still more violent, yelling +"bloody backs," "lobster scoundrels," "damn you, fire! why don't you +fire?" striking them with sticks. + +"Did you observe anybody strike Montgomery, or was a club thrown? The +stroke came from a stick or club that was in somebody's hand, and the blow +struck his gun and his arm." "Was he knocked down?... He fell, I am +sure.... His gun flew out of hand, and as he stooped to take it up, he +fell himself.... Was any number of people standing near the man that +struck his gun? Yes, a whole crowd, fifty or sixty." [Footnote: Kidder's +_Massacre_, pp. 138, 139.] When the volley came at last the rabble +fell back, and the 29th was rapidly formed before the main guard, the +front rank kneeling, that the fire might sweep the street. And now when +every bell was tolling, and the town was called to arms, and infuriated +men came pouring in by thousands, Hutchinson showed he had inherited the +blood of his great ancestress, who feared little upon earth; but then, +indeed, their adversaries have seldom charged the Puritans with cowardice +in fight. Coming quickly to the council chamber he passed into the +balcony, which overhung the kneeling regiment and the armed and maddened +crowd, and he spoke with such calmness and courage that even then he was +obeyed. He promised that justice should be done and he commanded the +people to disperse. Preston and his men were at once surrendered to the +authorities to await their trial. + +The next day Adams was in his glory. The meeting in the morning was as wax +between his fingers, and his friend, the Rev. Dr. Cooper, opened it with +fervent prayer. A committee was at once appointed to demand the withdrawal +of the troops, but Hutchinson thought he had no power and that Gage alone +could give the order. Nevertheless, after a conference with Colonel +Dalrymple he was induced to propose that the 29th should be sent to the +Castle, and the 14th put under strict restraint. [Footnote: Kidder's +_Massacre_, p. 43.] To the daring agitator it seemed at last his hour +was come, for the whole people were behind him, and Hutchinson himself +says "their spirit" was "as high as was the spirit of their ancestors when +they imprisoned Andros." As the committee descended the steps of the State +House to go to the Old South where they were to report, the dense crowd +made way for them, and Samuel Adams as he walked bare-headed through their +lines continually bowed to right and left, repeating the catchword, "Both +regiments or none." His touch on human passions was unerring, for when the +lieutenant-governor's reply was read, the great assembly answered with a +mighty shout, "Both regiments or none," and so instructed he returned. +Then the nature of the man shone out; the handful of troops were helpless, +and he was as inflexible as steel. The thin, strong, determined, gray-eyed +Puritan stood before Hutchinson, inwardly exulting as he marked his +features change under the torture. "A multitude highly incensed now wait +the result of this application. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands +that both regiments be forthwith removed.... Fail not then at your peril +to comply with this requisition!" [Footnote: Hosmer's _Samuel Adams_, +p. 173.] It was the spirit of Norton and of Endicott alive again, and he +was flushed with the same stern triumph at the sight of his victim's pain: +"It was then, if fancy deceived me not, I observed his knees to tremble. I +thought I saw his face grow pale (and I enjoyed the sight)." [Footnote: +Adams to Warren. Wells's Samuel Adams, i. 324.] + +Probably nothing prevented a complete rupture but the hopeless weakness of +the garrison, for Hutchinson, feeling the decisive moment had come, was +full of fight. He saw that to yield would destroy his authority, and he +opposed concession, but he stood alone, the officers knew their position +was untenable, and the council was unanimous against him. "The Lt G. +endeavoured to convince them of the ill consequence of this advice, and +kept them until late in the evening, the people remaining assembled; but +the council were resolute. Their advice, therefore, he communicated to Col +Dalrymple accompanied with a declaration, that he had no authority to +order the removal of the troops. This part Col. D. was dissatisfied with, +and urged the Lt G. to withdraw it, but he refused, and the regiments were +removed. He was much distressed, but he brought it all upon himself by his +offer to remove one of the regiments. No censure, however, was passed upon +him." [Footnote: _Diary and Letters of T. Hutchinson_, p. 80.] + +Had the pacification of his country been the object near his heart, Samuel +Adams, after his victory, would have abstained from any act however +remotely tending to influence the course of justice; for he must have +known that it was only by such conduct the colonists could inspire respect +for the motives