The Religious State of our Colonial Empire forms an essential part of
our Ecclesiastical History.
Early English colonization was, doubtless, stained with avarice and
cruelty, but it is a thorough mistake to suppose that all who engaged
in that great enterprise were reckless adventurers. Men of just and
generous dispositions took part in the wonderful work; and the corner
stones of our dependent empire were laid with the forms, and to some
extent, in the very spirit of religion. Ecclesiastical ties were from
the beginning entwined with those which were political around these
daughters of England; and the double relation plainly appears in our
national records during the period of the Long Parliament, and under
the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Some reference to the preceding
state of the Colonies, with regard to religion, is requisite as an
introduction to what we have to relate of the Colonial policy of the
Commonwealth in this respect.
When Sir Hugh Willoughby, in the last year of King Edward the Sixth's
reign, started on his unfortunate expedition for the discovery of
unknown regions, he received from John Cabot--the great pioneer of
Colonial enterprise--a code of instructions which were strongly
stamped with the marks of a practical piety. The fleet--as we learn
from an old narrative--sailed down the Thames, the greater ships
towed with boats and oars, the mariners being "apparelled in watchet
or sky-coloured cloth;" and, as it passed Greenwich--where the Court
resided, and where the young monarch was lying at the point of
death--the people stood thick upon the shore, the privy councillors
of his Majesty looking out at the windows; pieces of ordnance were
fired, "insomuch that the tops of the hills sounded therewith," and the
sky rang with the sailors' shouts; one man stood on the poop of the
ship, and another walked on the hatches, whilst others were climbing
up the shores and the mainyard--the good King, "only by reason of his
sickness, was absent from this show." As Willoughby and his men started
on their voyage--thus picturesquely described by an eye-witness--the
directions which they carried with them, after strictly prohibiting all
profane and immoral conduct, contained this very important rule:--"That
the morning and evening prayer, with other common services appointed by
the King's majesty and laws of this realm, to be read and said in every
ship daily by the minister in the admiral, and the merchant, or some
other person learned in other ships, and the Bible or paraphrases to
be read devoutly, and Christianly, to God's honour, and for His grace
to be obtained, and had by humble and hearty prayer of the navigants
accordingly." "This," observes Thomas Fuller, "may be termed the first
reformed fleet which had English prayers and preaching therein."[472]
[Sidenote: _Early Adventurers._]
In Queen Elizabeth's letters patent to Sir Humfrey Gilbert, "for the
inhabiting and planting of our people in America," there is--together
with a characteristic assertion of the royal prerogative--a provision
that the laws of the Colonies "be not against the true Christian
faith or religion now professed in the Church of England." A rough,
ungovernable set composed the expedition, including "morris-dancers,
hobby-horses, and May-like conceits to delight the savage people;" yet
the captain of one of the vessels, named Haies, must have been a man
of religious purpose, for after the melancholy misadventures which had
befallen him and his companions in Newfoundland, he observes generally
with respect to such enterprises: "we cannot precisely judge (which
only belongeth to God) what have been the humours of men stirred up to
great attempts of discovering and planting in those remote countries,
yet the events do shew that either God's cause hath not been chiefly
preferred by them, or else God hath not permitted so abundant grace
as the light of His Word and knowledge of Him to be yet revealed unto
those infidels before the appointed time."[473] The errors and sins of
the first English adventurers and colonists have been exposed with an
unsparing justice, if not with something more; but the religiousness of
certain noble-minded men, amongst them, such as is illustrated by the
facts just indicated, and by others of a similar kind, has been often
most unfairly overlooked.
I. Charters which were granted by the English Crown before the Civil
Wars for settlements in foreign lands, prove how extensive were our
Colonial dominions even at that period. We have space to touch only
upon those which were most important.
[Sidenote: _Virginia._]
The charter for the plantation of Virginia, in the year 1606, bears
witness to the arbitrary power of James I.; but it also distinctly
recognizes as part of the proposed "noble work," the propagating of
the Christian religion to such people as yet lived in darkness and in
miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God. Robert
Hunt, "an honest, religious, and courageous Divine," stands out amongst
his companions as most conspicuous for his piety and goodness; and one
of the first acts, performed under his influence by the whole company
as they landed upon the new domains, was to receive together the Holy
Communion. Captain John Smith--a young man at the time of his embarking
for Virginia, possessed of great genius, and bearing a high character,
whose heroism and romantic deliverance by the lovely and noble native
girl, named Pocahuntas, is well known--has left the following relation
of the first religious services which were conducted in the new-found
home of the brave voyagers. "I have been often demanded by so many
how we began to preach the Gospel in Virginia, and by what authority,
what churches we had, our order of service, and maintenance for our
ministers, therefore I think it not amiss to satisfy their demands,
it being the mother of all our plantations, intreating pride to spare
laughter, to understand her simple beginning and proceedings. When I
first went to Virginia, I well remember, we did hang an awning (which
is an old sail), to three or four trees, to shadow us from the sun,
our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till we cut
planks; our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighbouring trees. In
foul weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few better,
and this came by way of adventure for new. This was our church, till
we built a homely thing like a barn, set upon cratchets, covered with
rafts, sedge, and earth, so was also the walls; the best of our houses
of the like curiosity, but the most part far much worse workmanship,
that could neither well defend wind nor rain, yet we had daily common
prayer morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three
months the Holy Communion, till our minister died. But our prayers
daily, with an homily on Sundays, we continued two or three years
after, till more preachers came. And surely God did most mercifully
hear us, till the continued inundations of mistaken directions,
factions, and numbers of unprovided libertines near consumed us all, as
the Israelites in the wilderness."[474]
This passage shews the attachment of the Virginian colonists to the
Established Church of the mother country; and as they were chiefly
persons of the higher class--being noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants
of London--they were in sympathy with the ruling powers; and, as
might be expected, were zealous for the forms and orders of the
English Episcopal communion. The pious Governor, Lord De la Warr,
who, in 1610, revived the drooping colony, carefully procured "true
preachers;" and his secretary reports, how he placed the church under
the care of a sexton, causing it to be kept passing sweet, "and trimmed
up with divers flowers;" how, as the chimes rang at ten o'clock in
the morning, each man addressed himself to prayers, and how, every
Sunday, the Governor--accompanied by all the gentlemen, and by a
guard of halberdiers, dressed in his lordship's livery of "fair red
cloaks"--sat in the quire, in a green velvet chair, with a velvet
cushion spread on the table before him, at which he knelt. The type
of piety cherished by the Virginian settlers may be inferred from the
secretary's picture; and unhappily the governor was entrusted with
a code called "Laws Martial," which were to be exercised whenever
it should be necessary. These laws provided, that speaking against
the Articles of the Christian faith should be capitally punished;
that irreverent behaviour to a Christian minister should subject the
offender to three public whippings; that absence from Divine service
on week days and on the Sabbath should be accounted a State crime,
deserving, if thrice repeated, of labour in the galleys for six months.
