Assistants, a secretary and a constable were chosen as the civil officers; annual elections and an annual session of the General Court in the last week of October were agreed upon; English statute and common law were expressly excluded; and the "worde of God was adopted as the onely rule to be attended unto in ordering the affayres of government in this plantation."
Indeed, he disavows any such claim by stating expressly, in his dedication to the king, " I have with a cleare conscience purely & faythfully translated this out of fyue sundry interpreters, hauyng onely the manyfest trueth of the scripture before myne eyes," and in the Prologue he refers to his indebtedness to " The Douche (German) interpreters: whom (because of theyr synguler gyftes and speciall diligence in The Bible) I haue ben the more glad to folowe for the most parte, accordynge as I was requyred."
