any king or power at war with England, nor to make
war against any king or power in amity with the same. If as many as
twenty of his colonists should ask a minister from the Bishop of London,
such minister was to be received without denial or molestation.

The next important document to be prepared was the Constitution, or
Frame of Government, and to the task of composing it Penn gave a great
amount of time and care. It was preceded by two statements of
principles,--the Preface and the Great Fundamental.

The Preface declared the political policy of the proprietor.
"Government," he said, "seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing
sacred in its institution and end." As for the debate between monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy, "I choose," he said, "to solve the
controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three:
any government is free to the people under it, whatever be the frame,
where the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws." His
purpose, he says, is to establish "the great end of all government,
viz., to support power in reverence with the people, and to secure the
people from the abuse of power, that they may be free by their just
obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just administration;
for liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without
liberty is slavery."

In a private letter, written about the same time, Penn stated his
political position in several concrete sentences which interpret these
fine but rather vague pronouncements. "For the matters of liberty and
privilege," he wrote, "I propose that which is extraordinary, and to
leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of
one man may not hinder the good of an whole country; but to publish
these things now and here, as matters stand, would not be wise."

The Great Fundamental set forth the ecclesiastical policy of the
founder: "In reverence to God, the father of light and spirits, the
author as well as the object of all divine knowledge, faith and
workings, I do, for me and mine, declare and establish for the first
fundamental of the government of my province, that every person that
doth and shall reside there shall have and enjoy the free profession of
his or her faith and exercise of worship towards God, in such way and
manner as every such person shall in conscience believe is most
acceptable to God."

These principles of civil and religious liberty constituted