Early Massachusetts Statute

[Perry Dane]

         My educated guess is that this statute was only intended to 
apply to Indians who lived in, or visited, the colonists' 
settlements.  If so, it was probably not much more severe (though 
probably less defensible) than the restrictions the colonists placed 
on themselves.

         I'm even more fascinated, though, by one tidbit in the 
statute: the reference to banning only "outward worship."  This 
confirms the degree to which the Puritans had, at least in their 
relations with the Indians, internalized the relatively new ideology 
that defended religious coercion, not as a means to assure individual 
salvation, but simply as a tool for guaranteeing social order, 
political cohesion, protection of others from temptation, etc.

         Some have argued that this focus on the state's interest in 
"outward worship" rather than individual salvation contained, if 
ironically, the seeds of modern conceptions of religious 
liberty.  Consider, in this connection, Elizabeth I's famous 
statement that she had "no desire to make windows into men's 
souls."  For Elizabeth herself, this statement was entirely 
consistent with her oppression of the "outward" practice of Catholic 
worship.  Historically, though, it began the slow process of 
detaching religious commitment from the jurisdiction of the 
state.  (It also began the more normatively complicated process of 
treating religious faith as merely "private.")   I've also found 
really interesting here Janet Halley, Equivocation and the Legal 
Conflict Over Religious Identity In Early Modern England, 3 Yale J.L. 
& Human. 33 (1991), which discusses, among other things, the "Church 
Papists" of Elizabeth England: Catholics who complied with the law 
requiring attendance at Anglican services, and understood such 
attendance as a (practical or even possibly commendable) act of 
"outward" social duty rather than a violation of their Catholic principles.

         Another query:  How would the Indians have understood the 
import and implications of this statute (assuming it was actually 
enforced), particularly given the fact, emphasized by historians of 
the period, that very few New England Indians, at least in the 17th 
century, actually converted to Christianity.  (Indeed, the evidence 
suggests that in the early years of the New England colonies, 
significantly more whites assimilated into native culture and 
society, than the other way around.  That, in fact, might confirm 
that the statute had more to do with controlling whites than 
controlling Indians.)

Doug Laycock wrote:
>  Just ran across a 1633 statute that made it a criminal offense for 
> Indians to worship "their False Gods."  I haven't tracked it to an 
> original source, but James Bradley Thayer has it in a footnote 
> (attached), so I assume it's reliable.
>
>The statute applied "in any part of our jurisdiction;" I don't know 
>if that meant all the territory claimed by Massachusetts Bay colony, 
>or only white towns and farms.  It seems likely that practical 
>enforcement capacity was limited to areas of white settlement, so 
>maybe this is not quite as stunningly outrageous as it appeared on 
>first reading.  Still, it's pretty remarkable.  Maybe they were no 
>longer dependent on the Indians to feed them by this time.


*******************************************************
Perry Dane
Professor of Law

Rutgers University
School of Law  -- Camden
217 North Fifth Street
Camden, NJ 08102

dane at crab.rutgers.edu
Bio: www.camlaw.rutgers.edu/bio/925/
SSRN Author page: www.ssrn.com/author=48596

Work:   (856) 225-6004
Fax:       (856) 969-7924
Home:   (610) 896-5702
*******************************************************



*******************************************************
Perry Dane           			
Professor of Law

Rutgers University
School of Law  -- Camden		
217 North Fifth Street
Camden, NJ 08102   			

dane at crab.rutgers.edu
Bio: www.camlaw.rutgers.edu/bio/925/
SSRN Author page: www.ssrn.com/author=48596

Work:   (856) 225-6004
Fax:       (856) 969-7924
Home:   (610) 896-5702
*******************************************************