Endicot's alleged "innovations," and used every means to depreciate the
trustworthiness and character of the Browns, notwithstanding their
former commendation of them and their acknowledged respectability.
Thirdly--They prepared and published documents declaring their adherence
to the Church of England, and the calumny of the charges and rumours put
forth against them as being disaffected to it.

1. Their Governor, Mr. Cradock, wrote to Endicot in the name of the
Company. This letter, dated October 16, 1629, is given at length in a
note.[46] It will be seen by this letter how strongly the Company
condemned the innovations charged against Endicot by the Browns, and how
imperatively they direct him to correct them, while they profess to
doubt whether he could have been a party to any such proceedings. In
this letter is also the most explicit testimony by the Company of the
King's kindness and generosity to them, as well as a statement of the
clear understanding between the King and the Company as to the
intentions and spirit of the Royal Charter, and which the Company in
London expressed their determination to observe in good faith--a good
faith which was invariably and even indulgently observed by both Charles
the First and Second, but which was as constantly violated by the
Government of Massachusetts Bay, as will appear hereafter from the
transfer of the Charter there in 1630, to the cancelling of the Charter
under James the Second, in 1687. Endicot, confident in his ability to
prevent the transmission of any evidence to England that could sustain
the statements of the Browns, paid no heed to the instructions of the
Company, and persisted in his course of Church revolution and
proscription.

The letter addressed to Higginson and Skelton was signed not only by the
Governor, but by the chief members of the Company, and among others by
John Winthrop, who took the Royal Charter to Massachusetts Bay, and
there, as Governor, administered it by maintaining all that Endicot was
alleged to have done, continued to proscribe the worship of the Church
of England, allowed its members no elective franchise as well as no
eligibility for office, and persecuted all who attempted to worship in
any other form than that of the Church of Endicot, Higginson and
Skelton--a course in which he persevered until his energies began to
fail; for Mr. Bancroft says: "The elder Winthrop had, I believe,
relented before his death, and, it is said, h