with the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County of Maine,
which extended, as before, from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and
backward 120 miles from the ocean. But after his death the province fell
into neglect, and the towns were gradually absorbed by Massachusetts,
which, in 1677, bought the claims of the heir of Gorges for L1250 and
governed Maine as lord proprietor under the Gorges charter.

%40. Church and State in Massachusetts.%--Down to the moment of their
arrival in America the Puritans had not been Separatists. They were
still members of the Church of England who desired to see her form of
worship purified. But the party under Endicott had no sooner reached
Salem than they seceded, and the first Congregational Church in New
England was founded.

Some in Salem were not prepared for so radical a step, and attempted to
establish a church on the episcopal model; but Endicott promptly sent
two of the leaders back to England. Thus were established two facts: 1.
The separation or secession of the Colonial Church from that of England.
2. That the episcopal form of worship would not be tolerated in
the colony.

In 1631 another step was taken which united church and state, for it was
then ordered that "no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body
politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the
limits of the same."

This was intolerance of the grossest kind, and soon became the cause of
troubles which led to the founding of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

%41. The Planting of Rhode Island.%--There came to Salem (from
Plymouth), in 1633, a young minister named Roger Williams. He dissented
heartily from the intolerance of the people of Massachusetts, and,
though a minister of the Salem church, insisted

1. On the separation of church and state.

2. On the toleration of all religious beliefs.

3. On the repeal of all laws requiring attendance on religious worship.

To us, in this century, the justice of each of these principles is
self-evident. But in the seventeenth century there was no country in the
world where it was safe to declare them. For doing so in some parts of
Europe, a man would most certainly have been burned at the stake. For
doing so in England, he would have been put in the pillory, or had his
ears cut off, or been sent to jail. That Williams's teachings should
seem rank heresy in New England was quite natural. But, to make matters
worse, he wrote a pamphle