Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/68

 After the towns had multiplied and meetings of the entire Massachusetts Bay Company at one place became troublesome, a representative system based upon the division into communities was introduced in 1634. Hence forward each town in open meeting, usually with much debate, elected one or two members to speak for it in the general court of the commonwealth. Soon every village had its statesmen prepared to discuss on a moment's notice any question of theology and politics, giving to the whole body corporate the tone of the community and congregation.

The niggardly soil, the severe life, and the religious rigor of Massachusetts forced migration, which in time founded the colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. From religious controversies led by two intransigent radicals, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, sprang the first of these offshoots. Williams, a scholar from Cambridge who came to America in 1631 as a refugee from the autocratic rule of Archbishop Laud, ecclesiastical servant of Charles I, brought with him a theory of life and conduct disturbing to the system of Massachusetts as it had been to old England. He was a pioneer among the bold thinkers of the world in proclaiming religious toleration on principle rather than on expediency.

In Williams' creed were four cardinal points. First was the doctrine that "persecution for cause of conscience is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus." From this simple declaration it followed that "no one should be bound to worship or to maintain a worship against his own consent." Williams' third principle was that church and state should be separated, that to limit the choice of civil magistrates to church members was like choosing pilots and physicians according to their schemes of salvation rather than skill in their professions. Finally, the civil magistrate was not to interfere