Debating-And Creating-Authority: The Failure of a Constitutional Ideal in Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1649 (Law, Justice and Power)

In the tight frame of its first twenty years, Massachusetts Bay dramatically altered its constitutional order. Founded as a theocracy, in which magisterial authority was derived from God and magisterial power strictly limited by divine command, by the end of the 1640s the colony had become an oligarchy, led by magistrates who created their own authority and defined the limits on their almost unlimited power. Debating-and Creating-Authority examines this shift in constitutional order at various levels and looks in particular at the efforts to create the theocracy and its subsequent collapse. Authority in Massachusetts Bay was threatened in a variety of ways until the reforms at the end of the 1640s. This is a comprehensive study that traces the history of these threats to authority and the colony's response to them.Elizabeth Dale is the author of 'Debating-And Creating-Authority: The Failure of a Constitutional Ideal in Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1649 (Law, Justice and Power)' with ISBN 9780754621263 and ISBN 075462126X.