D ISCUSSIONS of the relationship between the clerical and civil polities that existed in early Massachusetts have tended to foster concepts of inextricability. What is more, the Puritan clergy is usually accredited with the power of swaying governmental decisions to a highly impressive extent. Especially does this hold true for the period immediately following the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: 1630-1660. This paper will attempt to evaluate the relative position of church and state during these three decades. In the main, investigations of the status of the church have as their premise the extensive influence of that body in secular affairs. Accepting this postulate, many scholars and historians have assumed the complete identification of civil and ecclesiastical functions in the Puritan Commonwealth. This emphasis on extreme clerical power and the uncritical use of such terms as theocracy and Biblical Commonwealth have obscured, to a degree, some pertinent facts of early Massachusetts history. Modern historians have reimphasized the close relationship of church and state in Massachusetts. Charles McLean Andrews