e whole Plantation enterprise. It is
an imputation upon the integrity of the author, and upon all parties
concerned in the address, and absurd in itself, to suppose that the
prayers of the Church in England were solicited with a view to the
abolition of its worship in Massachusetts, and the establishment there
of a "Separatist" Church. This address--not to be found in any modern
history of the Massachusetts Puritans--speaks for itself, and is given
in a note as originally published.[55] It will be recollected that
Winthrop and the other signers of this address had the Royal Charter
with them, and now constituted the "principals" of the Company, whose
authority in England now ceased, and was henceforth to be exercised at
Massachusetts Bay. They beg that the "disaffection or indiscretion" of
some of the Company--evidently alluding to what Endicot was reported to
have done--might not be imputed to "the principals and body of the
Company." Their words are, addressing their Fathers and Brethren of the
Church of England: "And howsoever your charity may have met with some
occasional discouragement through the misreport of our intentions, or
through the disaffection or indiscretion of some of us, or rather
amongst us (for we are not of those who dream of perfection in this
world); yet we desire you would look at the _principals and body of_ our
_Company, as those who esteem it an honour to call the Church of
England, whence we rise, our dear Mother," &c._

It is passing strange that any man who respects himself could say, in
the face of these words and of the whole address, that Mr. Winthrop and
the "principals and body of the Company" did not profess to be members
of the Church of England, and did not assure their "Fathers and Brethren
in England" of their intention to remain so, and implore the prayers of
their Fathers and Brethren for their success. No darker stigma could be
inflicted upon the character of Winthrop and his Company, than the
assertion that at the very moment of making and publishing these
professions in England they intended to extinguish their "dear Mother"
in Massachusetts, and banish every one from their Plantation who should
use her Prayer Book, or worship as the "dear Mother" worshipped. Yet
such is the theory, or fallacy, of some Puritan writers.

It has also been pretended that there was no Church of England in
Massachusetts, and therefore the planters were free to set up what form
of worship they ple