"
Berkeley did not believe in freedom of thought, and he disapproved
just as much of education, for that had encouraged freedom of
thought. "I thank God," he said some years later, "there are no
free schools in Virginia or printing, and I hope we shall not have
them these hundred years. For learning has brought disobedience and
heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them,
and libels against the best government. God keep us from both."
In England the quarrel between King and people grew ever fiercer
and more bitter. Virginia so far away heard the echo of it, and
there, as in England, men took sides. The men in Virginia were
ready enough to stand up to the King and speak their mind when he
threatened their liberties. But when they heard that the people in
England had taken the King prisoner and were talking of beheading
him they were horrified. To lay bands upon his person, to lead him
to the block, to take his life! That seemed to them very terrible.
And when at length the news of the King's death reached Virginia
the Virginians forgot their grievances, they became King's men.
And Berkeley, a fervent Royalist, wrote to his brother Royalists at
home asking them to come out to Virginia, there to find new homes
far from the rule of the hated "usurper" Cromwell.
Many came, fleeing from their native land "in horror and despairs
at the bloody and bitter stroke.
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