Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/123

] War having been declared between Holland and England in 1651, fresh attempts were made upon New Netherland, as noted in a previous chapter. Peace was proclaimed in 1654, and the troops were disbanded. The fleet, however, having no chance to invade the Dutch, turned their attention to Acadie, of which they took forcible possession, although France and England were at peace. Another execution for witchcraft took place in 1655: the sufferer was a widow named Anne Hibbins, sister of Bellingham; soured by losses and disappointments, she became offensive and troublesome to the neighbors. Notwithstanding her influential connections, she was easily disposed of as guilty of witchcraft.

The remonstrances of men like Sir Richard Salstonstall in England, and the complaints of many in the colony, as was said above, had no effect upon the views and principles of the magistrates. They were now called upon to carry them out to an extent which probably they had not contemplated.

The Quakers were a sect which took its rise in England about 1644, under the preaching of George Fox. Their tenets and practices were peculiar and novel to an extreme. As their fundamental principle was that of an inward revelation of God to man, an indwelling of the Divine Spirit in the human soul, and as by this unerring voice, and not by the creeds and formularies of man, the Holy Scriptures were to be interpreted to every individual believer, so any interference with the consciences of men was expressly denounced as anti-Christian and intolerable. While Cromwell had declared that "he that prays best, and preaches best, will fight best," a doctrine religiously carried out in Massachusetts, the Quakers denied the lawfulness of even defensive warfare, and refused to bear arms when commanded by the civil magistrate. Their "yea was yea, and their nay was nay," and believing that "whatsoever was more than this cometh of evil," they insisted upon observing the letter of Scripture, which commands the believer to "swear not at all," and refused to take oaths when required by authority. They abhorred titles; declined to use the ordinary civilities and courtesies of life; believed every man and woman at liberty to preach if he or she thought herself moved thereto; and regarded a settled ministry as hirelings and wolves amid the flock. Beside all this they denounced the most simple and innocent pleasures, and especially the tyranny of rulers in high places, whether temporal or spiritual. Filled to the full and running over with zeal, they sought the propagation of their peculiar tenets every where, and seemed to delight in nothing more than courting persecution and outrage. A contest with the New England theocracy was a thing rather to be coveted by zealots of this sort.

Accordingly, in July, 1656, two women came from Barbadoes, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin. Looked upon as possessed by the devil, they were speedily arrested, imprisoned for five weeks, and their trunks having been rifled, and their books burnt, they were sent out of the colony. Heavy