[50] _The Charter Granted by Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary, to the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England_, Boston in New England, 1726, p. 9. The principle of church membership as a qualification for voting was set aside for a property qualification. [51] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. i, pp. 446 _et seq._ _Cf._ Reed, _Church and State in Massachusetts_, 1691–1740, pp. 23 _et seq._ [52] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. i, p. 448. [53] _Charters and “Acts and Laws” of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, With Appended Acts and Laws_, Boston, 1726–1735, p. 383. The law provided that “all persons who profess themselves to be of the Church of England”, and who were so situated that “there is a Person in Orders according to the Rules of the Church of England setled [_sic_], and abiding among them and performing Divine Service within Five Miles of the Habitation, or usual Residence of any Person professing himself as aforesaid of the Church of England”, might have his rate-money reserved for the support of the Episcopal church. [54] _Charters and “Acts and Laws” of the Province of Mass._, _etc._, p. 423. The five-mile limitation formed a part of this legislation, also. [55] Burrage, _History of the Baptists in New England_, p. 105. [56] Palfrey, _A Compendious History of New England_, vol. iv, pp. 94, 95. [57] _Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, etc._, vol. iii, p. 645. [58] _Ibid._ [59] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, p. 140. [60] _Ibid._ [61] _Ibid._ [62] Separatists or Separates were the names by which those were commonly designated who withdrew from the orthodox churches on account of the controversies occasioned by the Great Awakening. See Blake, S. Leroy, _The Separates or Strict Congregationalists of New England_, Boston, 1902, pp. 17 _et seq._ [63] Hovey, _A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Rev. Isaac Backus_, p. 171. [64] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, pp. 96 _et seq._ Backus himself suffered imprisonment under this act. See _ibid._, p. 109. [65] Greene, _The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut_, pp. 235 _et seq._ The process of absorption referred to had much to do with the breaking up of the Separatist movement. Few of these congregations continued to exist until the struggle for religious freedom was fully won. Other contributory causes in the breaking up of the movement were the poverty of the members of these congregations, the difficulties they experienced in securing pastoral care, and the dissensions that arose among them in the exercise of their boasted rights of private judgment, public exhortation, and the interpretation of the Scriptures. [66] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, pp. 140 _et seq._ [67] Backus, _op. cit._, p. 141. [68] _Ibid._