Every one coming to the colony who refused to give an account of his
faith to some minister of religion was to be whipt.[475] The absurdity
of these laws soon appeared, from the impossibility of executing
them. The articles of instruction given by the Home Government to Sir
Francis Wyatt, who was appointed Governor in the year 1621, were of a
different character. Nothing was said of penalties, and factions; but
needless novelties tending to the disturbance of peace and unity were
discouraged. These expressions, however, must have been intended solely
for the purpose of conciliating such members of the Episcopal Church
as might be jealous of Popish innovations; for to suppose they meant
a liberal policy towards Nonconformists in general, would be an idea
utterly inconsistent with all we know of the Stuart rule.[476] Puritans
could not go to Virginia except by royal licence, and when they had
reached their new home, the letter of the law--valid there, as well
as in England--left them still liable to the scourge of persecution.
Prudence for a while might induce the Virginian authorities to wink at
Puritanism within their borders; but their history affords no signs of
their righteously legislating upon that important subject. Indeed, on
reaching the year 1629, we discover the sternest intolerance in the
acts and orders of the Colonial Assembly. People who did not go to
church were fined a pound of tobacco for every instance of neglect,
and fifty pounds for every month's absence; and, in 1632, uniformity
to the Church of England was vigorously enforced, a shilling fine
being imposed in every case of non-attendance at worship.[477] Upon
the outbreak of the Civil Wars, the loyal Virginians identified
Nonconformists with Republicans, and forthwith banished all Dissenters
outside their borders.
[Sidenote: _Bermudas._]
The Bermudas were intimately connected with Virginia. By an extension
of the charter granted to the latter Colony in the year 1612, these
islands came into its possession. The Company again sold them to
members of its own body, who were established as a new corporation,
under the name of the Somers Islands' Company. The daughter Colony went
beyond its parent state in the assertion of ecclesiastical uniformity,
and angrily stood up in support of the Church of England "against all
Atheists, Papists, Anabaptists, Brownists, and all other heretics and
sectaries whatsoever."[478] Yet, when religious animosities arose, and
the only two clergymen who were in the islands refused subscription to
the Prayer Book as it was--the Governor, forced by circumstances into
some sort of compromise, "bethought himself of the Liturgy of Guernsey
and Jersey, wherein all the particulars they so much stumbled at were
omitted."[479]
The original charter for Maryland bears date 1632, and was granted
to Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic nobleman of high character and
honourable renown. Upon condition of yielding two Indian arrows at
Windsor Castle every Easter Tuesday, he received with the ownership of
the lands the Governorship of the Colony. He also became invested with
all advowsons, and with the power of licensing churches and chapels--to
be consecrated according to the ecclesiastical laws of this kingdom. To
the same Governor were further granted such royal rights "as any Bishop
of Durham ever had." The inconsistency of granting such a charter to
any individual who was a Roman Catholic, however excellent a man he
might be, is obvious to every one. An establishment, according to
Protestant law, thus came under the complete control of an individual
of a perfectly different communion. Yet, though the procedure appears
so inconsistent, it, in fact, happily proved the means of securing to
the Maryland people the blessing of religious liberty to a greater
extent than that in which it was enjoyed in any other Colony. An oath,
which was required to be taken by the Governor and Council, in these
words:--"I will not, by myself or any other, directly or indirectly,
trouble, molest, or discountenance any person professing to believe
in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of religion"[480]--was perhaps
framed especially with the view of affording refuge for persecuted
Roman Catholics on the shores of Chesapeake Bay; but it is pleasant
to recollect that under its shadow and in harmony with its design
Protestants also found shelter from Protestant intolerance.[481]
A Colony of a very different nature commenced in 1620. That year
certain adventurers were incorporated as "the Council established at
Plymouth, in the county Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and
governing New England, in America."[482] Yet not from them has New
England obtained its illustrious name in American history, but from
the men who fled across the Atlantic without the knowledge or the aid
of either company or king. A band of persons holding Congregational
views of Church government, and driven from their native shores by
persecution, had settled in Holland some years earlier, and now
their numbers having increased, some of them determined to emigrate.
Their thoughts at first turned towards Virginia, and they procured a
patent under the Virginia Company's seal. But it ran in the name of a
gentleman who did not proceed thither,[483] and consequently it became
of no service to the emigrants. These, at last, trusting alone in God,
resolved to direct their course to the shores of New England. On the
6th September, 1620--fourteen years after the first colonization of
Virginia, and two months before the incorporation of the Company at
Plymouth--the Pilgrim Fathers set sail on their memorable voyage. This
is not the place to tell the story of their adventures--of the parting
of the "May Flower" from the "Speedwell"--of the solitary course of
the former vessel, of its battle with the elements of the landing of
the voyagers at Cape Cod, and the dreary coasting expedition of the
afflicted party until their feet touched the Plymouth Rock. The story
may well inspire American historians with an enthusiasm, deeper as it
is more pure, than that of the poet who sang the fortunes of Æneas:--
"_Trojæ qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinia venit
Littora._"
Before landing, the Pilgrims covenanted, as the loyal subjects of King
James--having undertaken, for the glory of God and the advancement
of the Christian faith, a voyage to plant the first Colony in the
northern parts of Virginia--that they would combine together as a body
politic for the furtherance of those ends, and enact equal laws meet
for the general good of the Colony.[484] These Christian-minded men,
wearied with the injustice which they had endured, and distressed at
the irreligion which they had witnessed at home, constituted themselves
at once, in the simplicity of their hearts and the fervour of their
zeal, a Christian Church and a political State--not perceiving the
inconsistency of the act, and not foreseeing the difficulties into
which such an identification of the civil and the ecclesiastical would
very speedily plunge them.
[Sidenote: _Massachusetts._]
The Council for New England--just mentioned as established at Plymouth
in the year 1620--granted a patent for the establishment of a Colony in
the country of Massachusetts. The Puritans in England took an interest
in its progress; and, by means of influence which they exerted on
its behalf, a Charter for the Company of Massachusetts Bay, in the
course of twelve months, passed the Royal Seal.[485] That Charter
constituted it a trading corporation, and conveyed power to make all
necessary ordinances for Government, so as that such ordinances were
not repugnant to the laws and statutes of this our realm of England.
