'The vengeance of God Almighty will burst upon you'
In the chronicles of Stamford, Conn., to which I have referred in the previous couple of post, I encountered Mrs. Richard Crabb, a feisty woman who had no qualms expressing her displeasure with church leaders. I have mentioned that Stamford answered to the Puritan-led government of New Haven in its early days as a settlement. As happened in other parts of the budding nation that had been established under Puritan leadership, that leadership established the Congregational Church as the only legitimate church in the settlements. Though technically the government and the church were different entities, in reality government leadership was drawn from the ranks of leaders in the churches, whose pastors exerted considerable influence over their decisions. Government leaders had to be freemen and members in good standing in their churches. They then set the rules and policies that governed the colonies and settlements and believed themselves free to impose religious rules on their subjects.