From his childhood he had been set apart for the ministry,
but he was as he wrote in later life, with a bitterness he
never lost, "Church-outed by the prelates." "Coming to some
maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded in the
Church, that he who would take orders, must subscribe slave, and
take an oath withal, which, unless he took with a conscience that
would retch, he must either straight perjure or split his faith, I
thought it better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred
office of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and
forswearing."

Each year of the increasing complications found a larger body
enrolled on his side, and with 1629, Simon Bradstreet resigned any
hope of life in England, and cast in his fortunes once for all
with the projected colony. In dissolving his third Parliament
Charles had granted the charter for the Massachusetts Colony, and
seizing upon this as a "Providential call," the Puritans at once
circulated "conclusions" among gentry and traders, and full
descriptions of Massachusetts. Already many capitalists deemed
encouragement of the emigration an excellent speculation, but the
prospective emigrants had no mind to be ruled by a commercial
company at home, and at last, after many deliberations, the old
company was dissolved; the officers resigned and their places were
filled by persons who proposed to emigrate.

Two days before this change twelve gentlemen met at Cambridge and
"pledged themselves to each other to embark for New England with
their families for a permanent residence."

"Provided always, that, before the last of September next, the