223.) In a note the historian quotes the remark of Mr.Norton to the Massachusetts Court, that "if they complied not with the King's letter, the blood that should be spilt would lie at their door." "Dr.Mather says upon this occasion: 'Such has been the jealous disposition of our New Englanders about their dearly bought privileges, and such also has been the various interpretations of the people about the extent of their privileges, that of all the agents sent over to the Court of England for now forty years together, I know of not one who did not, at his return, meet with some forward entertainment among his countrymen.'" (_Ib._, p.

222.)] [Footnote 127: Mr.Hildreth gives the following account of this mission and its results upon the state of society in Massachusetts Bay Colony and its agents to England: "The Massachusetts' agents presently returned, bearers of a royal letter, in which the King recognized the Charter and promised oblivion of past offences.

But he demanded the repeal of all laws inconsistent with his due authority; an oath of allegiance to the royal person, as formerly in use, but dropped since the commencement of the late civil war; the administration of justice in his name; complete toleration for the Church of England; the repeal of the law which restricted the privilege of voting, and tenure of office to Church members, and the substitution of property qualification instead; finally, the admission of all persons of honest lives to the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
"The claimants for toleration, formerly suppressed with such prompt severity, were now encouraged, by the King's demands in their favour, again to raise their heads.

For the next thirty years the people of Massachusetts (Bay) were divided into three parties, a very decided, though gradually diminishing majority (of the Congregationalists, the only "freemen") sustaining with ardour the theocratic system, and, as essential to it, entire independence of external control.

At the opposite extreme, a party, small in numbers and feeble in influence (among the "freemen"), advocated religious toleration--at least to a limited extent--and equal civil rights for all inhabitants.