USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume I > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
The most substantial political tract was "Will and Doom" by Ger- shom Bulkeley. Miller has judged this "a minor masterpiece."23 In it, Bulkeley constructed a doctrinal basis for dissidence although his fa- ther, Peter Bulkeley, was one of the foremost theologians among the founders and a vehement prosecutor of Anne Hutchinson. Gershom Bulkeley, himself, graduated from Harvard, preached at New London, and then at Wethersfield, until he was relieved of his pastorate, osten-
159
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
sibly because of ill health and a weak voice. It has been suggested that his resignation was due rather to his inability to get along with his congregation. However, during his ministry he was chosen to give one annual Election Sermon and was frequently chosen by the General Court to serve on committees dealing with ecclesiastical matters, which
(Courtesy Mills Coll., Conn. State Lib.)
PLAINFIELD ACADEMY
indicates a degree of satisfaction and acceptance.23 On the one hand, Bulkeley is credited with having played an influential role in foiling Andros, when, as Governor of New York, he sought to take over Con- necticut in the name of the Duke of York in 1675. Bulkeley served in King Philip's war, nominally as Chaplain, but functioned as Surgeon, and after his retirement from the ministry he moved to Glastonbury where he practiced medicine and surgery. On the other hand, when
160
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
Connecticut was incorporated by Andros into the Dominion of New England, Bulkeley accepted an appointment as Justice of Peace of Hartford County. He declared that he did this reluctantly so that Con- necticut would not be ruled by outsiders. His appointment placed him in the position of supervising the elected Town Commissioners and Selectmen in the collection of taxes.24
When Andros was imprisoned and Connecticut proposed to hold an election and resume her charter government, Bulkeley addressed a letter on May 8, 1689 to the convention in Hartford. This was later printed at Philadelphia as a pamphlet called "The People's Right to Election." In this, Bulkeley charged that many had advocated submis- sion to Andros. Contemptuously, he pictured these as welcoming and courting Andros, and argued that "some sort" of consent was implicit in their submission. He concluded that submission had therefore nulli- fied the charter, and Connecticut had committed suicide as a Body Politic and Corporate and could but exist on royal sufferance. From this premise it followed that the resumption of charter government would be illegal without specific authorization from the Crown.25
Bulkeley, also, printed a tract in New York which is not extant, and, later, set forth a paper of "Objections," elaborating his arguments. This was rewritten in 1692 and accompanied an address and petition sent by Bulkeley and others to the Governor of New York for transmis- sion to the King. He chose the phrase "will and doom," which was used in the new tax legislation, as sufficiently symbolic of the arbitrary nature of Connecticut government for use in the title of this manuscript, which he futher identified as "The Miseries of Connecticut by and under an Usurped and Arbitrary Power." This was not published until 1895 and received little attention at the time of its publication or later. It was buried, it has been suggested, because Bulkeley charged an un- democratic arbitrariness which did not accord with the growing legend of liberty and democracy. At the time of the controversy, Bulkeley's tracts were widely circulated in manuscript form, however, and caused a number of others to be written in answer.26
Bulkeley's writings are significant not merely as an individual ex- pression of opinion, but as an articulation of an existent strand of dis- content stemming from the exclusion from civil rights of many in-
161
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
habitants. Bulkeley's interpretations seem to be the referent for certain other individual challenges to the reestablished government, as, for example, when Major Edward Palmes of New London, the son-in-law of the first Governor Winthrop, complained of injustice at the hands of a "pretended court" of the colony. Also, Governor Slaughter of New York, in a letter dated May 6, 1691, referred to the many complaints of hardship and oppression which were transmitted to him by His Maj- esty's subjects in Connecticut and advised Governor Treat of Connecti- cut that those who took upon themselves the administration of govern- ment should use such methods as would avoid cause of complaint.27 In Massachusetts the dissident element has been equated rather convinc- ingly with the merchant group, which found that the established Puritan system did not promote their interests.28 Bulkeley, himself, was not engaged in trade; however, he had been a minister in New London, the center of mercantile interests in Connecticut, and residents there, such as Palmes, were associated with him in the attempt to promote more direct control by the royal government.29
Bulkeley was far from championing any popular democratic alter- native. He spoke against Puritan arbitrariness, but he spoke for an element which considered itself materially and intellectually superior to the ruling oligarchy and contemptuous of its asserted democracy which was considered to have sufficed to place rabble in a position of arbitrary power over their betters. Bulkeley's positive program is frankly authoritarian and arch-Tory. He asserted the divine right of kingly absolutism and championed a rule of law which should stem from this fountainhead rather than from the arbitrary will of the magistrates.30
