YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AS TO ROGER WILLIAMS. 'Banishment' from the Massachusetts Plantation; WITIf A FEW FURTHER WORDS COHCEKHmG THE BAPTISTS, THE QUAKERS, AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: BY HENRY MARTYN DEXTER, D.D, •U Member of tJie Massachusetts Historical Society, iJie A ntericait A ntiguarian Society, aiid ihe Ne^v England Historic-Genealogical Society; Corresponding Member of the Long Idanti Historical Society; Editor of TwL Congregationalist ; Author of ^ Cojtgregationalistn t jy hence it ts, Wliai it is," etc.; " T/k Church Polity of the Pilgrims, tJie Pol^y of the New Testament;"" '¦''Pilgrim Memor avida^^ etc.; and Editor of WiggirCs A finotaied Exact Reprint of^Mour^x Relation^' ''Chnrcffs PhUifs War^ and Eastern E xpeditiofts^ etc. Udija^ov fiev ^(f^y &»ov(rov 3i, BOSTON : CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 1876. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, By H. M. DiXTER, , In the Office o£ the Librarian of Congress at Washington 3^1 ^1 ELECTROTYPED BV THOMAS TODD, CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, BOSTON. FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, 117 FRANKLIN STREET, BOSTON. TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT C. WINTHROP, LL.D., President of the Massackusetts Historical Society. My Dear Sir: For a contemporary record of the greater portion of the events which Ulustrate ihe relation of Roger Williams to the Massachusetts men, posterity is indebted to the diligent and candid pen of your noble and illustrious ancestor, "ye Governour." TJiis circumstance suggested the desire — which ¦ the sense of your eminent worthiness of such a lineage, and a large experience, these many years, of your marked personal kindness, have confirmed — to be permitted thus to associate your Name with this endeavor to throw additional light upon the life and character of the renowned, but unpretending. Founders of the Colony of the Bay. I have the honor to be, With great and grateful regard. Faithfully yours, HENRY M. DEXTER. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. A FEW excellent — if not erudite — people last winter petitioned our General Court to revoke " the sentence of banishment against Roger Williams," which was decreed in 1635. They urged such action, in the interest of "historical justice," on the ground that that decree was in the nature of punishment for the " offence " of his advocacy of " per fect religious liberty." I have sought to take advantage of any possible public interest grow ing out of this remarkable procedure, to invite the intelligent, thinking and candid portion of the community, to re-examine the whole subject of the relation of the Massachusetts people of the seventeenth century to the case of the distinguished person whose memory this petition aimed to vindicate ; and, later, to the case of the Baptists and Quakers, as well. I have been the more anxious to do this, because the limited acquaintance of some of our earliest historians with the facts — to say nothing of any misconceptions, or prejudices, which made it easier for them to see things in one light than in another — has introduced much erroneous conception, and consequent honest misrepresentation, to the pages of many modern histories having wide circulation, and giving tone to the public mind, but which have been written by scholars quite too content to take such writers as Hubbard, Backus and Bentley for their warrant, without the pains to go behind them to those underlying registers, treatises and documents, which are, in reality, the only "orig inal" authorities. The task — a very humble, if an arduous one — which I set for myseK, was to go carefully through all accessible records, books and papers, which from their date, intent, or authorship, offer any coeval [vi] contribution of fact to the illustration of the subject in hand ; and then collate and arrange the results. I cannot aver that my research has been exhaustive ; only that I have sought to make it such. I cannot claim that I have succeeded perfectly, and without any coloring from prejudgment, in classifying and harmonizing the fruits of that research; only that I have conscientiously endeavored to do so. I cannot hope that, as the result of the new view which, in this contemporaneous light, is put upon many passages in the history, the world will be convicted of a great wrong hitherto largely done to the memory of the Puritans of Massachusetts ; but I must be allowed to think that any historian who shall go on to reproduce the former slanders in the face of the demon stration of their true character herein offered, must — unless he refute it — fairly be condemned as paying better fealty to indolence, or preju dice, than to the truth. For greater clearness, all dates of importance — as will be seen — have been given in both Old Style and New. I have only to add that, as I have intended to make no statement, however comparatively unimportant, which does not rest upon valid evi dence, and as I have desired in all cases to guide others to the sources of knowledge whi6h I have found for myself; I have no apology to make for the notes with which, otherwise, so small a treatise might seem to be overburdened. H. M. D. Greystones, New Bedford, zj Jan. 1876. THE general subject of the character of Roger Williams, and of his relation to the early colonists of New England, has been called up to public atten tion afresh by a petition from sundry residents in the town of Sturbridge, Mass., addressed to the Massachusetts Legislature of 1874-5, asking them to revoke the order of banishment before which, in the winter of 1635-6, he retreated into what is now known as Rhode Island. It is not important here to refer to the various inaccuracies of statement found in that petition itself, or to discuss either the legal question how far the General Court of the Commonwealth, in these years of Grace, has power to annul action taken by the Court of the Col ony two hundred and forty years ago ; or the moral question, how much such action, if taken, could do in the way of securing any needed " justice " toward the remarkable man to whom reference is made, or to his memory. It does seem to be suitable, however, to avail of the occasion for making a clear, authentic and complete statement of the facts, as they actually occurred ; to the end that slanders oft-repeated may be seen in their true character, and "justice" be done to a// the noble memories involved. It is astonishing how much the inherent difSculty of thoroughly comprehend ing a man who lived two or three hundred years ago is increased, if he were a somewhat pivotal and distinguished person ; and, more especially, if he have been subsequently taken up and glorified, as their pet hero, by any large and enthusiastic body of believers. This seems to be particularly true of Roger Williams. The materials for his exact history are exceptionally abundant Of few who shared with him the labors, and excitements, and controversies, of the first half-century of New England, will the close student discover so many and so amply revealing testimonies ; from his own hand in letters and treatises, and from the hands of friends and enemies in letters, records, and anti-treatises. He, of all men, ought, by this time, to be as accurately as widely known. But the denomination of Christians known as Baptists, having canonized him — although never such a Baptist as they are, and for but a very short period of time a Baptist at all — have manifested great reluctance to give due considera tion to a large portion of the evidence bearing upon the case ; and seem to prefer, without regard to facts making fatally against their position, to re-utter the old encomiums and denunciations ; as if an inadequate statement could, by persistent reiteration, be made a whole truth. [2] It has thus become a common representation of the case, that it was the Church-and-State controversy, and Mr. Williams's superior liberality on that subject, which led to his banishment ; and it has even gone so far that leading journals^ of that denomination scout the very idea of any other view, as some thing which to all the rest of the world but Massachusetts is special pleading, tliat is, on the face of it, absurd. There is a very simple, albeit a laborious, way to settle this question. It is llie only way in which it ever can be settled. It is to go straight to the original sources, and candidly, and in detail, to exanaine them, and make up a judg ment upon them ; without regard to the rhetoric of superficial biographers, or prejudiced historians, or the misapprehensions of a later public sentiment by them misled. This it is proposed now to attempt. As is true of so many of those best known in connection with the settlement of New England, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fbc with absolute certainty the date, and place, of the birth of Roger Williams. All that can be positively /r^z'.?^ concerning his early life is that, when a youth, he attracted tlie favorable attention of Sir Edward Coke, and, on his influence, was elected a scholar of Sutton's Hospital (now the Charter House) 25 June-5 July, 1621 ]^ that he obtained an exhibition there 9-19 July, 1624;^ and that he was matric ulated a pensioner of Pembroke College, Cambridge, 7-17 July, 1625, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts there in January, 1626-7.* ^^ ^^ prohabk ^ The Exa miner and Chronicle of 7 Apri], 1 S73, bland ly reaffirms, without so much as an apology for the want of proof, the old notion that it was this controversy which led to the harsh action of the colony ; with amusing con ceit intimating that it is superfluous to thresh again the straw of this old controversy, because "all the world outside of Massachusetts [which happens to have in her archives the best material in the world for judgment; some of it in the shape of 'straw* that never yet was * threshed '] has long since made up its verdict." And the Watchman and Reflector of 15 April — replying to an article ia the Christian Register — says again: "the main ground of the action against Williams was his doctniie of soul-Ilberty, " It goes on: "Toleration was [by the Massachusetts men] decreed aa a fountain- head of heresy, even as original sin was the primal source of all sins. . . He proclaimed truth against the [this] mighty error of our fathers. That his views, if he had been let alone, would have wrecked the colony, is absurd. They would have saved it from a long dark night in its history, and made it the brightest spot on earth." It surely cannot be an error to assume that, so far as it takes representation in the columns of two of its principal journals, the historical scholarship of the Bap tist deftiomlnation now stands pledged to this proposition: that Roger Williams was banished by the Massacliusetts Colony specifically for asserting the doctrine of "soul- liberty," and for, advocating universal toleration in re- ligioo. 2 Sadleir MSS. in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. ^ Records of Cliarter House. Elton's Life of Roger jyHliams, 10, 100. * Arnold, in his, for the most part, excellent .^wif^wy ^ Rhode Island, [i : 47-50] discusses tlus subject with care and candor. He gives full weight to Prof. Elton's ex araination of the matter, and to all the evidence adduced by him in proof that Rodericus Williams, who entered at Jesus College, Oxford, from Conwyl Cayo in Wales, was our Roger ; but is compelled — by various consider ations — to decide that the weight of probability strongly favors tlie conclusion that Rogerus Williams, whose name appears upon the * * subscription book ' ' of Pem broke College, Cambridge, under date of 1626, was tlie man. There would seem to be no reasonable doubt that he Is right [3] that he was a native of Wales ;^ that he was born between 1599 and 1603;® that he had the inestimable advantage of pious parentage / and that he was beneficed in Lincolnshire,^ or its neighborhood, before coming to New England, and became a Nonconformist there. There is a story, which seems to rest purely upon tradition, that he studied law for a time after leaving the university.* As to the steps along which the mind of Mr. Williams was led in his pro gress through Nonconformity to the principles of rigid Separation, we are not informed 3 but tliere is evidence of a severe mental struggle on his part.'^** When fully persuaded in his own mind, he embarked from Bristol with his wife Mary in the ship Lyon, Captain Pierce master, i-ti Dec. 1630, and after a tedious and tempestuous voyage of sixty-six days, arrived off Nantasket 5-15 February following. Winthrop notes his arrival as that of " a godly minister." ^^ Two facts may wisely be remembered at this point, before entering upon the minute details of the transactions of the next five years. In the first place, Roger Williams was still very young. According to Prof. Elton, he would be scarcely more than twenty-five 3 by the chronology which seems more prob able, he would not be over thirty-one, if more than twenty-eight. In the second ^ AU traditions agree as to this, and the family name there abounds. ** Benedict [History of tJu Baptists, i: 473,] quotes the records of the First Baptist Church in Providence as fixing his birth in 159S. But of couree tliis is not a co- temporary record, and Knowles [Memoir of Roger Wil- lia?nSf 23] thinks 1599 the true year; as also do Gam- mell [Life of Roger IVaiiams, 6] and Guild [Pub. Narragansett Club, i: 5]. Prof. Elton [Life of Roger Williams, 8, 9,] cites an entry of the admission of ".^o^^rinti' Williams, filius Gulielmi W. de Conwelgaio, Pleb. an. nat. iS," at Jesus College, Oxford, 30 April, 1624, in proof tliat Roger Williams was bora in 1606 at Conwyl Cayo, in Carmarthen, South Wales. But that would be Roderic and not Roger ; while Arnold seems to have proved that Roger studied at Cambridge and not Oxford — leading to the conclusion that Prof. Elton's "Rodericus'* must have been another man, Williams hiraself has made three contributions to^vard the settle ment of this date. In a document of 21 July, 1679, lBackus*s Hist. N. E. i: 421] he speaks of himself as ** being now near to four-score years of age ; " in his ad dress to the people called Quakers [ Geo. Fox Digged out of His Burrowes, etc. vi :] dated ro Mar. 1672-3, he says, "from my childhood, now above three-score years;" and in a letter to Jno. Winthrop, about 1632, [4 Mass. Hist. Coll. vi: 185,] he speaks of himself as "neerer vpwards of 30 then 25." The first would well suit either 1598 or 1599; the second might fit those years, but would, better accord with a later birth-date; while the third, if construed literally (as not meaning that he was over 30, but was nearer that than 25) would make him then about 2S ; which would fix his birth not far from, 1603. "* Geo. Fox Digged, etc., vi. 8 Hubbard [Gen. Hist. New-Englattd, ro6] says '*in Essex, where he lived." But Williams himself incident ally alludes [Bloudy Tenent yet more Blojidy^ etc. 12,] to a ride with Cotton and Hooker, "to, and from, Sera- pringham." Cotton was at Boston, and Boston and Sempringham are in Lincolnshire. °Bef£edict,i: 474. " "Truly it was as bitter as death to me when Bishop Laud pursued me out of this land, and my conscience was persuaded against the national church, and ceremo nies, and bishops, beyond the conscience of your dear father [Sir'Edward Coke.] I say it was as bitter as death to me, when I rode Windsor way, to take ship at Bristow [Bristol] and saw Stoke House [Stoke Pogis, Bucking* havtshire\, where the blessed man was ; and I then durst not acquaint hira with my conscience, and my flight" [Letter to Mrs. Sadleir. Sadleir MSS. Eltojt, 89.] *'HG[God] knows what gains and preferments I have refused in universities, city, country, and court, in Old England, and something in New England, &c., to keep my soul undefiled in this point, and not to act with a doubting conscience, etc." [Letter to Rev. fohjt Cot ton^ yr., 25 March, 1671. Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soe. March, 185?, 316.] "Winthrop's Journed, i: 41- [4] place, while never the most sedate, deliberate and conservative of men, he was now also — if we are to take the most kindly-phrased testimony of good and candid men who knew him at the time, and had much general regard for him; men like. Elder William Brewster,^ and Govemor Bradford" — hasty to rashness, much given to extreme opinions, and very unsettled in the same. John Wilson, pastor of the Boston church, was now on the point of revisiting England for some domestic reasons — in fact, sailed in the Lyon on her retam voyage — and there is evidence that the church invited Mr. Williams to suf^ly his place during this absence ; and that he refused, on the ground of conscience, because they were "an unseparated people."" As Wilson left in less than sixty days after Williams landed, and as it is stated that when he did go he "ccMm- mended them to the exercise of prophecy in his absence, and designated those whom he thought most fit for it, viz. : the Govemor (Winthrop), Mr. Dudley, and Mr. Nowell the elder j"*^ it follows that the invitation given to Mr. Wil liams, with the reply made by him, must have taken place almost immediately after his arrival. It would seem to follow very naturally, also, that such a cnrt, off-hand, condemnation of this important church, and of the ablest and best men of the colony who were members of it, as he appears to have connected ¦with his refusal, could hardly have failed to excite a feeling of prejudice against its utterer, mingled with solicitude lest the infant settlement might be in danger of trouble from him ; nor would tliis feeling take much abatement from the consideration that it was a stripling stranger of scarcely a score and a half of years, who was thus assuming to sit in judgment upon his elders.'^ This may well prepare us for the next intimation, on the 12-22 April follow ing, to the effect that the Court, hearing that the church at Salem had invited Mr. Williams to be their teacher, caused a letter to be written to Mr. Endecott to say that they hoped the Salem people would act cautiously, and not proceed in this matter without due advisement; inasmuch as Mr. Williams had refused to fellowship the Boston church because it was not ready to proceed to the extreme of separation ; and because he had broached novel opinions, " that the magistrate might not punish the breach of the Sabbath, nor any otiier offence. "Morton's Ne-w-Enj^IaTtds MemoriaU, (first edi tion), 73. " Bradford's History of Flimofh Plantaiion, 3 10. " This rests wholly upon Mr. Williams's cwn testi mony, no reference being made to it, so far as is known, in any record, by any other writer.' In his letter to John Cottoti, Jr., already cited, in 1671, he says : ** being unanimously chosen teacher at Boston (before your dear father came, divers years) I conscientiously refused, and withdrew to Plymouth, because I durst not oSiciate to an unseparated people, as, upon esaminatioa and con ference, I found them to be." iProcecrlixxs. etc., 316.] The only time when all this could have been tme would seem to have been during the month immedaately fol lowing his arrival in the country. Pxubably there was no formal call, and so no record. ^Winthrop's jfoHmat, i: 50. '» Wilson must then have been about 43 ; Winthrop^ 44 i Pynchon, 42 ; Endecott, 41 ; Dudley, 55, and Elder Nowell perhaps sometUng older than dther. [5] as it was a breach of the first table."" The biographers of Mr. Williams have stigmatized the Court for this interference, and one most respectable writer has branded it as "persecution," as contrasted with "calm expostulation."'