] No exertion was spared,
nevertheless, to get some hold upon them, the elders examining them as to
matters of faith, with a view to ensnare them as heretics. In this,
however, they were foiled.
On the authority of Hutchinson, Dr. Dexter [Footnote: _As to Roger
Williams_, p. 127.] and r. Palfrey complain [Footnote: Palfrey, ii.
464.] that Mary Prince reviled two of the ministers, who "with much
moderation and tenderness endeavored to convince her of her errors."
[Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 181.] A visitation of the clergy was a
form of torment from which even the boldest recoiled; Vane, Gorton,
Childe, and Anne Hutchinson quailed under it, and though the Quakers
abundantly proved that they could bear stripes with patience, they could
not endure this. She called them "Baal's priests, the seed of the
serpent." Dr. Ellis also speaks of "stinging objurgations screamed out ...
from between the bars of their prisons." [Footnote: _Mem. Hist. of
Boston_, i. 182.] He cites no cases, but he probably refers to the same
woman who called to Endicott one Sunday on his way from church: "Woe unto
thee, thou art an oppressor." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ i. 181.] If
she said so she spoke the truth, for she was illegally imprisoned, was
deprived of her property, and subjected to great hardship.
In October, 1656, the first of the repressive acts was passed, by which
the "cursed" and "blasphemous" intruders were condemned to be "comitted to
the house of correction, and at theire entrance to be seuerely whipt and
by the master thereof to be kept constantly to worke, and none suffered to
converse or speak with them;" [Footnote: _Mass.
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