It conceded no rights of self-government, and, according to strict
interpretation, it allowed the people no liberty of worship. Yet in the
covenant which the emigrants subscribed, at the moment of landing on
the shores of their new home, they bound themselves to walk together
according as God revealed Himself unto them--in matters of worship
resolving to cleave unto Him alone--and to reject all contrary ways,
canons, and constitutions. At the same time, they promised to act
with all watchfulness and tenderness toward their brethren, avoiding
jealousies, suspicions, backbitings, and secret risings of spirit.[486]
Winthrop, the Governor of the new colonists, spoke, at the same time,
in their name, of the Church of England in terms of the strongest
filial love, calling her a dear mother, from whom the pilgrim emigrants
had parted in tears, having in her bosom received their share in
the common salvation, and having sucked it, as it were, from her
breasts.[487] It was not, however, as Ecclesiastical Puritans that
Winthrop and his companions made these professions. Their well-known
opinions, in relation to the Church of England, sufficed to indicate
that they could not intend their words to be applied to her formularies
and her government; but as doctrinal Puritans these men could employ
such language with the most perfect sincerity. They spoke, as some can
speak still, who, on grounds of polity and of worship alone, dissent
from her communion.
Whatever may be thought of the interpretation practically given by
Winthrop and his brethren to the terms of the Royal Charter, everybody
must acknowledge the affectionate spirit towards the Church of England
which was breathed in his memorable letter;--but it must be confessed
that equally inconsistent with the Charter, and with the Epistle, was
the conduct of the Council of Massachusetts before the end of the year
1629, when they sent into banishment two of their number, who, whilst
they were described as "sincere in their affection for the good of
the plantation," were charged with upholding worship according to the
Book of Common Prayer. "You are Separatists," said the Episcopalians
to their Puritan brethren, "and you will shortly be Anabaptists." "We
separate," it was replied, "not from the Church of England, but from
its corruptions. We came away from the Common Prayer and ceremonies
in our native land, where we suffered much for Nonconformity; in this
place of liberty we cannot, we will not use them. Their imposition
would be a sinful violation of the worship of God."[488] It is easy
to imitate the special pleading so often heard on the High Church
side of the great controversy of which this was but a small part, and
to suggest certain excuses for the Massachusetts rulers; and to say
that this was a measure of self-defence, and that it was intended to
crush in the germ what might have grown into formidable mischief. But
we attempt nothing of that kind. We will not soften the fact that
the adherents of Episcopacy were treated by these Puritans as if they
had been guilty of sedition, their worship being forbidden, and they
themselves being sent back to the mother country in the character of
transported convicts. The men who acted in this way must ever bear
the blame and odium of intolerance. Nor can we omit to point out the
sophistry of objecting to the _use_ of the Prayer Book on the ground of
the iniquity of _imposing_ it.
[Sidenote: _Laud's Colonial Policy._]
It has been noticed in our introduction, in the first volume, that
the severities of Archbishop Laud drove many Puritans into exile; and
in this way he largely contributed to the growth of the New England
States. That growth alarmed him. He thought it perilous to suffer a
receptacle for schismatics to be filled so fast, "from whence, as from
the bowels of the Trojan horse, so many incendiaries might break out to
inflame the nation." To prevent such mischief--as Heylyn, the Primate's
admiring biographer, informs us--it came "under consultation of the
chief physicians," who were entrusted with the care of the Church's
health, to send a Bishop over to the Colonies "for their better
government, and back him with some forces to compel, if he were not
otherwise able to persuade obedience."[489] Happily for the Colonies
and for England, the Archbishop never did carry out his purpose,
having more than enough to do with other troublesome affairs; but
when occupying the see of London, he had claimed control over English
congregations abroad--that claim being the origin of the extensive
jurisdiction of the metropolitan see, which has been maintained ever
since--and had striven hard to stretch his all-meddling hands round
both the Colonial companies in the New World, and the commercial
factories in the Old one. Indeed, over the whole earth, his spiritual
ambition essayed to travel. He aimed at bringing under his rule,
settlers in Turkey, in the Mogul's dominions, in the Indian Islands,
in the Virginian plantations, and in Barbadoes; in short, wherever
Englishmen had any residence in the way of trade.[490] In the year
1634--soon after his translation to Canterbury--the Archbishop procured
a commission, addressed to himself and others, and couched in general
terms, forming an intended basis for subsequent special instructions
in reference to the affairs of the North American settlements.[491]
Aiming at what he could not reach, and when circumstances denied him
any effectual interference, still collecting information, weaving
nets, and spreading toils in hope of a more propitious season, he
diligently persevered in his colonial policy. Nothing escaped him. A
letter written by Dr. Stoughton, a New England Puritan, fell into his
hands. The writer rejoiced that God had made him acquainted with the
manner in which He would be worshipped, and that he had seen that which
his forefathers desired to witness, even the liberty which Christ had
purchased for His people; and then this correspondent related, with
grief, a strange thing, as he calls it, which had been done by members
of the Church of Salem, who, from a pious horror of superstition, had
cut out the cross in the State flag. This harmless letter is folded
up, and endorsed "Dr. Stoughton, shewing his great correspondence with
the irregular, inconformable fugitive ministers beyond the seas in New
England."[492] Then comes the copy of "a form of project for settling
the profession of the Gospel of Christ in New England, to be signed
by benefactors to that plantation." This, too, bears an endorsement,
"Found amongst Dr. Stoughton's papers. This letter containeth an
undue way of gathering monies without authority, for the plantation
in New England." There is also a sheet containing "Three Propositions
concerning Justification by Works; faith, active or passive, in
justification; and saving preparation before union with Christ;" which
propositions are described as having "divided Mr. Hooker and Mr. Cotton
in New England." A farther memorandum, on the same subject, bears a
careful endorsement by the Archbishop of the precise date when he
received these communications. In addition to all these, we find in
another paper, "a relation of the manner in which persons are received
into the congregations of New England. They make confession of their
faith, and they give glory to God. Their conscience and conversation
must be approved. In case of notorious scandal past, confession is to
be made penitently. They covenant to obey the whole truth of the Gospel
of Christ."[493] In the same collection there is also a letter written
to the prelate by a person, named Thomas Lane, who was chief of the
learned Commissioners appointed by the King to examine and rectify
all complaints from the plantations, and who was also a minister of
religion. This person sent home to the indefatigable prelate an account
of the clergy in the island of Barbadoes. He reported that, within
the previous five or six years, the people had built six churches,
besides some chapels; and that parish affairs had been committed to
vestrymen, having power to place and displace pastors and to regulate
their stipends. The Governor, he went on to say, chose the ministers
and agreed with them as he pleased, whereby they were "made and
esteemed no better than mercenaries." Taxes, such as had never before
been imposed by Christians on the clergy, they were compelled to pay;
taxes even for the very heads upon their shoulders; taxes for their
wives as well, and for their children who might be above seven years
old. Parish clerks were maintained out of these revenues. "What," asks
Mr. Lane, "can be expected where ignorance both of the laws of God and
men doth domineer?" Hoping his Grace would provide a remedy--since
it was time for authority to set to her helping hand--the writer
concluded with the reflection that, "they live in the declining age
of the world, wherein there is not to be found that youthful zeal of
God's house which was wont to eat up men."[494] From a document, dated
September the 4th, 1639, relating to Somers Islands, it appears that
the Governor, Council, and many of the Company were Nonconformists.
