The Knight of the Golden Melice | Page 3

inflamed by brooding over real and fancied wrongs from the established Church, his anger would overflow upon the government, which, with no sparing hand, wielded the sword to enforce pains and penalties, imposed, ostensibly for the protection of religion, but in reality for the interests of an ally and its own safety. It was this exasperation, partly of a religious and partly of a political nature, that bore its legitimate fruit in the execution of Charles.
Before that awful lesson, however, discontent had increased until the unhappy zealots, too feeble to resist, yet too resolute to submit, determined to leave their country. Hard fate! Self-banished from the associations of childhood, from the memorials of their ancestors! But whither should they fly? They had heard indeed of a country; far beyond the sea, where a refuge might be found, and whither some of their countrymen had gone; but those first emigrants were cavaliers, men of the same creed as their persecutors, and who had been induced to leave England by motives different from those which controlled their minds. Their purpose would not be attained by joining the Virginia colony. They were not merely adventurers, hunting after earthly treasures, but pilgrims in search of the kingdom of heaven. Their company consisted of delicate women and children, from whom they could not part, as well as of hardy men; and such were unfit to encounter the perils of a new settlement, in an untried climate, and an unknown country, infested by savages. Their principal want was religious liberty; that they could find in Holland, and to Holland they went. It was close at hand, and should any favorable change occur in England, it would be easy to return. But after an experience of some dozen years, they found insuperable objections to remaining there, and determined, no such changes having taken place as they anticipated when they left their native land, to emigrate to America. In a season of the year as stern as the mood of their own minds, they sought the stormy shores of New-England, and their example was soon followed by others direct from the parent country. This first column was composed exclusively of Protestants, who had refused conformity to the established Church, or as they were called, Puritans. Later arrivals brought more mixed companies, but still the Puritan element always largely prevailed. Now separated by an ocean from, kings and bishops, they resolved to realize the darling idea which, like the fiery pillar before the wandering Israelites, had conducted them across the sea, and that was the establishment of a commonwealth after the model of perfection which they fondly imagined they had discovered. And where should they find that perfect system, except in the awful and mysterious volume wherein was the revelation of God's will, and which, with a devotion that had impressed its every syllable on their minds, they had day and night been studying? Was there not contained therein a form of government which He had given to his favored people; and what did both reason and piety suggest but to accommodate it to their circumstances? All things favored the undertaking. They were at too great a distance to be easily molested by their enemies: the distracted condition of the government at home afforded little opportunity for a strict supervision of their affairs; and the few savages in their neighborhood left by the devastating pestilence wherewith Providence had swept the new Canaan, in order to make room for them, they soon found powerless before the terror of their fire-arms. By excluding all whom it was their pleasure to call lewd and debauched, or, in other words, who differed from them in opinion, from participation in the government, they expected to avoid confusion, and secure the blessing of heaven. It is absurd to suppose that human pride, and ambition, and avarice did not intrude into these visions of a reign of the saints on earth, but unquestionably notions like these exerted a strong influence. They established their commonwealth upon their theocratic model, and commenced the experiment.
Soon, in logical and honest sequence with the principles which they professed, followed a system of persecution rivaling that of which they complained in England. To be true to themselves and creed, they were obliged to adopt it. We may do as we please; we may say that the fanatical notion, the horrid Erinnys, the baleful mother of woes innumerable, that the dogmas of religion may rightfully be enforced by the sword of the civil, power, dominated the world, and in this way account for their conduct; or apologize for it by the necessities of their situation, and the peculiarities of their creed; or combine these causes, and so extenuate what cannot be defended.
I can well understand how a Puritan of 16--would justify his rigor.