which actuated them in their resistance. A capital +sentence would have been doubly unfortunate, for had it been executed it +would have roused all England; while had the king pardoned the soldiers, +as assuredly he would have done, a deep feeling of wrong would have +rankled in America. + +A fanatical and revolutionary demagogue, on the other hand, would have +longed for a conviction, not only to compass his ends as a politician, but +to glut his hate as a zealot. + +Samuel Adams was a taciturn, secretive man, whose tortuous course would +have been hard to follow a century ago; now the attempt is hopeless. Yet +there is one inference it seems permissible to draw: his admirers have +always boasted that he was the inspiration of the town meetings, +presumably, therefore, the the votes passed at them may be attributed to +his manipulation. And starting from this point, with the help of +Hutchinson and his own writings, it is still possible to discern the +outlines of a policy well worthy of a theocratic statesman. + +The March meeting began on the 12th. On the 13th it was resolved:-- + +"That ---- be and they hereby are appointed a committee for and in behalf +of the town to find out who those persons are that were the perpetrators +of the horred murders and massacres done and committed in King Street on +several of the inhabitants in the evening of the 5th instant and take such +examinations and depositions as they can procure, and lay the whole +thereof before the grand inquest in order that such perpetrators may be +indicted and brought to tryal for the same, and upon indictments being +found, said committee are desired to prepare matters for the king's +attorney, to attend at their tryals in the superior court, subpoena all +the witnesses, and do everything necessary for bringing those murtherers +to that punishment for such crimes, as the laws of God and man require." +[Footnote: _Records of Boston_, v. 232.] + +A day or two afterward a number of Adams's friends, among whom were some +of the members of this committee, dined together, and Hutchinson tells +what he persuaded them to do. + +"The time for holding the superior court for the county of Suffolk was the +next week after the tragical action in King Street. Although bills were +found by the grand jury, yet the court, considering the disordered state +of the town, had thought fit to continue the trials over to the next term, +when the minds of people would be more free from prejudice." "A +considerable number of the most active persons in all publick measures of +the town, having dined together, went in a body from table to the superior +court then sitting, and Mr. Adams, at their head and in behalf of the +town, pressed the bringing on the trial the same term with so much spirit, +that the judges did not think it advisable to abide by their own order, +but appointed a day for the trials, and adjourned the court for that +purpose." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ iii. 285, 286 and note.] + +The justices must afterward have grown ashamed of their cowardice, for Rex +_v._ Preston did not come on until the autumn, and altogether very little +was accomplished by these attempts to interfere with the due +administration of the law. "A committee had been appointed by the town to +assist in the prosecution of the soldiers ... but this was irregular. The +courts, according to the practice in the province, required no prosecutors +but the officers of the crown; much less would they have thought it proper +for the principal town in the province to have brought all its weight, +which was very great, into court against the prisoners." [Footnote: +_Idem_, iii. 286, note.] + +Nevertheless, Adams had by no means exhausted his resources, for it was +possible so to inflame the public mind that dispassionate juries could +hardly be obtained. + +At the same March meeting another committee was named, who were to obtain +a "particular account of all proceedings relative to the massacre in King +Street on Monday night last, that a full and just representation may be +made thereof?" [Footnote: Kidder's _Massacre_, p. 23.] The reason +assigned for so unwonted a proceeding as the taking of _ex parte_ +testimony by a popular assembly concerning alleged murders, for which men +were to be presently tried for their lives, was the necessity for +controverting the aspersions of the British officials; but the probable +truth of this explanation must be judged by the course actually pursued. +On the 19th the report was made, consisting of "A Short Narrative of the +Horrid Massacre in Boston," together with a number of depositions; and +though perhaps it was natural, under the circumstances, for such a +pamphlet to have been highly partisan, it was unnatural for its authors to +have assumed the burden of proving that a deliberately planned conspiracy +had existed between the civilians and the military to