ould not admit the right of the
commissioners to interfere in any way with governmental procedure or
with the course of justice; and standing with absolute firmness on the
powers granted by the charter and pointing to the recent renewal by the
King as a full confirmation of all their privileges, they denied the
validity of the royal mission and refused to discuss the question of
jurisdiction. The commissioners said very plainly that Massachusetts had
not administered the oath of allegiance or permitted the use of the Book
of Common Prayer, as she had promised to do, and, as for the new
franchise law, they did not understand it themselves and did not believe
it would meet the royal requirements. To none of these points did the
magistrates make any sufficient reply, but, feeling convinced that
safety lay in avoiding decisions, they preferred rather to leave the
matter ambiguous than to attempt any clearing up of the points at issue.

But when the commissioners took up the question of appeals and announced
their determination to sit as a court of justice, the issue was more
fairly joined. The magistrates quoted the text of the charter to show
that the colony had full power over all judicial affairs, while the
commissioners cited their instructions as a sufficient warrant for their
right to hear complaints against the colony. A deadlock ensued, but in
the end the colony triumphed. After spending a month in fruitless
negotiations, the commissioners gave up the struggle, preferring to
leave the conduct of Massachusetts to be passed upon by the Crown rather
than to prolong the controversy. For the time being, the Massachusetts
men had their own way; but they had raised a serious and dangerous
question, that of their allegiance and its obligations, for, as the
commissioners said, "The King did not grant away his soveraigntie over
you when he made you a corporation. When His Majestie gave you power to
make wholesome lawes and to administer justice, he parted not with his
right of judging whether those laws are wholsom, or whether justice was
administered accordingly or no. When His Majestie gave you authoritie
over such of his subjects as lived within the limits of your
jurisdiction, he made them not your subjects nor you their supream
authority." Had the magistrates been wiser men, less homebred and
provincial, and possessed of wider vision, they would have foreseen the
dangers that confronted them. But Bellingham and Leverett,