a ground for his judgment, and that was, for that he saw that
those brethren, etc., were so divided from the rest of the country
in their judgment and practice, as it could not stand with the
public peace, that they should continue amongst us. So by the
example of Lot in Abraham's family, and after Hagar and Ishmael,
he saw they must be sent away."

With August came the famous Synod of Cambridge, the first ever
held in New England, in which the Church set about defining its
own position and denouncing the Hutchinsonians. Eighty-two
heresies were decided to have arisen, all of which were condemned,
and this being settled, Cotton was admonished, and escaped exile
only by meekly explaining away his errors. Wheelwright, refusing
to yield, was sentenced to imprisonment and exile; Mrs.
Hutchinson's meetings were declared seditious and disorderly, and
prohibited, and the Synod separated, triumphant. The field was
their own.

What they had really accomplished was simply to deepen the lines
and make the walls of division still higher. In later years no one
cared to make public the proceedings of the body, and there is
still in existence a loose paper, described by the Rev. George E.
Ellis in his "Life of Anne Hutchinson"; a petition from Mr. John
Higginson, son of the Salem minister ... by which it appears that
he was employed by the magistrates and ministers to take down in
short hand, all the debates and proceedings of the Synod. He
performed the work faithfully, and having written out the
voluminous record, at "the expense of much time and pains," he
presented it to the Court in May, 1639. The long time that elapsed
may indicate the labor. The Court accepted it, and ordered that,