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now given to
Virginia an opportunity of legislation
independent of
European control; and the voluntary act of the assembly, restraining religious liberty, adopted from hostility to political innovation, rather than from a spirit of fanaticism, or respect to instructions, proves conclusively the attachment of the representatives of
Virginia to the Episcopal church and the cause of royalty.
Yet there had been Puritans in the colony almost from the beginning: even the Brownists were freely offered a secure asylum;
1 ‘here,’ said the tolerant
Whitaker, ‘neither surplice nor subscription is spoken of,’ and several
Puritan families, and perhaps
2 some even of the
Puritan clergy, emigrated to
Virginia.
They were so content with their reception, that large numbers were preparing to follow, and were restrained
only by the forethought of English intolerance.
We have seen, that the Pilgrims at
Plymouth were invited to remove within the jurisdiction of
Virginia;
Puritan merchants planted themselves on the
James River without fear, and emigrants from
Massachusetts had
recently established themselves in the colony.
The honor of
Laud had been vindicated by a judicial sentence, and south of the
Potomac the decrees of the court of high commission were allowed to be valid; but I find no traces of persecutions in the earliest history of
Virginia.
The laws were harsh: the administration seems to have been mild.
A disposition to non conformity was soon to show itself even in the council.
An invitation, which had been sent to
Boston for Punitan ministers, implies a belief that they would be admitted