They were now required to carry out the directions received two years
before, for reading the homilies and the Book of Common Prayer; and it
was urged that at the Holy Sacrament, the reverend posture of kneeling
should be adopted, and in baptism the signing of the cross should be
used.[495] Archbishop Laud's immense activity and universal supervision
of ecclesiastical affairs throughout the empire receive additional
illustrations from these letters; the policy which he pursued towards
those abroad as well as towards those who remained at home is also
apparent from the same documents; nor can any impartial reader fail
to see that this policy was of a nature to make the Puritans, wherever
they might be, welcome the wonderful change which, after being long and
patiently waited for, came at last in the year 1641.
[Sidenote: _Virginia._]
II. Such was the religious condition of the Colonies. What were the
changes which followed the altered state of ecclesiastical affairs
at home? During the storm of the Civil Wars, the English Government
had so much to do at home that it found little space, and felt little
power to do much, if anything, abroad. The Colonies, therefore,
pursued their own course. Virginia remained loyal to the King and
faithful to Episcopacy. When Charles perished on the scaffold, the
legislature of the Colony declared that whoever defended the deed, or
doubted the right of the King's son, should be judged guilty of high
treason. At the same time, when fields in England were stained with
blood, and defeat followed the Royal arms, the Colonists observed days
of humiliation; and whilst exasperated by the sufferings of Royalist
brethren, and by the depression of the Episcopal Church, they became
increasingly earnest in enforcing ecclesiastical conformity--in
their zeal banishing alike Popish recusants and Protestant
Nonconformists.[496]
English possessions in Barbadoes may be dated from the year 1605, when
an English crew landed on its shores.[497] We have nothing to do with
the history of that island--remarkable, it may be observed, for its
early difficulties, its subsequent rapid increase of population, and
the wealth and luxury of its cavalier proprietors--beyond noticing
the spirit and temper which were displayed in the Acts passed in
the Colony relating to public worship. During the period of the
Civil Wars the government of Barbadoes--under its lieutenant, Philip
Bell--branded Nonconformists as "opinionated and self-conceited
persons." The misdemeanours of such persons, it was said, begot
distractions--and were both a reproach to the Church, and a disturbance
to the government; and, therefore, for the suppression of disorderly
courses, all who dwelt in the Colony were required to conform to
the Church of England as established by Parliament--all offenders
being threatened with the common penalties inflicted in England upon
Nonconformists. Justices of the peace, ministers, and churchwardens,
received commission to execute these Acts, as they regarded their
duty to God, and their allegiance to the King. Family worship every
morning and evening was enforced, the punishment for neglect being the
forfeiture of forty pounds of sugar. Everybody had to attend church,
or suffer according to law. In case of the absence of servants from
public worship, if it were the master's fault, he was required to
pay ten pounds of cotton--if the servant's, then the case was left
to be disposed of by the next Justice of the Peace. With a command
to ministers that they should preach and catechise, was another
addressed to churchwardens for erecting near to the Church of every
parish a strong pair of stocks for the drunkard, the swearer, and the
gamester.[498]
[Sidenote: _Maryland._]
Maryland pursued its tolerant career, only denying toleration to
those who denied the Holy Trinity. It is curious to find in that
State, not punishments for heresy and schism, but this unique piece
of legislation; people calling one another Heretic, Schismatic,
Idolater, Puritan, Independent, Presbyterian, Popish Priest, Jesuit,
Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, Brownist, Antinomian,
Barrowist, Roundhead, Separatist, or any other bad name, incurred
the forfeiture of ten shillings for each offence, and, in default of
payment, a sentence of whipping and imprisonment. Thus, not only was
magisterial persecution altogether absent, but the Colony possessed as
well, the noble distinction of having all social persecution forbidden
within its precincts. No person professing to believe in Jesus Christ
could be troubled on account of his religion; and any one daring
to molest a Christian worshipper became liable to a fine of twenty
shillings, or to the penalty of imprisonment or the lash.[499] All
sorts of religionists there must have been in the colony of Maryland
under its Roman Catholic governor; and although, no doubt, his eyes
were chiefly fixed on his fellow-religionists, and he wished to secure
liberty and comfort for them, it is to the unspeakable honour of his
government, that, in an age of intolerance, he should have adopted
such a singularly wise and noble policy.
