ctober, 1677, that they proposed, in
obedience to his Majesty's command, to pass an order that "the Governor
and all inferior magistrates should see to the strict observation of the
Acts of Navigation and Trade," they made an order "that the law
requiring all persons, as well inhabitants as strangers, that have not
taken it, to take the oath of fidelity to the country, be revived and
put in practice throughout the jurisdiction" (Palfrey, Vol. III., pp.
311-315)--an order intended to counteract the execution of the Acts of
Navigation and Trade by the King's Collector, and of which he complained
to England.

"The agents of the colony endeavoured to explain this law to the Board
(of Colonial Plantations in England), and to soften their indignation
against it, but without effect." (_Ib._, p. 315.) "All persons who
refused to take the oath of fidelity to the country were not to have the
privilege of recovering their debts in Courts of law, nor to have the
protection of the Government." (Truth and Innocency Defended, etc.)]

[Footnote 171: (Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
Second Series, Vol. VIII., pp. 73-78.) The liberty of worship, which
they declared had been the object of their emigration to Massachusetts,
had never been denied them; had been assured to them by both Charles the
First and Charles the Second. The King did not propose to impose the use
of the prayer book upon any inhabitant of the colony, but insisted upon
freedom of worship for each inhabitant; whereas the Massachusetts Bay
Court, under the pretext of liberty of worship for Congregationalists,
denied freedom of worship to all others not Congregationalists.]

[Footnote 172: "This extraordinary law continued in force until the
dissolution of the Government; it being repealed in appearance
only,[173] after the restoration of King Charles the Second. Had they
been deprived of their civil privileges in England by Act of Parliament,
unless they would join in communion with the Churches there, it might
very well have been the first on the roll of grievances. But such were
the requisites for Church membership here, that the grievance is
abundantly greater." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol.
I., pp. 25, 26.)]

[Footnote 173: _Note_ by the historian.--"The minister was to certify
that the candidates for freedom were of orthodox principles and of good
lives and conversation."]

[Footnote 174: Hutchinson's History of Massachuset