Puritan Massachusetts and liberty: Fiske and Brooks Adams

“Each single church tended to become an independent congregation of worshippers, constituting one of the most effective schools that has ever existed for training men in local self-government. . . .

“[The Puritan spirit] was sure to manifest itself in narrow cramping measures and in ugly acts of persecution; but it is none the less to the fortunate alliance of that fervid religious enthusiasm with the Englishman's love of self-government that our modern freedom owes its existence. . . .

“It was in Massachusetts, where the theocracy was strongest, that the resistance to Charles II. was most dogged and did most to prepare the way for the work of achieving political independence a century later.”

[Theocracy: government by religious leaders or by religious law. Charles II: king of England, 1660–1685, whose government tried to tighten control over Massachusetts.]

“The government was in fact in the hands of a small oligarchy of saints, who were, in their turn, ruled by their priests, and . . . the denial of ordinary political rights to the majority led to discontent. . . .

“[B]igotry and ambition fed by power led to persecution. Then, as the despotism of the preachers deepened, their victims groaning in their dungeons, or furrowed by their lash, implored the aid of England, who, in defence of freedom and of law, crushed the theocracy at a blow.”

[Oligarchy of saints: rule by a small group of full church members. Furrowed by their lash: scarred by whipping.]