In the year 1643, the distinct States of Massachusetts, of Plymouth,
of Connecticut, and of New Haven, constituted themselves the United
Colonies of New England; each of them reserving to itself local
jurisdiction as a State right. The affairs of the Confederacy were
entrusted to Commissioners, two from each Colony, and it is important
to observe that, in the Articles of the Union, Church membership
is specified as a qualification, and the only qualification for
that office.[500] Massachusetts had for some time been growing in
importance, and had enjoyed an extension of territory by the annexation
of New Hampshire, in the year 1641; followed by Maine, in 1652. The
Government began to relax its severity of religious rule in the year
1644; and, in 1646, it endeavoured to excuse what was contained in
its Statute Book, by saying, that such persons as differed from
their neighbours only in theological opinion, but continued to live
peaceably, had no cause of complaint; for the law had never been put in
execution against any such persons, although many of that description
were known to be residing in the State. The affair of the year 1629
they attempted to explain as an act of righteous discipline upon
citizens who were unpeaceable. It was affirmed that quiet spirits
received different treatment, and that two of the presidents of Harvard
College were Anabaptists.[501] But soon afterwards this question of
religious liberty, to its great detriment, became associated with
local strifes; and a movement which had been commenced in the State of
New Plymouth under promising circumstances--with the view of securing
a full and universal toleration for all persons, even Turks, Jews,
Papists, Arians, Socinians, and Familists--found no favour with the
leading men of the colony of Massachusetts; in consequence of which,
those who would have been as "the eyes of God's people in England,"
damaged their reputation in the mother country, and Sir Harry Vane
urged that "the oppugness of the Congregational way should not from
its own principles and practice be taught to root it out."[502] At
the same time, the New England States were determined to maintain
their independence, and, although remaining as staunchly as ever the
enemies of Episcopacy, they were shy in their correspondence with
a Presbyterian Parliament. Orders from England, in their judgment,
prejudiced their chartered liberties. Times might change, and other
Princes and Parliaments might arise. They had themselves outridden the
storm, and should they now perish within the port? No doubt the English
rulers could better enact laws and adjudicate causes than could the
poor rustics who had been bred up in a rude wilderness; but the vast
distance between Old and New England abated the virtue of the strongest
influences. So they argued; and then they proceeded to request a
parent's benediction upon the infant plantations, that they might be
blessed under the shadow of the mother country, and be nourished with
the warmth and the dews of heaven.[503]
[Sidenote: _New England._]
III. We have brought our sketch of the Ecclesiastical affairs of the
Colonies down to the close of the Civil Wars, and the abolition of
Royalty: the subsequent relation of those affairs to the Government at
home now demands our attention. New England, although it had throughout
the struggle maintained all possible independence, had never explicitly
submitted to Parliament; but as both its political and religious views
were well known to be in sympathy with the successful party, when
the reins fell into the hands of the Independents, they had no need,
as in the case of certain other Colonies, to force into allegiance
this particular plantation. The only legislative enactment adopted in
reference to it had for its purpose the meeting of religious wants.
John Eliot, a Puritan minister, from the county of Essex, who emigrated
to New England in the year 1631, and who, from his zeal for the
conversion of the aborigines of the State, has obtained the honourable
appellation of "Apostle of the Indians," asked his fellow-Christians
on this side of the Atlantic to help him in his noble undertaking. His
appeals were backed by efforts in his favour both abroad and at home;
in consequence of which, the Long Parliament established a Society for
"the Propagation of the Gospel in New England."[504] The Act recites
the particulars of a wonderful work which was going on amongst the
natives, how barbarians were being civilized; how, forsaking their
charms and sorceries, they were calling upon the name of the Lord,
and with tears lamenting their misspent lives; how they had put their
children to English schools, and now betook themselves to having but
one wife; and how they conducted morning and evening prayer in their
families. After this recital the Statute created a Corporation, to
consist of a president, a treasurer, and fourteen assistants; it
authorized them to make a common seal; it invested them with certain
powers; and it also commanded that collections for the object should
be made publicly in all congregations throughout England and Wales,
and also privately from house to house. Eliot, to whom the credit of
the enterprise belongs, with a rare force of character, and with that
pure and intense earnestness which only love to Christ can inspire,
made amongst the North American Indians full proof of his ministry in
the character and habits of these children of the forest, and wrought
moral marvels amongst them, which have become the admiration of all
succeeding times.[505] As he was gathering the red hunters into the
fold of the "Great Spirit"--whose name he spent his life in explaining
to their untutored minds--many of his countrymen at home sympathized
with him in his holy toils. After the Restoration, Baxter and Boyle
distinguished themselves by their helpful services in reference to
Eliot's mission; and during the period of the Commonwealth, before his
work had acquired renown, Puritan feeling in some quarters might have
been seen brightly enkindled on his side.
[Sidenote: _New England._]
It is painful to record, that at this time the New England Colonies
tightened rather than relaxed the reins of their intolerance, under
cover of alarm at irreligion and sectarianism. It may be pleaded that
some religionists who then bore the name of Baptists and Quakers
were very troublesome people, and that they held opinions which were
calculated to disturb civil society; but it should be remembered that
a similar plea has never been wanting when the cause of persecution
has required to be bolstered up; and it is a policy as mischievous as
it is unrighteous for the friends of religious freedom to employ in
their own cause the despicable weapons of their antagonists. Why not
let the rulers of Massachusetts bear the deserved discredit of their
inconsistencies? And why conceal the fact that those inconsistencies
arose out of the pursuance of a perfectly self-chosen course? Neither
the Government just before, nor the Government after the establishment
of the Protectorate, had anything whatever to do with the matter. Not
at the door of Whitehall, but on the threshold of Boston lies the
responsibilty of the atrocious deed of hanging Mary Dyar, Marmaduke
Stephenson, and William Robinson.
Speaking generally as to religious and secular interests, we may safely
say that the New England Colonies confided in Cromwell, and Cromwell
confided in them. When the Lord General had been fighting at the head
of his soldiers, "the spirits of the brethren" on the other side of
the Atlantic "were carried forth in faithful and affectionate prayers
in his behalf;" and when sitting peacefully in his cabinet, he poured
out his heart freely to his friends who were busy on the opposite side
of the world, he candidly confessed that the battle of Dunbar, "'where
some who were godly' were fought into their graves, was of all the
acts of his life, that on which his mind had the least quiet, and he
declared himself 'truly ready to serve the brethren and churches in
America.'"[506] About two years before the death of Oliver Cromwell,
Captain Gookin, a home official in New England, wrote to Thurloe,
telling him that "the generality of the godly in all the country did
cordially resent his Highness's goodwill, favour, and love," and did
"unfeignedly bear upon their hearts before the Lord, him, his work, and