* Calm expostulation, however, is precisely what it appears to have been. It has been assumed that here was a formal edict of the supreme tribunal, having all the force of law, interposing to come between the church of Salem and their chosen teacher. The fact seems to be, however, that there was no formal action whatever by the Governor and Council ; certainly no evidence of any appears on the records. Our only knowledge of the circumstance is due to a minute in the private journal of the Govemor; who speaks of it, not as a thing officially done, but in such a manner as would quite accord vnth an unofficijd and expostulatory " letter written to Mr. Endecott," by the six gentlemen present, (Winthrop, Dudley, Ludlow, Nowell, Pynchon and Bradstreet,) in the friendly aim to forewarn their Salem friends against possible danger from some peculiarities of their proposed teacher, with which tliey might not have become as yet fully acquainted. It is not absolutely certain whether the Salem church ordained Mr. Williams at this time, or not. Knowles,'" Gammell^" and Elton,^ apparendy relying upon Dr. Bentley,'^ say that he was settled over them on the 12-22 April — the very day on which the letter above-named was ^vritte^. On the other hand, Hub bard — who wrote within fifty years of the event, and had important facilities for getting at the facts which are not now at hand — says that the church, "for the present, forbore proceeding with him^"; whUe Mr. Felt, whose patient accuracy is seldom at fault in such matters, says tlie " interference prevented the ordination of Mr. Williams, and he went to labor at Plymouth-*' ^ It is cer tain- that he was in Plymouth in 1631, probably before the autumn,^ where he taught as an assistant to the Rev. Ralph Smith. Here Winthrop and Wilson ^' Winthrop's yoitrnal, i ; 52. '5 Dr. Bentley, Description 0/ Salem, ti Mass. Hist. CoU. vi : 246. ] ^^ Mejnoir, 49. ^''Lf^, 19. ^^Life, IS- ^Description, etc., 246. 23 Geiieral History of New-England. [2 Mass. Hist. jCoU. v: 203.] Gov. Hutchinson, who acknowledges his special indebtedness to Hubbard's MSS., but who had many other original sources of knowledge, says: "The Govemor and Council interposed with their advice, and prevented his settleraent at that time." [Hist. Mass. i; 40] ^ A nnais of Salem, ii : 569 ; see also his Ecclesiasti~ cal History of Ne-zv England [i : 149! where he says of the letter to Endecott: **the communication suspends the ordination of WUliams.'* Baylies [Memoir of Plymouth Colony, i : 266] represents Williams as leav ing Salem in consequence of differing with Skeltoa ; but gives no authority for the statement. 23 Gammell [Ltfey zi} says, "probably in the month of August, 1631." Bentley C24'i] says, "before the dose of summer." Hubbard [204] says Williams returned to Salem just before Skelton died, in August, 1634, while Morton [New'Eng. Mem. 78] says he had "Uved about tJiree years at Plimouth,"* which, if Hubbard were right, would reader necessary the inference that Williams had gone to Plymouth, aboat the time named by Mr. Gam;- melL [6] found him on their visit to the Pilgrim Colony in the latter part of October of the next year. And it will give us some hint of the manner of those times if we pause long enough to glance at the Massachusetts Governor's account of their public worship.^ On the Lord's Day there was a sacrament, which they did partake in ; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Rcer Williams (according to their custom) propounded a question, to which the pastor, Mr. Smith, spake briefly; then Mr. WiUiams prophesied; and after the governour of Plymouth [Bradford] spake to the question ; after him the elder [Brewster] ; then some two or three more of the congregation. Then the elder desired the governour of Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of their duty of contribution ; whereupon the governour aud all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the box, and then returned. A little incident seems to have occurred in connection with this visit (whether it had to do with the question propounded above, or not, is not certain) which will well illustrate on what painfully petty matters Mr. Williams's conscience was at this time laboring. Cotton Mather relates it, thus : -'' There were at this time in Plymouth two Ministers [Smith and Williams], leavened so far " with the Humours of the Rigid Separation, that they insisted vehemently upon the Unlawfulness of calling any unregetierate man by the Name of Goodman Such an One ; until, by their indiscreet urging of this Whimsey, the place began to be disquieted. The wiser people being troubled at these trifles, they took the opportunity of Governour Winthrop's being there, to have the thing publicldy propounded in the Congregation ; who in answer thereunto, distinguished between a Theological 3.r\.A a Moral Goodness ; adding that when Juries were first used in England, it was usual for the Crier, after the Names of Persons fit for that Service were called over, to bid them all: Attend, Good Men and true ; whence it grew to be a Civil Custom in the English Nation, for Neighbours living by one another, to call-ope^inother Goodman Such an One: and it was pity now to make a stir about a Civil Custom, so innocently introduced. ¦ And tliat Speech of Mr. Winthrop's put a lasting stop to the Little, Idle, Whimsical Conceits, then beginning to grow Obstreperous. During this residence in the Old Colony he seems to have entered upon a vigorous endeavor to familiarize himself with the aboriginal language and habits, and to gain some foundation for religious influence over the Indians; the result of which was seen in his Key Into The Language of America, etc., which was published in 1643 ; and the good effects of which colored all his Rhode Island life.^ He appears to have supported himself largely, if not ** Winthrop's yournal, i : gi. ^ MagTtalia, ii : 13. "*' My soul's desire ^va3 to do the natives good, and to that end to have their languase." \.A7tswer to IV. Harris, etc., cited by Arnold, Hist. R. I.'w 97]. So he aays again : "And as to these Barbarians, the Holy God knows some pains I tool: uprightly in the Alain Land and Islands of New England to dig into their Barbarous, Rockie Speech, and to speak something of God unto their souls, etc." \.Geo. Fox Digged out of His Bur rowes, etc., Apendix, 93]. So he says he had " a constant zealous desire to dive into tlie natives' language. God [7] mainly, by manual labor while there — as, in those days of poverty, was the common lot at Plymouth.^ Although not engaged in trade as a business, he appears to have traded somewhat also, to help himself withal;"^ His oldest child, Mary, is reputed to have been born during this residence among the Pilgrims.^^ Not finding at Plymouth such a concurrence as he expected in " divers of his own singular opinions" which he "sought to impose upon others " there ; before the close of 1633,^ Williams was back at Salem — practically assisting Mr. Skel ton, "by way of prophecy," though "not in any office."^ It will aid us toward the further comprehension of his character and life, if we pause here to consider the impressions which had been made by him upon the good men of Plymouth church during this residence; and especially upon persons of so sweet a charity, yet so sterling a discretion, as the two leading minds of that colony, Govemor Bradford, and Elder Brewster. Bradford says:^ Mr. Roger Williams (a man godly and zealous, having many precious parts, but very unset tled in judgmente) came over first to ye Massachusetts, but upon some discontente left yt was pleased to give me a a painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy smoky holes (even while I lived at Plymouth and Salem) to gain their tongue. . . I was known by all the Wampanoags and the Narragan setts to be a public speaker at Plymouth and Salem, and therefore, with them, held as a sachem." [Letter cited in Knowles^s Memoir^ io3, 109.] So speaking, in 1661, of Ousamaquin[Massasoit] Mr. Williams said: "he and I had been great friends at Plymouth." [Paper of R.W. Backus's jy«jf. iV. Eng. i: 73]. ^ " It is not unkno\\-n to raany witnesses in Plymouth, etc, tliat the discusser's [/. e., R. AV.'s] time hath not been spent (though as much as any others whosoever) altogether iu spiritual labours and pubUke exercise of the word; but, day and night, at home and abroad, on the land and water, at the How [hoe], at the Oare, for bread, etc." [T/ie Bloudy Tenent yet more Bloudy, 38.] He afterwards speaks of "labours day and night in my field, etc," at Salem. [Mr. Cotton^ s Letter Examined, etc. 13.] 3" Six or seven years after we find hira repeatedly %vrit- ing to Winthrop about *'his old and bad debtor, Mr. George Ludlow," [4 Mass. Hist. Coll. vi : 253, 256,] and this he elsewhere explains [Ibid z\z\ thus: **the debt was for mine owne and wiues better apparel put of to him at Plymmouth." Ludlow hiraself in a letter to Wil liams acknowledges further his indebtedness, for (i) a heifer ; (2) upwards of 80 lbs. of tobacco ; (3) some goats ; (4) an "house watch;" (5) another new gown of Mrs. Williams's, that cost between 40* and 50X. [5 Mass. Hist. Coll. \ : 230.] Such would seem to have been the custom of his life. In 1670, writing to Major Mason about his banishment, he names '*the yearly losse of no small matter in my trading with English and natives, being de barred from Boston, the chiefe mart and port of New England, etc; " as one of the injuries which it caused him. [i Mass. Hist. Coll. i: 27G.] " Backus's Hist. New Eng. \ : 57, 516, (who cites the Providence Records). 32 Winthrop [youmal'w 117] in November, 1633, re fers to his having returned from Plymouth to Salem. Mr. Cotton, who arrived at Boston 3-13 Sept. 1633, says Williams was "in the Bay not long before my coming." [Reply to Mr. IVilliams his Exam., etc., 4.] Backus puts his return in 1633 [1: 57.] Elton says, "in August, 1633," [19.] On the other hand. Cotton Mather says [Magnolia vii: 7] he was only two years at Plymouth; and Bentley [i Mass. Hist. CoU. vii: 247] without citing his authority, says he was back at Salem "before die close of 1632," and that his eldest child was bom there. Savage [Gen. Diet, iv: 56S] says he continued at Plym outh a "good part of two years." Morton [N. Eng. Metn. 78] who was himself there all the time — a young man perhaps twenty years of age — says he lived at Plymouth "about three years." The weight of evidence settles his being at Salem before the winter of 1633. 33 Morton's N. E. Mem. 78 ; Winthrop's yournaI,i: 117. ^History of Plim. Plant. 310L [8] place, and came hither, (wher he waa friendly entertained, according lo their poore abililie,) and exercised his gifts amongst them, and after some time was admitted a member of ye chnrch ; and his teaching well approoved, for ye benefite whereof I still blese God, and am thankful! to him, even for his sharpest admonitions and reproufs, so farr as they agreed with truth. lie this year [he is writing under date of 1633] begane to fall into some Strang oppinions, and from opinion to practise, which caused some controversie betweene ye church and him, and in ye end some discontente on his parte, by occasion whereof he left them some thing abruptly. Yet after wards sued for his dismission to ye church of Salem, which was granted, with some cau tion to them concerning him, and what care they, ought to have of him. But he soone fell into more things ther, both to their and ye goverments treble and disturbano'j. I shall not need to name perticulars, they are too well knowen now to all, though for a time ye church here wente under some hard censure by his occasion, from some that afterwards smarted them sel ves. But he is to be pited, and prayed for, and so I shall leave ye matter, and desire ye Lord to shew him his errors, and reduse him into ye way of truth, and give him a setled judgment and con- stancie in ye ssms ; for I hope he belongs to ye Lord, and y' he will shew him mercie. Elder Brewster's opinion of the eccentric young man, we gather from the record of it made by Nathaniel Morton, who says:^ In the year 1634,*" Mr. Roger Williams removed from Plimouth to Salem : he had lived about three years at Plimouth, where he was well accepted as an assistant in the Ministry to Mr. Ralph Smith, then Pastor of the Church there, but by degrees venting of divers of his own singular opinions, and seeking to impose them upon others, he not finding such a concurrence as he expected, he desired his dismission to the Church of Salem, which though some were unwilling to, yet through the prudent counsel of Mr. Brewster [the ruling elder there] fearing that his con tinuance amongst them might cause divisions, and there being then many able men in the Bay, they would better deal with him then themselves could, and foreseeing (what he professed he feared concerning Mr. Williams, which afterwards came to pass) that he would run the same course of rigid Separation and Anabaptistry, which Mr. John Smith the Sebaptist at Amster dam had done ; the Church of Plimouth consented to his dismission, and such as did adhere to him were also dismissed, and removed with him, or not long after him, to Salem. When Mr. Williams thus, in 1633, became an inhabitant of Salem, he appears to have been a resident of the country about two years and six months ; to have been scarcely more than thirty years of age ; and both to have deserved, and acquired, the reputation of being,— with all his sincerity of religious feel ing, and all his fidelity of godly endeavor — a rash and headstrong man ; lack ing much of that consideration for the opinion of older and presumably wiser 85 New-Englands Memoriall, 78. Mr. Cotton proves that this opinion was well known in New England, for in his Reply to Mr. WiUiams his Exam. etc. [4] pub lished in London in 1647 (twenty-two years before the first issue of the Memoriall 3.1 Cambridge), he says: " Before my coming into New England, the godly-wise, and vigi lant Ruling-Elder of Plymouth (aged Mr. Bniister) had warned the whole Churth of the danger of his [Roger Wil liams's] spirit, wliich moved the better part of the Church to be glad of his removall from them into the Bay." ^ See note 32 arite, for evidence that this should al most surely be 1633. [9] persons, which is ordinary and becoming on the part of youth;'' and with an eye so single toward whatever reform for the moment absorbed and centered the devotion of his soul, as to be unable to see in their just relations, if at all, considerations which were leading others, with as good a conscience, if not a broader exercise of reason, to different, and very likely opposite conclusions. Backus^ says he was invited back to Salem. But he cites no authority for the statement, and I have observed none outside of his pages. However this may have been, it appears from Winthrop'' that Mr. Williams soon began to act informally as an assistant to Mr. Skelton in his failing health ; and it is agreed on all hands that after the death of that gentleman, which took place 2-12 Aug., 1634,'" the church called him to be their pastor. We have now reached a stage in this review at which it is absolutely neces sary, if we desire anything like a full and just comprehension of the facts in their most important relations, that we should e.xamine that contemporary his tory in the father-land, which had so much to do in shaping our entire colonial life ; and without understanding which, it is impossible fairly to comprehend what took place on tliis side of the sea. On the 3—13 Nov., 1620, a patent of land" "in the Parts of America between the Degrees of thirty-ffoure and fEourt}''-five," -was granted by King James, on petition of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, to forty Associates ; under a title, which, in its reduced form, is usually kno^vn as " The Council for New England." The success of tliis body in the disposition of its territory proved so indifferent as to lead its members to various extraordinary endeavors to further its ends; among which was the distribution of its lands by lot among them.*^ Cape Ann and its vicinity thus fell to Edmund, Lord Sheffield. He sold it, by indenture dated i-ii Jan., 1623-4, to Robert Cushman, Edward Winslow, and their associates;*' who conveyed it later to John White of Dorchester, Eng., and a joint-stock company which he had formed, with the view of establishing a settlement, as a point of supplies and a temporary haven for fishermen.** This company of "Dorchester Adventurers" was afterwards enlarged''^ and a new charter solicited and obtained for it of Charles I. on 4-14 Mar., 1628-9, •^ His decided condemnation of the Boston Qiurch, off-l\and, almost immediately upon his landing, we have already seen (p. 4). We have also noted (p. 8), from Gov. Bradford's testimony, the evidence that Williams did not scruple at *' sharp admonitions" and '* reproofs" — some ot which, at least, were not thought always to •'agree with truth" — even of those who were in the highest office. Gov. Winthrop thought him guilty of ••presumption.*' \your7ial,\: 122.] "Hist. Hew-Eng. i : 56. ^'^ yournal, i: 117. ^Ibid,'\: 13S. *^'il2.zs.xdL^ Historical Collections, i: 103. *^T!\\ora\OT^ s JLanding at Cape Anne, etc., 13. t^/iid, 31. ** Smith's GeneraU Historic, etc., 247. *'• " Our whole company, wch are much inlarged sence yr. departure out of England." [Cradock's Letter to Endecott. Records of Gov. and Comp. 0/ Mass. i: 383.] [IO] confirming and enlarging its powers — under the name of "The Govemor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England ; " and it was under this instrument, thus obtained, tliat the affairs of the Coloiiy of the Bay were con ducted for five and fifty years — until, after long menace, in the autumn of 16S4, the writ of quo warranto of the second Charles put an end, for a little time, to the very existence of Massachusetts as a body politic. The reader will not fail to observe that this was, in the first instance, and essentially, a private trading corporation ; composed of Sir Henry Rosewdl, his twenty-five designated associates, and "such others as shall hereafter be admitted, and made free, of the Company and Society."