274 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
Singularly enough, however, the author passes over the influence of the Anabaptists in England. Indeed, he says: "In England the only voice lifted for freedom of conscience and worship was that of Brownists and Barrowists." It is a well-known fact, however, that the Anabaptists, whose influence in behalf of religious liberty on the Euro- pean continent the author clearly recognizes, came over into England and propagated their views there before the time of Brown and Bar- row, while it is an equally well-known fact that neither Brown nor Bar- row, nor those who bore their names, could in any way be regarded as the champions of religious liberty.
When American colonization began, church and state were agreed in the fundamental principle that the prosperity of both depended upon a union more or less vital. Very naturally, the colonists gener- ally were in sympathy with this principle. In Virginia and the Caro- linas the Church of England was established at the beginning, and remained the state church until the Revolution, displaying at times strong and bitter feeling against all forms of dissent. In the New Eng- land colonies, with the exception of Rhode Island, the Congregational churches were established by law, and there was more or less proscription of other forms of worship. In New York and New Jersey an unsuccess- ful attempt was made to establish the Church of England on a Dutch foundation. Maryland began with religious toleration under Roman Catholic auspices, but at length established the Church of England ; while Georgia, which commenced with liberty of worship, came, shortly before the Revolution, to a like state of things religiously as Maryland. In Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Delaware no church was ever established; but Rhode Island, from the beginning of its his- tory, took a unique position with reference to religious liberty. Mr. Cobb says : " Rhode Island, from the beginning, imposed no religious restrictions whatever upon its citizenship, and allowed no question by the civil law as to the belief or unbelief of anyone .... There never has been a more perfect equality of religious beliefs before the law than was enacted in Rhode Island at its very beginning." The slow and hesitating way in which the principle of religious liberty was accepted by the colonists is exhibited at length in the body of Mr. Cobb's work. There was conflict strong and long continued. The stress of the conflict, as the author shows, was in Massachusetts, Vir- ginia, Maryland, and New York, especially in the first two. The part which the Baptists played in the struggle in these two colonies, how- ever, is very inadequately presented. Yet this is not surprising when
