The work of the church in Boston has fruitified abundantly under the administration of Archbishop Williams; the Catholic population has grown and new churches have arisen to accommodate the growth.

punishing with the rod of district severity

Christ […] did not only give me the book, but power to comprehend it; […] and, withal, foreadmonished me, that the matter comprised therein, howsoever it should be very sweet and pleasant to me in the knowledge thereof, yet, in regard of the trouble and opposition which will follow upon the publishing thereof and conveying of it forth to the use of others, it should be found very bitter and unpleasing.

a light, vain person; a light mind