Bulkeley's writings did not constitute a significant influence on Connecticut attitude and opinion even though both royalism and legalism came to be generally accepted. The people of Connecticut, however, followed another path to these conclusions. Christian liberties came to be equated with civil liberties. The people of Connecticut felt they had helped place William on the throne to end tyranny and to protect natural civil rights. They accepted the crown as the dispenser of charters and liberties. This acceptance entailed the further accept- ance of the Act of Toleration which placed them in the position of
162
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
dissenters, a position tenable only by virtue of a tolerance which they had never before embraced. Connecticut accepted the reconciliation of royalism and its tolerance with their dogma as worked out by the Mather faction of Massachusetts rather than by Bulkeley. The basis was laid for law to assume a new importance. Before, divine and natural law had been equated and, as in both mediaeval and reformation theory, were held to bind the King, with violations freeing subjects from their duty of obedience. Now, with the new equation, they could accept Bodin's argument that the King was equally bound by common law.31
Witchcraft
The extent to which this concept of legalism was needed was indi- cated by the witchcraft hysteria, which is conventionally used as a stand- ard by which to judge the intellectual plateau of the 17th century. As such, it has the validity of indicating certain limits beyond which the colonists had not penetrated, but it should not be allowed to dim the progression that was quite as real.
In the early middle ages, faith was such that it was expected that a devil could easily be thwarted by a prayer or the sign of the cross. With the first traces of skepticism, the devil assumed more importance, and in the 13th century theologians worked out their theory of witchcraft and in the next assumed jurisdiction over witchcraft cases. Although Pope Innocent VIII in the 15th century inspired a long and concerted effort against witches, many in the Protestant movement considered the Catholic Church lax in enforcing the Biblical injunction "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." It was under the religious conflict of the late 16th and early 17th centuries that prosecutions reached their apex, with the Puritans in England and New England taking a prominent role.32
The first instance of the hanging of a witch in Connecticut oc- curred in Windsor, in 1647. The following year Mary Johnson was hanged at Hartford, it being concluded that discontent had driven her into familiarity with the devil, for "wishing the Devil to take that and t'other Thing, and the Devil to do This and That; Whereupon a Devil appeared unto her, tendering her the best service he could do for her," clearing her hearth and driving the hogs from the field and the like. In 1651, John and Joanna Carrington of Wethersfield were executed
163
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
for having "intertained familiarity with Sathan." In the same year, Goody Bassit met death for a like crime. Trials continued in Connecti- cut during the next decade. In 1662, matters assumed panic propor- tions. At that time, Ann Cole, daughter of a Hartford carpenter, "was taken with very strange fits, wherin she (or rather the Devill as t'is judged) made use of her lips and held a discourse" which was used as evidence of witchcraft againt several people. Three of these were tried and executed, one was acquitted, and two escaped by flight after being subjected to the water ordeal, to test whether with Satan's aid they would float. Although there was another witch trial in Connecticut in 1670, there was no more panic in the colony. In all, however, to com- pare to the six executions in Massachusetts, there had been eight hang- ings in Connecticut.33
The witchcraft craze, perhaps, should not so much be regarded as a tragic anti-climax to scientific advance as a comment on the state of society and of the law that presided over it. Nor should Mather's re- sponsibility rest so much on the fact that he did not go beyond the times in discrediting the supernatural as because he did not speak out against judicial procedures which he considered invalid. The executions oc- curred not merely because people believed in witches, but, also, because they presumed that judges should be above criticism and should be as- sumed to be infallible in discerning and applying a law that represented God's absolute justice.34
The Legal System
The trials of the witches indicate the dependence of law on theol- ogy in Puritan communities. England's legal system had not become entrenched in New England where Biblical law was felt to be higher and adequate and where English common law was not always applicable to contingencies that arose in the new environment. Also, there were too few lawyers and textbooks even to maintain any broad awareness of the traditions of English law. Laymen could not apply common law prece- dents, and lawyers, who asserted these in opposition to the Biblical appli- cations of the magistrates, were unwelcome. The "higher law" concept of the Stoics and mediaeval schoolmen had been borrowed and equated to the law of nature and that to the law of God as revealed in the Bible.
