WEBVTT

NOTE 35. Theocracy Begins to Wither: The Half-Way Covenant

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.880
Volume 1, Chapter 35, Theocracy Begins to Wither, The Halfway Covenant

2
00:00:07.880 --> 00:00:13.200
The Puritan theocracy faced not only the direct problem of the merchants and their worldly

3
00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:19.960
spirit but also the withering of their dominion from within the very bosom of the Church itself.

4
00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:26.120
First, the Puritans had to bear the cross of their own brethren in England who had come

5
00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:33.120
come increasingly under the influence of liberal ideas in the 1640s and were reproaching Massachusetts

6
00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:40.240
for its intolerance. Even the former firebrand and persecutor of Ann Hutchinson, Reverend

7
00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:47.960
Hugh Peter, having returned to England, now urged religious toleration in Massachusetts.

8
00:00:48.580 --> 00:00:55.460
Shortly before his death in 1649, Governor Winthrop received the sad and deeply puzzling

9
00:00:55.460 --> 00:01:02.180
News, that his own son Stephen, fighting in Cromwell's new model army, was actually

10
00:01:02.180 --> 00:01:05.060
advocating liberty of conscience.

11
00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:11.420
I hope his heart is with the Lord, said Winthrop wistfully.

12
00:01:11.420 --> 00:01:16.940
But even within Massachusetts itself, theocratic rule was beginning to slacken.

13
00:01:16.940 --> 00:01:21.740
During the 1650s, opinion grew rapidly in the New England Church that the requirements

14
00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:28.060
for being chosen a member of the elect should be greatly loosened. The issue was aggravated

15
00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:33.780
by the fact that only church members could become free men and hence vote in Massachusetts

16
00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:40.700
Bay. Therefore, the growing pressure for a broader and more democratic franchise could

17
00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:47.660
only be satisfied by softening the requirements for church membership, in short, by weakening

18
00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:55.540
The crisis was precipitated in the Hartford Church in Connecticut, where the practice

19
00:01:55.540 --> 00:02:01.860
of Reverend Samuel Stone in admitting church members was thought lax by many of the church

20
00:02:01.860 --> 00:02:10.260
elders. In 1657, the General Court of Massachusetts proposed a synod of all the New England colonies.

21
00:02:10.260 --> 00:02:15.980
Rhode Island, of course, would take no part not being a Puritan colony. New Haven, most

22
00:02:15.980 --> 00:02:22.020
Massachusetts, rigorously wedded to theocracy and opposed to any change, also refused to

23
00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:28.420
participate. From the other end of the spectrum, Connecticut accepted and its authority sent

24
00:02:28.420 --> 00:02:34.980
four ministers to the synod. Massachusetts appointed fifteen. Over the bitter opposition

25
00:02:34.980 --> 00:02:41.060
of the conservative ministers, the synod adopted the halfway covenant, which automatically

26
00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:48.420
allowed all those baptized in the church to become church members and to have their children

27
00:02:48.420 --> 00:02:55.620
baptized as well. Their membership would only be associate or halfway, but the important

28
00:02:55.620 --> 00:03:02.620
point was that this partial membership entitled them to vote and therefore to political rights.

29
00:03:03.380 --> 00:03:09.940
This was a drastic change and could only weaken theocratic rule and considerably democratize

30
00:03:09.940 --> 00:03:17.520
as Oligarchic Rule in Massachusetts. In 1662, another inter-colonial synod reaffirmed the

31
00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:23.060
halfway covenant, and the General Courts of Massachusetts and Connecticut advised its

32
00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:30.300
adoption by all the churches. From all sides and on many fronts, the pressures were multiplying

33
00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:32.820
for Dissolution of Theocratic Rule.