'
"'After we broke up, the deputy and several others went home with Mr.
Stodder, and the deputy asked forgiveness of him and told him he freely
forgave him, but Mr. Stodder was high.' The next day 'the deputy owned his
being in too great a heat, and desired the Lord to forgive it, and Mr.
Stodder did something, though very little, by the deputy.'" [Footnote:
Palfrey's _History of New England_, in. 330, note 2. Extract from
_Journal_ of Rev. Peter Thacher.] Wheelock was lucky in not having to
smart more severely for his temerity, for the unfortunate Ursula Cole was
sentenced to pay L5 [Footnote: Five pounds was equivalent to a sum between
one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty dollars now. Ursula
was of course poor, or she would not have been sentenced to be whipped.
The fine was therefore extremely heavy.] or be whipped for the lighter
crime of saying "she had as lief hear a cat mew" [Footnote: Frothingham,
_History of Charlestown_, p. 208.] as Mr. Shepard preach. The daily
services in the churches consumed so much time that they became a
grievance with which the government was unable to cope.
In 1633 the Court of Assistants, thinking "the keepeing of lectures att
the ordinary howres nowe obserued in the forenoone, to be dyvers wayes
preiudiciall to the common good, both in the losse of a whole day, &
bringing other charges & troubles to the place where the lecture is kept,"
ordered that they should not begin before one o'clock.
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