The government of the early Puritan
settlements in Massachusetts was based on the idea of a theocracy (the belief that the
Church and the State are one). The Puritans believed that there should be no difference
between religion and government, that the state and the Church should be governed by the
same laws. This eventually changed as people rebelled against the strictures imposed by
such a form of government.
Most of us know about The Mayflower
Compact signed in Plymouth Harbor. Not all of us know about The Arbella Covenant
which was signed some ten years later by those Puritans arriving at Salem Harbor aboard
the ship Arbella. It is The Arbella Covenant which formed the basis for
a theocracy in Massachusetts.
