For fifty years the commonwealth was free from any great religious agitations; but this condition of quietude, being purchased at the price of free speech and free conscience, discouraged all literature except of a theological stamp, and confirmed the aristocratic character of the government.

As one of its mouth-pieces, Rev.Samuel Stone, remarked, New England Congregationalism continued till the close of the century "a speaking aristocracy in the face of a silent democracy."[18] The intense practical character of the people saved the colony, which, despite the theocratic government, maintained a vigorous life in politics, business, and domestic economy.
[Footnote 1: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 70, 81, 113, 179, 185; _Cal.
of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p.

180.] [Footnote 2: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 49, 63.] [Footnote 3: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 370; Hubbard, _New England_ (Mass.Hist.Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, V.), 203.] [Footnote 4: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 145, 147.] [Footnote 5: Eggleston, _Beginners of a Nation_, 282.] [Footnote 6: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 163, 166, 180.] [Footnote 7: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 188, 193, 198, 204, 209, 210.] [Footnote 8: Mass.Hist.Soc., _Collections_, 1st series, I., 276.] [Footnote 9: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 144.] [Footnote 10: Adams, _Three Episodes of Mass.Hist_., I., 339.] [Footnote 11: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 239; Hutchinson, _Massachusetts Bay_, I., 435.] [Footnote 12: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 240-255; _Mass.

Col.
Records_, I., 185.] [Footnote 13: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 256-263.] [Footnote 14: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 261-288.] [Footnote 15: Ibid., 291-296.] [Footnote 16: Hutchinson, _Massachusetts Bay_, II., 423-447.] [Footnote 17: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 296-312.] [Footnote 18: Adams, _Massachusetts: Its Historians and its History_, 57.].