Note 50 — INTRODUCTION.

Laud's power extended even to America. In a special commission for the colonies, "the Archbishop of Canterbury and those who were associated with him, received full power over the American plantations, to establish the government and dictate the laws, to regulate the Church, to inflict even the heaviest punishments, and to revoke any charter, which had been surreptitiously obtained, or which conceded liberties prejudicial to the Royal prerogative."—Bancroft's United States, i. 407.