e to them that liberty in the true Christian
faith and worship of God which they have sought with so much travail and
with peaceful minds and loyal subjection to our progenitors and
ourselves to enjoy; and because some of the people and inhabitants of
the same colony cannot, in their private opinion, conform to the public
exercise of religion according to the liturgy, form, and ceremonies of
the Church of England, or take or subscribe to the oaths and articles
made and established in that behalf; and for that the same, by reason of
the remote distances of these places, will, as we hope, be no breach of
the unity and uniformity established in this nation, have therefore
thought fit, and do hereby publicly grant and ordain and declare, that
our royal will and pleasure is, that _no person within the said colony_,
at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted,
or called in question for any differences in opinion on matters of
religion, but that all and every person and persons may, from time to
time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his
and their own judgment and conveniences in matters of religious
concernment throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they
behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to
licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward
disturbance of others.'" (Hazard's Collection, p. 613.)

Judge Story, after quoting this declaration of the Royal Charter, justly
remarks, "This is a noble declaration, worthy of any Prince who rules
over a free people. It is lamentable to reflect how little it comports
with the domestic persecutions authorized by the same monarch during his
profligate reign. It is still more lamentable to reflect how little a
similar spirit of toleration was encouraged, either by precept or
example, in other of the New England Colonies." (Commentaries, etc.,
Vol. I., Chap, viii., Section 97.)]

[Footnote 149: Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, p. 74.]

[Footnote 150: Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, pp. 76-78.]

[Footnote 151: Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, pp. 76, 78, 79.]

[Footnote 152: Danforth Papers, Collections of Massachusetts Historical
Society, Vol. VIII., pp. 98, 108, 109, Second Series.

The following particulars are given of the pro