Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/32

 XXIV INTRODUCTION.

Church of England was divided into two great parties, the Prelatical or Hierarchical, headed by the zealous Laud, and the Nonconformist or Puritan. This latter party embraced at once the severe doctrines, and the plain and simple forms, inculcated by their great teacher, Calvin. They were still included in the Church ; and their preachers were estimated, as early as 1603, at the time of the Hampton Court Conference, to have numbered about a ninth part of the whole parish clergy. The teachers and disciples had both largely increased in numbers during the score of years preceding the time of which we are now treating. What at first had been a mere variance about church government and ritual came to involve important points of doctrine. A strife arose between Calvinism and Arminian- ism, the Calvinistic or Nonconformist party growing and strengthening as the Arminian or Hierarchical party became more hostile and vehement. The breach constantly widened, severity on the one side being met by persistence and a resolution to endure on the other.*

Such was the state of religious affairs in England, when, at a meeting of the Massachusetts Company on the 28th of July, 1629, Mr. Cradock, the Governor, made the bold proposition to transfer the government and patent of the Plantation to America, f After debating the question thoroughly and weighing the arguments which coiild be adduced on both sides, legal advice was taken, and they at once commenced preparing to transport themselves and their families to America. Deplorable as was then the condition of religious matters, that of affairs of state was


 * Masson's Milton, Vol. i. ch. v.

t Massachusetts Colony Records, Vol. i. p. 49.

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