Roger Williams

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Roger Williams Anne HutchinsonRocking the
Boat

• Presentation created by Robert Martinez
• Primary Content Source The American Nation by
  Carnes and Garraty
• Images as cited.

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Most of the Massachusetts Bay Colonys early
troublemakers came not from those of doubtful
spiritual condition but from its certified saints.
brycesharpers.blogspot.com
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The godly and zealous Roger Williams was a
prime example. The Pilgrim leader William
Bradford described Williams as possessed of many
precious parts, but very unsettled in judgment.
www.newton.k12.ks.us
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Even by Plymouths standards Williams was an
extremist separatist. He was ready to bring down
the wrath of Charles I on New England rather than
accept the charters signed by him or his father,
even if these documents provided the only legal
basis for the governments of Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay.
www.historyonthenet.com
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Williams had arrived in Massachusetts in 1631.
Following a short stay in Plymouth, he joined the
church in Salem, which elected him minister in
1635.
lacunajournal.blogspot.com
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Well before then, however, his opposition to the
alliance of church and civil government turned
both ministers and magistrates against him. Part
of his contrariness stemmed from his religious
libertarianism. Magistrates should have no voice
in spiritual matters, he insisted forced
religion stinks in Gods nostrils.
kids.britannica.com
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Williams also offended property owners (which
meant nearly everyone) by advancing the radical
idea that it was a Nationale sinne for anyone,
including the king, to take possession of any
American land without buying it from the Indians.
ushistoryimages.com
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As long as Williams enjoyed the support of his
Salem church, there was little the magistrates
could do to silence him. But his refusal to heed
those who counseled moderation all truths are
not seasonable at all times, Governor Winthrop
reminded him swiftly eroded that support.
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In the fall of 1635, economic pressure put on the
town of Salem by the General Court turned his
congregation against him. The General Court then
ordered him to leave the colony within six weeks.
legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu
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Williams departed Massachusetts in January 1636,
traveling south to the head of Narragansett Bay.
There he worked out mutually acceptable
arrangements with the local Indians and founded
the town of Providence.
www.east-buc.k12.ia.us
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In 1644, after obtaining a charter in England
from Parliament, he established the colony of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The
government was relatively democratic, all
religions were tolerated, and church and state
were rigidly separated.
first-thoughts.org
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Anne Hutchinson, who arrived in Boston in 1631,
was another visible saint who, in the judgment
of the puritan establishment, went too far.
Hutchinson was not to be taken lightly.
liturgyandmusic.wordpress
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Duties as a midwife brought her into the homes of
other Boston women, with whom she discussed and
more than occasionally criticized the sermons of
their minister, John Wilson.
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The issue in dispute was whether Gods saints
could be confident of having truly received His
gift of eternal life. Wilson and most of the
ministers of the colony thought not. Gods saints
should ceaselessly monitor their thoughts and
behavior.
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But Hutchinson thought this emphasis on behavior
was similar to the Catholic belief that an
individuals good deeds and penitence could bring
Gods salvation. Ministers should not demean God,
Hutchinson declared, by suggesting that He would
be impressed by human actions.
www.she-died-twice.co.uk
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She insisted that Gods saints knew who they
were those presumed saints who had doubts on
the matter were likely destined for eternal hell
instead.
www.museyon.com
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Hutchinson suggested that those possessed of
Gods grace were exempt from the rules of good
behavior and even from the laws of the
commonwealth. As her detractors pointed out, this
was the conclusion some of the early German
Protestants had reached, for which they were
judged guilty of the heresy of antinomianism
(against the law) and burned at the stake.
equalvisibilityeverywhere
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In 1636, the General Court charged Hutchinson
with defaming the clergy and brought her to
trial. When her accusers quoted the Bible (Honor
thy father and thy mother) to make their case,
she coolly announced that even the Ten
Commandments must yield to ones own insights if
these were directly inspired by God.
pics3.imagezone.org
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When pressed for details, she acknowledged that
she was a regular recipient of divine insights,
communicated, as they were to Abraham, by the
voice of His own spirit in my soul. The General
Court, on hearing this claim, banished her.
pinterest.com
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Hutchinson, together with her large family and a
group of supporters, left Massachusetts in the
spring of 1637 for Rhode Island, thereby adding
to the reputation of that colony as the sink of
New England.
stsarahs.blogspot.com
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After her husband died in 1642, she and six of
her children moved to the Dutch colony of New
Netherland, where, the following year, she and
all but her youngest daughter were killed by
Indians.
pics3.imagezone.org
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The banishment of dissenters like Roger Williams
and Anne Hutchinson did not endear the
Massachusetts puritans to posterity. In both
cases outspoken individualists seem to have been
done in by frightened politicians and
self-serving ministers.
www.awesomestories.com
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Yet Williams and Hutchinson posed genuine threats
to the puritan community. Massachusetts was truly
a social experiment. Could it accommodate such
uncooperative spirits and remain intact? When
forced to choose between the peace of the
commonwealth and sending dissenters packing,
Winthrop, the magistrates, and the ministers did
not hesitate.
paradoxmind.com