The Court, however, even as constituted as a result of the May election, did not move rapidly enough in the prosecution of Wheelwright, and was summarily dissolved in September. Sixteen members were dropped, and the new Court, comprising forty-two members, contained twenty-two new names.[414] Even this purge was not enough, and two deputies were expelled, one for declaring that the Boston petition was lawful, and the other for declaring that he believed Wheelwright was innocent and was being persecuted for the truth. Footnote 414: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. I, pp. 204, 205. Meanwhile, Vane had returned to England, and a synod of all the clergy had met and declared that there were eighty-two erroneous or blasphemous opinions involved in the controversy.[415] Mr. Cotton, who had no taste for that banishment which he claimed was no hardship, now went over to what was evidently to be the winning side. With a broader mind and wider vision than any of the other clergy of the colony, he had not the courage to stand alone, beyond a certain point, against their unanimity in intolerance. The higher promptings of his nature were crushed by the united voice of the priesthood, as Winthrop's had been so short a time before, and the noblest of the colony's leaders, lay and clerical, from that time tended to sink to the lower level of their fellows. Footnote 415: They are given in full by Adams, _Antinomianism_, pp. 95-124. J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. I, pp. 284 _ff._, gives an account of the meeting, but mentions only 80. Events now moved more swiftly. At the November Court, Wheelwright was sentenced to be disfranchised and banished, and was refused the privilege of an appeal to England.[416] He was given fourteen days in which to settle his affairs, and at the beginning of winter was on his way to New Hampshire. One of the expelled deputies was disfranchised and threatened with banishment should he “speake anything to disturbe the publike peace.” Another was also disfranchised and banished. Two weeks later, seven of the signers of the petition were disfranchised, and ten more, who acknowledged their “sin” in having signed, were pardoned. The following week, seventy-five men, in the towns of Boston, Salem, Newbury, Roxbury, Ipswich, and Charlestown, were condemned to have all their arms and ammunition taken from them unless they would likewise acknowledge their “sin.” A law was passed that any one who should “defame” any Magistrate or Court, or any of their acts or proceedings, should be fined, imprisoned, disfranchised, or banished.[417] Footnote 416: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. I, p. 207; J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. I, p. 294. Footnote 417: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. I, pp. 207-13.