A leading New Englander denounced “the lawlessnesse of liberty of conscience” as an invitation to heresy and anarchy, and ultimately to divine anger and punishment. No Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, or Quakers need come to New England (except to exceptional Rhode Island). All dissenters were given, in the words of one Massachusetts Puritan, “free Liberty to keep away from us.” In Connecticut and Massachusetts, the Puritans prosecuted, tried, convicted, and exiled religious dissenters. Exiles who returned risked execution—the fate of four Quakers in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1661.
