Papers, Dom. 1631–3, p. 278; cf. Forster, Life of Vane, p. 6). But no prospect of preferment could induce him to stifle his conscientious scruples about the doctrines and ceremonies of the English church. He abstained, it was reported, two years from receiving the sacrament because he could get nobody to administer it to him standing. Conferences with bishops failed to remove his doubts or to induce him to conform. In 1635 he resolved to go to New England in order to obtain freedom to worship according to his conscience (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, xii. 246; Hosmer, p. 12).
Vane arrived at Boston in the ship Abigail on 6 Oct. 1635 with the king's license to stay for three years in New England. He had also a commission, jointly with his fellow travellers, Hugh Peters [q. v.] and John Winthrop the younger, to treat with the recent emigrants from Massachusetts to Connecticut on behalf of the Connecticut patentees (Winthrop, History of New England, ed. 1853, i. 203, 477). Massachusetts received him with open arms as ‘a young gentleman of excellent parts,’ and one who had forsaken the honours of the court ‘to enjoy the ordinances of Christ in their purity.’ On 1 Nov. 1635 he was admitted a member of the church at Boston, on 3 March 1636 he became a freeman of the colony, and on 25 March following was chosen its governor (ib. i. 203, 222, ii. 446). Even before his election Vane had begun to take part in administration and politics. On 30 Nov. 1635 Boston passed an order that all persons wishing to sue each other at law should first submit their cases to the arbitration of Vane and two elders. Not content with these petty duties, he boldly undertook to reconcile Winthrop and Dudley, and procured a conference on the causes of the party divisions of the moment which produced a certain number of useful regulations as to the conduct of magistrates (ib. i. 211).
Vane signalised the first week of his government by effecting an agreement with the masters of the ships in harbour for the better government of sailors on shore (ib. i. 222, 263; Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts, ed. 1765, i. 53). The outbreak of war with the Pequot Indians and the danger of war with the Narragansetts were Vane's first difficulties, but by the help of Roger Williams a satisfactory treaty was concluded with Miantonomo, the Narragansett chief (Winthrop, p. 237). Less success attended Vane's intervention in the ecclesiastical politics of the colony. ‘Mr. Vane,’ says Winthrop, ‘a wise and godly gentleman, held with Mr. Cotton and many others the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in a believer, and went so far beyond the rest as to maintain a personal union with the Holy Ghost.’ Questions about ‘sanctification’ and ‘justification,’ of the difference between ‘a covenant of works’ and ‘a covenant of grace,’ the doctrine of Anne Hutchinson and the preaching of John Wheelwright, roused a storm which divided Massachusetts into two hostile factions, of which Vane's was the smaller and less influential. Vane, who had received letters recalling him to England, asked the general court for leave to depart (December 1636), and when pressed to stay ‘brake forth into tears, and professed that howsoever the causes propounded for his departure were such as did concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he would rather have hazarded all than have gone from them at this time if something else had not pressed him more—viz. the inevitable danger he saw of God's judgments to come upon us for these differences and dissensions which he saw amongst us, and the scandalous imputations brought upon himself, as if he should be the cause of all; and therefore he thought it best for him to give place for a time.’ The court refused to accept these reasons for his resignation, but finally gave consent to his going on account of his private affairs. But a deputation from the church at Boston urged Vane to stay, and, professing himself ‘an obedient child of the church,’ he withdrew his resignation (Winthrop, i. 247).
This undignified scene, whether a simple exhibition of weakness or a comedy played to procure a vote of confidence, naturally damaged the governor's position. A few days later, Vane having expressed some dissatisfaction about a conference of ministers which had taken place without his privity, Hugh Peters publicly rebuked him. He told Vane that ‘it sadded the ministers' spirits that he should be jealous of their meetings or seek to restrain their liberty,’ adding that before he came to Massachusetts the churches were at peace, and finally besought him ‘humbly to consider his youth and short experience of the things of God, and to beware of peremptory conclusions which he perceived him to be very apt unto’ (ib. i. 249). A little later the court, in spite of Vane's strenuous opposition, condemned a sermon by his friend Wheelwright as seditious. Twice also in meetings over which he presided he refused to put questions to the vote, and was obliged to see them put and carried by the opposition leaders. At the election of magistrates in March 1637 Vane and his supporters were all left out after a long and excited struggle (ib. i. 257–8, 260–2). Boston, however, still