helpers." The zealous officer added that he had ground for thinking
so. "All the English Colonies"--these are his words--"will see cause,
in particular letters of thanks, to manifest their duty and special
respects to his Highness."[507]
[Sidenote: _Rhode Island._]
The Colony of Rhode Island chose a path of its own, not having been
admitted to the New England Confederation, because of its refusal
to acknowledge the jurisdiction of New Plymouth. The eccentric but
noble-minded founder of the Colony was Roger Williams, who had been
banished from Massachusetts for his very broad ecclesiastical and
political opinions. He proceeded in a canoe with five other persons
down the Seekonk River, in quest of a spot where he could carry out his
independent and democratical principles; and tradition reports, that,
as he approached a point now called _Whatcheer_ Cove, he met with a
party of Indians, who greeted him with a friendly salutation in the
very words which gave the cove its well-known name, "_What cheer?_"
Rather Utopian in his ideas, and impracticable in his disposition--not
fitted to work well in a colony already established, and not promising
much stability, even in one which he established himself--Roger
Williams nevertheless commands very great respect for his intellectual
ability, his literary attainments, his spirit of self-sacrifice,
and his intense abhorrence of all persecution. There were numerous
religious differences, and, consequently, plenty of confusion in
the island home of this remarkable individual and his sympathetic
companions; but within its shores no penalties whatever were inflicted
upon any class of religious professors. And notwithstanding his
enthusiasm in the cause of freedom, he did not become blind to the
necessities of government in the maintenance of social order. He
ingeniously argued, that a ship at sea, carrying on board several
hundred souls who were bound together by the interests of a common weal
and woe, presented a just illustration of a commonwealth; and that as
Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks, sailing in a vessel, ought not
to be forced to join in the captain's prayers, so people ought not to
be coerced into national forms of religion; but, at the same time, as
the captain ought to command the ship's course, and maintain justice,
peace, and sobriety amongst the crew, so ought the magistrate to judge
and punish such people as injured their neighbours by resisting the
civil government of the State.[508]
Williams came to London, in the year 1643, to seek the favour and
protection of Parliament. Conscious weakness induced him then to do
that which his old companions in New England afterwards declined in
consequence of conscious strength. The "printed Indian labours" of this
indefatigable person,--the like whereof respecting anyone in America,
it is said, was not extant--and his singular merits as a Christian
missionary, induced "both Houses of Parliament to grant unto him and
friends with him a free and absolute charter of Civil Government
for those parts of his abode;" and hence they became a legalized
corporation on the shores of Narragansett Bay, invested with full
authority to rule themselves.[509] Williams visited England, a second
time, upon Colonial business, and then, as before, received special
assistance from Vane--assistance acknowledged in a Colonial address,
(1654), which summed up the history of this free little Republic. "From
the first beginning of the Providence Colony," it was said, "you have
been a noble and true friend to an outcast and despised people; we
have ever reaped the sweet fruits of your constant loving-kindness and
favour. We have long been free from the iron yoke of wolfish bishops;
we have sitten dry from the streams of blood spilt by the wars in our
native country. We have not felt the new chains of the Presbyterian
tyrants, nor in this Colony have we been consumed by the over zealous
fire of the so-called godly Christian magistrates. We have not known
what an excise means, we have almost forgotten what tithes are. We have
long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as any people, that we can
hear of under the whole heaven. When we are gone, our posterity and
children after us shall read, in our town records, your loving-kindness
to us, and our real endeavour after peace and righteousness."[510]
[Sidenote: _Barbadoes._]
Upon the abolition of Royalty in England, certain of the Colonies
became refractory. Parliament heard, on the 5th of October, 1650,
that, inasmuch as many well-affected persons had been driven
away from Barbadoes, the Council of State was of opinion that
the island should be reduced, and a fleet sent thither for that
purpose.[511] Whereupon an Act was passed prohibiting trade with
the plantation there, and with the sister States, who were sharers
in the disaffection--including Virginia, Bermudas, and Antigua--and
empowering the Council to bring them all into speedy subjection to
the authority of the Commonwealth.[512] Sir George Ayscue, commander
of a ship called the _Rainbow_, conducted a fleet into the Western
seas, taking with him as brother Commissioners, Daniel Searle and
Captain Michael Pack, whose instructions were, to insist upon the
submission of the inhabitants of Barbadoes, to enforce there the Acts
of Parliament against Kingship, the House of Lords, and the use of the
Book of Common Prayer, and to require every person in the Colonies to
take the Engagement.[513] A summons to surrender to the Commonwealth
reached Lord Willoughby, the Governor of Barbadoes, accompanied by an
assurance that the Commissioners wished by "amicable ways" to bring
the Colony to obedience, without bloodshed, or the destruction of
"their long laboured for estates."[514] But the representative body
in the State expressed indignation at this endeavour to persuade the
ignorant, that the Government now set up in England by miseries,
bloodsheds, rapines, and other oppressions, was any better than that
under which their ancestors had lived for hundreds of years; and
further they declared how they despised all "menaces to drive them
from their loyalty," to which their souls were as firmly united as
they were to their bodies.[515] Abundance of parleying succeeded, and
once, when Ayscue's men were invited on shore, "with a white flag,"
they were fired upon; in revenge for which act of treachery they burnt
the houses of their assailants--a proceeding in positive opposition
to Sir George's explicit orders.[516] At last, in midwinter, after
three months had been spent in fruitless negotiation, proposals of
peace from Lord Willoughby reached Ayscue on board the _Rainbow_,
which was now anchored in Carlisle Bay. Articles specifying the terms
of an acceptable surrender were returned to Willoughby, conceding
to the Colonists indemnity for their past resistance, and, for
the future, the right of taxation, and other important political
privileges. With respect to higher interests, the articles distinctly
stated that no oaths, covenants, or engagements, should be imposed
upon the inhabitants against their convictions, and that liberty of
conscience should be allowed to all--"excepting to such whose tenets
are inconsistent to a civil government."[517] But, strange to say,
in another and corrected paper, sent a few days afterwards, the
articles relating to oaths and to liberty of conscience are altogether
omitted; yet, still more strange, after this, Willoughby replied to
Ayscue, that the articles in this latter were the same in effect as
had been previously received. At last the latter agreed to the first
propositions made by the former--namely, that the Government should
remain as already established--that all Acts passed in the Colony
previously to the year 1638, and not being repugnant to the present
laws of England, should continue in force, and that those concerning
present differences should be repealed. In the final arrangement
between the Governor and the Commissioner no stipulation appears to
have been made touching matters of religion. Such matters were left
to shape themselves according to circumstances. The use of the Prayer
Book was neither expressly forbidden nor expressly allowed. Liberty of
conscience was neither secured nor denied in distinct terms. Nothing
was agreed upon which could interfere with the subsequent legislation
