ing with these people; but
in other cases the principle of punishment was persecution and not
justice. There is a record of an order for reshipping to England six
persons of whose offence nothing more is recorded than "that they were
persons unmeet to inhabit here."[11]

The most decided enlargement of the power of the theocracy was made in
the general court which met at Boston in May, 1631, when it was
resolved that the assistants need not be chosen afresh every year, but
might keep their seats until removed by a special vote of the
freemen.[12] The company was enlarged by the addition of one hundred
and eighteen "freemen"; but "to the end that the body of the commons
may be preserved of honest and good men," it was ordered that "for the
time to come no man should be admitted to the freedom of this body
politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the
limits of the same."

These proceedings practically vested all the judicial and legislative
powers in the court of assistants, whose tenure was permanent, and
left to the freemen in the general court little else than the power of
admitting freemen. Not only was citizenship based on
church-membership, but the Bible was the only law-book recognized by
the court of assistants. Of this book the ministers were naturally
thought the best interpreters, and it thus became the custom for the
magistrates to consult them on all questions of importance. Offenders
were not merely law-breakers, but sinners, and their offences ranged
from such as wore long hair to such as dealt in witchcraft and
sorcery.

Fortunately, this system did not long continue without some
modification. In February, 1632, the court of assistants assessed a
tax upon the towns for the erection of a fortification at Newtown,
subsequently Cambridge. The inhabitants of Watertown grumbled about
paying their proportion of this tax, and at the third general court,
May 9, 1632, it was ordered that hereafter the governor and assistants
in laying taxes should be guided by the advice of a board composed of
two delegates from every town; and that the governor and other
magistrates should be elected by the whole body of the freemen
assembled as the charter required.

Two years later a general court consisting of the governor,
assistants, and two "committees," or delegates, elected by the freemen
resident in each town, assembled and assumed the powers of
legislation.[13] This change, which brought about