Note 31 — PART II.

How much of the Church system thus introduced had already been resolved upon before the colonists of the Massachusetts Company left England, and how long a time, if any, previous to their emigration such an agreement was made, are questions which we have probably not sufficient means to determine. Thus much is certain—that when Skelton and Higginson reached Salem, they found Endicot, who was not only their Governor, but one of the six considerable men who had made the first movement for a patent, fully prepared for the ecclesiastical organization which was presently instituted. In the month before their arrival, Endicot, in a letter [May 11, 1629] to Bradford thanking him for the visit of Fuller, had said: 'I rejoice much that I am by him satisfied touching your judgments of the outward form of God's worship.'—Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, First Series, Vol. III., p. 65.