of the Colony in relation to ecclesiastical matters, except a general
implication that all enactments in the future, as well as those in the
past, would be utterly invalid if they were found at all repugnant to
the laws of the mother empire.[518] We find eighteen months afterwards,
the next Governor, Colonel Daniel Searle, complaining of "unsatisfied"
and "restless spirits" who, not content with the Constitution of
England, would model "this little limb of the Commonwealth into a free
state." He further informed the Council that in consequence of "some
lately brought under the ordinance of baptism in a Church society"--by
which expression, doubtless, Baptists are intended--having forwarded to
England a remonstrance concerning the Colonial Assembly, that Assembly
had desired that these remonstrants might be dismissed from public
employment in the island; but Governor Searle gave reasons in detail
why he could not comply with any such desire.[519]
[Sidenote: _Virginia._]
As Ayscue steered towards Barbadoes, Captain Robert Dennis sailed to
Virginia, for the reduction of the plantations in Chesapeake Bay.[520]
No sooner did his ship, the _Guinea_ frigate, heave in sight, than
the Virginians abandoned all thoughts of resistance, and instantly
came to terms. Like the Commissioners to the royalist colony of
Barbadoes, Captain Dennis and his colleagues were charged by written
instructions--amongst other things, to publish in Virginia the Acts
of Parliament against Kingship, the House of Lords, and the Book
of Common Prayer. But it would appear that, upon submission by the
Colonists to the powers at St. Stephen's and Whitehall, the execution
of the Act in reference to religion came to be waived in America, as
it had been waived in the West Indies. Indeed, in this case, Episcopal
worship was expressly allowed for one year, on condition of all public
allusions to monarchy being omitted in prayer. The clergy remained
undisturbed, and were entitled to their accustomed dues for that space
of time. Nor was there to be any censure for loyal supplications and
speeches which might be uttered in private houses. Indeed, during the
whole term of the Protectorate, Episcopal rites seem to have been
continued in Virginia;[521] and the Home Government does not appear to
have stained its character by any acts of persecution in that Colony,
or in Barbadoes. It is curious to add that, as tobacco was the chief
produce and the main staple of Virginia, it became used in the payment
of taxes, of penalties, and of privileges. All titheable parishioners,
"in the vacancy of their minister," were notwithstanding, to pay, per
head, fifteen pounds of tobacco towards a church-building "and glebe"
fund; Sabbath breakers and drunkards incurred a fine of one hundred
pounds of tobacco; persons introducing ministers into the Colony at
their own charge, were to receive, for so doing, the sum of twenty
pounds sterling by bill of exchange, or two thousand pounds weight of
tobacco.[522]
The Bermudas became an asylum for Royalists at the end of the Civil
Wars. A patent had been granted by King James for a Company there,
so early as the year 1615; and, until 1653, this Company and the
Colonial Council appointed by it were permitted to continue. But in
the midst of the troubles at home, the Company neglected to consult
the Council; the Colony suffered great distress; and "turbulent
spirits," by their reports to the Home Authorities, prejudiced them
against the Local Administration. Report reached head quarters that
the Governor of Bermudas wished to "invite Charles Stuart to take
possession" of the territory; and, therefore, in the year 1653,
certain trustworthy Commonwealth's men received a commission to govern
affairs in the islands with the same powers and privileges as the
Old Company had enjoyed. But, in the year 1656, Colonel Owen Rowe
wrote home, complaining that the former Government, standing upon the
foundation of James the First's patent, had refused to acknowledge the
New Commission. It had gone so far as to declare Charles' execution
"bloody, traitorous, and rebellious;" to proclaim his son as Charles
II.; and to avow a determination to be ruled only by laws which were
sanctioned by the Crown. These bold Royalists enforced the oath of
supremacy, imprisoned such as refused it, and banished Independents
who sympathized with the regicides. The Council of State, however,
persevered in efforts to secure subjugation, feeling the importance of
the islands to the Commonwealth, and fearing lest the Spaniards might
endeavour to get a footing in them. Captain Wilkinson, commander of
the chief castle in the Colony, was strongly urged to attend to his
duties, and to keep a watchful eye upon the malignant party. Petitions
from the inhabitants to the Lord Protector arrived a few months before
his decease, stating that "the people were naked for want of clothing,
naked to their enemies for want of ammunition, and further destitute
for want of godly teachers"--ministers having received no salary
for years past. Only a few days after Cromwell had expired another
petition appeared, complaining of the disaffection of Deputy-Governor
Sayle, and describing him as a Royalist, as one who condemned the late
King's execution, and as an intimate friend of Colonial rebels, and of
scandalous ministers.[523]
[Sidenote: _West Indies._]
Cromwell, in his ill-fated expedition against the Spanish West Indies,
was influenced by religious, perhaps, even more than by political and
commercial considerations. He remembered the Protestant martyrs whom
the Spaniards had put to death, and the poor innocent Indians whom they
had barbarously murdered, and he thought that infinite good would arise
to the honour of God by maiming the Colonial power of these enemies
to the welfare of reformed Christendom. Spain, losing America, would
have the sword wrested from her right hand, and then Europe would
be relieved from cruel wars, and from the disquietude and misery
produced by perpetual attempts to extirpate true religion and to set
up the idolatries and abominations of Popery. So Cromwell reasoned, in
a State Paper delivered to the Dutch ambassador in the year 1653; in
which also he proposed that England and Holland should send teachers
gifted with Christian knowledge "unto all people and nations, to
inform and enlarge the Gospel and the ways of Jesus Christ."[524]
This design on Hispaniola proved altogether a very bad business, and
was grievously laid to heart by the brave man, who, as a Protestant
prince, wished to stand in the shoes of Gustavus Adolphus. Jamaica,
however, fell into Cromwell's hands as soon as his soldiers approached
the island. In the capital--St. Jago de la Vega--there stood an abbey
and two Roman Catholic churches called the Red and the White Cross,
which the Puritan soldiers immediately stripped of their superstitious
ornaments. The country abounded in waste land, and lacked population.
Cromwell aimed at making it a centre of Protestant influence, as much
as of British dominion; and this being known, it was suggested to
him by a French Protestant that he should gather there a number of
foreigners professing the Reformed religion, who might constitute a
sort of evangelical propaganda to "negative the designs of the Jesuits
in those parts."[525] Plenty of room for work might be found in the
uncultivated acres of that wild region for young Irish people, both
men and women, and for "Scotch vagabonds," male and female.[526] The
Council of State consequently resolved that such people should be sent
over; but Cromwell desired above all to see godly New Englanders
settling upon the island. It was, he said, a chief end of his design,
to enlighten those parts by means of such as knew and feared the Lord;
and he thought that some who had been driven for conscience' sake into
a barren wilderness, might now remove to a land of plenty.[527] He had
confidence in the pilgrims of New Plymouth, and in the Puritans of
Massachusetts, and he fondly hoped that many of them would emigrate
to his new West Indian dominions, and there sow the fields with the
"good seed of the kingdom." But disappointment followed his hopes. The
American Colonists would not remove. Some of the best agents sent over
to superintend the plantation died, chief amongst whom were Governors
Fortescue, Sedgwick, and Brayne.
