Note Note 5, page 204 — BOOK II. THE PURITAN MIGRATION. (continued 2)

His character. Winthrop, a country gentleman of Groton, in Suffolk, and an attorney in the Court of Wards, was a strict Puritan, desiring above all a reformed church and "the ordinances of God in their purity," as the phrase of the time went. Precocious in everything, and inclined to ideal aims, he had been religious from boyhood, had married at a little over seventeen years of age, and had been made a justice of the peace while still very young. Note 5. He studied divinity, and only the dissuasion of friends kept him from entering the ministry. Of judicial temper, he came to be often consulted upon points of conscience, which gave much trouble in that age of casuistry and abounding scruples. His kindly visits to those who were in any trouble of spirit were highly prized. He himself makes much of the corruptions of his own nature and of his juvenile aberrancy, but generosity and purity of spirit like his are born and not acquired. His devoutness, accompanied by a habit of self-criticism in the presence of Infinite Justice, doubtless gave additional vigor to his virtues. For the rest, he was a man of independent estate, of prudent and conciliatory carriage, of a clear but not broad mind. What, as much as anything else, fitted him for his function was, that all his virtues were cast in Puritan molds and all his prejudices had a Puritan set.