and Calvin had imparted a fresh impulse, was performing its destined work.  By the assertion of the right of private judgment in matters of religion, the pillars of authority had been shaken.  Nothing was considered as too sacred to be examined.  To the tribunal of the mind of every man, however undisciplined and illiterate, were brought, like criminals to be tried, the profoundest mysteries and most perplexing questions of theology, and in proportion to the ignorance of the judge, was the presumption with which sentence was pronounced.  A general love of dogma prevailed.  The cross-legged tailor plying his needle on his raised platform; the cobbler in the pauses of beating the leather on his lap-stone; and the field-laborer as he rested on his spade; discussed with serene and satisfied assurance problems, before the contemplation of which, the ripest learning and highest order of mind had veiled their faces.  Dissatisfaction with the condition of things spread more and more.  All, in both Church and State, was considered out of joint.  The former had not sufficiently cleansed herself from the pollutions of Rome, and lagging behind at a wide distance from the primitive model, required to be further reformed; the latter by encroachments on the liberties of the subject, and assistance furnished to a corrupt hierarchy, had become odious, and was to be resisted and restrained.  The idea of abolishing the monarchy had indeed not entered the mind of the most daring reformer; but it is certain, that when his feelings were inflamed by brooding over real and fancied wrongs from the established Church, his anger would overflow upon the government, which, with no sparing hand, wielded the sword to enforce pains and penalties, imposed, ostensibly for the protection of religion, but in reality for the interests of an ally and its own safety.  It was this exasperation, partly of a religious and partly of a political nature, that bore its legitimate fruit in the execution of Charles.

Before that awful lesson, however, discontent had increased until the unhappy zealots, too feeble to resist, yet too resolute to submit, determined to leave their country.  Hard fate!  Self-banished from the associations of childhood, from the memorials of their ancestors!  But whither should they fly?  They had heard indeed of a country; far beyond the sea, where a refuge might be found, and whither some of their countrymen had gone; but those first emigrants were cavaliers, men of the same creed as their persecutors, and who had been induced to leave England by motives different from those which controlled their minds.  Their purpose would not be attained by joining the Virginia colony.  They were not merely adventurers, hunting after earthly treasures, but pilgrims in search of the kingdom of heaven.  Their company consisted of delicate women and children, from whom they could not part, as well as of hardy men; and such were unfit to encounter the perils of a new settlement, in an