After much trouble in deciding about the form and quality
of the currency which should be used in pay, since so much bad wampum was
thrust upon the deacons at the public contributions, it was in 1651 enacted
that "whereas it is taken notice of that Divers give not into the Treasury
at all on the Lords Day, it is decreed that all such if they give not
freely, of themselves be rated according to the Jurisdiction order for the
Ministers Maintaynance." The delinquents were ordered to bring their "rate"
to the Deacon's house at once. A presuming young man ventured to suggest
that the recreant members who would not pay in the face of the whole
congregation would hardly rush to the Deacon's door to give in their
"rate." He was severely ordered to keep silence in the company of wiser and
elder people; but time proved his simply wise supposition to be correct;
and many and various were the devices and forces which the deacons were
obliged to use to obtain the minister's rate in New Haven.
Some few bold Puritan souls dared to protest against being forced to pay
the church rate whether they wished to or not. Lieutenant Fuller, of
Barnstable, was fined fifty shillings for "prophanely" saying "that the law
enacted about the ministers maintenance was a wicked and devilish one, and
that the devil sat at the helm when the law was made." Such courageous
though profane expressions of revolt but little availed; for not only
were members and attendants of the Puritan churches taxed, but Quakers,
Baptists, and Church-of-England men were also "rated," and if they refused
to pay to help support the church that they abhorred, they were fined and
imprisoned.
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