s own professions,
or with the plain and simple manners of the people whom he governed.
When going to court or church, he was always preceded by two sergeants
who walked with their halberts. Yet his popularity sustained no
diminution, until the part he took in the religious controversies of
the country detached from him many of its most judicious
inhabitants.[61]

[Footnote 61: Chalmer. Hutchison.]

Independent of the meetings for public worship on every Sunday, of the
stated lecture in Boston on every Thursday, and of occasional lectures
in other towns, there were frequent meetings of the brethren of the
churches, for religious exercises. Mrs. Hutchinson, who had been much
flattered by the attentions of the governor, and of Mr. Cotton, one of
the most popular of the clergy; who added eloquence to her enthusiasm,
and whose husband was among the most respected men of the country;
dissatisfied with the exclusion of her sex from the private meetings
of the brethren, instituted a meeting of the sisters also, in which
she repeated the sermons of the preceding Sunday, accompanied with
remarks and expositions. These meetings were attended by a large
number of the most respectable of her sex; and her lectures were, for
a time, generally approved. At length she drew a distinction between
the ministers through the country. She designated a small number as
being under a covenant of grace; the others, as being under a covenant
of works. Contending for the necessity of the former, she maintained
that sanctity of life is no evidence of justification, or of favour
with God; and that the Holy Ghost dwells personally in such as are
justified. The whole colony was divided into two parties, equally
positive, on these abstruse points, whose resentments against each
other threatened the most serious calamities. Mr. Vane espoused, with
zeal, the wildest doctrines of Mrs. Hutchinson, and Mr. Cotton
decidedly favoured them. The lieutenant governor Mr. Winthrop, and the
majority of the churches, were of the opposite party. Many conferences
were held; days of fasting and humiliation were appointed; a general
synod was called; and, after violent dissensions, Mrs. Hutchinson's
opinions were condemned as erroneous, and she was banished. Many of
her disciples followed her. Vane, in disgust, quitted America;
unlamented even by those who had lately admired him. He was thought
too visionary; and is said to have been too enthusiastic even for the