Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/235

 ATTITUDE OF THE BAY COLONY. 185 wanting in the scholarship of the first pastor as well as in his broadly Catholic spirit. The Congregational element found the new minister less ready to grant the same liberal privi- leges as to church fellowship, infant baptism, etc., as had been accorded in the earlier years. The new version of Baptism and Christian Communion, as given by Elder Luther, was not acceptable to the Pedobaptists of the town, and, whether intended or not, helped to establish the divid- ing line of denominationalism between the hitherto united parties. The liberal policy of Plymouth Colony had allowed the Baptist Church an existence on New Meadow Neck, much to the distress of the Bay Colony, and the near- ness of the church and town to Providence, where Rosrer Williams was establishing the principle of soul liberty in matters relating to state, had been helpful to that policy. When, however, Sir William Phipps brought the charter which united Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colonies in 1692, a new order was instituted which interfered with the policy of our Swansea people in religious concerns. The government was now more strongly on the side of the Con- gregational body, and had little sympathy with the Baptists, though it had learned to tolerate them. The attitude of the colony, the policy of Elder Luther and the removal of the Baptist meeting-house from Tyler's Point to North Swansea, were the chief causes for the foundation of the new church and town of Barrington. That we may clearly understand the reasons for the re- ligious and municipal contests of the time, and of the suc- ceeding fifty years, it is important to note the legislation of that period. In October, 1692, the General Court of the Province enacted "That the inhabitants of each town within this Province shall take care, from time to time, to be con- stantly provided of an able, learned, and orthodox minister or ministers of good conversation, to dispense the word of God to them ; which minister or ministers shall be suitably encouraged, and sufficiently supported and maintained by the inhabitantsof such town." Whenever the inhabitants of