Connecticut's individual experiment in the union of Church and State is separable neither from the New England setting of her earliest days nor from the early years of that Congregationalism which the colony approved and established. Hence, the opening chapters of her story must treat of events both in old England and in New. And because religious liberty was finally won by a coalition of men like-minded in their attitude towards rights of conscience and in their desire for certain necessary changes and reforms in government, the final chapters must deal with social and political conditions more than with those purely religious. It may be pertinent to remark that the passing of a hundred years since the divorce of Church and State and the reforms of a century ago have brought to the commonwealth some of the same deplorable political conditions that the men of the past, the first Constitutional Reform Party, swept away by the peaceful revolution of 1818. For encouragement, assistance, and suggestions, I am especially indebted to Professor George B. Adams and Professor Williston Walker of Yale University, to Professor Charles M. Andrews of Bryn Mawr, to Dr. William G. Andrews, rector of Christ Church, Guilford, Conn., and to Professor Lucy M. Salmon of Vassar College. Of numerous libraries, my largest debt is to that of Yale University. M. LOUISE GREENE. NEW HAVEN, October 20, 1905. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM Preparation of the English nation for the two earliest forms of Congregationalism, Brownism and Barrowism.--Rise of Separatism and Puritanism.--Non-conformists during Queen Mary's reign.--Revival of the Reformation movement under Queen Elizabeth.--Development of Presbyterianism.--Three Cambridge men, Robert Browne, Henry Greenwood, and Henry Barrowe.--Brownism and Barrowism.--The Puritans under Elizabeth, her early tolerance and later change of policy.--Arrest of the Puritan movement by the clash between Episcopal and Presbyterian forms of polity and the pretensions of the latter.--James the First and his policy of conformity.--Exile of the Gainsborough and Scrooby Separatists.--Separatist writings.--General approachment of Puritans and Separatists in their ideas of church polity.--The Scrooby exiles in America.--Sympathy of the Separatists of Plymouth Colony with both the English Established Church and with English Puritans. II. THE TRANSPLANTING OF CONGREGATIONALISM English Puritans decide to colonize in America.--Friendly relations between the settlements of Salem and Plymouth.--Salem decides upon the character of her church organization.--Arrival of Higginson and Skelton with recruits.--Formation of the Salem church and election of officers.--Governor Bradford and delegates from Plymouth present.--The beginning of Congregational polity among the Puritans and the break with English Episcopacy.--Formation and organization of the New England churches. III. CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND