Volume 1, Chapter 35, Theocracy Begins to Wither, The Halfway Covenant
The Puritan theocracy faced not only the direct problem of the merchants and their worldly
spirit but also the withering of their dominion from within the very bosom of the Church itself.
First, the Puritans had to bear the cross of their own brethren in England who had come
come increasingly under the influence of liberal ideas in the 1640s and were reproaching Massachusetts
for its intolerance. Even the former firebrand and persecutor of Ann Hutchinson, Reverend
Hugh Peter, having returned to England, now urged religious toleration in Massachusetts.
Shortly before his death in 1649, Governor Winthrop received the sad and deeply puzzling
News, that his own son Stephen, fighting in Cromwell's new model army, was actually
advocating liberty of conscience.
I hope his heart is with the Lord, said Winthrop wistfully.
But even within Massachusetts itself, theocratic rule was beginning to slacken.
During the 1650s, opinion grew rapidly in the New England Church that the requirements
for being chosen a member of the elect should be greatly loosened. The issue was aggravated
by the fact that only church members could become free men and hence vote in Massachusetts
Bay. Therefore, the growing pressure for a broader and more democratic franchise could
only be satisfied by softening the requirements for church membership, in short, by weakening
The crisis was precipitated in the Hartford Church in Connecticut, where the practice
of Reverend Samuel Stone in admitting church members was thought lax by many of the church
elders. In 1657, the General Court of Massachusetts proposed a synod of all the New England colonies.
Rhode Island, of course, would take no part not being a Puritan colony. New Haven, most
Massachusetts, rigorously wedded to theocracy and opposed to any change, also refused to
participate. From the other end of the spectrum, Connecticut accepted and its authority sent
four ministers to the synod. Massachusetts appointed fifteen. Over the bitter opposition
of the conservative ministers, the synod adopted the halfway covenant, which automatically
allowed all those baptized in the church to become church members and to have their children
baptized as well. Their membership would only be associate or halfway, but the important
point was that this partial membership entitled them to vote and therefore to political rights.
This was a drastic change and could only weaken theocratic rule and considerably democratize
as Oligarchic Rule in Massachusetts. In 1662, another inter-colonial synod reaffirmed the
halfway covenant, and the General Courts of Massachusetts and Connecticut advised its
adoption by all the churches. From all sides and on many fronts, the pressures were multiplying
for Dissolution of Theocratic Rule.