GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION

“It is necessary, therefore, that all power that is on earth be limited...” ~ John Cotton, Puritan minister

turmoil

The second half of the 17th century brought turbulence to the young colonies in New England. England wanted more control over her territories across the ocean, upstart religions strove to gain a foothold in a Puritan dominated society and conflict with indigenous peoples led to the bloodiest war with the Native Americans yet seen. Finally, the chaotic half century culminated in the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials and a whole new set of wars with France and her Native American allies.

the system of government in place

The new colonists of Massachusetts Bay were an independent minded bunch. Governor Winthrop took steps early to hold them in check. The General Court, formed in 1630, originally decreed that any adult male could apply for freemanship which would give them the right to vote. Just one year later, that inclusiveness was out the door and restrictions were set in place to weed out the riffraff. To qualify for freemanship, a man had to not only be in good standing with the Congregational Church, they also needed to own £80 worth of property.  That effectively cut the common stock out of the voting process. In addition, Governor Winthrop took steps to assure that lawmaking powers would not fall into the hands of any undesirables by granting legislative powers only to his appointed officials.

The first hint of defiance began early, in 1631. When a tax for fortifications to Watertown was passed without the consent of the eligible voters, Winthrop found the first tax revolt in America on his hands. Worse, in 1634, the freemen demanded to see the Massachusetts Bay Company Charter and found that, under the charter, lawmaking power had actually been granted to all freemen. With the cat out of the bag, Winthrop had no choice but to allow a system of democracy that would become the cornerstone of the new nation.

Still, restrictions on becoming a freeman ensured that only the elite of the colony were part of this so-called democracy. Africans and women were excluded right off the bat. Men who were not in good standing with the Congregational Church were out as well. And, to make sure that only the wealthier segment of the population had a say, the £80 of property requirement stayed on the books.

While the United States has always prided itself on our "democracy," little has changed from then until now. Limiting freemen status to carefully chosen white males ensured that that actual power would always be in the hands of a small select group. Even with the emancipation of the slaves, the right for all males to vote and finally the right for women to vote, the United States Government has always found a way to ensure that true political power has continued to rest in the hands of a very few.

The Puritans professed to believe in a separation of church and state but they did not believe in separating the state from God. While the church had no formal authority, it was protected by the government and continued to hold the true reins of power. Heresy was outlawed and sin punished. John Cotton was the most powerful minister in the colony. He did not approve of democracy, believing that "all power that is on earth be limited." Like it or not, the church was then, and remains today, a powerful political force.

Still, with all of its problems, the government of Massachusetts Bay evolved from a company board of officers to an elected representative system. This was far superior to what they had left behind in England. Over time the New Englanders grew to cherish their nearly complete independence from England.

the chosen people

The Puritan group that followed John Winthrop to the New World in 1630 imagined that they themselves were re-enacting the story of the Exodus. Not only were they liberated by God from oppression they were also chosen by Him to fulfill a special role. They were especially selected to establish a new, pure Christian society, a "city upon a hill" which would set an example for the rest of the world in "rightful living."

The main tenets of their Puritan doctrine included:

1). Total depravity: Humankind is totally evil through the fall of Adam and Eve and is therefore damned for eternity.

2) Predestination: The idea that God had already chosen who was going to Heaven before people were even put on this earth.

3) Limited atonement: Jesus died only for the “elect,” or those already chosen by God.

4) Irresistible Grace: God sends the Holy Spirit to the “elect”--and only the “elect”--to allow them to repent, have faith, and be eligible for eternal life.

The concepts of predestination and the "paradox of free will" have been debated by theologians for centuries. The Puritans stood firmly in the predestination camp. And no wonder. Just as the Jews who came before them and the Mormons who came after, the Puritans belief in themselves as "the chosen people" gave them an edge over all other mortals on earth. Only the depraved non-believers and sinners of the earth were destined for everlasting hellfire while they, the "elect" would spend eternity basking in God's golden light. Far from being a terrifying specter, the Puritans considered predestination "a comfortable doctrine," affording them solace and security.

It was the Puritans confidence in their own "elect" righteousness that created the intense bigotry and intolerance within their community. Puritans in both Britain and New England were bound and determined to cleanse the culture of what they regarded as corrupt and sinful practices. They felt that their holy covenant with God must always be honored and the integrity of the "chosen" congregation demanded strict religious conformity.

Still, not only the commoners but college-educated clergymen lived in what historian David D. Hall has called “worlds of wonder.” These “wonders” include the belief in witches, the power of Satan to assume visible form, and a variety of other supernatural phenomena. These beliefs would play a leading role in the final decade of the 17th century.

Persecution towards other religions remained the norm, particularly where the Quakers were concerned. In 1659, the court ordered that "hereafter, quakers, when discovered, shall be made bare from the middle upwards, tied to a cart, and whipped through the town towards the boundary of Massachsetts; and if returning, that they shall be similarly punished, with the addition of being branded with the letter R. on the left shoulder; and if coming back a third time, that they shall be banished on pain of death."

