The commissioners for the regulation and government of the plantations having reported that Massachusetts had violated its charter, a writ of _quo warranto_ was issued, on which judgment was given in favour of the crown. The process was never served on any member of the corporation; and it is therefore probable that the judgment was not final. The privy council however ordered the governor and company to send their patent to England to be surrendered. The general court answered this order by a petition to the commissioners in which they said, "we dare not question your Lordship's proceedings in requiring our patent to be sent unto you; we only desire to open our griefs; and if in any thing we have offended his Majesty or your Lordships, we humbly prostrate ourselves at the foot stool of supreme authority; we are sincerely ready to yield all due obedience to both; we are not conscious that we have offended in any thing, as our government is according to law; we pray that we may be heard before condemnation, and that we may be suffered to live in the wilderness." Fortunately for the colonists, Charles and his commissioners found too much employment at home, to have leisure for carrying into complete execution, a system aimed at the subversions of what was most dear to the hearts of Americans. To the religious dissensions which distracted Massachusetts, and to the rigour with which conformity was exacted, is to be attributed the first settlement of the other colonies of New England. As early as the year 1634, Roger Williams, a popular preacher at Salem, who had refused to hold communion with the church at Boston, because its members refused to make a public declaration of their repentance for having held communion with the church of England during their residence in that country, was charged with many exceptionable tenets. Among several which mark his wild enthusiasm, one is found in total opposition, to the spirit of the times and to the severity of his other doctrines. He maintained, that to punish a man for any matter of conscience is persecution, and that even papists and Arminians are entitled to freedom of conscience in worship, provided the peace of civil society be secured. The divines of Massachusetts, in opposition to this doctrine, contended that they did not persecute men for conscience, but corrected them for sinning against conscience; and so they did not persecute, but punish heretics. This unintelligible sophism not convincing Williams, he was, for this, and for his other heresies, banished by the magistrates, as a disturber of the peace of the church, and of the commonwealth. [Illustration: Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1622 _From the painting by W.L. Williams_