King's power was beyond the reach of Parliament. It was inherent in him
as King, and bestowed by God. _Any infringement upon his prerogative
by Act of Parliament was void!_

With king so false, and with justice so polluted at its fountain, what
hope was there for the people but in Revolution?

[Sidenote: Massachusetts Chartered, 1629]

From the tyranny of the Church under Laud, a way was opened when, in
1629, Charles granted a Charter to the Colony of Massachusetts. With a
quiet, stern enthusiasm the hearts of men turned toward that refuge in
America. Not men of broken fortunes, adventurers, and criminals, but
owners of large landed estates, professional men, some of the best in
the land, who abandoned home and comfort to face intolerable hardships.
One wrote, "We are weaned from the delicate milk of our Mother England
and do not mind these trials." As the pressure increased under Laud,
the stream toward the West increased in volume; so that in ten years
20,000 Englishmen had sought religious freedom across the sea, and had
founded a Colony which, strange to say,--under the influence of an
intense religious sentiment,--became itself a Theocracy and a new
tyranny, although one sternly just and pure.

The dissolute, worthless Buckingham had been assassinated, and Charles
had wept passionate tears over his dead body. But his place had been
filled by one far better suited to the King's needs at a time when he
had determined not again to recall Parliament, but to rule without it
until resistance to his measures had ceased.

It was with no sinister purpose of establishing a despotism such as a