the latter did not realize it, they were as unjust to her as Laud
had been to them. She broke from a covenant of works in favor of a
covenant of grace and in so doing defied the standing authorities and
the ruling clergy of the colony. Her wit, undeniable power of
exhortation, philanthropic disposition, and personal attributes which
gave her an ascendency in the Boston church, drew to her a large
following and placed the supremacy of the orthodox party in peril. After
a long and wordy struggle to check the "misgovernment of a woman's
tongue" and to rebuke "the impudent boldness of a proud dame," Mrs.
Hutchinson was excommunicated and banished; and certain of those who
upheld her--Wheelwright, Coggeshall, Aspinwall, Coddington, and
Underhill, all leading men of the colony--were also forced to leave. In
Boston and the adjoining towns dozens of men were disarmed for fear of a
general uprising against the orthodox government.

This discord put a terrible strain on the colony, and one marvels that
it weathered the storm. Only an iron discipline that knew neither
charity nor tolerance could have successfully resisted the attacks on
the standing order. The years from 1635 to 1638 were a critical time in
the history of the colony, and the unyielding attitude of magistrates
and elders was due in no small part to the danger of attack from
England. Determined, on the one hand, to save the colony from the menace
of Anglican control, and, on the other, to prevent the admission of
liberal and democratic ideas, they struggled to maintain the rule of a
minority in behalf of a precise and logically defined theocratic system
that admitted neither experiment nor compromise. For the moment they
were successful, because the Cromwellian victory in England was
favorable to their cause. But should independence be overthrown at home,
should religion cease to be a deciding factor in political quarrels, and
should the monarchy and the Established Church gain ascendency once
more, then Massachusetts would certainly reap the whirlwind. The
harvesting might be long but the garnering would be none the less sure.

CHAPTER III

COMPLETING THE WORK OF SETTLEMENT

Through the portal of Boston at one time or another passed all or nearly
all those who were to found additional colonies in New England; and from
that portal, willingly or unwillingly, men and women journeyed north,
south, and west, searching for favorable locations, buying land of t