t of
Parliament, more than to any independent influence of Puritan
dissenters, that civil and religious liberty are making gradual and
great progress in Great Britain and Ireland--a liberty which, I believe,
would ere this have been complete but for the prescriptive, intolerant
and persecuting spirit and practice of the Puritans of the seventeenth
century.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 58: It appears that the cause of dissatisfaction among the
Puritan clergy of the Church, and of the emigration of many of them and
of their lay friends to New England, was not the Prayer Book worship of
the Church (abolished by Endicot at Massachusetts Bay), but the enforced
reading of the Book of Sports, in connection with "the rigorous
proceedings to enforce ceremonies;" for Rushworth, Vol. II., Second
Part, page 460, Anno 1636, quoted by the American antiquarian, Hazard,
Vol. I., p. 440, states as follows:

"The severe censures in the _Star Chamber_, and the greatness of the
fines and the rigorous proceedings to impose ceremonies, the suspending
and silencing of multitudes of ministers, for not reading in the Church
the Book of Sports to be exercised on the Lord's Day, caused many of the
nation, both ministers and others, to sell their estates, and set sail
for New England (a late Plantation in America), where they held a
Plantation by patent from the Crown."]

[Footnote 59: History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp.
19, 20. It appears, however, that within a month after Mr. Winthrop's
arrival at Massachusetts Bay, both he and the Deputy-Governor Dudley
joined the new Endicot and Higginson Church; for Mr. Holmes in his
Annals says: "A fleet of 14 sail, with men, women and children, and
provisions, having been prepared early in the year to make a firm
plantation in New England, 12 of the ships arrived early in July [1630]
at Charlestown. In this fleet came Governor Winthrop, Deputy Governor
Dudley, and several other gentlemen of wealth and quality. In this fleet
came about 840 passengers." "On the 30th of July, a day of solemn prayer
and fasting was kept at Charlestown; when Governor Winthrop, Deputy
Governor Dudley, and Mr. Wilson first entered into Church covenant; and
now was laid the foundation of the Church of Charlestown, and the first
Church in Boston." (Vol. I., pp. 202, 203.)]

[Footnote 60: History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 390, 391.

Referring to this order, May 18, 1631--not a year after Mr. Winthrop