164
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
The technical common law principles, which were intended to protect litigants, had been disregarded. Delays and protracted appeals were considered too expensive, and justice moved swiftly even at the cost of dropping valuable rules of sound evidence. Yet, that even the procedures accepted in the colonies as proper safeguards had been dropped was recognized by Mather. The magistrates in New England weighed charges with less critical exactness than did Virginia justices where the accused persons were not driven to confession by judicial pressure, there was no predisposition to judge their cases, and evidence was not twisted to bring about convictions. Mather recognized certain viola- tions, but did not speak out, defending his silence subsequently by the Puritan tenet that magisterial judgment should be trusted and not criticized.35 It was, perhaps, the general acceptance of this tenet among the populace which had permitted the course of justice in Connecticut.
Emphasis on witchcraft as an evidence of God's providential in- terest in New England did not promote a rational skepticism, of course, but it was but a part of what was still a general conviction which did not everywhere result in a frenzy of executions. These seem to be better explained by the existing legal procedures than by superstition.
Science
At the time, witchcraft was generally still considered a class of phenomena such as light or heat and was being investigated as such by scientists. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Lon- don contained much discussion of witchcraft. Such wondrous occur- rences as of mermaids stranded on seashores were reported as news items. The 17th century was a century of genius in which beginnings in science led eventually to a rationalism that repudiated supernatural explanations of phenomena. To ascribe this subsequent rationalism to the century is as anachronistic as to ascribe 19th century laissez-faire concepts to it. Discovery, application, and generalization were slow and gradual.36
Science had just barely cast off its ill repute. The introduction of geometry and astronomy at Oxford in 1619 was met with disapproval and "many of the gentry refused to send their sons to be 'smutted with
165
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
the black art.' "37 The mediaeval Faust legend that one's soul was the price of acquiring scientific knowledge was still strong, and only begin- ning to be replaced by the fashion which dictated that every squire had to have his own laboratory for his investigations. New England was quite in step, with Winthop, Jr., typifying the fashionable scientific interest. He not only practised medicine, prospected for minerals, de- veloped iron and salt works, but also was interested in optics and as- tronomy and alchemy. It was his gift of his telescope to Harvard that enabled Brattle's contributions there. He illustrated, too, the quicken- ing in the transmission of information that was an important new stimulant to the intellectual endeavor. He was a member of the Royal Society of London and engaged in a copious correspondence with its members. Winthrop was not the only person in Connecticut illustrat- ing these patterns. Two of the friends with whom he exchanged books, Jonathan Brewster and Gershom Bulkeley, also, had laboratories, the former at his trading post and the latter at his parsonage.38
The idea of experimentation had gained respectability and was being accepted by the settlers. It was as late as 1633 that Galileo was forced to recant. Yet Harvard apparently adopted the first satisfactory popular exposition of the Copernican system soon after it appeared in 1656. This was the basis of a popular essay on astronomy by a Harvard student in the 1659 New England Almanac. The essay went so far as to say that scriptural texts in apparent conflict should not be taken literally, for God was writing for common people and often in parables, rather than attempting to indicate the nature of his universe. Even the most conservative clerics, such as John Davenport at New Haven, who were in disagreement, merely said let the author enjoy his opinion. From 1659 on, almost all of the almanacs contained popular essays on the new astronomy. The clerical leaders in the colonies were not hostile to the principle of scientific investigation, and were even receptive to the new scientific theories, helping to propagate them. But their effort went no further than an attempt to reconcile the new findings to the old dogma. Theologians were reluctant to relinquish the comets, which dotted the century, to science. Even while admitting that they proceeded from nat- ural causes, the clerics still contended that they were divine portents of disasters. No significant contribution was made by inhabitants of Con-
166
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
(Courtesy Conn. State Lib.)