*" "To the end^" however, " that the affaires and buyssinesses which, from tjmie to tyme, shall happen and arise concerning the said landes and the plantation of the same, maie be the better managed and ordered,"*'' the Company was made a "bodie politique," and empowered to choose officers and to make laws ; to administer " the oathes of supremacie and allegiance, or either of them, to all and everie person and persons which shall at any tyme, or tymes, hereafter goe or passe to the landes and premisses hereby mentioned to be graunted, to inhabite in the same ; " to punish crime, to repel force with force, and to expel and banish refractory and incompatible members. That is to say, some sort of public character, implying the power to institute a civil governmetit for the safe man agement of the affairs of the enterprise considered as a trading corporation, was also included in the charter ; being most clearly seen in the grant of the powers to pardon, and to make defensive war, without order from, or recourse to the crown.*' In all this, however, was but half a truth. The Separatists had long been harried out of England. But the growth of the feeling and conscience of dissent had been steady throughout the reign of that " learned fool " who had tried to fill Elizabeth's great throne ; and there were multitudes, who, weary of waiting for better times, disheartened by the shutting down of the gloom of absolute monarchy upon the land, and disgusted and distressed witli the profligacy of the court ; looked toward expatriation as offering a sure relief, and a possibly bright future. Plymouth had been settled by the Scrooby-Leyden e.xiles just long enough to attract special Puritan atten tion toward New England, and there were many Puritans scattered up and down tlie land, all of them intelligent and stout-hearted men, and some of them per- *! Charter, Mass. Col Rec. i: lo. "/lid,i: 9. "Iiid, i : 16. For a statement of the want of distinc tion then existing between public and private corpora tions, and a clear, able and conclusive judgment on the question of the real quality of this Charter, the exact na ture of the powers conferred by it, and the justice of col onial action under them, see the Lecture by Hon. Joel Parker, LL. D., on "The First Cliarter, and the Eariy Religious Legislation of Massachusetts," in LovieUIii' stiiuie Lectures, by Members of Vie Mass. Historical Society, 1869. pp. 357-439. ["] sons of social consideration and financial ability, who were but waiting their op portunity to emigrate thither. And it was after conference with such men, and with the view of furthering their desires and designs, that John White took the steps which he did for the legalization and endowment of this Massachusetts company. It became, therefore, a trading corporation with colonial intentions, dedicated to the high purposes of religion, and made use of for tiieir own relief by religious men, who had been aggrieved and oppressed under the hard and stupid policy of the reigning monarchs — for Charles had, now for four years, not only been making his father's bad matters worse, but had been adding new elements of discord, and introducing new expedients of oppression. It is not important in this connection to dwell upon the details of the pro visions of this Charter, further than to note : (i) that nothing whatever is said in it with reference to the subject of religious liberty (au omission which, under the circumstances, was taken as significant of the king's intent to pursue a liberal course on that subject) ;^ (2) that it conferred on the company the function of self-government, so far as their laws should not be repugnant to those of England ; (3) that it gave them the power to admit new associates on such terms as might seem good to them ; (4) and to administer the oaths ; (5) and, " for their speciall defence and safety, to incounter, expulse, repell, and resist by force of armes, aswell by sea as by lande, and by all fitting waies and meanes whatsoever, all such person and persons as shall at any tyme here after attempt or enterprise the destruccion, invasion, detriment, or annoyaunce to the said plantation or inhabitants."^ At first sight it is difficult to understand how Charles, consistently with his obvious feelings, and usual policy, could have signed a charter on the whole so liberal as this, and one so favorable to Puritan desires of emigration to New England. Dr. Palfrey, who was the first of our historians to develop fully the indispensableness of an accurate study of collateral events in England to any clear conception of the progress of affairs in the colonies, has acutely sug gested that the King had, in this act, a purpose " to encourage the departure of Puritans from England, at the time when he was entering upon measures which » might bring on a dangerous conflict with that party." ^ However this may *®There is plenty of evidence that private intimations were given of the intention of the govemment to allow the colonists to suit themselves in these matters. Win throp \Jaur7ud, i : 103] sets down the assurance which came to them (In the spring of 1633) frora the Privy Council, who had been pestered by Gardiner, and others ' to control the matter of religion, in these words: "his majesty did not intend to impose the ceremonies of the (^urch of England upon ns ; _/&r that it ivas considered, iltat it nras iJte J'reedxmiyrom such tilings that made people cojTce over to rw, etc?* ^Mass. CoL Rec. i: iS. ^ He adds to this, the following [.Hist. New Eng. i: 392] : **Tlie Charter of the Massachusetts Company had passed the seals almost simultaneously with the Kin^s annunciation, after an exciting controversy with three [12] have been, the foundations on which the Massachusetts colony afterwards reared itself, were laid, in accordance with the provisions of this patent, under circum stances decidedly more favorable than had been enjoyed by their weaker Plym outh brethren ten years before. Let me here repeat and emphasize, that it may be remembered by and by when it becomes essential to the fair interpretation of what was done to Roger Williams — that this "Dorchester Company," originally founded on the trans fer of a portion of the patent of Gorges, and afterwards enlarged and reauthor ized by the charter of Charles I. as the "Govemor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay," was in its beginning, in point of fact, neither more nor less than a private corporation chartered by the government for purposes of fishing, real-estate improvement and general commerce ; for which it was to pay the crown a fifth part of all precious metals which it might unearth.^ It was then more than this only in much the same sense as the egg new-laid is the full-grown fowl, or the acorn the oak. It was not yet a State. It was not even, in the beginning, in the ordinary sense, a colony.^ It was a plantation** with a strong religious idea behind it, on its way to be a colony, and a State. In the original intent, the Governor and General Court, and therefore, the gov emment, were to be and abide, in England. When, in 1628, Endecott and his Parliaments, of his purpose to govern without Parlia ments in future. It might well appear to him, that, in the contests which perhaps were to follow, his task would be made easier if numbers of the patriots could be tempt ed to absent themselves from the kingdom; and when he should have succeeded, and the laws and liberties of England should be stricken down, there would be noth ing in hig past grants to embarrass him in his treatment of the exiles, and his Arm would be long enough to reach, and strong enough to crush, them in their distant hiding- place. Or, if no scheme so definite as this was enter tained, the grant of the charter, inviting attention to a distant object, might do something for his present relief, by breaking up the dangerous concentration of the thoughts of the Puritans on the state of affairs at home," Dr. Palfrey adds plausibility to this view, by appending a quotation from Thomas Carew, a dramatic poet who was on intimate relations with the King, and who remarked (in a masque, entitled Ceehnn Britannicum, which was performed at Whitehall 1S-2S Feb. 1633-4, «it which per formance the King himself took part) : "Send them [the Vices] to the plantation in New-England, •which Jiath purged more vindent humors from tlie Politic body, than guaiacum, and all the West-Indian drugs have frora the material bodies of this kingdom." [Chalmers's English Poets, v: 629.] ^^Mass. Col. Records, \: g. ^Blackstone designates three sorts of colonies, the third being: "Charter governments, in the nature of civil corporations, with the power of making by-laws for their own interior regulation, not contrary to the laws of England; and with such rights and authorities as are -¦socially given them in their several charters of incorpo ration." [Co7n. on Laws of Etig. i. Introduc sec. 4.] This accurately describes the kind of colony which Mas sachusetts eventually became. But tliere would seem to be, in all such enterprises, a nascent period during wliich the pri^-ate trading corporation element strongly predomi nates over the colonial. I might illustrate by the Hud son's Bay Company, which existed into our time \\\\h its original charter —strongly resembling that of tlie Massa chusetts Company — and which has ahvaj's been rather a corporation for trade chartered by England, than a colony of England, on American soil. *^It was styled a. "plantation" repeatedly by Win throp at the time he was discussing the question of cast ing in his lot with it, and in the famous "agreement" which was signed 26 Aug, -5 Sept. 1629, by him and eleven others at Carabridge. [Life and Letters ofjohn Winthrop, i: 327, 340, 344, etc.^ It was so styled in the act of the General Court of the Company, which authorized Endecott and his companions to form a gov ernment at Salem, 30 Apr.-io May, 1629. ICollectiotu of A mer. Antiq. Soe, iii: 38.] [13] little party of pioneers had been sent over to Salem, his authority was expressly declared to be "in subordination to the Company heree [that is, in London]."" And it was only when Cradock found that so many practical difficulties threat ened all procedure upon that basis, as to make it unlikely that Winthrop, and Saltonstall, and Johnson, and Dudley, and other men whose cooperation was greatly to be desired, would consent to become partners in the enterprise, unless a radical change were made in that respect ; that he proposed and the Company consented, "for the Advancem' of the Plantacon, tlie inducing & encouraging Persons of worth & qualitie to transplant themselues and famylyes thether, & for other weighty reasons therin contained, to transferr the Gouvnmt of the Plantacon to those that shall inhabite there, etc."" It was even a grave question of law whether, under the terms of the Charter, this transfer were pos sible ; but as that instrument did not contain in express language any limitation of the residence of those who were to act under it ; and on the general legal principle that a grant may be interpreted as favorably as possible to the grant ees, reenforced by the special fact that the Charter contained in itself the war rant for putting the construction most favorable to the grantees upon its provi sions ;'^ they took the responsibility : — so quiedy, however, that the home gov ernment seem to have remained in ignorance of the fact for more than four years thereafter.'^ Such being this corporation styled " The Govemor and Company of the Mas sachusetts Bay," let us carefully notice, step by step, the quality of its acts, after, by the coming over of Winthrop and his associates, it commenced its work on the ground over which its jurisdiction extended. By what it did, we shall gain important evidence as to what it considered itself authorized to do, not merely ; but as to the pure and natural motives which governed some of its orders to which exception has not unfrequently been taken. The first session of the Company for business on this side of the sea, of which we have record, was held ten weeks after the landing, at Charlestown, on the 23 Aug.-2 Sept. 1630. Among the votes passed at that session was one issuing a process against Thomas Morton r-f Mount WoUaston.^' At the second ^ The Company* s Records. Ibid, iii : 47. "^ * ' And shalbe construed, reputed, and adiudged in all cases most favourablie on the behalf, and for the ben- efitt and behoofe, of the saide Govemor and Company and their successors." [Mass. Col. Rec. i: 19.] ** Palfrey supposes that Cradock's answer to the Or der of Council, 21 Feb. -3 Mar. 1633-4, first apprised the government of this. [Hist. H. Eng. \ : 371.] ™ Thomas Morton, who describes himself as ** of Clif fords Inne, Gent," and whom Dudley described as *"an Attorney in the West Countryes, while he lived in Eng land" [Drake's Boston, i: 115], who made himself a nuisance in New England frora the beginning, and for his dangerous dealings with the Indians, and other things, had been sent home by the Plymouth men in the summer of 1628 ; but had returned, and commenced anew his reckless and perilous career at Quincy. [14] session, 7-17 Sept., that "process" bore fruit in an order to set this Morton " into the bilbowes," and then to ship him back to England. It would seem from Winthrop that this was done specially "for his many injuries offered to the Indians;"*" while the Court order itself provided for payment to be made out of his goods "for a cannoe hee vniustly tooke away from them," and for the burning of his house "in the sight of the Indians, for their satisfaccion, for many ^vrongs hee hath done them, from tyme to tyme." "^ At the very next Court, 28 Sept.-8 Oct., one Thomas Gray, who seems to have been an incorrigible rascal,"^ was ordered " to remoue himselfe out of the lymetts of this pattent before the end of March nexte."^ Early in the ensuing spring, i-ii March, 1 630-1, six individuals were directed to leave the jurisdiction, as " persons vnmeete to inhabit here," besides " Sir Christo pher Gardiner and Mr. Wright," who were sent as prisoners to England.*^ On the 3-13 May following, Thomas Walford of Charlestown and his wife were enjoined to " departe out of the lymits of this pattent before the 20th day of October nexte, vnder paine of confiscacion of his goods, for his contempt of au thoritie & confrontinge officers, etc."*^ On the 14-24 June succeeding, Philip Ratcliffe was fined ;^40. and " banished out of y= lymitts of this jurisdiccion, for vttering mallitious & scandulous speeches against the govemment & the church of Salem, etc., as appeareth by a particular thereof, proued upon oath."*" At the Court of 6-16 September following, Henry Lynn was sentenced to be whipped and banished before the 6-16 October next, "for wri tinge into England falsely & mallitiously against the government & execution of justice here."^ Here, within a period less by one day than a single year, and within a period of only fourteen days more than a single year after the court of the corporation had first organized itself for business in New England, it passed sentences of exclusion from its territory upon fourteen persons. Endecott, in the summer of 1629, in like manner had not hesitated to take the responsibility of sending * Journal, i : 34. ^Mass. Col Rec. i: 75. ^ Among other things laid to his charge, he was himself drunk, he kept a tippling house, he was profane, and drew his knife, in a ruffianly way, in presence of the Court [Ibid, i : 92, 234, 26S, 270, 297.] <^Iiid, i : 77. ®* These were Messrs. Aleworth, Weaver, Plastowe, Shuter, Cobbett and Wormwood. [Ibid, i: 82.] <^Ibid i : 86. ^Ibid, i : 88. This appears to have been a very ag gravated case. The fellow [ IVinthrop, i : 56] was a ser vant of Mr. Cradock, and I am sorry to say, had his ears cropped, besides his fine and banishment ; but those were days when such punishments were thought just and right Within a few months of this time William Prynne, the famous Puritan lawyer, was sentenced by the Star Chamber to p.iy a fine of £,^,000, to be expelled from Oxford, and Lincoln s Inn, to be disbarred and de graded, to lose both his ears, and to be close prisoner for life ; all for having written the H istrio-Mastix, in which he had spoken sharply of " women-actors," which was supposed to be levelled at the Queen. ^'^ Ibid, i: 91. Mr. Savage [note Wintttrop,\'. 61] thinks his sentence was remitted, though tlie records do not mention it, because he was fined ten shiUings for ab sence from training, in Nov. 1632. But that may have been another person of the same name. [^5] home John and Samuel Browne, although they were " amongst the number of the first Patentees, men of Estates, and men of Parts and port in the place,"^ not because they insisted on worshiping with the aid of the Book of Common Prayer, but because they so conducted themselves in regard to the matter, as to endanger faction and mutiny; so that "the Governour told them 'That New England was no place for such as they.'""* In doing so, he had faitlifully obeyed the spirit and the letter of the Company's instructions. They had fore seen the difficulty of getting on in a new plantation with opinionated and insub ordinate men. Theyhad written him especially as to Oldham: "Wee fynde him a Man soe affected to his owne opinion, as not to bee removed from it, nether by reason nor any prswasion ; and vnlesse hee may beare sway, and haue all things Canyed to his good likinge, wee haue little hope of quiett or comfortable subsistance where he shall make his aboad;"'" urging great for bearance, but counselling " a more severe course, when faire meanes will not prvaile." They had directed him also in regard to Rev. Ralph Smith : " That vnless hee wlbe conformable to our Gouernment, you suffer him not to re- maine within the Limitts of our graunt."" And, in general, they had enjoined upon him to hold a strict and steady hand upon all who should prove to be dis orderly : " Wee desire, (if it may bee) that Errors may bee reformed with lenitie or mylde Correccon ; and if any prve incorrigable, & will not bee reclaimed by gentie correccon, ship such prsons home, rather then keep them there to infect, or to bee an occasion of Scandall vnto, others ; wee being fully prswaded that if one or two bee soe reshipped back, and certificate sent home of their misde meanor, it wilbe a Terror to the rest, and a meanes to reduce them to good conformitie.""^ It is noticeable also that in the same letter the company expressed themselves strongly as to the need of tiie prevention, if possible, of the " moving of needless questions to stirr vp strife . . from which small beginnings great mischiefs have followed ; " and the special importance " that there be none in our precincts permitted to doe any iniurie (in the least kinde) to the heathen people ; and if any offend in that way lett them receive due Cor reccon."'