The assumption that the press is a powerful force in shaping public opinion has been around for centuries. In 1529, fifty years after the printing press had been introduced to England, King Henry VIII seized control of the printing industry. Licensed printers held their patents only if what they printed please him. In the mid 1600s, the Puritan establishment in Massachusetts Bay Colony maintained strict control over printing because they feared that a free press might threaten the government and promote religious heresies. In 1722, the founder and editor of a Boston newspaper, the New England Courant, was jailed for three weeks because of his attacks on the government. Years later, the press was thought to have been a powerful force in creating revolutionary fervor in the United States, in providing passion and visibility to the abolitionist movement, and in provoking Congress to go to war with Spain.