The Church of England was nominally established in all except Pennsylvania; but it was managed with great lack of discretion, and aroused popular hostility against it and the mother-country. On Long Island and in New Jersey the Puritans exerted a powerful influence on manners and thought. Everywhere the laws against excesses in amusement and Sabbath-breaking were very severe, but only in the Puritan communities were they strictly enforced, although a strong sentiment of piety was general among all respectable classes of the people. Except in New York, towards the close of the seventeenth century there was toleration for all Protestant sects, but in Pennsylvania alone were Roman Catholics entitled to equal consideration; the New York laws against "Jesuits and Popish priests" were harsh, and founded on the false notion that they incited the Indians to acts of violence. In New York the Church of England endeavored for a time (commencing in 1692), by violent persecution, to repress all forms of dissent; but the sectaries flourished despite official opposition. The leading denominations were the Dutch Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, English Independent, and English Presbyterian. The Scotch Presbyterians and New England Congregationalists were most numerous in New Jersey. In Pennsylvania and Delaware, next to the Quakers stood the Lutherans and Scotch Presbyterians, and the preachers of the latter church were vigorous proselyters, especially successful among the western borderers. The Germans, brought over, at first, largely through Penn's efforts, included a number of persecuted groups,--Quakers, Palatines, Ridge Hermits, Dunkards, and Pietists. All Christian forms and creeds were liberally represented in Pennsylvania, where there was as genuine religious freedom as exists anywhere in the United States to-day. Sidenote: Crime and pauperism.