In the meantime, Mrs. Hutchinson had been brought to trial. When, at its beginning, she asked what law had been broken, the Court answered, “the fifth commandment,” which enjoined her to honor father and mother, whereas she had brought reproach upon the “fathers of the commonwealth.”[418] When the trial was over, and the sentence given that she should be “banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society,” she said, “I desire to know wherefore I am banished.” “Say no more,” answered the Governor; “the Court knows wherefore and is satisfied.” Footnote 418: Adams, _Antinomianism_, pp. 165, 237. Two reports of the trial are given in that volume, pp. 157-284. It was evident now that no voice could be raised in criticism of any acts of the civil or ecclesiastical authorities, and that the minds and lives of the ten thousand or more inhabitants of Massachusetts had come wholly under the control of their rulers. One man, who with a group of people undertook to organize a church without having secured the permission of the magistrates and clergy, was fined £20 and imprisoned “during the pleasure of Court.” Hugh Buet, being found guilty of “heresy,” was condemned to leave the colony within three weeks or be hanged. Two others were imprisoned for criticizing the government and clergy; and, for the same offense, Katherine Finch was ordered to be whipped.[419] In 1635, a law had been passed making church attendance compulsory for all inhabitants, under pain of fine and imprisonment. Three years later, it was enacted that every resident, whether a freeman and church member or not, should be taxed for the support of the ministers. In the Old World, the churches had been satisfied with excommunication, but in Massachusetts, a law was now passed that, if any person was excommunicated by the church, he must endeavor to have himself restored within six months, under penalty of “fine, imprisonment, banishment, or further.”[420] That ominous “further” was evidently intended to mean death, and it is difficult to conceive of a measure more conducive to the rearing of a race of conforming hypocrites. Footnote 419: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. I, pp. 252, 312, 262, 269, 234. Footnote 420: _Ibid._, pp. 140, 240, 242. The policy so ruthlessly followed by the leaders can hardly be excused by attributing it to the spirit of the age or to the necessity of maintaining civil order. They were all familiar with the example of religious toleration in Holland; and in neither Plymouth, Rhode Island, nor Connecticut was church membership a legal requisite for the franchise. Moreover, Massachusetts, only a few years later, in annexing the northern settlements, permitted their inhabitants to vote without being church members, although denying that privilege to her own citizens.