Massachusetts -- Church history; Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Puritans -- Massachusetts
In England the Reformation was controlled by statesmen, whose object was
to invest the crown with ecclesiastical power, and who made no changes
except such as they thought necessary for their purpose. They repudiated
the papal supremacy, and adopted articles of religion sufficiently
evangelical in form, but they retained episcopacy, the liturgy, and the
surplice; the cross was still used in baptism, the people bowed at the
name of Jesus, and knelt at the communion. Such a compromise with what
they deemed idolatry was offensive to the stricter Protestants, and so
early as 1550 John Hooper refused the see of Gloucester because he would
not wear the robes of office; thus almost from its foundation the church
was divided into factions, and those who demanded a more radical reform
were nicknamed Puritans. As time elapsed large numbers who could no
longer bring themselves to conform withdrew from the orthodox communion,
and began to worship by themselves; persecution followed, and many fled
to Holland, where they formed congregations in the larger towns, the
most celebrated of them being that of John Robinson at Leyden, which
afterward founded Plymouth. But the intellectual ferment was universal,
and the same upheaval that was rending the church was shaking the
foundations of the state: power was passing into the hands of the
people, but a century was to elapse before the relations of the
sovereign to the House of Commons were fully adjusted. During this
interval the Stuarts reigned and three of the four kings suffered exile
or death in the fierce contest for mastery.
The fixed determination of Charles I. was to establish a despotism
and enforce conformity with ritualism; and the result was the Great
Rebellion.
Among the statesmen who advised him, none has met with such scant mercy
from posterity as Laud, who has been gibbeted as the impersonification
of narrowness, of bigotry, and of cruelty. The judgment is unscientific,
for whatever may be thought of the humanity or wisdom of his policy, he
only did what all have done who have attempted to impose a creed on men.
The real grievance has never been that an observance has been required,
or an indulgence refused, but that the right to think has been denied.
Provided a boundary be fixed within which the reason must be chained,
the line drawn by Laud is as reasonable as that of Calvin; Geneva is no
more infallible than Canterbury or Rome. Comprehension is the dream of
visionaries, for some will always differ from any confession of faith,
however broad; and where there are dogmas there will be heretics till
all have perished. But in their fear and hatred of individual free
thought regarding the mysteries of religion, Laud, Calvin, and the Pope
agreed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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