Introduction

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Religion had a very significant influence on political questions in early seventeenth century New England, and these questions were of crucial importance in the first decades, the decades of the foundation of a new world in the wilderness. Undeniably, religion and Puritanism in particular were the principal driving forces that helped shape the early political life of the area. However, so many books and articles have been published on the subject since the 1950s that one might feel entitled to wonder whether yet another study of an aspect of the northern English colonies in America was needed.

For several decades, it has been almost commonplace to claim that everything has been said about Colonial New England and Massachusetts in particular. Indeed, for three centuries now, and especially since the second half of the nineteenth century, many a book has been published dealing with British North America. It would seem, at first glance, that every field of the social history of the region has had its monograph(s) or set of scholarly articles. Likewise, it would appear that, since the history of the colonies in general seemed complete, historians resorted to local studies. Researchers newly engaged on the field of seventeenth-century New England are therefore entitled to feel somewhat discouraged at first.

However, if we consider that history is never complete, never final, and always subject to reinterpretations, that new evidence can be discovered,  that primary sources can always been given fresh rereading, and what becomes secondary sources be criticized, then we find ample room for fresh contributions and reassessments of familiar themes. This is all the more necessary when years have elapsed without any new publication.[1] The student must therefore not think him- or herself bound to focus on the life of some obscure protagonist. Authoritative authors need to be challenged, and the classic books containing the accepted theories and interpretations need to be reassessed. This has been done and must continue to be done.

Accordingly, seeing that the most important books were published at least two decades ago, especially between the 1950s and the 1960s, and a few in the 1970s, it does not seem inappropriate to reexamine some aspects of the history of seventeenth-century New England. What we understand here by New England is Massachusetts, since it was by far the biggest and most influential colony; Plymouth, which though never prominent deserves some attention as compared to Massachusetts; Connecticut and New Haven are interesting insofar as they were offshoot of Massachusetts, so they can be compared and contrasted with it very judiciously; finally, Rhode Island, as the counter-example, since it was created as a reaction to the Massachusetts policies.

The previous mention of the seventeenth century as the time-span for this study must also be clarified. It seems logical to start in 1620 since it was the year of the Charter of New England and of the Mayflower Compact, the year when it all started. Of course we shall have to look back, for example when looking at the Charters of Virginia to assess the relative position of New England in Colonial British North America. As for the end of our time-span, logic would have it that we should stop in 1691, when the Colonies were merged into a Royal Province, therefore extending our study to the whole of colonial history (as opposed to provincial history). However, we think it more reasonable to focus on a shorter period of time, and since we shall be dealing primarily with a mixture of political and religious issues and with the concept of theocracy, we have limited this thesis to what Kenneth Lockridge has called the "Puritan period" of colonial New England, stopping in the 1660s.[2] Two dates prove particularly convenient for stopping there: 1662, the year of the Halfway Covenant, and 1664, when the suffrage requirement in place since the early years was altered, when the restriction of the franchise to members of the Congregationalist churches of New England was modified, and when economic qualification entered at the level of the Colony after its earlier introduction at the level of towns.

This study will start with an analysis of the two sources of influences in the shaping of the political, legal and judicial systems in New England, namely the official line drawn by Royal authorities in the form of charters and the religious impulses and aspirations generated by the settlers' radical beliefs, as they can be found in the covenants the immigrants entered into. We shall also examine the evolution and the shaping of the political system, as well as the fascinating fields of criminal law and of the punishment of crime and sins. While keeping an eye upon the social assumptions shared by the main political actors, these questions will enable us to determine, or reassess, the amount of theocracy, democracy (a tendency toward wide participation) and aristocracy (the desire to keep the exercise of power within the hands of the best, most virtuous and godly, citizens), and to question some misleading but widespread oversimplifications.

Indeed most historians claim, erroneously we believe, that since the clergy was barred from civil office, then the line between Church and State was more firmly drawn than in contemporary Europe, and consequently, Massachusetts and New England could not be theocracies. This is an oversimplification which does not reflect the very complex relations between Church and State in early New England. We shall therefore, through an analysis of the State and of the forces exerted thereon, try to gather clues toward a fresh interpretation of these relations. Consequently, we shall try to assess the level of theocracy, and also of the importation of English features of government, legislation and justice. The judicial systems of Old and New England must be compared to determine whether the process of emigration was more innovative or conservative. We shall then examine the laws as theoretical bodies and assess the Scripturality of the laws of New England, with systematic reference to the laws contained in the Bible. Of course, we shall go beyond the level of the theory and examine the practice too, to determine what the reality of law and justice was. Finally we shall focus on the relations between religious affairs and civil justice, especially when religious dissent was concerned. We shall see that the web is tangled indeed and a clear-cut answer to the question of theocracy impossible.

Similarly, oversimplifications and bias have caused successive waves of historians to see and describe the political systems of New England in antithetical ways. For example Massachusetts in its early years has been described as democratic, oligarchic, and even dictatorial. The task of giving a clear qualification to the political systems is therefore a very sensitive one indeed, which makes it all the more challenging. Through a systematic analysis of the successive constitutional changes and a close attention given to political labels such as "democracy", "oligarchy" and "aristocracy", we shall try to draw a clearer picture of the political systems at play during the few decades herein studied. The mention of constitutional changes refers to the evolution of the requirements for the franchise and especially in the light of religion, but also to the struggle over written codifications of legal bodies, and to attempts at changing the situation by political opposition, with the example of Robert Child.

This double analysis of the political system will be the bulk of our study. However, we cannot start by either of these subjects. Logically we have to start by an examination of the charters, grants and patents, insofar as they shaped institutions and patterns of both government and society for decades to come. They must be considered as the basis upon which the settlers had to build their world. Moreover, the most important clause of the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company was the missing clause which enabled the settlers to transfer the Charter to Massachusetts and the Company with it, putting it and themselves out of the direct reach of the Crown. All that happened thereafter would not have occurred without this transfer, which itself would not have been legally possible had the missing clause been inserted.

We shall see that by shaping the most basic political institutions, the charters were part of the dual influence on the settlers. These documents were the official, political influence upon which the Puritans had to make do, but the emigrants had their own profound motivation, which was not political nor economic, but unequivocally religious, in the form of the Special Commission, which consisted in building the New Jerusalem according to the laws of God. This Special Commission was famously expressed by John Winthrop in his Modell of Christian Charity (1630), and also in the form of covenants, or agreements or social contracts with which churches and towns were founded. The very conciseness of these documents can make them deceptively simple. The innovative approach here will be to focus not on the Federal School of theologians - early seventeenth-century Puritan ministers who considered the covenant as the most fundamental tool in theology - but on the concept of covenant as it appears in the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament.

No serious assessment of democracy, aristocracy/oligarchy, theocracy and the transfer of culture can be made without a sound understanding of the political, legal and judicial implications of the charters, and of the covenants as vehicles of the Special Commission, and without remembering that it was the duality of these influences that made the originality of the New England way.

 

[To Chapter I - Grants, Patents and Charters]

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