^ Their second General letter to Endecott and his associates, reiter- <» Morton's N. E. Mem., 76. <'>Ibid, 77. '"The Company's First General Letter of Instruc tions to Endecott and hia Council. [Trans. A mer. Antiq. Soe. iii: S3.] ¦^Ibid, 85. «/iif, 89. " " Yett, because it is often found that some busie pr- fions (led more by their will then any good warrant out of God's word)takeopportunitie of moving needless ques tions to stirr vp strife, and by that meanes to begett a question, and bring men to declare some different Judgrat, (most coraonly in things indifferent) from wch small beginnings great mischiefs haue followed, wee pray you, and tlie rest of the Councelt, that if any such dis putes shall happen among yoa, that you suppress thera, and bee carefull to m^ntaine peace and vnitie." [Ibid, 90 and 89.] [i6] ated their view of the importance of this general policy: "feare not to putt good lawes, made vpon good ground and warrant, in due execucon."" Such havino- been the line of conduct adopted, after much consideration, in the earliest days of the settiement of Salem by the Dorchester Company, and subsequentiy endorsed by the enlarged body acting under the new Charter in their favorable review of Endecott's treatment of the Brownes," it was the most natural thing in the world that it should be pursued by the " Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay," when they were brought in person face to face with the evils which it was intended to remedy. Apparentiy, Endecott on his arrival had found a few lawless men — like Thomas Morton and Thomas Walford — here and there settled upon the soil; whose evil conduct he could note, but, with the small company at his command, could not control. In the full conferences in regard to the state of things which would naturally follow Endecott's intercourse with, and report to, Winthrop and the Assistants on their arrival, it would be a matter of course that he should point out these nuisances which required abatement ; and the large action of the first twelvemonth in this line may be thus accounted for ; while it was to be expected that the vigor thus shown in the management of affairs would make such labor lighter for some time to come. More than a year, indeed, elapsed before it became need ful to repeat this action, when at the Court of 3-13 Oct., 1632, Nicholas Frost, for sundry gross offences, among which theft from the Indians was included, was sentenced to "be fined, whipped, branded, & banished oute of this pattent, with penalty that if euer hee be found within the lymitts of the said pattent, hee shalbe putt to death." '^ This appended clause seems to have been the fruit of experience already had ; some formerly sent away having availed them selves of the fact that no legal risk attended their return, to come back and repeat the offence of their presence. Almost another year went by, when one John Stone from the West Indies, captain of a small ship, behaving in a drunken and dissolute manner, blackguarding those who sought to restrain him, and exhibiting mutinous violence, the Court, 3-13 Sept., 1633, fined him heavily, and prohibited his again "comeing within this pattent without leaue from the Gouermt, vnder the penalty of death."'' The next exercise of this power which I discover, was, twenty-five months and five days thereafter, when, on the same occasion, John Smyth and Roger Williams were ordered to " de- '"¦Ibid, 107. '''Ibid, jb. ''"Rec. Col Mass. i: lOO. " This fellow had had previous trouble with the Plym outh men, who had meditated sending him to England on a charge of piracy, and he was the next year killed by the Indians, on the Connecticut river. It seems, with his other iniquities, he was a punster, calling Mr. Justice Ludlow a "just-ass." [Ibid,'\'. io3; iVi7itkrop,\i 104, III, 148; Morton's N. E. Mem. 92; Hubbard, 156.] [17] parte out of this jurisdiccon within sixe weekes nowe nexte ensueing j"''^ which action will, by and by, be more particularly considered. What was the precise nature of this Court action by which Roger Williams became, in his turn, not less than the twentieth person thus ordered beyond the liraits of the Massachusetts plantation, within the first seven years of its life? Banishment, in the usual sense of that term, clearly it was not. Both Magna Charta^ and the Habeas Corpus act, forbid the sending of a freeman out of the " realm without his consent, but by act of Parliament." The king could not do that; although, by a writ oine exeat, he could prohibit any subject from leaving his kingdom without license; and John Winthrop, and his associates, were much too shrewd, in the face of the fundamental condition of their Charter restraining them from all action " contrarie, or repugnant, to the lawes and statutes of England," to undertake what the king himself could not do. More over, banishment involved a State which could banish, and that the banished parties be membersof it; conditions which could hardly be claimed here to exist. There is no evidence that this plantation had by this time come to ¦ regard itself as being strictly a civil government at all. It acted in this — as it was then acdng in regard to all other matters — as a Company,^ on those simple principles of natural justice which give to any association the right to decline to admit,^^ or to exclude, unsuitable and incompatible members.. It acted, moreover, in exact^ccordance with that provision of its Charter which had been inserted to meet an exigency almost sure to arise, and which — if it could be met in any other way at all — could be met in no other way so well.^- While the facts : that the plantation had a religious basis, which itself might "^Mass. Col. Rec. i: 159, 160. It is true, indeed, that in the winter of 1634-5 one Abigail Gifford, widow, who liad been living upon the parish in Willesden, near Lon don, but had been somehow smuggled over, "being found to be sometimes distracted, and a very burden some woman," was sent back to the parish whence she came. [Winthrop's 5^£»«r«rt/, i: 153.] "^Blackstone, B. I. Chap, i: sec. 2. [Personal Lib erty of the Subject.^ He says that exile was first intro duced into England as a punishment, in the 39th of Eliz abeth [1596-7] when a statute enacted that "such rogues as were dangerous to the inferior people should be ban ished the realm." Whether in virtue of that act, just passed, or not, Francis Johnson, his brother George and otliers, were banished to Newfoundland in the summer of 1597. [Geo. Johnson's Discourse of some Troubles and Excommunzcatiofis in ihe BanisJied English Church at AmsterdaTn, 106, 109.] ^ "The right of the Govemor and Company of Mas sachusetts Bay to exclude, at their pleasure, dangerous or disagreeable persons from their domain, they never regarded as questionable ; any more than a householder doubis his right to determine who shall be the inmates of his home. No civiUzed man had a right to come, or to be, within their chartered limits, except themselves, and such others as they, in the exercise of an absolute discretion, saw fit to liarbor." [Palfrey, Hist. N, Eng. i: 299.] 8^ This right to decUne to admit was sometimes exer cised- Winthrop says: "Ths master [of the ship Hand maid arrived at Plymouth] came to Boston [11-21 Nov. 1630] with Capt. Standish and two gentlemen passengers, who came to plant here, but Jiaving no testimony, we would not receive thein.^' [yonrjial, i : 3S.] ^^This clause gave them the right to *"" expulse" by "all fitting waies and meanes whatsoever," all persons who should "at any tyme hereafter attempt, or" enter prise " any " detriment or annoyaunce to the said plan tation, or inhabitants." [Charter, Mass. CoL Rec. i: 1S.I [i8] suggest exclusions possibly unsuggested by its commercial aspects, y3t on that account rather the more, than the less, to be considered ; that they were in the dangerous neighborhood of they knew not how many, nor how bloodthirsty, savao-es; and that certain threatening circumstances, which remain to be explained, were glooming the horizon at home, and exciting special solicitude as to the immediate future of the enterprise ; urged them to exercise the ex- tremest care to knit themselves, as soon as might be, strongly together — to make their company spiritually homogeneous, their policy humane and benevolent toward the Aborigines, and their entire life such as would triumphantly bear even hostile scrutiny. A plantation like this — and all the more that it was at a remove from the mother country so considerable as three thousand miles of obscure ocean then necessitated — must have some method of effectually ridding itself of such rogues, vagabonds, visionary, pragmatical, incongenial and unmanageable char acters as are apt to be thrown off like spray from the forefront of any advancing wave of immigration. Capital punishment would be open to many objections; would be generally extreme, even for those whose influence might be most intolerable. There were no prisons in which to submit them to long periods of confinement. So that by far the most available course of procedure clearly was to send such persons outside of the jurisdiction, and to hedge up the way against their return by such penalty as should make it for their safety, as well as for their interest, to relieve the Colony of the calamity of their presence.*^ Nor could such transportation outside of the lines of the plantation be, in itself, in the nature of an extreme hardship and barbarous punishment ; for old Eng land was always accessible to the outlaw, and, in the new world, besides unlimited wildwood range, where vastly more fertile and attractive shores invited inhabitation and tillage, there were the scattered settlements of Newfoundland *3 " The freemen of the Massachusetts Company had a right, in equity and in law, to expel from their territory all persons who should give them trouble. In their corpo rate capacity, they were owners of Massachusetts in fee, by a title to all intents as good as that by which any free holder among thera had held his English farm. As against all Europeans, whether English or Continental, they owned it by a grant from the crown of England, to which, by well-settled law, the disposal of it belonged, in consequence of its discovery by an English subject In respect to any adverse claim on the part of the natives, they had either found the land unoccupied, or had be come possessed of it with the consent of its earlier pro prietors. For the purpose of being at liberty to follow their own judgment and inclination in respect to mat ters regarded by them with tlie profoundest interest, they had submitted to an abandonment of their homes, and to the extreme hardships incident to settlement in a distant wilderness. They thought they had acquired an absolute right lo the unmolested enjoyment of what had cost them so dear. Having withdrawn across an ocean, to escape from the interference of others with their own man agement of their own affairs, they conceived that they were entitled to protect themselves from such interfer ence for the future by the exclusion of disturbing intru ders from their wild domain. . . In this, as in other respects, their charter was their Palladium.** [Palfrey's Hist. N. Eng. i: 387.] [i9] and what afterwards became Maine and New Hampshire; three preexistent regular colonies, with another just springing into life, which, together, Gave ample room, and verge enough, to the excused colonist. As John Cotton afterwards said in reference to Mr. Williams's own case, it may even be queried whether such " banishment" as this " be in proper speech a punishment at all, in such a Countrey as this is, where the Jurisdiction (whence a man is banished) is but small, and the Countrey round about it large, and fruitfull ; where a man may make his choice of variety of more pleasant and profitable seats, then he leaveth behinde him. In which respect. Banishment in this Countrey is not counted so much a confinement, as an enlargement; where a man doth not so much loose civill comforts, as change them."" So nearly as it is possible to judge from the meager records, there appear to have been four offences which seemed to the Governor and Company of the Mas sachusetts Bay to be, in the peculiar circumstances of its early, immature and precarious years, of moment enough' to warrant and demand the expatriation of those guilty of them. These were : (i) incorrigible, unmanageable and intolerable wickedness, like that of the profane, drunken and ruffianly Gray ; (2) dishonesty toward, and ill-treatment of, the Indians, like that of Morton and Frost ;^ (3) action and speech tending to overthrow the government of the plantation, and the order of its churches, when so violent and persistent as to break out into the beginnings of something like mutiny, as was the case with the two Brownes, Walford, Ratcliffe, and Stone ; and (4) sending home to England malicious misrepresentations of the management of the affairs of the Colony calculated to strengthen the hands of its enemies there, and so to endanger its prosperity, if not its very existence — as was the fact with Lynn. I have intimated that there were circumstances taking place in England, of a nature to excite alarm in Massachusetts, and of a character to influence its pol icy and legislation. As will be remembered, the granting of the Patent seems to have been due less to any sincere good will toward the enterprise on the part of the king and his counsellors, than to the hope that it might at least tem porarily play into his hands, by removing out of the kingdom numbers of a class of men who were, too numerous and powerful there for the easy accomplishment '* Reply to Mr. WiUiams his E xamiTzaiion, etc., 8. ^If "one Josias Plaistowe,** whom Winthrop men tions [yournal, i : 62] and who figures in the court rec ords of 27 Sept-y Oct 1631, be the same as the " Mr. Plastowe ** who had been ordered home to England in the previous March — but who, possibly, did not go — his sin was of the same description with Morton and Frost's; inasmuch as *'for stealeing 4 basketts of come from the Indians" he was ordered to **retume them S basketts againe, be fSned ;^5, & hereafter to be called by the name of Josias, & not Mr., as formerly hee vsed to be.** [Mass. CoL Rec. i: 92.] [20] of his tyrannous ends. For the first three or four years of its existence the plantation was too feeble to call for special notice. But subsequenriy emigra tion from England grew larger, and included many men of substance and influ ence ; and it became clear that the transplanted shoot had taken deep root, and would be reasonably sure of a vigorous life. The king had made consider able progress as an absolute monarch, reigning without the inconveniences of a parliament ; the star chamber was as yet unopposed in its successful career of infamy ; and to the royal eye all circumstances began to look favorably toward the execution of that real interior purpose of his heart, which involved the stamping out of dissent at home and abroad. So that he and his Privy Coun cil were in a good frame of mind to listen kindly to any thing which might be made to afford pretext for a change of policy toward New England. Nor were there wanting individuals, some of them of social consideration and influential in position, who were in a state of chronic readiness to do all which it might come in their way to do, to work against the prosperity of Massachusetts. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had been for a quarter of a century vainly trying to secure a successful colony somewhere on the New England soil, and who held various chartered rights therein, had consented to the arrangement by which the Dorchester Company had undertaken a settlement at Cape Ann, " so far forth as it might not be prejudicial to my son Robert Gorges's interests."^ But he was never a friend to the movement, and was at all times ready to use his, by no means inconsiderable, power to second every endeavor to its disadvantage. Capt. John Mason, who had been governor of " a plantation in the Newfound land," and who had — with Gorges, and without him — grants of New England land, which led him to be sensitive to the growth of Winthrop's settlement; in 1632 became a member of the Great Council for New England, and soon after one of its officers ; and stood ready with Gorges to endorse all murmurings of all malcontents. The Brownes were the first to complain. Morton was not long in following. Ratcliffe, and later arrivals home, fiirnished new exaggera tions of facts. Chief of all was Sir Christopher Gardiner; one of whose dupli cate English wives seems to have so prejudiced the New England men against him, that they doubted his nobility, doubted the nature of his connection with the ostensible female " cousin " with whom he traveled, and even went so far as to suspect him of being a Papist in disguise ; and who returned their prejudice to the full.^ Gorges's BrU/e Narration, etc., chap, xxvi, [3 I " Winthrop, i: 55; Morton's A^ £•. jWfw: 8s ; Hub- Mass. Hist. CoU. vi : 80.] " Whereof," Sir Ferdinando bard's Ge,u Hist. iV. .E. i : 149, 153 ; Letter if Thomas adds, "he had a Patent, under the seal of the Coundl." | Wiggin, [3 Mass. Hist. CoU. ^l: iio.-\ [21] Early in 1633, while Roger Williams was in the last months of his ministry at Plymouth, these grumblings came to a bead in an application to the Privy Council. Winthrop's own account of the matter is brief, and I will quote it, that we may see it exactly as he did :** By these ships [the Mary and Jane which arrived in May, 1633] we understood, that Sir Christopher Gardiner, and Thomas Morton, and Philip Ratcliff (who had been punished here for their misdemeanours) had petitioned to the King and Council against us, (being set on by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. Mason, who had began a plantation at Pascataquack, and aimed at the general government of New England for their agent there, Capt Neal). The petition was of many sheets of paper, and contained many false accusations (and among some truths misrepeated), accusing us to intend rebellion, to have cast off onr allegiance, and to be ¦wholly separate from the church and laivs of England; tliat our ministers and people did continually rail against the State, church and bishops there, etc. SaltonstaU, Humphrey and Cradock, members of the Company who remained in England, appeared before the Privy Council, and made answer to these charges so successfully that that body dismissed the accusations. It recognized that, were they true, they " would tend to the great dishonor of this kingdoinj- and utter ruin of that plantation," but, in virtue of the facts : that most of the charges were denied ; that if true they could only be proved by witnesses suni- moned at great expense and waste of time ; that it would work a serious harm to the adventurers if they "should have discouragement, or take suspicion that the State here had no good opinion of that plantation ; " that the fault, if any existed, lay with a few men, rather than with those principally engaged ; laying some of these things aside for future inquiry, it declared that "the appearances were so fair, and hopes so great," that his majesty would " not only maintain the liberties and privileges heretofore granted, but supply anything further that might tend to the good govemment, prosperity, and comfort of his people there of that place, etc."