Church and State in the four New England colonies.--Early theological dissensions and disturbances.--Colonial legislation in behalf of religion.--Development of state authority at the cost of the independence of the church.--Desire of Massachusetts for a platform of church discipline.--Practical working of the theory of Church and State in Connecticut. IV. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM AND THE HALF-WAY COVENANT Necessity of a church platform to resist innovations, to answer English criticism, and to meet changing conditions of colonial life.--Summary of the Cambridge Platform.--Of the history of Congregationalism to the year 1648.--Attempt to discipline the Hartford, Conn., church according to the Platform.--Spread of its schism.--Petition to the Connecticut General Court for some method of relief.--The Ministerial Convention or "Synod" of 1657.--Its Half-Way Covenant.--Attitude of the Connecticut churches towards the measure.--Pitkin's petition to the General Court of Connecticut for broader church privileges.--The Court's favorable reply.--Renewed outbreak of schism in the Hartford and other churches.--Failure in the calling of a synod of New England churches.--The Connecticut Court establishes the Congregational Church.--Connecticut's first toleration act.--Settlement of the Hartford dispute.--The new order and its important modifications of ecclesiastical polity. V. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION Drift from religious to secular, and from intercolonial to individual interests.--Reforming Synod of 1680.--Religious life in the last quarter of the seventeenth century.--The "Proposals of 1705" in Massachusetts.--Introduction in Connecticut of the Saybrook System of Consociated Church government. VI. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM The Confession of Faith.--Heads of Agreement.--Fifteen Articles.--Attitude of the churches towards the Platform.--Formation of Consociations.--The "Proviso" in the act of establishment.--Neglect to read the proviso to the Norwich church.--Contention arising.--The Norwich church as an example of the difficulty of collecting church rates. VII. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM AND THE TOLERATION ACT Toleration in the "Proviso" of the act establishing the Saybrook Platform.--Reasons for passing the Toleration Act of 1708.--Baptist dissenters.--Rogerine-Baptists, Rogerine-Quakers or Rogerines, and their persecution.--Attitude toward the Society of Friends or Quakers.--Toward the Church of England men or Episcopalians.--Political events parallel in time with the dissenters' attempts to secure exemption from the support of the Connecticut Establishment.--General Ineffectiveness of the Toleration Act. VIII. THE FIRST VICTORY FOR DISSENT