Nevertheless it remains true that secular liberalism alone could never
have produced the peculiarly acrimonious hostility to Great Britain
wherein Massachusetts stood preeminent, whose causes, if traced, will be
found imbedded at the very foundation of her social organization, and to
have been steadily in action ever since the settlement. Too little study
is given to ecclesiastical history, for probably nothing throws so much
light on certain phases of development; and particularly in the case of
this Commonwealth the impulses which moulded her destiny cannot be
understood unless the events that stimulated the passions of her clergy
are steadily kept in view.
The early aggrandizement of her priests has been described; the inevitable
conflict with the law into which their ambition plunged them, and the
overthrow of the theocracy which resulted therefrom, have been related;
but the causes that kept alive the old exasperation with England
throughout the eighteenth century have not yet been told.
The influence of men like Leverett and Colman tended to broaden the
church, but necessarily the process was slow; and there is no lack of
evidence that the majority of the ministers had little relish for the
toleration forced upon them by the second charter. It is not surprising,
therefore, to find the sectaries soon again driven to invoke the
protection of the king.
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