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charter. He declared that since the territory belonged originally to the Indians, the King had no power to grant it to the colonists.15

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Later, he withdrew this attack, and even offered his book "to be burnt"; but he now assailed the authorities on another point.160 The General Court had ordered (1634-1635) that every man, whether a church-member or not, should swear to obey the laws and to defend the colony. Those who twice refused to take this oath were to be banished." 161

Williams, who had returned to Salem, preached against this law. He declared that the Puritan authorities had no moral right to force an unconverted person to take an oath.162 He also denied their right to punish those who refused to attend religious meetings, or for violation of the first four commandments, except "in such cases as did disturb the civil peace.

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The General Court summoned the preacher to retract, but he stood fast in his "rocky strength." The Court then (1635) ordered him to leave the colony, but finally allowed him to remain until spring, provided he did not "go about to draw others to his opinions." 164 Mr. Williams insisted on preaching in his own house on the prohibited points, and the authorities despatched a constable to arrest him. He fled through winter snows, and at the peril of his life, to the hospitable hut of Massasoit (§ 81) on Narragansett Bay. 165 He remained in that chief's smoky wigwam until spring, when he went forth and founded (1636) the colony of Providence.

92. The case of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. The Puritan authorities had next to deal with a case more aggravating even than that of Roger Williams. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of "ready wit and bold spirit," had formed a kind of woman's club to discuss the sermons preached in Boston and vicinity. All went well until Mrs. Hutchinson began to indulge in sharp criticism. She commended the teaching of her friend, the Reverend Mr. Cotton, and of her brother-inlaw, the Reverend Mr. Wheelwright, but she declared that

the other ministers made altogether too much of religious ceremonies and church attendance and not half enough of faith.

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The discussion waxed so hot that Winthrop said the colonists were split into two hostile parties, one of "works" and the other of "faith." A company of militia who were about to march against the Indians were unwilling to move, because their chaplain was accused of being "under a covenant of works," - or in other words of being more Jew than Christian. Next the dispute got into politics, and there was a Hutchinson and an anti-Hutchinson candidate for governor.

Finally, a meeting of ministers formally accused Mrs. Hutchinson of teaching no less than twenty-nine "cursed opinions." 166 Her brother-in-law, Mr. Wheelwright, who was said to hold the same dangerous views, was convicted of sedition, heresy, and contempt, and was banished (1637) from the colony. He went with some friends to New Hampshire and founded Exeter.

When Mrs. Hutchinson was brought to trial, she declared that God had revealed himself directly to her. "How?" asked her examiners. "By the voice of his own spirit to my soul," she replied.167 She was expelled from the Church, "given over to Satan," and banished. She, with her husband and some friends, made a settlement on Rhode Island.

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93. The Boston Latin School (1635); Harvard College (1636); establishment of public schools (1647). — Meanwhile the people of Massachusetts were taking action for those who were to succeed them. Some citizens of Boston (1635) founded the Boston Latin School, the oldest educational institution established by English settlers in the United States ($59). Among the early pupils of that justly celebrated school we find the names of Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams, two of the staunchest patriots America ever produced.

The next autumn the General Court voted £400-a large sum for the colonists of that day - to found a college.

Two years later (1638) Reverend John Harvard left property to it valued at £750, and gave to it his valuable library. In honor of these bequests the institution was named Harvard College. This Puritan university was wholly unsectarian. Its first seal had for its motto the single, expressive, Latin word Veritas, 168

The next year (1639) — the same year in which the first press in the English colonies was established at Cambridgethe citizens of Dorchester ordered that a free school should be set up in that town.169 Like the Boston Latin School, it was for boys only; girls then, and for many years to come, received all their instruction at home. In 1647 the General Court took action on a broad scale. It declared: "in order that learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers" every township of fifty householders shall hire a schoolmaster “to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read." 170 The wages of the teacher were to be paid in such manner as the people should determine in town-meeting.

This law of 1647 established public schools that in time were to become "cheap enough for all, and good enough for the best." It laid the foundation of the free common school system of the United States."

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94. The New England Confederacy (1643). — In 1643 the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven formed a political and religious confederation. Its three chief objects were to keep the Dutch out of the Connecticut Valley, to put down insurrections of the Indians, and to assist masters to recover runaway apprentices and slaves.172

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But more than this, the people of these four colonies felt that such a union would help them to maintain their liberties in case the King should threaten them." The confederacy lasted about forty years. It was a prophecy of that union of all the colonies which was formed late in the next century and which was destined to secure American independence.

95. George Fox founds the "Society of Friends" or Quakers. Shortly after the New England Confederacy went into operation, George Fox, the founder of the "Society of Friends," began to preach in England. He declared that God makes himself known directly to the human heart, and that whoever follows this divine "inner light" is sure of salvation. The Puritans regarded the Bible as the supreme rule of life. In their eyes George Fox was a revolutionist, striking at the very foundations of both Church and Scripture. But more than this, he seemed to most men of that age to threaten to destroy the bonds that hold society together.

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1. The Quakers conscientiously refused to take any form of oath. They would not give evidence in this way in a court of justice or swear allegiance to any form of government. Believing that war was wrong they would not bear arms in defence of the state or of their own homes. 3. They refused to pay taxes for the support of any ministry or church. Believing that all men are equal in the sight of God, they refused to address any one, no matter what his rank, by any other title than that of "Friend," and they would not take off their hats to the King himself. They were mercilessly treated in England; and some of them, driven half-crazy by brutal punishments, indulged in actions which to-day would be regarded as proof of insanity.14 The General Court of Massachusetts hearing of these things ordered (1656) that a day of fasting and prayer should be kept for fear that the teachings of the English Quakers should spread abroad.

96. Arrival of Quaker missionaries (1656); action against Quakers; Episcopalians and Baptists.— Shortly after this day of fasting and prayer two Quaker women arrived (1656) at Boston. They came to convert the New England colonists. The authorities threw them into jail, burned their books, and as soon as possible sent them to the West Indies.

The General Court now enacted (1656) a severe law against the "cursed sect of heretics . . . commonly called Quakers."

The act imposed a fine of £100 on the master of any vessel who should bring one of these people into the colony, and it ordered that every Quaker who entered Massachusetts should be severely flogged and then kept in close confinement until he could be sent to distant parts.

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But neither cruel scourgings, nor the cutting off of ears, nor threats of worse punishments could keep out these fervent apostles of the "inner light." They believed it to be as much their duty to preach to the Puritan Fathers as the Puritans believed it theirs to preach to the savages.

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Baffled and exasperated, the General Court finally resolved, as they said, "to present the point of the sword toward the Quakers," and let them rush on it if they would.176 An act was passed (1658) making it death for a banished Quaker to return to the colony." The principle was not new, for a similar law respecting Jesuit and other Catholic priests had been on the Massachusetts statute books for many years.' 178 Under this act four Quakers - one of whom was a woman come back after having been twice banished were hanged on Boston Common (1661). These were the first and also the last persons of this faith who were put to death in Massachusetts. But nearly a quarter of a century later the English authorities were killing Covenanters by hundreds, and drowning women in Scotland for refusing to conform to the established Church.

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The last exciting case of Quaker missionary work was that of Margaret Brewster (1677). She entered the Old South Meeting-House in Boston during the Sunday service. Margaret was dressed in sackcloth, her face was smeared with lampblack and her head covered with ashes. She had come, she said, like the prophet Jonah, to call the people of Boston to repent. Judge Sewall, who was present, says her sudden appearance "occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I ever saw. Margaret was condemned to be tied to a cart's tail and whipped through the streets. With her the conflict ended, and the Puritans gave up trying to silence these

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