For the main purpose of this paper it will not be necessary to go further back in history than to the reign of James the First, of England, 1603–1625, during which time the providences of God directed the course of the voyage of the Pilgrims away from the Colony of Virginia to their settlement at Plymouth in New England, in December, 1620; or to carry the subject beyond the time, in the short-lived reign of James the Second, 1685–1689, when, in December, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros, knight, arrived in Boston with a commission to govern New England, and the Colonial period of New England came to an end. _In England._ When Henry the Eighth renounced the authority of the Pope, in 1534, an Act of Parliament was obtained declaring him the only supreme head of the Church in England on the earth; and utterly abolishing the authority of the Roman Pontiff within the British Dominions. To give effect to this Act there was further enacted: THE OATH OF SUPREMACY I, A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience, that the Kings Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm, and of all other His Highness Dominions and Countries, as well in all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things (or causes) as Temporal: And that no Forraign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, preheminence or authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm: and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forreign jurisdiction, powers, superioritie, and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness, His Heirs and lawful Successors, and (to my power) shall assist and defend all jurisdiction, priviledge, preheminence, & authority granted or belonging to the Kings Highness, His Heirs and Successors, and united and annexed to the imperial Crown of the Realm. So help me God, _&c._ The Act of Supremacy which broke the power of the Roman Catholic Church in England, under Henry the Eighth, and his successor, Edward the Sixth, was repealed under Mary Tudor, and revived under Elizabeth, in 1558. Following the Gunpowder Plot, James the First, in 1605, had enacted an Oath of Allegiance, also, which all British subjects were required to take. This Oath of “submission and obedience to the King as a temporal Sovereign, independent of any other power upon earth” contained no acknowledgment of the King as the head of the Church, and, by this omission, Roman Catholics could take it without denying the supremacy of the Pope in spiritual affairs: TENOR OF THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE, &C. TO BE TAKEN AND SUBSCRIBED BY RECUSANTS