In Massachusetts the opposition was very strong indeed, and its character shows how wide the divergence in sentiment had already become between the upper stratum of society and the people in general.  This divergence was one result of the excessive weight given to the clergy by the restriction of the suffrage to church members.  One might almost say that it was not the people of Massachusetts, after all, that shed the blood of the Quakers; it was Endicott and the clergy.  The bill establishing death as the penalty for returning after banishment was passed in the upper house without serious difficulty; but in the lower house it was at first defeated.  Of the twenty-six deputies fifteen were opposed to it, but one of these fell sick and two were intimidated, so that finally the infamous measure was passed by a vote of thirteen against twelve.  Probably it would not have passed but for a hopeful feeling that an occasion for putting it into execution would not be likely to arise.  It was hoped that the mere threat would prove effective.  Endicott begged the Quakers to keep away, saying earnestly that he did not desire their death; but the more resolute spirits were not deterred by fear of the gallows.  In September, 1659, William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyer, who had come to Boston expressly to defy the cruel law, were banished.  Mrs. Dyer was a lady of good family, wife of the secretary of Rhode Island.  She had been an intimate friend of Mrs. Hutchinson.  While she went home to her husband, Stevenson and Robinson went only to Salem and then faced about and came back to Boston.  Mrs. Dyer also returned.  All three felt themselves under divine command to resist and defy the persecutors.  On the 27th of October they were led to the gallows on Boston Common, under escort of a hundred soldiers.  Many people had begun to cry shame on such proceedings, and it was thought necessary to take precautions against a tumult.  The victims tried to address the crowd, but their voices were drowned by the beating of drums.  While the Rev. John Wilson railed and scoffed at them from the foot of the gallows the two brave men were hanged.  The halter had been placed upon Mrs. Dyer when her son, who had come in all haste from Rhode Island, obtained her reprieve on his promise to take her away.  The bodies of the two men were denied Christian burial and thrown uncovered into a pit.  All the efforts of husband and son were unable to keep Mrs. Dyer at home.  In the following spring she returned to Boston and on the first day of June was again taken to the gallows.  At the last moment she was offered freedom if she would only promise to go away and stay, but she refused.  “In obedience to the will of the Lord I came,” said she, “and in his will I abide faithful unto death.”  And so she died. [Sidenote:  Executions on Boston Common] [Sidenote:  Wenlock Christison’s defiance and victory]