DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0300
284 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
was in their eyes the perpetual check to arbitrary power, and a
proper model for imitation, not as they afterwards found it, or
believed that they found it, a selfish and oppressive oligarchy.
Their discontent was with the administration. They believed
that the ecclesiastical favourites of the Crown were bent on re-
versing the tenets on which the true Reformation was founded.
The administration of Elizabeth, though it was harsh and
oppressive, inclined to the discipline of Geneva, and whatever it
might do at home, by no means repudiated fellowship with the
numerous sects of the Reformation. For a time the Stuart policy
was in accord with the Synod of Dort and the discipline of Abbot.
But a new party made itself acceptable in the end to James, not
so much it appears by reason of its ecclesiastical theories, as by its
profound deference to the royal authority and prerogative. The
school of Andrews and Laud exalted the royal office above all
criticism, and in return James and Charles permitted the repre-
sentatives of the school to put their theories of Church govern-
ment into practice. It was against these theories that the Puritans
revolted, from this administration that some of them fled. And
as might be expected, when they emigrated and settled in
Massachusetts Bay, they claimed authority for themselves and
their organization, and denied it to those who dissented from them.
But in the nature of things they did not detect danger to their
political system in nonconformity, as the English administrations
did, but an asfront to their religious organization. New England
became, therefore, a place of refuge to those Englishmen to whom
the repressive legislation of the Stuarts, helped by the hatred of
the country party towards the memories of the Protectorate,
became intolerable. For it is noteworthy that hostility to the
principles of the Great Rebellion, as it was called, long survived
the existence of the political and ecclesiastical tenets which gave
occasion to it.
The eighteenth century was an age of scepticism, for in it
principles of government in Church and State were freely dis-
cussed, and, as is generally the case, the most strenuous advocates
of administrative authority were most contemptuous towards
ecclesiastical pretensions. I do not know that the situation has
been better described by any one than by Swift. " I have ob-
was in their eyes the perpetual check to arbitrary power, and a
proper model for imitation, not as they afterwards found it, or
believed that they found it, a selfish and oppressive oligarchy.
Their discontent was with the administration. They believed
that the ecclesiastical favourites of the Crown were bent on re-
versing the tenets on which the true Reformation was founded.
The administration of Elizabeth, though it was harsh and
oppressive, inclined to the discipline of Geneva, and whatever it
might do at home, by no means repudiated fellowship with the
numerous sects of the Reformation. For a time the Stuart policy
was in accord with the Synod of Dort and the discipline of Abbot.
But a new party made itself acceptable in the end to James, not
so much it appears by reason of its ecclesiastical theories, as by its
profound deference to the royal authority and prerogative. The
school of Andrews and Laud exalted the royal office above all
criticism, and in return James and Charles permitted the repre-
sentatives of the school to put their theories of Church govern-
ment into practice. It was against these theories that the Puritans
revolted, from this administration that some of them fled. And
as might be expected, when they emigrated and settled in
Massachusetts Bay, they claimed authority for themselves and
their organization, and denied it to those who dissented from them.
But in the nature of things they did not detect danger to their
political system in nonconformity, as the English administrations
did, but an asfront to their religious organization. New England
became, therefore, a place of refuge to those Englishmen to whom
the repressive legislation of the Stuarts, helped by the hatred of
the country party towards the memories of the Protectorate,
became intolerable. For it is noteworthy that hostility to the
principles of the Great Rebellion, as it was called, long survived
the existence of the political and ecclesiastical tenets which gave
occasion to it.
The eighteenth century was an age of scepticism, for in it
principles of government in Church and State were freely dis-
cussed, and, as is generally the case, the most strenuous advocates
of administrative authority were most contemptuous towards
ecclesiastical pretensions. I do not know that the situation has
been better described by any one than by Swift. " I have ob-