ppiness next to
Christ that ever befell her."

In this affair Winthrop acted as prosecutor and judge. Before the
spring had well set in he sent word to Mrs. Hutchinson to depart from
the colony. Accordingly, March 28, 1638, she went by water to her farm
at Mount Wollaston (now Quincy), intending to join Mr. Wheelwright,
who had gone to Piscataqua, in Maine, but she changed her mind and
went by land to the settlement of Roger Williams at Providence, and
thence to the island of Aquidneck, where she joined her husband and
other friends.[17]

Such was the so-called Antinomian controversy in Massachusetts, and
its ending had a far-reaching effect upon the fortunes of the colony.
The suppression of Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends produced what
Winthrop and the rest evidently desired--peace--a long peace. For
fifty years the commonwealth was free from any great religious
agitations; but this condition of quietude, being purchased at the
price of free speech and free conscience, discouraged all literature
except of a theological stamp, and confirmed the aristocratic
character of the government. As one of its mouth-pieces, Rev. Samuel
Stone, remarked, New England Congregationalism continued till the
close of the century "a speaking aristocracy in the face of a silent
democracy."[18] The intense practical character of the people saved
the colony, which, despite the theocratic government, maintained a
vigorous life in politics, business, and domestic economy.

[Footnote 1: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 70, 81, 113, 179, 185; _Cal.
of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 180.]

[Footnote 2: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 49, 63.]

[Footnote 3: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 370; Hubbard, _New
England_ (Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, V.), 203.]

[Footnote 4: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 145, 147.]

[Footnote 5: Eggleston, _Beginners of a Nation_, 282.]

[Footnote 6: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 163, 166, 180.]

[Footnote 7: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 188, 193, 198, 204, 209,
210.]

[Footnote 8: Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st series, I., 276.]

[Footnote 9: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 144.]

[Footnote 10: Adams, _Three Episodes of Mass. Hist_., I., 339.]

[Footnote 11: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 239; Hutchinson,
_Massachusetts Bay_, I., 435.]

[Footnote 12: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 240-255; _Mass. Col.
Records_, I., 185.]

[Footnote 13: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 256-263.]

[Footnote 14: W