murder the citizens; +especially as this tremendous charge rested upon no better foundation than +the fantastic falsehoods of "a French boy, whose evidence appeared to the +justice so improbable, and whose character was so infamous, that the +justice, who was one of the most zealous in the cause of liberty, refused +to issue a warrant to apprehend his master, against whom he swore." +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist_. iii. 279, 280.] "Then I went up to the +custom-house door and knocked, ... I saw my master and Mr. Munroe come +down-stairs, and go into a room; when four or five men went up stairs, +pulling and hauling me after them.... When I was carried into the chamber, +there was but one light in the room, and that in the corner of the +chamber, when I saw a tall man loading a gun (then I saw two guns in the +room) ... there was a number of gentlemen in the room. After the gun was +loaded, the tall man gave it to me, and told me to fire, and said he would +kill me if I did not; I told him I would not. He drawing a sword out of +his cane, told me, if I did not fire it, he would run it through my guts. +The man putting the gun out of the window, it being a little open, I fired +it side way up the street; the tall man then loaded the gun again.... I +told him I would not fire again; he told me again, he would run me through +the guts if I did not. Upon which I fired the same way up the street. +After I fired the second gun, I saw my master in the room; he took a gun +and pointed it out of the window; I heard the gun go off. Then a tall man +came and clapped me on the shoulders above and below stairs, and said, +that's my good boy, I'll give you some money to-morrow.... And I ran home +as fast as I could, and sat up all night in my master's kitchen. And +further say, that my master licked me the next night for telling Mrs. +Waldron about his firing out of the custom-house. And for fear that I +should be licked again, I did deny all that I said before Justice Quincy, +which I am very sorry for. [Footnote: Kidder's _Massacre_, p. 82. +Deposition 58.] + +"CHARLOTTE BOURGATE + (his mark)." + + * * * * * + +While it is inconceivable that a cool and sagacious politician, whose +object was to convince Parliament of the good faith of Massachusetts, +should have relied upon such incredible statements to sway the minds of +English statesmen and lawyers, it is equally inconceivable lie should not +have known they were admirably adapted to still further exasperate an +already excited people; and that such was his purpose must be inferred +from the immediate publication of the substance of this affidavit in the +newspapers. [Footnote: _Boston Gazette_, March 19, 1770.] + +Without doubt a vote was passed on the 26th of March, a week after the +committee had presented their report, desiring them to reserve all the +printed copies not sent to Europe, as their distribution might tend to +bias the juries; but even had this precaution been observed, it came too +late, for the damage was done when the Narrative was read in Faneuil Hall; +in fact, however, the order was eluded, for "many copies, notwithstanding, +got abroad, and some of a second edition were sent from England, long +before the trials of the officer and soldiers came on." [Footnote: Hutch. +_Hist._ iii. 279.] And at this cheap rate a reputation for magnanimity was +earned. + +How thoroughly the clergy sympathized with their champion appears from +their clamors for blood. As the time drew near it was rumored Hutchinson +would reprieve the prisoners, should they be convicted, till the king's +pleasure could be known. Then Dr. Chauncy, the senior minister of Boston, +cried out in his pulpit: "Surely he would not counteract the operation of +the law, both of God and of man! Surely he would not suffer the town and +land to lie under the defilement of blood! Surely he would not make +himself a partaker in the guilt of murder, by putting a stop to the +shedding of their blood, who have murderously spilt the blood of others!" +[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ iii. 329, note.] Adams attended when the +causes were heard and took notes of the evidence; and one of the few +occasions in his long life on which his temper seems to have got beyond +control was when the accused were acquitted. His writings betray +unmistakable chagrin; and nothing is more typical of the man, or of the +clerical atmosphere wherein he had been bred, than his comments upon the +testimony on which the lives of his enemies hung. His piety caused him to +doubt those whose evidence was adverse to his wishes, though they appeared +to be trying to speak the truth. "The credibility of a witness perhaps +cannot be impeach'd in court, unless he has been convicted of perjury: but +an immoral man, for instance one who will commonly prophane the name of +his maker, certainly cannot be esteemed of equal credit