132 A Century of Science 



ists of Elizabeth's reign, though their day of glory 

 first came with the Civil War. In the theory of 

 the Independents, as fully developed, any group 

 of persons wishing to worship God in common 

 might come together and organize themselves into 

 a Congregational church, existing by as good a 

 warrant as any other church, and entirely free 

 from the control of any bishop, or synod, or coun- 

 cil. No outside power could prescribe its creed or 

 interfere with its ceremonial. Each church be- 

 came, therefore, a little self-governing republic, 

 as completely autonomous as an ancient Greek 

 city, and the union of such churches was based 

 solely upon the spirit of spontaneous Christian 

 fellowship. Such was the theory of Independ- 

 ency. 



In these successive stages of Protestantism we 

 may see the preliminary steps toward general tol- 

 eration and toward liberal thought. In each stage 

 the strength of the coercive power that could be 

 exercised over men's opinions and expressions of 

 opinion was sensibly diminished. From the coer- 

 cive power of the universal Church, which had 

 once been able to direct a crusade against the 

 Albigenses, it was a long step downward to the 

 coercive power of Queen Elizabeth, whose will to 

 suppress Puritanism was perpetually held in check 



