In defence of “soul liberty” and the limitation of the functions of government solely to civil affairs, Gorton and Williams stood side by side from the beginning. Authority, he says, cannot safely be entrusted to magistrates “if their place and office bee not bounded within the compass of civill things.” He argues clearly and logically in the introduction to his “Incorruptible Key, Composed of the CX Psalme,” that if magistrates are permitted to extend their authority to things spiritual they are consistently bound to enforce their own convictions of religious duty, and to persecute all who dissent therefrom. The only safety is in forbidding them “to intermeddle between God and the consciences of men. * * In that way only is the preservation and honour of all States, in their several ways of rule and government.” This theory, for the first time in the world’s history, was clearly proclaimed, embodied in constitutional law, and practically tested, in the Commonwealth founded by Roger Williams and Samuell Gorton. The Puritan theocracy and the doctrine of “soul liberty” for a time maintained a competitive existence, side by side in the New England Colonies. The latter began in relative weakness—almost in anarchy—but it survived, and ultimately obtained recognition in our Federal Constitution. The former failed, and was practically discarded in less than two generations. Connecticut, an offshoot from Massachusetts Puritanism, under the leadership of Hooker reversed the Massachusetts theory that citizenship should be conditioned on church membership, and absorbed the theocratic Colony of New Haven. Rhode Island gained, in numbers and in internal cohesion, and Massachusetts lost, with every attack which she made on heresy. The idea that intolerance and persecution were necessary to insure the survival of the community—to prevent its disintegration—broached by apologetic writers, is therefore disproven by the palpable facts of history. Disintegration and secession were ever the products of intolerance. The story of the Saracens, in Spain, the Huguenots in France and the Puritans in England, was repeated in Massachusetts. Internal schisms were promoted rather than prevented by the policy of persecution. In the end, local public opinion was a powerful aid to the compulsion of the Mother Country in compelling the cessation of persecution. The policy of intolerance failed on its own chosen ground, and Massachusetts became a powerful and united State only when she followed the example of her despised Little Sister and became a Commonwealth of Ideas as well as a Commonwealth of Goods. VIII SAMUELL GORTON’S RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS