QUINCY, _July_ 20, 1919.




THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.


CHAPTER I.

THE COMMONWEALTH.


The mysteries of the Holy Catholic Church had been venerated for ages when
Europe burst from her mediaeval torpor into the splendor of the
Renaissance. Political schemes and papal abuses may have precipitated the
inevitable outbreak, but in the dawn of modern thought the darkness faded
amidst which mankind had so long cowered in the abject terrors of
superstition. Already in the beginning of the fifteenth century many of
the ancient dogmas had begun to awaken incredulity, and sceptics learned
to mock at that claim to infallibility upon which the priesthood based
their right to command the blind obedience of the Christian world. Between
such adversaries compromise was impossible; and those who afterward
revolted against the authority of the traditions of Rome sought refuge
under the shelter of the Bible, which they grew to reverence with a
passionate devotion, believing it to have been not only directly and
verbally inspired by God, but the only channel through which he had made
known his will to men.

Thus the movement was not toward new doctrines; on the contrary, it was