eral Court had written into the law of the colony another statute whose provisions were in no way affected by the later act. For the worthy object of granting liberty of worship to sober dissenters, a liberty which they were to be permitted to enjoy " without let, or hindrance or molestation," it was provided that dissenting congregations were to qualify (i. e., obtain license) under the law. 1 It was likewise provided that this permission to qualify should in no way operate to the prejudice of the rights and privileges of the churches of the Establishment, or "to the excusing any person from paying any such minister or town dues, as are now, or shall hereafter be due from them." 2 This double burden of obtaining license and supporting the state church was not to be borne easily. An agitation to obtain relief promptly began. 3
After two decades of effort the Episcopalians were the first to meet with any measure of success. Henceforth their rate money was to be spent in the support of their own ministers and they were no longer to be required to help build meeting-houses for the state church. 4 Two years later, re
- 1 The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. v, p. 50. It seems clear that either through neglect or evasion a considerable number of congregations failed to qualify under the law. In any event the legislature deemed itself warranted in passing an act, May, 1721, imposing a fine of five shillings on persons convicted of not having attended "the publick worship of God on the Lord's day in some congregation by law allowed." (See ibid., vol. vi, p. 248.) Churches which for doctrinal or other reasons withdrew from the Establishment suffered serious embarrassments on account of this law respecting the licensing of congregations.
- 2 Ibid., vol. v, p. 50. Any infraction of this law was to be punished by a heavy fine. Failure to pay the fine involved heavy bail or imprisonment.
- 3 Greene, The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut, pp. 191 et seq.
- 4 The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. vi, p. 106.
