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[[File:Col-mass.jpg|thumb|300px|Harvard College was founded in 1636 making Boston the intellectual center of New England]]  

[[File:Col-mass.jpg|thumb|300px|Harvard College was founded in 1636 making Boston the intellectual center of New England]]  

When president Henry Dunster abandoned Puritanism in favor of the Baptist faith in 1653, he provoked a controversy that highlighted two distinct approaches to dealing with dissent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The colony's Puritan leaders, whose own religion was born of dissent from mainstream Church of England, generally worked for reconciliation with members who questioned matters of Puritan theology but responded much more harshly to outright rejection of Puritanism. Dunster's conflict with the colony's magistrates began when he failed to have his infant son baptized, believing, as a newly converted Baptist, that only adults should be baptized. Efforts to restore Dunster to Puritan orthodoxy failed, and his apostasy proved untenable to colony leaders who had entrusted him, in his job as Harvard's president, to uphold the colony's religious mission. Thus, he represented a threat to the stability of society. Dunster exiled himself in 1654 and moved to nearby Plymouth Colony, where he died in 1658.<ref> Timothy L. Wood, "'I Spake the Truth in the Feare of God': the Puritan Management of Dissent During the Henry Dunster Controversy," ''Historical Journal of Massachusetts'' 2005 33(1): 1-19, </ref>

When the college's first president Henry Dunster abandoned Puritanism in favor of the [[Baptist]] faith in 1653, he provoked a controversy that highlighted two distinct approaches to dealing with dissent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The colony's Puritan leaders, whose own religion was born of dissent from mainstream Church of England, generally worked for reconciliation with members who questioned matters of Puritan theology but responded much more harshly to outright rejection of Puritanism. Dunster's conflict with the colony's magistrates began when he failed to have his infant son baptized, believing, as a newly converted Baptist, that only adults should be baptized. Efforts to restore Dunster to Puritan orthodoxy failed, and his apostasy proved untenable to colony leaders who had entrusted him, in his job as Harvard's president, to uphold the colony's religious mission. Thus, he represented a threat to the stability of society. Dunster exiled himself in 1654 and moved to nearby Plymouth Colony, where he died in 1658.<ref> Timothy L. Wood, "'I Spake the Truth in the Feare of God': the Puritan Management of Dissent During the Henry Dunster Controversy," ''Historical Journal of Massachusetts'' 2005 33(1): 1-19, </ref>

Seven  alumni were killed in the [[American Revolution]]. [[Loyalists]] were outnumbered seven to one by patriots among the graduates of Harvard and, at the conclusion of the war, found themselves outside of both American and British society, especially lacking business contacts. Patriots, however, were much more mixed in their later careers, with some going on to wealth and others receding into obscurity. [[John Adams]] became the second president of the United States.<ref> Jack P. Greene, "Harvard Men in a Changing World," ''Massachusetts Historical Review'' 2007 9: 166-176, </ref>

Seven  alumni were killed in the [[American Revolution]]. [[Loyalists]] were outnumbered seven to one by patriots among the graduates of Harvard and, at the conclusion of the war, found themselves outside of both American and British society, especially lacking business contacts. Patriots, however, were much more mixed in their later careers, with some going on to wealth and others receding into obscurity. [[John Adams]] became the second president of the United States.<ref> Jack P. Greene, "Harvard Men in a Changing World," ''Massachusetts Historical Review'' 2007 9: 166-176, </ref>

===19th century===

===19th century===

The takeover of Harvard by the [[Unitarians]] in 1805 resulted in the secularization of the American college. By 1850 Harvard was the "Unitarian Vatican."  The "liberals" (Unitarians) allied themselves with [[Federalist Party|high Federalists]] and began to create a set of private societies and institutions meant to shore up their cultural and political authority, a movement that prefigured the emergence of the Boston Brahmin class. On the other hand, the theological conservatives used print media to argue for the maintenance of open debate and democratic governance through a diverse public sphere, seeing the liberals' movement as an attempt to create a cultural oligarchy in opposition to Congregationalist tradition and republican political principles.<ref>Neil Brody Miller, "'Proper Subjects for Public Inquiry': the First Unitarian Controversy and the Transformation of Federalist Print Culture," ''Early American Literature'' 2008 43(1): 101-135; [http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0100_Christianity_in_U.S..html A Brief History of Christian Influence in U.S. Colleges]</ref>  

The takeover of Harvard by the [[Unitarians]] in 1805 resulted in the secularization of the American college. By 1850 Harvard was the "Unitarian Vatican."  The "liberals" (Unitarians) allied themselves with [[Federalist Party|high Federalists]] and began to create a set of private societies and institutions meant to shore up their cultural and political authority, a movement that prefigured the emergence of the Boston Brahmin class. On the other hand, the theological conservatives used print media to argue for the maintenance of open debate and democratic governance through a diverse public sphere, seeing the liberals' movement as an attempt to create a cultural oligarchy in opposition to Congregationalist tradition and republican political principles.<ref>Neil Brody Miller, "'Proper Subjects for Public Inquiry': the First Unitarian Controversy and the Transformation of Federalist Print Culture," ''Early American Literature'' 2008 43(1): 101-135; [http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0100_Christianity_in_U.S..html A Brief History of Christian Influence in U.S. Colleges]</ref>