It wasn't until the end of the century, after the horror of the witch trials, that Puritans began to lose their hold over the colonists of Massachusetts Bay.

the birth of separation of church and state

New England’s Congregational churches were self-governing bodies, answerable to no higher authority and the Puritan powers that be continually blurred the lines between church and state. Church officials were essentially government officials and they believed that the civil government should strictly enforce public morality.

Enter Puritan minister Roger Williams onto the scene. Williams sailed to Massachusetts in late 1630 and by 1635 he had been banished from the colony. His sin was holding fast to an idea that remains both a main covenant of our founding fathers and contentious to this day: the separation of church and state.

Williams believed that preventing error in religion was impossible and that "government must remove itself from anything that touched upon human beings’ relationship with God." Forced worship, he wrote, “stincks in God’s nostrils.” For this belief, Williams was summarily defrocked and sent from the colony on pain of being sent back to England where he could possibly be imprisoned. Warned of impending arrest by none other than Governor Winthrop, Williams fled. After enduring much hardship, he made his way south to Narragansett Bay, now Rhode Island. He bought land from the Narragansett Indians. Williams later wrote that “having...a sense of God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress, I called the place Providence, I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience.”

Blue = Boston Red = Providence, RI

Unlike every other English settlement at the time, Williams' plantation neither set up a church nor required church attendance. In Williams' world "a simple solemn profession (had) as full force as an oath” in court. This was revolutionary stuff and Massachusetts was having none of it.

Regarding Williams small colony as a "pestilence at its border," Massachusetts moved in for the kill. Without any legal authority whatsoever, the Bay Colony claimed jurisdiction over what is now Cranston RI, just south of Providence. In very short order, the Massachusetts militia marched into Providence.

It would seem that the fledgling settlement would be no match for mighty Massachusetts Bay, but Williams wasn't about to give up. He sailed back to dreaded England in an attempt to procure a legal charter. His proposition of church and state separation which he called"Soul Liberty" was put before Parliament. Williams advanced his arguments with passion, persistence and logic. He proposed that Rhode Island could be a place of trial. Safely isolated from England it could be an experiment in "Soul Liberty" and all of England could watch the results.

Amazingly, on March 14, 1644, Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Plantations granted Williams his charter, giving his colony “full Powre & Authority to Governe & rule themselves...by such a form of Civil Government, as by voluntary consent of all, or the greater Part of them shall find most suteable” so long as its laws “be conformable to the Laws of England, so far as the Nature and Constitution of the place will admit.”

With this charter, Williams had created the freest society in the Western world and the birth of separation of church and state in America.

tensions with the mother country

As the second half of the 17th century rolled in, the quality of life in New England had vastly improved. Children were born at nearly twice the rate of those in Maryland and Virginia. An old saying maintains that "New England invented grandparents." That's because life expectancy in New England was greater than that of Old England and much longer than in the Southern colonies.

The health of the colonial population in Massachusetts led to wealth in the form of increased production of ironworks, leather goods and other trade-worthy items. But the prospect of self-sufficiency in her colonies was something that England couldn't and wouldn't allow.

In 1649, Charles I was executed and Oliver Cromwell took over the reins of a new English Commonwealth. Under his authority, the first of a series of Navigation Acts was passed by Parliament. With the ever increasing growth of wealth apparent in the colonies, the mother country naturally wanted her piece of the pie. The first Navigation Act, implemented in 1651, declared that only English ships would be allowed to bring goods into England, and that the North American colonies could only export its commodities to England. This first Act was met with only mild resistance.

As time wore on, however, matters went from bad to worse. In 1663, a second Navigation Act, which regulated and taxed exports to the colonies, was implemented. Taxes! The bane of the North American colonies. Realizing that their independent-minded colonists seemed somewhat less than cooperative with the newest Navigation Act, England passed a third in 1673. This act empowered the Royalist governors in America to appoint a naval officer in each colony to monitor the implementation the first and second Navigation Acts.

Tensions between the England and her colonies were already high in 1684 when James II, brother to Charles II, took over the throne after his brother's death. James II, wanting to impose even stronger royal rule over Massachusetts Bay, cancelled the Colony's charter. This action led to strong resistance and a mini-rebellion in Boston, foretelling future events almost 100 years later. These events might well have spurred an early revolution but, luckily for the colonies, James II's reign was mercifully short. In December of 1688, William of Orange staged a successful revolution and James II was overthrown. Enter the age of William and Mary.

the future of the colony

By 1688, when William and Mary took over the throne of England, her colonies in America had endured a number of growing pains. The colonists had weathered wars, religious and social strife, class struggles and economic woes. The coming decade would prove one of the most difficult but they would survive into the eighteenth century. Westward movement and revolution would define the new century and our West/Mohney ancestors were there every step of the way.