Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/118

 78, false witness, conspiracy against the colony, arson, children cursing or smiting father or mother, being a stubborn or rebellious son, and treason.

§ 91. In respect to religious concerns, their laws provided, that all persons should attend public worship, and that the towns should support and pay the ministers of religion. And at first, the choice of the minister was confided to the major part of the house-holders of the town; the church, as such, having nothing to do with the choice. But in 1708, an act was passed, (doubtless by the influence of the clergy,) by which the choice of ministers was vested in the inhabitants of the town, who were church members; and the same year the celebrated platform, at Saybrook, was approved, which has continued down to our day to regulate, in discipline and in doctrine, the ecclesiastical concerns of the State.

§ 92. The spirit of toleration was not more liberal here, than in most of the other colonies. No persons were allowed to embody themselves into church estate without the consent of the general assembly, and the approbation of the neighbouring churches, and no ministry or church administration was entertained or authorized separate from, and in opposition to that openly and publicly observed and dispensed by the approved minister of the place, except with the approbation and consent aforesaid. Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, and other notorious heretics (as they were called) were to be committed to prison or sent out of the colony by order of the governor and assistants. Nor does the zeal of