*' And so this cloud blew over, and the sun again shone clear. A year had hardly passed, however, when — the same injurious representa tions being pressed upon the attention of a not unwiUing Court ; and the pre cedent by which, in violation of the chartered rights of Virginia, its government had, by a writ of quo warranto, been usurped by the King in the summer of 1624, being pleaded — an Order in Council was obtained, in February, 1633-4, detaining certain ships loaded with emigrants for New England, and, among other things, demanding the production before the Board, by Mr. Cradock, of the ^yournal, i; 103. ¦^ See a letter from Winthrop to Gov. Bradford, giving an account of the matter, and enclosing a copy of the Order of the Privy Council, of data 19-29 Jan. 1632-3, "exactly as wrote in Gov. Bradford's MSS.," in Prince's New-England Chronology, ii : 8^-91. [22] Charter of the Massachusetts Company?" The ships were subsequently released on the ground of their favorable relation to fishing interests of value to the mother country, but Mr. Cradock was compelled to reply to the Council that the document which they demanded was not in his possession, having been transported to the territory which it covered. Whereupon he received a strict charge to procure and deliver it. He sent over accordingly to Boston ; but the shrewd magistrates in July replied that they had no power to take such action without authority from the General Court, which would not meet for two months."' A month had not passed, when (4-14 August, 1634), an old planter named Jeffery called upon Gov. Winthrop, and handed him a letter which he had just received out of England from Thomas Morton, in which, in an exultant tone, he informed him that " the King hath reassumed the whole Business into his owne Hands, appointed a Committee of the Board, and given order for a Gen eraU Gouernour of the whole Territory to be sent ouer."®^ He cheerily added : " The Commission is past the Privy Seale ; I did see it, and the same was i mo. of May sent to my Lord Keeper to have it pass the Greate Seale for Confirma tion, and fnoiv staye to returne ¦with the Gouernour, by -whom all Complainants shall haue ReliefP During the next month (iS-28 September) the Griffin arrived with a copy of this commission, which had been granted (28 April- 8 May), constituting the two Archbishops, and ten others of the Privy Council a Board to regulate all plantations ; with power to call in all patents, to make laws, to raise tithes and portions for ministers, to remove and punish governors, to hear and determine all causes, and inflict all punishments, even to death itself:"' ^n The Governor and Company of Massachusetts seem to have had suspicion of what turned out to be the fact, that a storm was rising in England which, before long, might concentrate-the thoughts of those in power upon domestic matters to that degree that the colonies should be for a time forgotten ; and so they felt that their strength was to sit still. When the General Court did ' assemble in September, with the demand for their Charter, and the document establishing the High Commission, confronting them ; it made no direct answer to either, but quietly took order for fortifying Castle Island, Chariestown and Dorchester Hights; for drilling and disciplining the train-bands, and for collecting arms and ammunition."' When the Court met again, in March, "Winthrop's yournal, i: 135; Hazard's Hist. CoU. i: 341 ; Hubbard's Hist. N. E. 153. ^winthrop's yo«>-nrt/, i: 137. "See the letter, in Hazard's Hist. CaU. \: 342. ¦" Winthrop's y»ar«a/, i: 143. The commission itself is given at full length, in Hubbard's Gen. Hist. N. E. 264-268. ** Alass. CoL Rec. i : 123-125. [23] 1634-S1 these military preparations were still further pushed ; bullets were made legal lender at a farthing apiece, and the circulation of farthings was forbidden; a beacon to be fired to alarm the country in case of invasion, was set up on what thence became named " Beacon Hill " in Boston ; a strict military disci pline was established ; a military Commission was organized, "to do whatsoever may be further behoovefuU for the good of this plantation in case of any warr that may befall vs," and entrusted with the power of the death-penalty ; and a " Freeman's Oath " which should pledge fidelity to the powers that be, was required to be taken by every male resident within the jurisdiction, of the age of sixteen years, and pver."^ During the month previous to this (19 Feb.-i Mar. 1634-5,) all the "minis ters" in the Colony had been convened by the Governor and Company, among other things, to answer the question : "What we ought to do, if a General Gov ernour should be sent out of England ? " All were present except the Rev. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, and all were agreed in replying to the question: "We ought not to accept him, but defend our lawful possessions (if we were able); otherwise to avoid, or protract.""^ On the 16-26 June a ship arrived which brought the good news that the com ing of the General Governor had been for the time frustrated, by the fact that a great new ship built to transport him and his attendant force, had fallen to pieces in the launching ; and the bad tidings that the old Council for New Eng land, worn out by ill success, had surrendered its charter to the king, and to the jurisdiction of a General Governor of his appointment ; and that all its terri tory had been distributed by lot among twelve associates. As the Massachu setts men held originally by patent from this Council, of course this amounted to robbing them of their property, and redistributing it to others. In order that the forms of law might be respected, the Attorney General, in September, 1635, brought a writ of quo -warranto in Westminster Hall against the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts ; fourteen charges being trumped up — some of which simply alleged the due exercise of powers expressly granted by the char ter! In the November following, judgment was given. TheophUus Eaton, and fourteen others of the original associates, came in and pleaded that they "wholly disclaymed " these franchises ; and were " forever excluded from all use and claime of the same, and every of them." Matthew Cradock made default, and was convicted of the usurpation charged, and taken to answer to the king for the same. The remaining patentees "stood outlawed." "'^ o^Ibid, 136-139. . "Winthrop's 7<«, 19], Knowles [Memoir, 49], and Underhill [Introduction to Bloudy Tenent, etc., in HanserdKnollys Society s Publications, p. X,] all declare that Roger Williams took the "Free man's Oath*' 1S-2S May, 1631, [Underbill says 12-21 May.] But that was anoilier Roger Williams, who had come over in the '* Mary and John " in 1630, and was at Dorchester among the earliest. He served on a jury to inquire into the cause of the death of Austen Bratcher 28 Sept. -8 Oct. 1630 ; applied to be admitted a freeman 19-29 Oct. 1630 — or 109 days before our Roger ar rived at Nantasket ; had charge, with another, of the goods of Christopher OUyver 7-17 Nov. 1634: was one of the arbitrators about the ship " Thunder" in the sum mer of 1635, and was one of the selectmen of Dorchester the same year ; but soon removed to Windsor, Conn. ; within ten years sold bis land there to Capt Benjamia Newberry, and returned to Boston ; and joined the An- [29] become a landholder, owning ten acres besides the lot and the house in which he dwelt at Salem,"^ and thus he seemed by his practice to give the lie to some, at least, of these professions.^^ The Court advised with those whom they esteemed the most judicious of the elders — as was their custom in cases of doubt — and cited Mr. Williams to appear at their next session " to be censured ; " but as Mr. Endecott had not been present, the Governor wrote to him (it would seem the very letter, the rough draught of which has been cited above) to let him know what had been done, and "withal added divers arguments to confute the said errors, wishing him to deal with Mr. Williams to retract the same.""^ Whether inconse quence of Mr. Endecott's labor in response to this request, or not, Mr. Wil liams seems on this occasion to have exhibited a submission to the mental influence of others which was extraordinary in his history. He wrote privately to the Governor, and officially to him and the Court, "very submissively ;" intimating that he had no intention of pushing these views, and " withal offer ing his book, or any part of it to be burnt." ^^* On the 24 Jan.-3 Feb. 1633-4, cient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1647. [His- tory of Dorchester, 92; Savage's Gen. Diet, iv ; 567; Hist. A net. and Ho7i. Art. 155 ; Stiles's Hist. Ancient Windsor, 135; Mass. Col. Rec. i: 77, 133, 151.] He was swom in freeman, in accordance with his previous application, on the iS-zS May, 1631, [Mass. Col. Rec. i : 636] ; but Roger Williams, who was pastor at Salem, and the founder of Providence, was never a freeman of Mas sachusetts. In this he differed from the others who ex ercised the Christian ministry in the Colony at the same time with him. Wilson and Cotton of Boston, Warham and Maverick pf Dorchester, Welde and Eliot of Rox- burj', Hooker and Stone of Newtown (Cambridge), Phil lips of Watertown, James of Charlestown, Batcheller of Saugus, and even his associate Samuel Skelton of Salem, all had taken the freeman's oath. [Ibid, 366-369.] '"There is a deed at Salem, of date October, 1635, o^ the sale by John Woolcott unto William Lord, both of Salem, of " all and every part of my house and misteed [merestead] in Salem {formerlie in tlie occupation of Mr. Roger WiUiams) & from him by order from Mrs. Higenson sould vnto mee, as by a quittance vnd M*^- W»3- hand doth appear." This house stood on ground now covered by the south-eastern portion of the "Asiatic Building," 56 ft. south of the present meeting-house of the First Church. It is not certain that Mr. Williams o^jjned this house ; nor when he left it. But by a letter of his from Providence, which seems to have been written in June, 1638, [\ Mass. Hist. Coll. vi: 230] it is made clear that he did subsequently own a "howse at Salem," and that he had made arrangements to pay with it a debt of between ^50 and ;^6o due to Mr. Cradock, and that he had "long since" put it into Mr. MayheVs hands (as agent for Mr. Cradock) forthat purpose. A previous letter [conjecturally assigned to October, 1637] alludes to the same transaction: "I yet know not where that tobacco is; but desire if Mr. Cradock's agent Mr, Jolly [JollIflTe} would accept it, that it may be deUvered to him in part of sorae paymentsyi^rxy/z/V/i / haue made 071 er my howse to Mr. Maylteiv.'" [Ibid, 216.] This house in which Mr. Williams seems to have passed the latter part of his residence in Salem, is supposed by the Essex antiquaries to have formed a portion of what was long known as the "Curwen House" ; now, or lately, stand ing on the western corner of North and Essex Sts., in that city. [Hist. Coll. Essex Institute, viii: 257.] Cu riously, some of the private preliminary examinations of the witch-craft times, are thought to have been held in that house. [Ibid, 258.] Mr. Williams also owned a ten acre lot "in the North Field," as appears by the deed of adjoining land from PhUip Cromwell to Thomas Cole, of date 13-23 Feb. 1650. [Ibid, 257.] *^-AsGov. Winthrop puts it: **But if our title be not good, neither by Patent, nor possession of these parts as vacitum domiciliiim, nor by good liking of the natives, / • mervayle hy tvliat title Mr. Williams himselfe Iiolds?" [Letter, as above, 345.] ^'^ Winthrop's yiSKT-wrt/, i: 122. **^This seems to have been thought the suitable fate for pernicious literature- The Court, in the spring of 1635, voted: "Whereas Mr. Israeli Stoughton hath writ ten a certaine booke wch. bath occasoned mch trouble & [3o] the Govemor and Council met again ; when, with the advice of Rev. Messrs. Cotton and Wilson, and finding, on further consideration, that, by reason of the obscurity with which the " treatise " was written, its influence might not be so evil as they had feared, they agreed to deal gently with the offender, and to pass over the offence, " upon his retractation, etc., or taking an oath of allegiance to the king, etc."'" It is not altogether clear frora this statement, what, precisely, Roger Williams finally did at this time, or whether he took the oath demanded. But it is clear that the authorities manifested no desire to fault him ; but ap peared rather anxious to avoid, so far as they consistently might do so, all severe . dealing, and to accept his explanations and concessions in the most amicable spirit ; and it is clearly involved in what Winthrop afterwards says, as well as in the general tenor of the narrative, that the Salem preacher was understood on this occasion, at least to promise not further to advocate publicly these no tions about the patent, and not openly to assail the churches of England as being anti-Christian."' While that representation often given, which makes the Governor and Assistants the aggressive party, watching perpetually for Mr. Williams's halting, and now and then just giving him a chance to breathe be tween their foreordained attacks ; is seen to be, here, at least, not only injuri ous, but absurd.''^ He was the aggressor. If he had been able to restrain himself from attacking the fundamental basis on which all their institutions rested, there is no hint of any wish on their part to trouble him. They did not insist that he should violate the liberty of his own comdctions, and surrender his peculiar opinions ; but only that he should refrain from " teach ing publickly " in a way to undermine the foundations of their social order ; and from assaulting openly institutions at home in a way to bring the settle ment into disfavor there, and so to imperil its, as yet uncertain, life. Six weeks now passed, during which we hear nothing of Mr. Williams, or offence to the Court, the sd. Mr. Stoughton did desire of the Court that the sd booke might forthwitlx be burnt, as being weake and offensiue." [Mass. Col Rec. i: 135.] The same thing happened to William Pynchon in 1650, and nearly the same to the revered John EUot, in 1661. [Ibid, iii: 215; iv. (2): 5.] lie Winthrafs yournal, i : 123. ""/*/' precaution to secure the en- forcemer.: of those regulations. Since Dr. Eackus's time our r.-:Ion has learned tliat in days of war, andrev- olut'on, red tape must take its chance. He who reads carefu'.'.y Dr. Palfrey's lucid exposition of New England affairs of that period, will see, I think, that Backus was in error; that the change in the oath had no relation whatever :o anj- plans about an unlawful establishment; and tliat Vv iliiams opposed the oath— as he said he did, and as ot>,irs say he did — for what he conceived to be the intrinsic sin of any oath so administered; and not because he wished to protest against, and forestall, the possible founding of a New England rational church. [35] vain."^=' riaj-ing tlius directly into the hands of that sm?.ll but active, and malcontent if not seditious, clement of the population wliich was read}- to respond ^vith active cooperation to those " Episcopall,, and malignant practises ag.dnst the Countrey "^'- which were then menacing from without ; his course threatened the authorities with serious embarrassment, the more as his reputation for unusual sanctity, especially among the weaker and more influential sex,'-^ drew not a few good people towards his conclusion. Mr. Cotton, indeed, goes so far as to represent that his adverse influence was so considerable as to force the Court to retrace its steps, and "desist from that proceeding."'" But I find no cotemporary corroboration of this representation ; vdiile the fact, that Winthrop's Journal, Morton's Memorial, Hubbard's History, and the Court Records, show no trace of any such retrograde action, inclines me to the opinion that IMr. Cotton here erred by over-statement. Most likely what took place really was, that the magistrates for a time used the discretion vdiich the law gave them, in not "conventing" before them those who neglected or declined to take the oath, and sending out of the jurisdiction all who should the second time refuse to do so ; which course vv'ould practically amount to a suspension of the statute. And that this was the case, is made the more probable by the fact that seventeen years later (in May, 1652), the Court, taking notice of the fact that "divers inhabitants," v/ho were receiving the protection of the Govemment, had saifl and done things whereby their fidelity might justly be suspected ; ordered the administratio:! of the old oath (evidently never unrepealed, but practically disused by many) to "a// settled inhabitants amongst vs who hath not already taken the same."^"^ It was for this action of Mr. Williams that the Court, on this occasion, called him to account. Pie argued the matter with them, and with tho otiier minis ters. The opinion of the Court was that he was "very clearly con fated j"'''^ and Endecott, who had at first sided with his minister, acknowledged himself convinced. Here, for more than two months, the matter rested ; Mr. ^^'illiams being left — it would seem — to think the subject o\'er, under the protest of the magistrates, and of his brother ministers, against his views ; and he and his church remaining still under the process of dealing with them, and him, commenced at !Mr. Cotton's suggestion, to which reference has been made. ^^WmiliTOp^s yournal, 'i: 15S. ^'^ Reply to Mr. Williams his Exam., etc. 23. ^^"The people bein;;, many of them, much taken with the apprehension of his godliness" [Winthrop's yournal, i: 175] ; "many, especially of devout women, did embrace his opinions." [Tbid,'\: 176.] ''¦'^ Reply to Mr. WiUiams liis Exam., etc. 29, But hehimselfin thesameiLiTi//, elsewhere f-jelsit to be quite sufficient to say [4]: "upou this, sundry refused the Oath." "=yi/xv: 2(3). '¦•^Morton's A'. Eng. jSIon. 79; Hubbard's Ge7t. Hist. X. Ev.g. 206. ^'^ Hubbard (200) says " of sundry heinous offences,'' copying Morton's words exactly. ^\';nLhrop [yournal, i: 164] says "of this as a heinous sin," ^-'Winthrop seems to speak as if the deputies were ir.cluded, as well as the T'-tagistrates, but others do not mention them, nor is it certain that they liad anything t3 do with the offence. If they h:id, all the churches would have been involved. If not, the churches would be the following si.x, viz: Bsstan (Dcp. Gov. BelUng ham, Winthrop, Coddington and Hough); Kciutozun [Cambridge^ (Gov. Haynes, Dudley and Eradstrcct); Charieslcnfn (Kowell) ; Roxbury (Pynchon) ; Lym (Humfrey); and Newbury (Dum.mer). John Winthrop, Jr. {Ipszuich) was absent from the coimtr>', and took no part in the legislation of the year. [M.