urpation of Cromwell.[58]

It might be confidently expected that Mr. Winthrop, after an address of
loyalty and affection to his "Fathers and Brethren of the Church of
England," from the very ship on which he left his native land, would, on
his arrival at Massachusetts Bay and assuming its government, have
rectified the wrongs of Endicot and his party, and have secured at least
freedom of worship to the children of his "dear Mother." But he seems to
have done nothing of the kind; he seems to have fallen in with the very
proceedings of Endicot which had been disclaimed by him in his address
to his "Fathers and Brethren of the Church of England," on embarking at
Yarmouth for his new government. American historians are entirely silent
on the subject. It is very clear that Mr. Winthrop had correspondence
with his English friends on these matters, as intimated by Mr. Bancroft
in words quoted on page 59. If this suppressed correspondence were
published, it would doubtless show how it was that Mr. Winthrop, like
Endicot, and to the astonishment of his Puritan friends in England,
changed from and suppressed the worship of his "dear Mother" Church, on
changing from one side of the Atlantic to the other. Mr. Hutchinson,
referring to the address of Governor Winthrop to his "Fathers and
Brethren of the Church of England," to remove suspicions and
misconstructions, says: "This paper has occasioned a dispute, whether
the first settlers in Massachusetts were of the Church of England or
not. However problematical it may be what they were while they remained
in England, they left no room to doubt after they arrived in
America."[59]

But though the Editor of Winthrop has suppressed the letters which would
explain how Mr. Winthrop changed from Episcopalianism to
Congregationalism on his assuming the government of Massachusetts Bay,
we are at no loss to know the character of his proceedings, since, in
less than a year after his arrival there, the worship of his "dear
Mother" Church not only continued to be suppressed, but its members were
deprived of the privilege of even becoming "freemen" or electors in the
new "Commonwealth," as it forthwith begun to call itself, and the
privileges of citizenship were restricted to members of the new
established Congregational Churches; for on May 18th, 1631, the newly
organized Legislature, or "General Court," as it was called, enacted
that, "To the end the body of the commons may be preserved of hones