" [Footnote: Groom's _Glass for New England_, p. 7.] He
received ecclesiastical justice. There was no jury, and the popular
assembly that decided law and fact by a partisan vote was controlled by
his adversaries. Yet even so, a verdict of sedition was such a flagrant
outrage that the clergy found it impossible to command prompt obedience.
For two days the issue was in doubt, but at length "the priests got two of
the magistrates on their side, and so got the major part with them."
[Footnote: Felt's _Eccl. Hist._ ii. 611.] They appear, however, to
have felt too weak to proceed to sentence, for the prisoner was remanded
until the next session.
No sooner was the judgment made known than more than sixty of the most
respected citizens of Boston signed a petition to the court in
Wheelwright's behalf, In respectful and even submissive language they
pointed out the danger of meddling with the right of free speech. "Paul
was counted a pestilent fellow, or a moover of sedition, and a ringleader
of a sect, ... and Christ himselfe, as well as Paul, was charged to bee a
teacher of New Doctrine.... Now wee beseech you, consider whether that old
serpent work not after his old method, even in our daies." [Footnote:
Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 21.]
The charge of sedition made against them they repudiated in emphatic
words, which deserve attention, as they were afterwards held to be
criminal.
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