MADISON-HISTORICAL SOCIETY
necticut to scientific fact or theory, but they admitted findings which served as corrosives.39
Although there was no antagonism toward scientific investigation and even a receptivity for its theory, the accomplishments of science still left much advance to the future as is shown in its application in the field of medicine. In the colonies, medical practice was not regulated nor doctors accredited as in England. Anyone could practise medicine who wished to do so, the extent of his practice being determined by
167
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
popular evaluation of his effectiveness. An interest in anatomy presaged advance and was evident in New England as well as in Europe. The advance was slow, however. The autopsy performed by Dr. Bryan Ros- siter in Hartford in 1662 merely proved to the doctor's satisfaction that the child had died of witchcraft. In addition, there was a suspicion of milk and water but no investigation of this unless one could so interpret Winthrop's clandestine taking of a cup of water daily, which gossip reported, as experimentation in this field.40
There had been enough advance that the belief in witchcraft no longer attributed the cause of every disease to Satan and forbade the use of drugs. The drugs used, however, although manufactured labo- riously with mortar and pestle, must have fallen short of the claims made for them. Typical information was contained in a letter from Dr. Staf- ford of London to Governor Winthrop of Connecticut in 1643. To pre- pare a cure for smallpox, plague, purples, and poison, "in the month of March take toads as many as you will alive, putt them in an earthen pott, so that it may be half full; cover it with a broad tyle or Iron plate; then overwhelme the pott so that the bottom may be uppermost; put charcoales around about it. . . . Sett it on fire and lett it burn out and extinguish of itself; when it is cold take out the toades, and in an Iron mortar pound then very well. . .. Moderate the dose according to the strength of the partie."41 Perhaps it was fortunate that most of the doc- tors were ministers, who could supplement their drugs with a prayer.
Relation of Thought to Experience
The relation of thought to experience is best shown by the subtle changes which occurred in theory. These evidence an adjustment to experience as applications of the doctrine of absolute predestination were worked out in a social context. This doctrine was made conven- ient for societal purposes first through modification by the doctrine of preparation, which shifted emphasis to behavior as a preparatory work preliminary to election. It was evident that the problem had social bearings. A man engaged in an effort at preparation would be forced to try to perfect his external behavior and so would exert himself toward exactly that obedience required to fulfill the national covenant-even though he eventually went to hell. This controversial issue concerning
168
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
preparation in predestination theory was driven into the open through American experience and solved as most practical for controlling con- duct.42
The concept of a preparation phase was developed and accepted gradually as the need and advantages were evidenced. The growth of the idea and of the awareness of its social implications has been traced in the covenant theologians by Perry Miller. He concludes that the question appeared as a hidden issue in the Antinomian crisis of 1637. It was not then an articulated doctrine and so figured deceptively as an incidental argument with Mrs. Hutchinson, who denied that such a phase of conversion existed. It was recognized at the time that the ad- mission of this step was necessary to the maintenance of government. Winthrop said of Mrs. Hutchinson's revelation and faith that "she walked by such a rule as cannot stand with the peace of any State." With Mrs. Hutchinson's fall the New England mind was committed to the concept which was developed largely by the socially minded Thomas Hooker. With his disciples, Thomas Shepard and Peter Bulkeley, Hooker secured wide acceptance of the idea that there was an "order" of progression in God's proceedings. The most ominous exception to this acceptance was John Cotton, who had been close to Anne Hutchin- son's belief in the first place, although he made satisfactory recantation. Again, in this quarrel, Cotton was forced to concede that the soul's apprehension of Christ was "in order of nature before God's act of jus- tification." With the conversion stages admittedly separate and sequen- tial it was possible to ascribe a greater importance and a longer duration to the period of preparation.43
