CHAPTER XVI.
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]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
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]
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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
