The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut | Page 2

EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM
Preparation of the English nation for the two earliest forms of
Congregationalism, Brownism and Barrowism.--Rise of Separatism
and Puritanism.--Non-conformists during Queen Mary's reign.--Revival
of the Reformation movement under Queen Elizabeth.--Development
of Presbyterianism.--Three Cambridge men, Robert Browne, Henry
Greenwood, and Henry Barrowe.--Brownism and Barrowism.--The
Puritans under Elizabeth, her early tolerance and later change of
policy.--Arrest of the Puritan movement by the clash between
Episcopal and Presbyterian forms of polity and the pretensions of the
latter.--James the First and his policy of conformity.--Exile of the
Gainsborough and Scrooby Separatists.--Separatist writings.--General
approachment of Puritans and Separatists in their ideas of church
polity.--The Scrooby exiles in America.--Sympathy of the Separatists
of Plymouth Colony with both the English Established Church and with
English Puritans.
II. THE TRANSPLANTING OF CONGREGATIONALISM
English Puritans decide to colonize in America.--Friendly relations
between the settlements of Salem and Plymouth.--Salem decides upon
the character of her church organization.--Arrival of Higginson and
Skelton with recruits.--Formation of the Salem church and election of
officers.--Governor Bradford and delegates from Plymouth
present.--The beginning of Congregational polity among the Puritans
and the break with English Episcopacy.--Formation and organization of
the New England churches.
III. CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND
Church and State in the four New England colonies.--Early theological
dissensions and disturbances.--Colonial legislation in behalf of
religion.--Development of state authority at the cost of the
independence of the church.--Desire of Massachusetts for a platform of

church discipline.--Practical working of the theory of Church and State
in Connecticut.
IV. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM AND THE HALF-WAY
COVENANT
Necessity of a church platform to resist innovations, to answer English
criticism, and to meet changing conditions of colonial life.--Summary
of the Cambridge Platform.--Of the history of Congregationalism to the
year 1648.--Attempt to discipline the Hartford, Conn., church
according to the Platform.--Spread of its schism.--Petition to the
Connecticut General Court for some method of relief.--The Ministerial
Convention or "Synod" of 1657.--Its Half-Way Covenant.--Attitude of
the Connecticut churches towards the measure.--Pitkin's petition to the
General Court of Connecticut for broader church privileges.--The
Court's favorable reply.--Renewed outbreak of schism in the Hartford
and other churches.--Failure in the calling of a synod of New England
churches.--The Connecticut Court establishes the Congregational
Church.--Connecticut's first toleration act.--Settlement of the Hartford
dispute.--The new order and its important modifications of
ecclesiastical polity.
V. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION
Drift from religious to secular, and from intercolonial to individual
interests.--Reforming Synod of 1680.--Religious life in the last quarter
of the seventeenth century.--The "Proposals of 1705" in
Massachusetts.--Introduction in Connecticut of the Saybrook System of
Consociated Church government.
VI. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
The Confession of Faith.--Heads of Agreement.--Fifteen Articles.--
Attitude of the churches towards the Platform.--Formation of
Consociations.--The "Proviso" in the act of establishment.--Neglect to
read the proviso to the Norwich church.--Contention arising.--The
Norwich church as an example of the difficulty of collecting church
rates.

VII. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM AND THE TOLERATION ACT
Toleration in the "Proviso" of the act establishing the Saybrook
Platform.--Reasons for passing the Toleration Act of 1708.--Baptist
dissenters.--Rogerine-Baptists, Rogerine-Quakers or Rogerines, and
their persecution.--Attitude toward the Society of Friends or
Quakers.--Toward the Church of England men or Episcopalians.--
Political events parallel in time with the dissenters' attempts to secure
exemption from the support of the Connecticut Establishment.--
General Ineffectiveness of the Toleration Act.
VIII. THE FIRST VICTORY FOR DISSENT
General dissatisfaction with the Toleration Act.--Episcopalians resent
petty persecution.--Their desire for an American episcopate.--
Conversion of Cutler, Rector of Yale College, and others.--Bishop
Gibson's correspondence with Governor Talcott.--Petition of the
Fairfield churchmen.--Law of 1727 exempting
Churchmen.--Persecution growing out of neglect to enforce the
law.--Futile efforts of the Rogerines to obtain exemption.--Charges
against the Colony of Connecticut.--The Winthrop case.--Quakers
attempt to secure exemption from ecclesiastical rates.--Exemption
granted to Quakers and Baptists.--Relative position of the dissenting
and established churches in Connecticut.
IX. "THE GREAT AWAKENING"
Minor revivals in Connecticut before 1740.--Low tone of moral and
religious life.--Jonathan Edwards's sermons at Northampton.--Revival
of religious interest and its spread among the people.--The Rev. George
Whitefield.--The Great Awakening.--Its immediate results.
X. THE GREAT SCHISM
The Separatist churches.--Old Lights and New.--Opposition to the
revival movement.--Severe colony laws of 1742-43--Illustrations of
oppression of reformed churches, as the North Church of New Haven,
the Separatist Church of Canterbury, and that of Enfield.--Persecution

of individuals, as of Rev. Samuel Finlay, James Davenport, John Owen,
and Benjamin Pomeroy.--Persecution of Moravian missionaries,--The
colony law of 1746, "Concerning who shall vote in Society meeting."
--Change in public opinion.--Summary of the influence of the Great
Awakening and of the great schism.
XI. THE ABROGATION OF THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
Revision of the laws of 1750.--Attitude of the colonial authorities
toward Baptists and Separatists.--Influence on colonial legislation of
the English Committee of Dissenters.--Formation of the Church of Yale
College.--Separatist and Baptist writers in favor of toleration.--
Frothingham's "Articles of Faith and Practice."--Solomon Paine's
"Letter."--John Bolles's "To Worship God in Spirit and in Truth."--