On this point, Cotton's influence was less than that of Hooker and Shepard, and it was their tradition which was revitalized by Jonathan Edwards. At first, the position was attacked in England as approaching a sophistical Arminianism that constituted a desertion of the dogma that gestures should be considered consequents of grace rather than antecedents. England came to welcome the interpretation, however. after the upsurge of Antinomian frenzy in her Civil wars. This appro- bation enhanced the prestige of the concept and made it a prized posses- sion of New England orthodoxy.44 Some confusion prevailed until about 1690, but by then "by a long road, through a thicket of scholastic dis-
169
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
tinctions and metaphysical dispute, the leaders of New England came to this highly pragmatical-and socially advantageous-injunction."45
Preparation gave a broader hope which was supposed to induce de- sired external behavior. In the effort to maintain control a more radical accommodation was made in reduction of standards for church member- ship. In the beginning the emphasis had been on exclusiveness: only those who exhibited signs of election were to be admitted to church membership. It was recognized that not all of those admitted to church membership might be of the elect, but it was believed that visible saint- hood corresponded to election closely enough for practical purposes. The system depended merely on a small core of saints whose numbers did not matter if they had power. It was expected, too, that since God had promised himself to Abraham and his seed, the children of saints were probably predestined to election as well. The children members were therefore baptized in the expectation that they would replenish the core of saints, which could be small, but must not be extinct. Since experience showed that many of these children did not make professions when they were adults, and, as control of the majority through the civil arm and through aspiration became more difficult, it became necessary to enlarge the church and keep it alive through discreet conversions in order to maintain its power.46
The retreat from the perfectionism with which the Congregation- alists had earlier been charged was a definite and general move before the century's end. Hooker, in the presentation of church discipline on which he was working at his death, defined the qualifications for admis- sion with a latitude which was a startling contrast to earlier pretensions. If a man professes faith, does not live openly in sin, has some knowledge, and can give a reason for his hope, "these be grounds of probabilities, by which charity poised according to rule may and ought to conceive, there be some beginnings of spirituall good."47 Instead of the accusation of perfectionism, there was now the charge of hypocrisy to be faced. The new latitude was defended by a rationale written by John Cotton: though people have no real sanctification, they had gifts, and as long as they kept up their outward semblances they were serviceable and useful in the execution of the national covenant. The covenant was premised on the proposition that the regenerate do good works freely as a conse-
170
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
quence of faith rather than through compulsion, and its administration depended upon the principle of consent through a positive act of will. The acceptance of church membership gave a semblance of free will, and, in addition, induced obedience, if only because of a false impres- sion of an individual that he willed it to be so. Since that which was good, just, and honest was logically defined and authoritatively stated this mere conformity would help. The principle of exclusiveness had not been given up and membership was still restricted enough to ex- clude the majority.48
There were not enough of these discreet conversions to make up the difference between the number of anticipated professions and the actual number of professions of descendants. It had not only been ex- pected that the baptized children of members would grow up to be professing Christians but that then their children would be baptized and further replenish the core in their turn. It had not been anticipated that the second generation would not profess and the inclusion of the third generation in the face of this omission had not been clearly indi- cated. The problem grew acute both because of the necessities of the church and the pressure of opinion. Hooker said that it was necessary to find some way by which successive generations could be "inserted by a way of nature" into the church. The first generation, as Cotton Mather pointed out, could not bear to see their grandchildren excluded from the benefits of being brought up in the church discipline, and the large birthrate had increased the urgency. These considerations were factors in the disposition of the problem.49
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.