-zss. CoL Rec. i: .45]. [4oJ gravamen of the charge centered in the accusation of an open and scandalous transgression of the rule of justice in such a treatment of tliat petition ;"^ and there is evidence that bitter, if not insulting, language characterized these epistles;^" while the exact practical thing which they asked for, wns that each pf tiiese churches should put its members, who as magistrates had been guilty of a sh^re in this transaction, under the discipline of admonilion therefor .'^'-^ In plain English, Roger Williams undertook, in the name, and by the authority of his church, to compel these churches to constrain their members who v/ere magistrates, under penalty to vote to give Marblehead Neck to the people of Salem ! That is, he sought to use the machinery of the Church, to secure a certain desired result in the State. What is sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander; and by this action Mr. Williams debarred himself— and would debar his modern apologists and advocates, did they comprehend the facts, and exercise a perspicacity like his own in regard to them — from all consistent objection to any mixture of action between Church and State, if any had been subsequently taken, as the result of what he thus had done. Much of Mr. WiUiams's previous teaching and conduct had tended toward sedition ; had manifestly cheered the enemies of good order in the plantation, and put arguments into the mouths of those who were seeking its ruin ; this had a look like open rebellion. This young man — not of age yet ten years ; not a freeman of the Company; unsettled in judgment; advocating one new scheme to-day and another to-morrow ; who did not believe their patent gave them a legal right to the soil which they occupied, or that any man's house ¦ thereon could be his own, v.'ho still owned a house which he claimed as his own ; who had headed such an onset against the Company's right to adminis ter an oath of fealty to those who yet claimed the protection of its laws, and '"Cotton Mather says, [Magnalia, Eook vii: S] : ''Mr. V/i![iams Encliati:.=v tlie Chiircli to join \v!t!i liiin in Vvritjnj; Lett,;rs of Admonition unto aU lire Chu;cii?s, T^tiereof any of the Ma.^istrates were Members, ihit they ,nighl Admonish the i^Ii^isirtiiei c/ Sc.ntdalo'.ii I njiis- iice for denying this Petition..^' John Cotton sav^ [Reply to JMr. IVilliams, etc , 29]: "toaJmonisIi them of their open transgression if the Kid.: 0/ J,'.~'.i:e " ; and Winthrop spealisi ihem in a ChurclxtJ.ry*^ [p. 55]. [40 all the advantages of residents under it, as had almost compelled that wise and essential provision to drop into disuse; this young man, who had so " enchanted "^^' the church in Salem as to persuade it to take him to be its pastor by formal rites, at the very moment when the other churches of the plantation were dealing with it in the endeavor to prevent such a step, and in cool defiance of their judgment and desire ; this young man was now under taking to compel the magistrates to administer the civil government as he, and those under his influence, desired, under pain of church discipline — involving of course, as the Massachusetts system then was, the risk of excommu nication (then carrying with it, as I suppose, the loss of civil rights) should they prove contumacious. John Haynes, Esq., had been chosen Governor for that year, and the contemplated administration of the affairs of the plantation for 1635, involved the cooperative action of Lieut. Governor Bellingham, with eight Assistants and from twenty to thirty Deputies ; but it was really beginning to look as if the actual Governor of Massachusetts for the time being mio-ht prove to be Roger Williams, with the assistance of "the major part"^'' of the church of Salem, and no deputies whatsoever ! The issue was squarely joined. But there could be essentially but one result of such a conflict. Either the Governor and Company of Massachusetts must abdicate in favor of this young Salem pastor, or he must abandon his preposterous endeavors, or take himself out of the wa}'. And no man can reasonably claim that it would be presumable in such a case for the greater to yield to the less; for nearly or quite five thousand Englishmen with more than five hundred freemen, with twelve churches, and from fifteen to twenty highly educated ministers, all sturdily engaged in pushing forward the heavy work of a plantation which included three or four thriving towns, with more than twenty hamlets, grouped around the shores of the Bay, and already stretching inland as far as Ipswich and Newbury on the north, and Weymouth and Hing ham on the south, to surrender at discretion to the wild earnestness of a single visionary stripling, however finely endowed, with however much of method in his madness, and with however fervid a female following l'^^' The General Court did not meet again until September, so that assuming — as it is reasonable to think they did — that Islx. Williams's letters in the name of his church went out quickly after the Court action which caused them, si.x weeks or more would intervene between their reception by the churches, and any action of the authorities which might take influence from the public feel- 1^1 Magnalia^ Book vii : 8. '^' John Cotton's Reply to Mr. WiUiams, etc. 25. ^^ These statistics are estimated from the Colony Rec ords, and from Savage's Edition of Winthrop's yournal, \vith the assistance of the tenth chapter of Dr. Palfrey^a first volume. [42] ing in regard to them. It is not certain, indeed, that, in every instance, these letters reached the direct attention and action of the bodies to which they had been addressed. The church in Boston certainly did not at once come to the knowledge of theirs, for its elders sent a communication to the Salem church, of date 22 July-i Aug. 1635, in which they gave their reasons for not "seeing their way clear" to *' publish to the body ^' the Salem document/^* Roger Wil liams and Samuel Sharpe replied in the name of their church, endeavoring to show the insufhciency and inaptness of these reasons, and to persuade the Boston elders to deliver their '"humble complaint" to the consideration of the body of their brethren.^" It is quite possible that some of the churches had not yet reached the end of the friendly labor with the Salem church on which they had entered some time before Tvlr. Williams's ordination ; there is evidence that others utilized the interval before the General Court should reassemble, in the endeavor, by correspondence and personal intercession, to persuade Mr. Williams and his flock to retreat from their offensive and untenable position.^^ Prominent among these were the two important churches of Boston and New town [Cambridge].^^^ IVIr. Hooker and IMr. Cotton personally were very active '-¦^These reasons were three: (i)that the admonition of the Salem Church was a "gift" which should not be offered until that churcli had reconciled itself to the mag istrates [\vit!i refc-rcTice to Matt, v: 23, 2.}] ; (2) that the act of the magistrates was rather a private tlian a public offence; and (3) that it was not fituns to deal on the Lord's day in a worldly business, nor to brin;^ a civil matter into the cliurch. [See tiiese reasons quoted, that they may be replied to, in a Letter of the elders of Salem Church, to eMers of Eoston Church, I'ublicatiotis qf the Karraganseit Club, vi: 71-77]. ^'''' Their reply to the third reason is characteristic. They first disclaim the "civil" aspect of the matter of their complaint altogether, referring to it only as it is a spirit ual offence. Then they say: "again, we are not bold to limit vou (our beloved) to the Lord's day; we leave it to your wisdom, and the wisdom of the church, ivhen to consider of tlie matter; yet hitherto we have conceived that the hin^ly office ] "The neighbo-!ng Ch'.irchi;s, both by Petitions and 3Jcsse:-.7er?, tool: such Happy Pains with the Church of Salem, etc." [J'.z^nsilia, Book vii S.] ^''Cotton's Refly to IMr. iVillianis, 3S. Morton [.V. Eng. JS'em. S2] gives a copy of a portion of the '¦ Writing" which \',a3 signed by John Cotton, Teacher; and Tliomas Oliver ar.d Thomas Leveret, elders [the^xis- tor, John ^^"ilson, being then '"absent upon a voyage to England''], which was sent by the Boston church to the church at Salem. It recounts five specific *'Errours"iQ Doctrine; the fifth of which is: "it is not lawful for iVLagistrates to punish the breaches of the first Table, unless thereby the Civill Peace of the Commonwealth be disturbed,'' from which it draws the inference that a portion of the Salem church held *'lhat a Church v.hol- ly declining into Arianism, Papism, Famllism, or other Heresies, being ad:nonished, and con'.irced thereof by other Churches, and not ret*orml7ig, maynotbe refonned by ill'; Civil Magistrate in a way of Civil Ju>>tice unless it break the Civil Pcac^." This makes it probable that "Williams had some disciples in liis views in regard to liberty of conscience, and that that subject did have a certain share in all these troubles ; while it does not de-' monstrate that — except ia the most general way — it had anything to do with the action now soon resulting in his baiiishment. [43j in laboring with IMr. Williams ; the latter subsequently calling him to witness to the fact, thus: "he knowcth I spent a j^^reat part of the Summer in seeking, by word and writing, to satisfic his scruples."^"' 'Ine result of all appears to ha\-c been to harden the purpose and judgment of the pastor, and to soften those of the majority of the church. That "Holy Flock," in Cotton Mather's stately phrase, was " presently recovered to a Sense of his Aberrations." ''' In iNIather's matern il grandfather Cotton's milder way of putting it: "it pleased the Lord to open the hearts of the Church to assist us in dealing with him." ^™ In plainest English, the churches of the Bay, so far from responding favorably to these admonitory letters, and proceeding to discipline their magistrate-members for what had been done in laying on the table, for a time, the Salem petition in regard to the IMarblehead land ; retorted in kind, and commenced counter-labor with the Salem Church, and its minister, for sending them such letters ; for many of his teachings, and for other things ; with the result of speedily winning to the view they took the majority of that church, and persuading it to unite v,-ith them in dealing with him. When Mr. Williams comprehended this result, and saw that the majority of his own people had forsaken him ; were actually now ready to take sides with his oppo nents ; and were even, in point of fact, about to commence church labor with him, in the endeavor to bring him to the abandonment of the advocacy of his peculiar views; he turned upon them v/ith a sudden — almost a lierce — denunciation. By one of those remarkable coincidences which deeply impress some minds as with a certain weird sympathy between man and nature, the Massachusetts Sabbath of the 16-26 August 1635, dawned upon a troubled world. All day long on Saturday the elemental forces had been raging up and down the New England coast, in a manner whose furious equal was not within the mem ory, or the traditions, of the most venerable living Algonkin. It had been blowing, through the whole previous v/eek, almost a gale from a Southerly direction, when suddenly, on the morning of the i5-25th, a North-easter set in, with torrents of rain, with a gusty violence which raised the tides by as many as twenty feet of perpendicular height, sending many of the Narragan setts into the trees to avoid drowning, which fate — flood-tide coming before the usual time^ — -many did not escape; which foundered ships at sea, and stranded vessels anchored near the shore ; which prostrated many houses, and "^'¦^ Reply to Mr. IVilliams his Exam., etc. 47. ^'^^ J^Ii-i^rutliit, Book vii: S. ^"" Reply io Mr. WiUiams, etc. 39. Hubbard says, [Geii. Hist. N. Eng. 206] "divers of them tliat joincj ¦with him in tiiese letters, afterwards did acknowledge tiieir error, and gave satisfaction." Morton [X. Eng. Mem. 79J says "divers did acknowledge their eiTor and gave satisfaction." [44] unroofed many more ; ^v]licll beat down flat the whole crop of Indian cornj which tvvlsted off tall, thrift}' oaks, and tou-h hickorie.s, as a farmer tv/ists a slender Avithe in binding his rail-fence together, and snapped stately pines and o-oodly hrs in the midst, and uprooted hundreds of thousands of forest trees; leaving the scar-marks of its desolation scored deep upon the fair face of the land, during a large portion of the half-century that followed.^*^^ As the Salem congregation picked their devious way on that Sabbath morning, between the pools, and among the gulleys, and over the broken branches, and around the prostrate trees, and fragments of dwellings and fences v/hich cumbered the rude and narrow ways, to their humble meeting-house,^^- they did not find Mr. Williams in the pulpit. It is quite likely that most of them did not expect to see him there, having heard that he was sick. The elder, Samuel Sharpe, it is to be inferred, conducted the service.^'^^ And, as one part thereof, he read a letter from the pastor. It had been doubtless written while the storm had been raging on the Saturday, and — whether in language or not — in spirit it was as tempestuous as the day of its birth had been. It was a solemn protestation. He had made up his mind fully. He could hold Christian communion with the churches of the Bay no longer. They were unclean by idolatrous pollutions. They were defiled with hypocrisy and worldliness. They needed cleansing from anti-Christian filthiness and communion with dead works, dead worships, dead persons in God's worship. They ought to loathe themselves for their abominations, and stinks in God's nostrils (as it pleaseth God's Spirit to speak of false worships) ; for they were false worshipers of the true God, liable to God's sentence and plagues ; guilty of spiritual drunk enness and whoredom, of soul-sleep and soul-sickness, in submitting to false churches, false ministr}-, and false worship. They were ulcered a.nd gangrened lOi'Winthriip's yoicrnalfw i6j; JNIorton's N. Eng. J^Icm. ()\\ Hubbard's Gcjt. Hist. N. Eng. igg. This was the storm which Richard IMather mentions in his Journal, which came upon his ship when it was at an chor off the Isles of Shoals; and the same in which, by the breaking up of a pinnace of Mr. Allertou's off Gloucester, the Rev. John Avery was drowned, with twenty others; only Rev. Anthony Thachcr and his wife being .saved, by being cast up upon what has hence always since gone by the name of Thaclier's K'.md. [See I'zi, the church had met for worship in an unfinished building. In 1634 a framed house ^\'as erected, 20 feet long and 17 feet wide, with a gallery across the end over the door. It was four years before a bill was paid for glazing it, so that most Hkely oiled paper at first served instead of glass in the windows. It is a remarkable fact that this bni'dlng still essentially ex ists, having been ten years since reclaimed frora sorae base use ; removed to the rear of Plummer Hall, and there renovated and restored, to be handed down asa sacred relic to the far future. [Hist. Coll. Essex In stitute, ii ; 145-14S; vii; n6-iiS.] ^•"Samuel Sharpe was at this time Ruling Elder of the church, and his name appears as signed, with Mr. Williams's, to the letter which had a little while before been sent to the Boston Church. [Puh. Narragansett Club, vi; 77.] [45] With obstinacy. Their ministry Vv'as false, and a hireling ministry. Their doc trines were corrupt. They were asleep in abundant ignoi-ance and negligence, m gross abonii'Kuions and pollutions; which the choicost servants of God, and most faithful witnesses of many truths, were living in, more or kss. And the breath of the Lord Jesus was sounding forth in hin\ (a poor despised ram's horn) the blast, which in His own holy season should cast down the strength and confidence of all these inventions of m.en, in the worshiping of the true and living God. Solemnly he gave his testimony against those churches; solemnly he separated from them as unworthy to be fellov/shipcd as true churches of the living God. He should communicate with them no more. And, further, he should communicate with f/temj to whom his letter Avas addressed, no more ; unless they were prepared to follow whither now he led, and renounce Christian communion with all otiier professing followers of God in the Massachusetts Colony !^^ This was explicit, as well as emphatic; but ''the whole church was grieved herewith 1"^'^ Subsequent reflection did not, on either side, essentially modify this condi tion of affairs. The great majority of the church remained firm in their refusal to separate from their sister churches of the Bay ; by and by humbling themselves before their brethren who had admonished them, acknowledging the justice of the admonition, and confessing the faults into which ^¦.Ir. Williams had led theni.^'^' A few- — -"divers of the weaker sort," who "had been through- ''"^ Vvinthrop [yournal, i: 166}; ]Morton \_N, Eng. Mem. So]; and Hubbard [Gen. His!. N. Eng. 206]; who does little more than copy Morton, are the direct authorities for the m'.ure of this communication of Mr. Vi'jiiiams- Neither of them gives m^jre than the sub- sta'.ice of it. I have thought that I could not go wrong in endeavoring a littie more fully to reproduce it, if I scrupulously made u=e cf Mr Wi'/lam^'s ov;n language tljcv.li'jrc employed (and preier\'ed) in regard to the s?mc subject. All the epithets, and the invectives, given above, are scattered through his little tractate entitled d'Ir. CottoiCs Letter, late!j printed, Examinedajtd An swered. [See pp. 5, g, 12, iS, 20, 2;, 2-), 30, 33, 34, 35, 3S.] Even Mr. Kno'.\!esi3Constrair:ed to admit as much as tills, here : *"in this conduct he was doubtless wrong, yet who will venture to say, that if he had been placed in the situation of Mr. Williams, he would have maiii- I tained a more subdued spirit " [Memoir, 71,] ''"^ So says V/inthrop [yournal \: 166]. Morton says j [N. Eng. Mem. So], "the more prudent and sober part ; of the Cliurch, being amazed at his \\:iy, could not yield unto him." Hubbard again repeats Morton, ''¦¦" V/Inthrop [yournal i: j'ji]. Cotton says [Lt-t- ter to Mr. Williams, London. 