eir
Bible and their _Book of Common Prayer_ and the Established Church of
England became the Established Church of the Colony.

The all-pervading fact to be kept in mind in connection with the
development of religious organization in Virginia is that the Church of
England itself, during the period from 1600 to the Cromwellian era
1645-1660, was in a turmoil on account of two diverse schools of
thought. One school within the Church desired to retain all the ancient
forms of creed and worship from past centuries except those which had
been perverted under the centuries of Roman Catholic domination. The
other school within the Church desired to cast out all liturgical forms
and the surplice, and also all power of the bishops. They wished to
reduce worship to the forms of Calvinistic theology. There were also
many who desired to make the Church broad enough to include both
schools. The Calvinistic party was already forming dissenting
congregations.

The Brownists, later to become the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, had
already been driven out of England; and under King James, who had
turned against the Calvinists to support the "high church" party,
ecclesiastical courts were being formed to mete out severe punishment
to leaders of dissent.

King James had declared he would "harry the dissenters" and force them
to conform to the Established Church or be driven from the country.
England's answer to that threat was to establish the colonies of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire; and the
constantly growing power of dissent resulted in civil war, in
execution of King Charles I, in the era of the Commonwealth; and in the
abolition of _Prayer Book_ worship for fifteen years from every church
and chapel in England.

In 1606 when the Virginia Company was organized the Calvinistic party
was in power in England, and there were many Calvinists, or Puritans,
as they were then called, in the universities and elsewhere. The
Virginia Company itself was under the influence of Puritan leaders; so
much so, indeed, that this fact was one of the reasons which impelled
the King to abolish the Virginia Company. He knew the freedom of
self-government which the Company had established in Virginia and he no
longer trusted its loyalty to the Monarchy.

From the first settlement in 1607 the policy in Virginia was to let no
question arise between high-churchman and Calvinist. The earlier laws
required the minister of a pa