162 A Century of Science 



banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson ; but the lesson 

 of toleration was already taking shape in his mind, 

 as was clearly shown in his controversy with Win- 

 throp. His friendly relations with Roger Williams 

 began at the time of the Pequot war ; and in 1643, 

 when Williams visited England in quest of a char 

 ter for Rhode Island, he was Vane s guest at his 

 house in London, and also at his country seat in 

 Lincolnshire. It was then that Williams wrote 

 that noble book, u The Bloudy Tenent of Perse 

 cution for Cause of Conscience,&quot; in the preface to 

 which he thus refers to his friend : &quot; Mine ears 

 were glad and late witnesses of an heavenly speech 

 of one of the most eminent of that High Assembly 

 of Parliament : Why should the labours of any 

 be suppressed, if sober, though never so different? 

 We now profess to seek God, we desire to see 

 light ! &quot; * Mr. Hosmer gives in facsimile a touch 

 ing letter from Vane to Winthrop in 1645, in which 

 he urges his friends in New England to respect the 

 liberty of conscience. 



In 1648, in order to save the cause of liberty 

 from losing to intrigue and chicanery all the 

 ground it had won by the sword, the Ironsides 

 felt themselves called upon to take things into 

 their own hands. This period of the story, ex- 

 1 See my Beginnings of New England, p. 185. 



