Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/100

 60 not being forfeited for felony or treason; and the convict might therefore, even after sentence, dispose of it by will. Estates tail were recognised, and in such cases the heir took per formam doni, according to the common law, and not all the children as one heir.

§ 74. In respect to ecclesiastical concerns they made ample provision for their own church, (meaning the Congregational Church,) exclusive of all others. In their parallel in 1646, they quote the provision of Magna Charta, that "the church shall enjoy all her liberties," and dropping all suggestion of the real differences of their own church establishment from that of England, they quote their own provision, that "all persons orthodox in judgment, and not scandalous in life, may gather into a church state according to the rules of the gospel," as of similar import. They gave to their own churches, when organized, full power and authority to inflict ecclesiastical censures, and even to expel members. But they reserved to the civil authority the further power to punish offences, and "the liberty to see the peace, ordinances, and rules of Christ observed." Every church had liberty to elect its own officers, and "no injunction was to be put upon any church, church officer, or member in point of doctrine, worship, or discipline, whether for substance or circumstance, besides the institution of the Lord." But the general court, with the assistance of the clergy, were in the habit of judging of all such matters with supreme authority, and of