Whoever shall observe christmasse day or the like festivity, by forbearing to labour, feasting or other way shall pay 5s. and whosoever shall not resort to their meeting upon the Lord's day and such days of fasting and Thanksgiving as shall be appointed by authority, shall pay 5s. no days commanded by the lawes of England to be observed or regarded.
No person shall be impressed or compelled to serve in any wars but such as shall be enterprized by that commonwealth, by the consent of a generall court, or by authority derived from them.
No person whatsoever shall joine any persons in marriage but a magistrate, it being an honorable ordinance and therefore should be accordingly sollemnized.
All strangers professing the true christian religion that shall fly to them for succour from the tyranny or oppression of their persecutors, or for any necessary or compulsory cause, they shall be entertained and protected amongst them according to that power and prudence God shall give them. By which law Whalley and Gosse and other traytors were kindly receaved and entertained by Mr. Godkins and other magistrates.
Whosoever shall be in the possession of any land 5 years, altho' the grant of said land was to another, and the possessor have nothing to shew for the alienation thereof but his possession, the possessor shall have the land confirmed to him.
No oath shall be urged or required to be taken by any person but such oath as the generall court hath considered allowed and required.
The oaths of allegiance and supremacy are neither taken by the magistrates nor required to be taken by the inhabitants, only an oath of fidelity to the government is imposed upon all persons as well strangers as inhabitants, upon the penalty of 5l. for every week they shall refuse the said oath.
b. Second Charter of Massachusetts, October 7/17, 1691
Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, I, 1-20.
The stubborn persistence of Massachusetts in resisting all regulation from England finally involved all New England in the despotic rule of Andros. On the overthrow of Andros (on the flight of James II and the accession of William III), Connecticut and Rhode Island continued their former charter governments; but the Massachusetts Charter of 1629 had been declared void by the English courts and had been formally surrendered. The best Massachusetts could now do was to secure a much more limited instrument. For a fuller history, cf. American History and Government, § 97.