1643], that he has lit tle hope that the man\\i[I hearken to his void^ '"''¦mho hath not hearJ:ct:cd to iiic body cf ihe ivhoh Church of Christ with yow, etc." [p. i] ; i.mplyiug, of course, tlic: ch:irge that the great majority, at least, of the church. did not sympathise with Mr. Willia.m3; but had labored with hiiii to chinge hi^ coiu-;e- To which ^fr. Wil liams, in his rep" y, [Mr. Cotton's Letter Exajnined and Ans'jjercd, London i'>4-ij concedes: "iu mytroublesthe greater f-urt of that Church %:'as swayed and bowed (whether for f:rire of persecution or otherwIsTi-) to say and practice what, to my kno\vlcd:;e, with signes [sighs?j and gioans many of the-m mourned under," [p. 2]. Cotton says, in replication [Reply to Mr. WiUiams., his Examin.ition,, etc. 3S]: "the issue was when the church of Kew Towne, ^^Ith our owne, and others, had endeavoured to convince both Mr. Williams of these offences, and the Church of Salem of tlielr indul gent toleration of him therein ; it pleased the Lord to open the hearts of the Church to assist us in dealing wilh him : but he, instead of hearkening either to them or us, renounced us alias no churches of Christ ; and therefore not at all to be hearkened unto." [46] ly leavened with his Opinions, of which number were divers women that were zealous in their way''''" — by degrees fell off to him. Islt. Williams himself was as good as his word. He seems never to have entered the meeting-house asiain. He gathered the skirts of his garments close about him, that they might not be defiled even in Salem ; renouncing communion with all the churches, and with his own church, and with all who would not renounce communion with his own church ; insomuch that he would neither pray with his own wife at the family altar, nor give thanks in her presence to God for food upon the fam ily table, so long as she persisted in attendance upon the church assembly!'"^ He opened a "pure" service on Sundays, and lecture-days, in his own house;™ in the way of separation from, testimony against, and opposition to, the services of the church of which he was still the ordained pastor. Two Sabbaths — most likely of this separate service — intervened between that stormy one which followed the storm, and the reassembling of the Court; — long time enough to develop the spirit and intentions of this impetuous young enthusiast, and to suggest the probabilities of the results of the course which he had elected to take. It is easy to believe that the tidings of what was thus happening in Salem, was, during that fortnight, pretty thoroughly noised abroad, and that any excitement formerly existing, was in no way soothed, or quelled, by the news. When the Court met at Newtown, on Wednesday 2-12 September, there was, however, no unseemly haste manifested in approaching the subject. Nothing whatever was done about it on the first day of the ses sion. On Thursday the fact was recognized that the Salem church, by its let ters to the other churches of endeavor to admonish them into direct ecclesiasti cal interference v/ith the civil government for its course in reference to the ^Marblehead land, had indicated an insubordinate, not to say a rebellious, spirit, which called for inquiry if not for rebuke ; and the three Deputies of the town, Capt. William Traske, and ^Messrs. John Woodberry and Jacob Barney, were sent home to the freemen whom they represented ; who were, of course, so far ^'" Morton's iV. Eng. Mem. So ^'"-'AV'intlirup's yournal, i: 175; Morton's N. Eng. Mem. So; Hubbard's Gen. Hist. .V. Eng. zrjj. Cot ton snys, [Reply to .'\lr. Williams, etc. 30]: "Soonc after sundry be,:;an to resort to his Family, \vliere he preached to them on the Lord's d.iy." Cotton Mather says: "Ills more considerate Church not Yielding to these lewd Proposals, he never would come to their Assemblies any more ; no, nor liold any Conmiunion in any Exercise of Religion with any Person, so much as hisoun Wife, that went unto their Assemblies ; but at the same time he kept a Meeting in his own House, whereto resorted such as he had infected with his Ex travagances" [i^I-tgn.ziia, Eook vii : S]. Cotton adds [Re/'ly, cte. 9]: "which occasioned him for a season to \vithdra^\ communion in spiritual duties even fromlier [his wife] also, till at length he drew her to partake with him in the errour of his way." 1 ii» It seems to have been Mr. Williams's practice, dur ing his ministry in Salem, to " exercise " during the week remarkably fr-r those days. In speaking of his various | labors, he says that they were "on the Lord's d.ayes. and j thrice a zoeel: at S.alem." [Mr. Cotton's Letter Ex- \ iiii:ii:ed, etc. 13.] [47] as they went, (all freemen being church-members, though all church-members were not freemen) identicrl with the offending parties ;" to procure some satis factory expl.ination of those letters; or, if none were to be had, to report to th- Court the n.imes of such Salem citizens as emiorsed that offeasive procedure.'" It has been usual to stigmatize this action as a tyrannical endeavor on the part of the Court to punish the Salem church, and compel the Salem people :d take sides against IMr. Williams, on pain of losing their conimon civil rights.'"' But it is my impression that what was really done has been overstated. It will be remembered that Mr. Williams, his church consenting and coiictin'^, had dis tinctly accused the General Court of " heinous sin " in laying on the table the Marblehead petition ; and had deliberately demanded of the several churches of which its members were members, that they enter upon a course of discipline with those deputies, for that great moral wrong; and that this demand had been couched in language which seemed to the Court most unexampled and offensive. It could hardly be expected that on its first reassembling that body should take no notice of this remarkable, and — if v.'e put ourselves into their place, we shall perhaps be able to think — perilous procedure. The very least which, with self respect, it could do, would be to demand the justification, or withdrawal, of those letters. It did that very thing, emphasizing its demand by bidding the three Salem Deputies to go home and carry it, in place of raising any other committee, or trusting to letter, when as yet there was no post.''"' It is particularly noticeable, on the face of the transaction, that the Court order enjoining this, is radically different iu terms from those usual when Deputies were unseated. Mr. John Humfrey, in 1629, had been "discharged of his Deputy-shipp." ''^ Of Mr. William Aspinwall, in 1637, it v/as said : " the Court did discharge him from being a member thereof; ""^^ and, at the same time, Mr. John Coggeshall was "in like sort dismissed from being a member of the Courte."''^ In 1638 Ralfe Mousall, "being questioned about speaches, etc., ™M,iss. Col Rec. 1: 15(1. ^~' Klton [A/^, 2S] calls it "an atrocious violation of their rights," and talks about "the inquisitorial spirit of that tribunal." Knowles [.1VI'W;£>'>, /ijstylesit "pun ishing with rigor" the Salem people. Gammell [Life, 4O] terms it "disfranchisement." And Arnold [Hist. R. I. i: 35] names these "arbitrary measures," and s.ays the Court ^' disfrunchised the Salem deputies" ; which it surely did not do, as they remained as fully freemen of the co.mpany after the vote, as before. ^^-The first symptom of public provision for the car riage of letters which I have found, is the order of 5-r5th have a penny a letter for taking care "that they b.;e delivered, or sent, according to their directions." [J/rfj. Col. Rec. i : 2S1.] It was not until J..ae i''';;, that any symptoms of a Post Olrice appear [A^-*fi!i v; 14^]; anrl no: until Nov. J6S7, that a post seems to have been established between Boston and Connecticut. [Coilh. Col. Rec. iii: 393. 39S.] ^'¦^ Miiss. Col. Rec. i: 70. "7/r?.'rt/ 1 : r66] says " for which he w-as committed ; but, tha same day, he came and acknowledged his fault and was discharged;" but that m:iy merely mean that he was "committed" so f\s as the order of the Court went. tie who "stands com:nItted" is as fairly spoken of in that manner after sentence has been pronounced, before leaving the Covirt room, as he could be after the cell- door has been locked upon him. »st /i5/ii', i : 15s. [49] ment, prompted by the heat of the fire which Eadecott had kindled, to get into a postscript an important modification of the tone of an epistle, or to stiffen a v/ill by a codicil. It raay be questioned wheth-r, if Endecott could on this occa sion have exercised the grace of silence, an}- clause implying the termination of the official life of the Salem Deputies, v.'ould have found place upon the rec ord of that day's doings. The most noticeable feature, however, of this session of the Court, is that although more than eight weeks before the date of its assembling Mr. Williams had been charged to " consider of" the " erroneous and very dangerous " opin ions which he had avowed, until it should meet ; and had been cited then to appear before it to " give satisfaction, or else to e.xpect the sentence ; " and although this consideration instead of reducing him to penitent inoffensive- ness had goaded him on to new outbreaks of the most exasperating character; still no mention whatever of his name appears in connection with it. Possibly he was still sick, or again sick. But had that been the case, in all likelihood, Mr. Winthrop would have noted the fact in his Journal. So tliat, when we find the Court adjourning, after a two days' session, to "the Thursday after the next Particular Court ";^^'- which would carry them, over an interval of exactly five weeks, to the 8-18 October; and — even in all the heat of the three Deputies' ejection, and of Endecott's "committal" — saying nothing about the head and front of all, but leaving him to try his conscientious experiments of anarchy in Church and State for another month unmeddled with ; I conceive that we dis cover, in place of a pack of legal hounds thirsting for the blood of a victim after whom they have been for months pressing in full cry, the calm, deliberate, and even noticeably lingering, processes of an anxious, conscientious, yet reluctant, tribunal. I am not aware of much light from any quarter upon this five weeks' interval, by which -we may see with any minute accuracy what Mr. Williams, or his church, were doing. We can infer that new excitement would ine\'itably follow the Court action in reference to Mr. Endecott and the Deputies. It is easy to guess that those members of the church who had already committed themselves ao-ainst Mr. Williams, would be tempted to great exertions in the endeavor to bring others to think with them ; while his separate service, aided by his marked po^Dular ability, would more and more infiuence all whose preposses sions were in the direction he had taken. So that, beyond question, the ex citement must daily have increased, rather than diminished. Hubbard says : "= The next Particular Court melon Tuesday 5-i6th | Red: 162.] The Thursday following would be, of October, at New Town, that is, Cambridge. [A/aa. CoL ' course, the 3-tEth. [5o] " things grew more and more towards a general division, and disturbance.""^ As the day of the adjourned meeting of the Court approached, it is clear that this subject largely occupied men's minds, and was especially upon the con science of those by whose final action it must be determined.'"-' Let us here endea\'or some clear idea as to what, precisely, was this "Greate and GeneraU Court," whose session was to end all this. The Charter — and I ao-ain beg the reader to remember that it was, as yet, the charter of a company, and not of a commonwealth; and that the said charter expressly st}ded the bodythe "Greate and GeneraU Court 33 Palfrey's Hist. N. Eng. i: 325. I ^^ Mass. CoL Rec. i: 156. ^"^ Mass. Col. Rec. 'w 118. ' ^^^ Winthrop's yi77^r«(z/, i ; 170. [52] condition/^ having among thenn fifteen pastors and teachers. In the order in which they were formed, those churches v;ere, and were at this time officered, as follows: .S'i?/^/;^, Roger V/iUiams ; 2?^?;^^/^^.^/^^, John Warham and John Mav erick; Boston^ John Wilson and John Cotton; Watertown^ George Phillips; 7?.j?a-/;//rj', Thomas Welde and John Eliot; Z;v;;^, Stephen Bachiler; Charles- tozan, Thomas James; A^civ Town, [Cambridge], Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone ; Ipswich, Nathaniel Ward ; and Newbury, Thomas Parker, and James Noyes. It is possible that the two last named, who were, as yet, fresh from their consecration under the ''' majestic oak " of Quascacunqiien}'^^ and who then were, and, as is well known, remained, in some slight want of ecclesiastical harmony with their brethren in the Bay, might not have been present ; proba bly there had hardly yet been time to count them fairly in to the older com pany. Since Winthrop notes the absence of no other one— as, in a somewhat similar previous case, he had done^^* — I incline to think that the remaining tAvelve were there.^^^ Nine of these we know to have been graduates of Cam bridge University .¦'^^ Nine of them we know to have held rectorships — some of them positions of exceptional importance — in the father-land.^'-"" Thomas Plooker, in addition to his experience in the ministry in Essex, and on the Con tinent, had taught a school at Little Baddow, where John Eliot had acted as his assistant.^^^ Tliree of them must have worn that crown of glory which the way of righteousness puts upon the hoary head.^^ Five, at least, of their juniors were in the fullest maturity of manly strength.-^" While the remaining four, if young enougli to come into special sympathy with the fer\id zeal of the man whose peculiarities had called them together, were also old enough to have outgrown, perhaps, some of his crudities.^^^ Altogether it was a distinguished ^''-As has been before remarked [p. 41] there were tzvelve churches actually existing ; one having been f'jrined at Weymouth in the previous July, and one at Hingham in the pre\'ious September. But these were hardly yet fully organized, the latter, certainly, not as yet having any pastor. ^•''•^Coffin's ///j^. Newbury, 9, 17, '^^^your?ial, i. 154. lOJXhcre ¦^vould be twelve without iMr. Willinms. '^''Thesc were "Wikcn, Cotton, Hooker, Stone, Welde, Eliot, Phillips, James and Ward. Of Bachiler, War ham and Maverick, we lack details. Parker and Noyes had both studied at Oxford. ^"^ Cotton had been beneficed at Boston, Lincolnshire ; Warham, at Kxcter, Devon ; Wilson, at Sudbury, Suf folk; Phillips, at Eo\ted, Essex; Weld, at TerHng, Essex ; Hooker, at Chelmsford, Essex, and afterwards at Delft and Rotterdam ; Ward, at St. James's, Dukes p!ace, London, and aftertt'ards at Stondon Massey. Es^ex ; Maverick, at some place about forty miles frora Exeter, and James somewhere in Lincolnslure. '^'-'^ Migttaiia, Book iii: 50- ^-'-' Bachiler must have been no-^ about 74 (I know his character was much spoken against, and there were unfortunate facts in his history; yet the obvious confi dence of good men in him inspires in my mind the liope that his way, on the whole, was one of righteousness); Ward \\-as not far from 65, and Maverick near 60. '^"'^ Cotton was about 50, Hooker perhaps a year younger, Wilson 47, aud Phillips and James each not far from 42. ^¦^ Eiiot, who was but 32, seems to have been the youngest. Stone was 35, while Weld and Warham, whose birth-dates have not, to my knowledge, been identified, would, from various circumstances, appear to have been at this time betw^een 30 and 40. [53] company; and it may well be doubted whether the Massachusetts of to-day,~ even under the classic shades of that great university which makes the spot whare this Court was held now almost as well known lo the learned world as is that ancient shrine of knowledge \vho,e scholastic robus somanvof them were entitled to wear— could call together, out of it^ hundreds of pulpits, tu'elve pastors and teachers who should be their equals in intellect and worth, and in all those imperial qualities which fit men to be the founders of States. It has been the habit of a certain class of writers to regard, and speak of, the trial of Mr. Williams at this time thus before the General Court in the presence of these ministers, as affording an odious instance— in its worst form — of the coworking of Church and State. Even the accomplished historian of Rhode Island, to whom I have already more than once referred, sees in it : "a practi cal commentary on the danger of uniting the civil and ecclesiastical adminis trations. It suggests the reflection that, of all characters, the most danger ous and the most despicable, is the political priest."^- But I submit — with°all respect — that there was here, strictly, neither Church nor State. There was, on the one hand, the board of directors and managers of a great trading and land^ company, administering the affairs of their corporation, and in so doing grow ing insensibly to be a commonwealth, assembled to consider whether a per son — whom, for many of his qualities and much of his influence, they respected and esteemed ;^^ who was not a member of the company, but, though holding land by their grant, was living among them on sufferance ; who had formed the opinion that their charter was invalid, and that they had no right to their terri tory ; that they had no authority to govern, no warrant to administer the judicial oath whether for civil cohesion, to secure the ends of justice, or as a safeguard against insubordination ; that their churches v.-ere standing on an unauthorized basis ; and so that their procedure in every department, and on all subjects, was null before the law, and reprehensible before the gospel ; and who scrupled not, in the face of all their endeavor, to advocate and push these opinions in a way which, in the perilous juncture of affairs at home, threatened the very exist ence of the plantation — could be safely allowed longer to remain among them? And there was, on the other hand, invited by a body impressed with the gravity of the occasion, and because they were at once their best educated and wisest men, and the peers of the offending elder — gathered in no ecclesiastical =»= Arnold's Hist. R. I.'w 38. 203 Nothin;; is more noticeable in all this history than the kindness of feelin.^ which, in the midst of and in spice of all the trouble, v.'as manifested toward ^Ir. Williams. Knowles says: "it is due to the principal actors in these scenes, to record tlie fact, of which ample evidence exists, that personal animosity had little, if any, share in prodecins the sentence of banishment. Towards Mr. Williams, as a Christian and a minister, there was a general sentiment of respect." [Memoir, 7S.] [54j fashion, and for no ecclesiastical end, but as experts in the moral and relig ious bearing of the matters in dispute— the body of the remaining pastors and teachers of the plantation, to give their advice as amici ciirice. And this was all. The rising sun of Thursday, the 8-iS October, 1635, doubtless found the majority of these thirty-five laymen and twelve ministers, v.'ith whoever had special occasion to be present with them at the Court, heading for New Town along the field and forest paths which converged thither.^" Edward Converse must have driven a thriving business with his "fferry betwixte Charlton & Boston, for which he had ij'' for evy single pson, & i* a peece if there be 2 or more;"^ inasmuch as the travel from Boston to New Town then took that way. Roger Williams made from twelve to fourteen miles of it from Salera to the Court, of which he afterwards complained as a cause of his ill health.2*= We do not know at what hour the session commenced, but it was no doubt at one sufficiently late to make it possible for those living within from five to ten miles to reach the spot without serious inconvenience ; and sufficiently early to leave a good share of the day still open for business. The place of assembling was, doubtless, that rude structure which served the Sabbath and other occa sions of the New Town church as its meeting-house ; inasmuch as no other build ing of adequate size presumably then existed there, and no scruple as to any spe cial sanctity about the place would hintler.