by a jury, with +one who fears to take that sacred name in vain: It is impossible he should +in the mind of any man." [Footnote: _Boston Gazette_, Jan. 21, 1771.] + +And yet this rigid Calvinist, this incarnation of ecclesiasticism, had no +scruple in propagating the palpable and infamous lies of Charlotte +Bourgate, when by so doing he thought it possible to further his own ends. +He was bitterly mortified, for he had been foiled. Yet, though he had +failed in precipitating war, he had struck a telling blow, and he had no +reason to repine. Probably no single event, before fighting actually +began, left so deep a scar as the Boston massacre; and many years later +John Adams gave it as his deliberate opinion that, on the night of the 5th +of March, 1770, "the foundation of American independence was laid." Nor +was the full realization of his hopes long delayed. Gage occupied Boston +in 1774. During the winter the tireless agitator, from his place in the +Provincial Congress, warned the people to fight any force sent more than +ten miles from the town; and so when Paul Revere galloped through +Middlesex on the night of the 18th of April he found the farmers ready. +Samuel Adams had slept at the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark. Before +sunrise the detachment sent to seize him was close at hand. While they +advanced, he escaped; and as he walked across the fields toward Woburn, to +the sound of the guns of Lexington, he exclaimed, in a burst of passionate +triumph, "What a glorious morning is this!" + +Massachusetts became the hot-bed of rebellion because of this unwonted +alliance between liberality and sacerdotalism. Liberality was her +birthright; for liberalism is the offspring of intellectual variation, +which makes mutual toleration of opinion a necessity; but that her church +should have been radical at this crisis was due to the action of a long +chain of memorable causes. + +The exiles of the Reformation were enthusiasts, for none would then have +dared defy the pains of heresy, in whom the instinct onward was feebler +than the fear of death; yet when the wanderers reached America the mental +growth of the majority had culminated, and they had passed into the age of +routine; and exactly in proportion as their youthful inspiration had been +fervid was their later formalism intense. But similar causes acting on the +human mechanism produce like results; hence bigotry and ambition fed by +power led to persecution. Then, as the despotism of the preachers +deepened, their victims groaning in their dungeons, or furrowed by their +lash, implored the aid of England, who, in defence of freedom and of law, +crushed the theocracy at a blow. And the clergy knew and hated their enemy +from the earliest days; it was this bitter theological jealousy which +flamed within Endicott when he mutilated his flag, and within Leverett +when he insulted Randolph; it was a rapacious lust for power and a furious +detestation of rival priests which maddened the Mathers in their onslaught +upon Dudley, which burned undimmed in Mayhew and Cooper, and in their +champion, Samuel Adams, and which at last made the hierarchy cast in its +lot with an ally more dangerous far than those prelates whom it deemed its +foe. For no church can preach liberality and not be liberalized. Of a +truth the momentary spasm may pass which made these conservatives +progressive, and they may once more manifest their reactionary nature, +but, nevertheless, the impulsion shall have been given to that automatic, +yet resistless, machinery which produces innovation; wherefore, in the +next generation, the great liberal secession from the Congregational +communion broke the ecclesiastical power forever. And so, through toil and +suffering, through martyrdoms and war, the Puritans wrought out the +ancient destiny which fated them to wander as outcasts to the desolate New +England shore; there, amidst hardship and apparent failure, they slowly +achieved their civil and religious liberty, and conceived that +constitutional system which is the root of our national life; and there in +another century the liberal commonwealth they had builded led the battle +against the spread of human oppression; and when the war of slavery burst +forth her soldiers rightly were the first to fall; for it is her +children's heritage that, wheresoever on this continent blood shall flow +in defence of personal freedom, there must the sons of Massachusetts +surely be. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Emancipation of Massachusetts, by Brooks Adams + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS *** + +This file should be named 8mncm10.txt or 8mncm10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8mncm11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8mncm10a.txt + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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