Administered at New Haven, in May 1666, under powers granted by Governor John Winthrop, according to his Maj^{ties} Charter granted to this Colony of Connecticut in New England. You J[asper] C[rane], doe sweare faith and Allegeance to his Maj^{tie} Charles y^e Second, as duty binds according to y^e word of God. And yo^u doe hereby acknowledge that the Pope, nor any other potentate hath powe^r or autority or iurisdiction in any of his Maj^{ties} dominions, and y^t only his Ma^{tie} our sover^n Lord King Charles hath under God, supreme power in his Ma^{ties} dominions. And I doe abhor y^e detestable opinion y^t the pope hath pow^r to Depose princes. And this I doe from my hart, soe help me God. On the 31 October, 1687, Sir Edmund Andros, Knt. took over into his hands the government of the Colony of Connecticut in New England. _In Rhode Island and Providence Plantations._ The settlement of Rhode Island by Roger Williams, being partly occasioned by his refusal to take either the Oath of Fidelity, or the Stranger’s Oath to the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay will account for the absence of all Oaths of Allegiance in the early history of the Colony which he founded. From the first settlement of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to the present time an Oath could not be required of any one; but in its place is required a property qualification and an Affirmation. CIVIL COMPACT We whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body in an orderly way, by the major consent of present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated together in a Towne fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto them only in civil things. [Richard Scott, and twelve others.] August the 20th, [1637.] This limiting of the powers of town meetings to “civil things,” is the first expression in the new world of a severance of the bonds of Church and State, and of that principle of freedom of conscience for which the founder had contended. This first Civil Compact was followed, on the 7th day of the first month, 1638, by the settlers at Aquidneck, with a SECOND CIVIL COMPACT We whose names are underwritten do here, solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick and as he shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to all those perfect and most absolute lawes of his given us in his holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby. Exod. 24. 3. 4, 2 Cron. 11.3, 2 Kings, 11. 17. [William Coddington, and eighteen others.]