Part 8 (1/2)

The case of Mrs. Hutchinson is treated, from a hostile and somewhat truculent point of view, in Thomas Welde's pamphlet ent.i.tled _A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines that infected the Churches of New England_, London, 1644. It was answered in an anonymous pamphlet ent.i.tled _Mercurius America.n.u.s_, republished for the Prince Society, Boston, 1876, with prefatory notice by C.H. Bell. Cotton's view of the theocracy may be seen in his _Milk for Babes, drawn out of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of both Testaments_, London, 1646; _Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven_; and _Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared_, London, 1648. See also Thomas Hooker's _Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline_, London, 1648. The intolerant spirit of the time finds quaint and forcible expression in Nathaniel Ward's satirical book, _The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam_, 1647.

For the Gorton controversy the best original authorities are his own book ent.i.tled _Simplicitie's Defence against Sevenheaded Polity_, London, 1646; and Winslow's answer ent.i.tled _Hypocracie Unmasked_, London, 1646. See also Mackie's _Life of Samuel Gorton_, Boston, 1845, and Brayton's _Defence of Samuel Gorton_, in Rider's _Tracts_, No. xvii.

For the early history of the Quakers, see Robert Barclay's _Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_, London, 1876,--an admirable book. See also _New England a Degenerate Plant_, 1659; Bishop's _New England judged by the Spirit of the Lord_, 1661; Sewel's _History of the Quakers_, 1722; Besse's _Sufferings of the Quakers_, 1753; _The Popish Inquisition newly erected in New England_, London, 1659; _The Secret Works of a Cruel People made Manifest_, 1659; and the pamphlet of the martyrs Stevenson and Robinson, ent.i.tled _A Call from Death to Life_, 1660. John Norton's view of the case was presented in his book, _The Heart of New England Rent at the Blasphemies of the Present Generation_, London, 1660. See also J.S. Pike's _New Puritan_, New York, 1879; Hallowell's _Pioneer Quakers_, Boston, 1887; and his _Quaker Invasion of Ma.s.sachusetts_, Boston, 1883; Brooks Adams, _The Emanc.i.p.ation of Ma.s.sachusetts_, Boston, 1887; Ellis, _The Puritan Age and Rule_, Boston, 1888.

Some additional light upon the theocratic idea may be found in a treatise by the apostle Eliot, _The Christian Commonwealth; or, the Civil Polity of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ_, London, 1659. An account of Eliot's missionary work is given in _The Day breaking, if not the Sun rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New England_, London, 1647; and _The Glorious Progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England_, 1649. See also Shepard's _Clear Suns.h.i.+ne of the Gospel breaking forth upon the Indians_, 1648; and Whitfield's _Light appearing more and more towards the Perfect Day_, 1651.

The princ.i.p.al authority for Philip's war is Hubbard's _Present State of New England, being a Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians_, 1677.

Church's _Entertaining Pa.s.sages relating to Philip's War_, published in 1716, and republished in 1865, with notes by Mr. Dexter, is a charming book. See also Mrs. Rowlandson's _True History_, Cambridge, Ma.s.s., 1682; Mather's _Brief History of the War_, 1676; Drake's _Old Indian Chronicle_, Boston, 1836; Gookin's _Historical Collections of the Indians in New England_, 1674; and _Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians_, in _Archchaeologia Americana_, vol. ii.

Batten's _Journal_ is the diary of a citizen of Boston, sent to England, and it now in MS. among the _Colonial Papers_. Mrs. Mary Pray's letter (Oct. 20, 1675) is in _Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll._, 5th series, vol. i. p. 105.

The great storehouse of information for the Andros period is the _Andros Tracts_, 3 vols., edited for the Prince Society by W.H. Whitmore. See also Sewall's _Diary, Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll._, 5th series, vols. v.--viii.

Sewall has been appropriately called the Puritan Pepys. His book is a mirror of the state of society in Ma.s.sachusetts at the time when it was beginning to be felt that the old theocratic idea had been tried in the balance and found wanting. There is a wonderful charm in such a book. It makes one feel as if one had really ”been there” and taken part in the homely scenes, full of human interest, which it so naively portrays.

Anne Bradstreet's works have been edited by J.H. Ellis, Charlestown, 1867.

For further references and elaborate bibliographical discussions, see Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. iii.; and his _Memorial History of Boston_, 4 vols., Boston, 1880. There is a good account of the princ.i.p.al New England writers of the seventeenth century, with ill.u.s.trative extracts, in Tyler's _History of American Literature_, 2 vols., New York, 1878. For extracts see also the first two volumes of Stedman and Hutchinson's _Library of American Literature_, New York, 1888.

In conclusion I would observe that town histories, though seldom written in a philosophical spirit and apt to be quite amorphous in structure, are a mine of wealth for the philosophic student of history.

NOTES:

[1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._ vii. 395.

[2] Gardiner, _The Puritan Revolution_, p. 12.

[3] Green, _History of the English People_, iii. 47.

[4] Steele's _Life of Brewster,_ p. 161.

[5] Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p. 50.

[6] It is now 204 years since a battle has been fought in England. The last was Sedgmoor in 1685. For four centuries, since Bosworth, in 1485, the English people have lived in peace in their own homes, except for the brief episode of the Great Rebellion, and Monmouth's slight affair.

This long peace, unparalleled in history, has powerfully influenced the English and American character for good. Since the Middle Ages most English warfare has been warfare at a distance, and that does not nourish the brutal pa.s.sions in the way that warfare at home does.

An instructive result is to be seen in the mildness of temper which characterized the conduct of our stupendous Civil War. Nothing like it was ever seen before.

[7] Picton's _Cromwell_, pp. 61, 67; Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p.

72.

[8] Quincy, History of Harvard University, ii. 654.

[9] C.F. Adams, _Sir Christopher Gardiner, Knight_, p. 31.

[10] The compact drawn up in the Mayflower's cabin was not, in the strict sense a const.i.tution, which is a doc.u.ment defining and limiting the functions of government. Magna Charta partook of the nature of a written const.i.tution, as far as it went, but it did not create a government.