" And Winthrop piously
adds: "As for those who went over to procure us trouble, God met with them
all. Mr. Vassall, finding no entertainment for his petitions, went to
Barbadoes," [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 321.] ... "God had brought" Thomas
Fowle "very low, both in his estate and in his reputation, since he joined
in the first petition." And "God had so blasted" Childe's "estate as he
was quite broken." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 322.]
Maverick remained some years in Boston, being probably unable to abandon
his property; during this interval he made several efforts to have his
fine remitted, and he did finally secure an abatement of one half. He then
went to England and long afterward came back as a royal commissioner to
try his fortune once again in a contest with the theocracy.
Dr. Palfrey has described this movement as a plot to introduce a direct
government by England by inducing Parliament to establish Presbyterianism.
By other than theological reasoning this inference cannot be deduced from
the evidence. All that is certainly known about the leaders is that they
were not of any one denomination. Maverick was an Episcopalian; Vassal was
probably an Independent like Cromwell or Milton; and though the elders
accused Childe of being a Jesuit, there is some ground to suppose that he
inclined toward Geneva.
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