Earnest piety, dashed with eccentricities of Puritan expression,
conspicuously appears in the letters and in the conduct of these
Colonial Governors under the Commonwealth.[528] They were men of
religious zeal, and of political sagacity, and they certainly
deserve honourable remembrance, although their enterprise proved
unsuccessful; a circumstance, indeed, which arose not from any fault
of theirs, but entirely from the unconquerable difficulties connected
with their position. The letters of D'Oyley, who succeeded these
earlier governors--himself a highly respectable officer with Royalist
tendencies--bear witness to their discouragements and to his own also.
Brayne followed D'Oyley in office, and died a victim to the fatal
climate.[529]
[Sidenote: _Maryland._]
The history of Maryland, under the Commonwealth, is full of the
records of strife for lordship. The Commission of 1651 for reducing
disaffected Colonial dependencies did not specify that maritime
State; but the Commissioners managed to include it within the range
of their instructions, by unwarrantably stretching the expression,
"all the plantations within the Bay of Chesapeake." The agents and
friends of Lord Baltimore at first resisted this intrusion, but they
were at last obliged to submit to a compromise. Afterwards, rallying
their strength, they re-asserted their earlier rights, and displaced
the new authorities; but these again, in their turn, overcame the
old government, and reinstated themselves in their former position.
Religious animosities were at the bottom of this quarrel; the Puritans
not being able to endure having a Roman Catholic at the head of the
community, and the Roman Catholics trembling at the idea of being left
to the mercy of Puritans.[530] After the Colony, under Lord Baltimore,
had enjoyed an amount of toleration unparalleled in those days of
intense party feeling, it becomes a question of great interest, what
was the course pursued by his opponents, when for a while they held
the reins of government which they had snatched out of his hands? The
answer is, that they made a law denying to such as exercised the Popish
form of worship all civil protection, they also proscribed all Prelacy
and Antinomianism, and resolved that, besides such as professed the
Presbyterian religion, which had been established in England, none
should be protected except those who avowed faith in God by Jesus
Christ, and did not abuse their freedom by injuring others. Such a
law can be rightly understood only when it is studied in the light of
previous history. Enough has been said in former pages of this work
to shew how deeply the Puritans feared lest they should be deprived of
their civil rights by the restoration of Roman despotism--a fear which
if not justified may be excused by the old maxim, "that a burnt child
dreads the fire." The toleration, indeed, vouchsafed in Maryland ought
to have taught another lesson, but the idea remained unconquerable that
such toleration as had been there conceded only served the purpose of
protecting Popery for a time, in order that it might in the end throw
off its cunning mask, and devour those very liberties to which it had
been indebted for existence.[531]
[Sidenote: _Maryland._]
Uncertainty was felt or pretended as to the wishes of the Protector
in reference to the subject so keenly agitated in the State of
Maryland. But upon his hearing a report to that effect, and upon
his being informed that it was said he wished a stop to be put to
the proceedings of the Commissioners who were authorized to settle
the _civil_ government, he distinctly stated that such was not his
intention. Of their interference with the secular business of the
colony he fully approved, but of their interference with spiritual
matters, it would appear that he had formed a different judgment; for
in an earlier communication to the same Commissioners he had commanded
them to confine their attention to temporal affairs, and "not to busy
themselves about religion."[532] In this instance, as in others,
Cromwell shewed a disposition to leave people to themselves in what
concerned their consciences, provided only that they remained loyal
to his political rule. We have said that the Prayer Book continued to
be used in Virginia; and so long as Maryland remained quiet under the
Protectorate, his Highness was not anxious to disturb either Prelatist
or Papist. Whilst careful not to displease his own political partizans,
he at the same time indicated no sympathy with the opposition which
was made to Lord Baltimore; and, although he was strongly urged to
annul altogether the patent and privileges of that excellent nobleman,
he still allowed him to persevere in pressing his claims, and even
permitted him to appoint his own Lieutenant.[533]
[Sidenote: _The East._]
Beyond these particulars relative to religion in the Western Colonies,
space remains only for a word respecting the other hemisphere. The
first East Indian charter had been granted by Queen Elizabeth, and
soon after the date of that charter the first English factory had been
established at Surat. In the year 1649, Edward Terry--who had attended
Sir Thomas Roe, as chaplain, on his embassy to the Mogul--preached
what might be called a missionary sermon in the church of St. Andrew
Undershaft, before the Governor and Company of the Merchant Traders
to India; and in that sermon he strongly urged them to commend
Christianity by a holy life; and he took care also faithfully to rebuke
the gross inconsistencies of English Christians in Oriental countries,
which, as he observed, often provoked natives to exclaim, "Christian
religion, devil religion--Christian much drunk--much rogue--much
naught." Dr. Edward Reynolds also preached in the same church, before
the same company, in the year 1657, taking for his text Nehemiah xiii.
31; shewing, as Evelyn notices in his "Diary,"[534] "by the example of
Nehemiah, all the perfections of a trusty person in public affairs,
with many good precepts, apposite to the occasion, ending with a prayer
for God's blessing on the Company and the undertaking."
Another body of traders, called the Levant Company, were certainly
left free to pursue their own course with respect to religion.[535]
Through the endeavours of Pocock, and other Episcopalian clergymen,
the Company had aimed to extend Christianity in the countries where
they trafficked; and in the year 1654 they sent Robert Frampton--a
distinguished Episcopal minister--to Aleppo, who remained for
sixteen years in charge of the spiritual welfare of the factory in
that place. On his return to England he became first Dean, and then
Bishop of Gloucester, and he is found amongst the non-jurors at the
period of the Revolution. On the other hand a Presbyterian minister,
who had been appointed chaplain at Smyrna, found no favour with the
merchants of that ancient port; in vain he produced his bale of
Westminster catechisms, and he fruitlessly endeavoured to establish
amongst the English residents the Westminster Confession Directory and
Discipline.[536]
This review of ecclesiastical affairs proves very clearly the large
measure of independence which in that respect was conceded to the
Colonies, under the government of Cromwell. The prohibition of the
use of the Book of Common Prayer emanated from the home authorities
before he became seated in the Protectoral chair, and there is no
evidence of any zeal on his part in enforcing the ordinance, or of
any disposition to adopt a persecuting policy towards his Colonial
subjects. On the contrary, his connivance at Episcopalian worship
in Virginia, and his conduct with reference to Maryland and Lord
Baltimore, indicate a spirit of toleration and a breadth of view with
regard to religious liberty,--where the stability and civil order of
society were not placed in jeopardy--such as are in harmony with his
habitual professions and his well-known character, and such also as
probably would have been more fully exemplified in England, had not
the exemplification been prevented by the political disaffection of
religious parties.
[Illustration]