^^ A large amount of minor legislation was first attended to. One John Hol land was authorized to "keepe a fferry betwixte the Capt. I'oynte att Dorchestr [now Commercial Point] & Mr. Newberryes Creeke" at Squantum [now Bil lings's Creek] for which service he was to" have four pence for one, and three pence each if there were tv,-o or more.""^ Order was taken for aiding Robert Wing, who was from sixty to seventy years of age, and poor, in building a house."'" Mr. Dummer, Assistant frora Newbury, was empowered to adminis- 2^ Not only did no public conveyance of any sort — with the exception of boats across a few ferries — then offeritself to the traveller; but nearly all locomotion must have been done on foot, as horses w ere yet veiy few In New England. [l^^.yXi^^'sMe]noirofPly;n. Col.i: 2c6.] Two years before, Gov. ^^'inthrop had walked to Ipswich to see his son John jr. : "The Governour went on foot to Agawam, and because the people there wanted a min ister, spent the Sabbath with them, and exercised by way of prophecy, and returned home the it^20th.'* [Winthrop's yournal (under date of Tliursday, 3-i3th April 163.1)1: 130.] ¦">'^Mass. Cell Rec. i : 88. 200 " j3y travellsalso by day and ni;;ht to goe and return from their Court, etc., it pleased God to bring me neare unto d?a-.h." [Williams's yl/r. Gotten s Letter Exam ined and .'Ins-J'ered, 12.] "The Court being held with in twelve or fourtecue miles distance from Salem, travell to, and fro, was no likely cause of such distemper." [Cotton's Reply to Mr. WiUiams, his Examination, etc. s--,.] '»' We have Lechford's testimony that, years after, tlie Court met in the First Church in Boston [Plains Deal ing, 24] ; and it is within the memory of multitudes now living that town-meetings used to be habitually held in ths Ne.v England Sanctuaries. '^'^Mass. Col. Rec.'w 159; History of Dorchester, j 593. ^''^Mass. Col. Rec. i: ijj. From Ibid, ii: 216, it j appears that in Nov. 1647, tliis Wing was "above So ; [55] ter the oath of office to a constable in that remote settlement.-^^ Robert Lon^ was licensed '¦ to keop2 a howse of intertainment att Charles Towne, for horse 1- nian."-^^ The bounds of Roxbury "on both sydcs the tO'Mie" were ordered to be surve\-ed aud reporM-d to the next Court ; aud Ensigne Jennison and Afr. Aspimvall -were appointed to do it. A law whieh had prohibited merchants from taking more than 33 ^V P-r cent, proht for their wares ; one which had lim ited the price of wages ; one which had regialated the time of going on board ships ; and one Avhich had provided for the support of military officers out of the public trea3ur}% were repealed ; and in place of the latter it was enacted that each town maintain its own officers. It was decreed that Charlestown and Watertown be two distinct *'companyes." Action was taken for the improvement of the highways between Lynn and Ipswich, and between Ips wich and Newbur}-. It was ordered that Plymouth "be ayded. with men and municons to supplant the French att Penopscott/' and Capt. Sellanova was to be sent for at the public charge for conference in regard to this.-'^ Con stables who were behindhand on their rates to the Treasury, were directed to pay up at once, on pain of attachment.-^'^ John V/inthrop, jr., "being former ly chosen an Assistant, did nowe take an oath to his said place belong- inge/'^^* Ordnance and ammunition were voted to be sent to the plantations 5'ears of aje S: 4 smal children, &. nirhlng to live upon.'' Eu: Savage [Gen. Diet, iv : 5'^5] savi ho v.-as 60 in 1G34. ; and he certainly wis put down at 60 en the shipping list of the J^rrt«i-/j-, in which he came iVom Ipswich, Eng., in April 1634. [Hotten's Origijial Lists cf Persons cf Qnality, Evtigrants, etc. 279.] One may find addi tional facts about him in Drake's Hist. Bosioji, i: 7'ji, 793, 79S- ^'^^ Mass. Col. Rec. i: 159. The strict Charter pro vision i a regard to this matter required the administra tion of the oath of oince to "aU ofncers" to be lefore the Governor cf iJie Co?npany. In tli's, as in some other matters, the great inconvenience attending a growth of the company not anticipated, and provided> for, in the Charter, led to Icgislatioo whicli comported ¦with its spirit better than its letter. [Charter, Mass. Col. Rec. i: 13 ; Lecture of Judge Joel Parker on the Charter, etc. Lozuell Lectures by Members of Mass. Hist. Soe. 1S69, 367}. -^1 He had been an inn-keeper at Dunstable, Bedford shire; had just arrived with his wife Elizabeth and ten children, and purchased the " Great House ; " which had been built in 1629 by Thomas Graves for the Goveraor -o live in, and forthe accommodation of the courts; andwhich had subsequently been XLsed as a meeting-house. In 1O32 it had been purchased of the company for /'i3. Robert Long now ^zve jCjo* [ Frothin^ham's Hist, of Chirlcsto'i'--!, pxj, 65, 9C; Saz'-.ry, iii: I'j'l] "^- A trading house belonging to Piymouth had been captured by the French, who, on being overhauled bj' a vessel sent from PlymoLitli, prepared for defence and refused to surrender, whereupon the Plymouth men applied to Massachusetts for help. [Daylies's Hist. Mem. Plym. CoL i: 21S; Bradford's Hist. Plym. Plant. 332 ; Palfrey's Hist. N. Eng. i : 540.] -^"It seems to have been a part of tlie constables' duty to co->ect all txx:es which they received warrants from the Tieasury to gather. Considerable explicit legislation \\as called for frora time to time to secure prompt action of this sort; leading to the susijicioa that our fathers had a reluctance to pay their t.XKes, quite a5 decided as that which is sometimes manifested by their sons. [Mass. Col. Rec. i: iCo, 179, 302.] -^¦^ John Winthrop, jr., had commenced the settlement of Ipswich in 1633, and buried his first wife there in the summer of 1634. Pie sailed for England in com pany ¦with John Wilson, there married again, and I lad Just two or three days previous arrived back from Eng land, in company vaih Wilson, Thomas Shepard, Hugh Peter, Henry Vane, and others, with a commission "to begin a plantation at Connecticut, and to be governour there." As the usual number of Assistants was com- [56] at Connecticut " to ffortifie themselues withall.'" On second thought, to pre vent ill consequences from the repeal of the laws about prices and wages just ordered, it was enacted that an)- offence of the description which these laws had been intended to repress, might be considered by the Court, and punished at its discretion. A further statute, authorizing the appointment and swearing in of constables, was aLo passed. Early in the day, moreover — -for the first time for a period of a little more than three years — a man had been ordered out of the jurisdiction. His name, which was John Smyth, — a miller of Dorchester — was even then most un favorable for individualization ;^'^ and the general terms of his sentence, which was "for dj'vers dangerous opinions, wch he holdeth & hath dyvulged,"^"' together with the fact that we do not find the name of this John upon the Rec ords of the Court at any earlier or later date ; make it impossible to hazard a conjecture as to the nature of his opinions, or the peculiarities of danger which attended his case. Nor does the fact that he afterwards accompanied Williams to JNIoshassuck, and became with him one of the founders of Providence, indi cate that he symi^athized with Mr. Williams in the quality of his opinions ; for Mr. Williams's account of the matter implies that he allowed Smyth to go along with him, rather from pity of his desolate condition, than from any afhnity betAveen their views.^''' The case of Roger Williams was reached at last. It will be remembered, that, having been accused of holding and teaching : (i) that the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the first table, otherwise than in such cases as did disturb the civil peace ; (2) that the oath ought not to be tendered to the unregenerate ; (3) that one ought not to pray with the unregenerate, though wife, or child ; (4) that one ought not to give thanks after the sacrament, nor after meat; and having also been guilty, with his church, of " a great contempt of authority " in having become their pastor, as he did ; all had been referred to this Court for further consideration. Of course, then, these former charges now again came up, aggravated by what had since taken place, and especially plete without him, .iiid as he was simply in transitu to Connecticut, aud his business required haste, hlb taking the oath on this occasion would seem to have been rather a matter of courtesy than of business. [Felt's Ips'wichjT.o,-]^; Holliiter's ///jif. ConT.ecticut,'\'. 26.] ^'¦'Savage names more than 70 John Smiths in his Genealogical Vict i07:ary of tlie First Settlers cf Nc-.o Englandyw". iiS-ia.)], and tliinks, beyond doubt, there must have been several more. ^«7!/,Mj. Col. Rec. i: 159. 2^^" My soul's desire was to do tha natives good, and to that end to have their laitguage (whidt I after^'ards printed), a ".d therefore desired not to bs troubled «-ith English company ; yet out of pity I gave leave to Vv'il- liam Harris, then poor and destitute, to come along ii^ my company. I consented to John Smith, miller al Dorchester (banished also), to go with me, and at John Smith's desire, to a poor young fellow, Francis W!c'.:es, as also to a lad of Richard Waterm.in's. These are al'- I remember." [Williams's Answer to W. Harris, before the Court of Commissioners, r7-27th Nov. 1677, as cited by Gov. Arnold. Hist. R. I. i: 97.] [57] by the letters of admonition, which he had addressed, in the name of his own church, to the other churches " complaining of the magistrates for injustice, extreme oppression," etc., and tlie letter to l:is own chnrch to insi.-,t upon their Mithdraw.d of communion from all the churches in tire Ba\-, "asfidlof anti- Christian pollution," etc.-'' When demanded whether he were prepared to give satisfaction to the Court in these matters, ?.Ir. Williams "justified both these letters, and maintained all his opinions.''"" They asked him whether he would take the whole subject into still further consideration ; proposing that he employ another month in reflection, and then come and argue the matter before them. This he distinctly declined; choos ing '¦' to dispute presently." They then appointed Thomas Hooker to go over these points in argument with him, on the spot, in the endeavor to make him see his errors. One single glimpse of this debate is afforded us, by Mr. Cotton, writing not very long after. He says that ¦Nlr. Williams complained, now in open Court: "that he was wronged by a slanderous report up and downe the Countrey, as if he did hold it to be unlawfull for a Father to call upon his ehilde to eat his meate. Our reverend Brother Mr. Hooker, (the Pastor of the Church where the Court was then kept) being mooved to speake a word to it. Why, saithe he, you will say as much againe (if you stand to your own Principles) or be forced to say noth ing. When Mr. Williams was confident he should never say it, Mr. Hooker replyed. If it be unlawfull to call an unregenerate person to take an Oath, or to Pray, as being actions of God's worshijD, then it is unlawfull for your unregen erate ehilde to pray for a blessing upon his on\ti meate. If it be unlawfull for him to pray for a blessing upon his meate, it is unlawfull for him to eate it (for it is sanctified by prayer, and without pra3-er unsanctified, f Tiin. iv : 4, 5.) If it be unlawfull for him to eate it, it is unlawfull for you to call upon him to eate it, for it is unlawfull for you to call upon him to sinne. — Here Mr. Wil liams thought better to hold his peace, then to give an Answer."---' It is not perhaps surprising, under all the circumstances, that, after spending the rest of the day in discussion, all ended where it had begun, in that neither the Court nor Mr. Hooker found it possible to " reduce him from any of his 213 Winthrop's fournal, i; 171. 2'^ Winthrop [yournal, i: 171], is our main reliance for the account of this trial, supplemented, in some points, by others. Mr. Knowles has the good sense and magnanimity to style him [i^femoir, 64, 75] "the mild and candid Winthrop," and frankly acknowledges that " this truly great man wrote without the angry tem per which most of the early WTiters on t'ne subject e.xhibited." '^-' Cotton's Reply to Mr. Williayns his Exami/ta- tio}i, etc. 3?. Cotton Mather repeats this from his grandfather's book [Magnalia, Book vii : S], adding the characteristic comment ; **such the Giddiness, the Con fusion, the A ntocatacritie of that Sectarian Spirit!" [58] errors." His positions; to his mind, had a ^' Rockie strength." He was ready for them, *'not only to be bound ai^d banished, but to die also in New Eng land, as for most holy Truths of God in Christ Jesus.""^ \A'hercupon adjournment seems to have taken place, for a night's rest and refiection. The next day- — which was Friday 9-19 October, 1635 — -" the Court reas- ^^ I quote here his own langon;;e concerning the mat ter, on n subsequent occasion, which, most likely, sam ples \^hat lie said at the time. [Mr. Cotton^s Letter Exatnined and Ajisu.ered, etc. 5.] "- 1 believe I have the pleasure to be th^ first writer on the subject to state this date of ths banishment of Roger Williams with entire accuracy. A singular vari ety of times lias bcfen assi^^ed to it. Winthrop [your nal, i: 170] puts it under the general dale of" October.'' Hubbard [Gen. Hist. N. Eng. 202] seems to put it at some time in 1634. Holmes [A7inals,'i'. 225] certainly does this. Neale [Hist. N. Eng.i: 1.12] makes the same strange blunder. Morse and Parish [Compend ious Hist. N. E7ig. SG] give no date whatever. Backus [Hist. N. E?ig. i: 69] simply quotes Wintlirop's general date of "October, 1G35.'* Knowles [Memoir, -jz] does the same. Gammell [Life,s~1 says the sentence v,~a.s passed on the 3d November, 1635. Elton [Lfe,2C)] follows Gammell, as does Underwood [hitroduciioji to Blondy Tenent, etc. xxij. Felt [Eccl. Hist. N. Eng. j: 231] puts it generally under October, 1635. Palfrey [Hist. N. E^'j.M 412] prints "3 Sept." in his mar gin against the sentence. Ex. Gov. Arnold [Hist. R. I. i: 37] and Mr. R A. Guild, [Diog. Introduc. Works, etc. Pub. Narragansett Club, i: 27] fix it on the 3d November, 1635 Prof. J. L. Diman, in editing the second of the series of volumes issued by that Club, shows-, [I bid, W: 23^] that ths first session of the Gen eral Court which passed the sentence was held at New Town ou the 2d Sept. 1635, then adjourned to the next day, and then adjourned to "the Tliursday after the next Particular Court." He shews that the Particular Court referred to, met at NuwTown on Tuesday 6 Oct. '^'35' wliich would fi>: the date of reassembling of the General! Court for Thursday, S Oct. 1635 (although the marginal date of 3 Sept. is care' cssly carried through the whole record ) He therefore fixes S October as the date of sentence. P-ut AVmthrop, after referring to the trial and the debate and its failure, says: ''so,t/:e ?zext 7norni7ig, the Court sentenced hliii, eic.'' which natu rally carries the important date one day further along, to Friday 9-1Q, where I assign it. Prof. Diman by no means overlooked this statement of Winthrop, but sug- Kests that — writing sometime after — his me mon.' may have been at fault, or that the Governor may mean that the vote, wliich had been determined upon the night before, was officially announced the ni.xt morning. To this I reply that, from the appearance of the entries, Winthrop would seem to have j:iade the record between I November and 3 November — or about tliree weelcs (only) after the event ; so that liis memory can liardly be presuraed to be then at fault ia regard to so distinct a matter as whether the sentence was passed on Thursday night or Friday morning; while the fact that so large an amount of business — some of it of a character to pro voke discussion — preceded the trial of jMr. Williams, while that must have occupied, it v.-ould seem, a long time; whh the further fact that a fe.v other important votes, two of \\hlch might h.^ve started debate, are on the record fallowing Mr AVillJams's sentence; renderit eminently probable that more time must have been con sumed by the entire sitting of the Court than would have been afforded by v.hiit of Thursday remained after the earliest hour of meeting convenient for its assem bling. I esteem it, therefore, much more prob.ihle that the Court adjourned over until Friday on the conclusion of Mr. Williams's hearing, r.r.d that the record of ad- jourjiment was om.;::ed (erfc-cia'Iy as one error of this sort is even now palpable on the page), than that Win throp forgot, or that the entire of the business could have been crowded into o-.e abbreviated day. I am confirmed in this view by noticing that, in the Court Rec ord of the case of IMr. John V.'heilwright, in November, 1637, no change of date is noted in the margin between the trial and sentence, while in the particular account which is given of the trial in A Sliori Story cf tlie Rise, Reign, and Ruine of the A ?i.tino-ni.-ins, etc.. It is dis tinctly stated that an adjournment overnight look place: "although the cau^e was now ready for sentence, yet night being come, the Court arose and enjoyiied him to appeare the next morning. The next morning he appeared, etc." [p. 26]. Precisely the same thing is, moreover, to be noticed in the trial of Mistress Anne IIutchuiFion. The Court Record [-h'zjj. C^/. j'v'fc. i: 207] there has the appearance of being unbrolcen, as if all which is set down before the adjournment to the 15-25 Nov. 1637, li'^f^ taken place inxin the 2-12 November. But the same Short Story [p. 30] gives these particulars: "It was neare night, so the Court brake up, and she was enjoyned to appeare againe the next morning. When she appeared the next daj', etc" This looks as if it had been the Seci etary's custom to count it one [59] sembled, and, there being no concession on the part of Mv. Williams, and no change in their own convictions of duty — in v/hich they were reenforced by "all the ministers, save one,"'" — they passed the following sentence: AVhereas :Mr. Roger Williaius one of tlic ciders of t! - church of Salem, hath broached c^ dyvulged dyvers newe & dangerous opinions, agair,.^t the aucthoritie of magistrate^;, as also writt Ires of defamacon, both of Ihe magistrates d; churches here, i: that before any con- viccon, Sc yet mainetaineth the same without retraccon, it is therefore ordered, that the said Mr. "Williams shall depte out of this jurisdiccon within si.xe weekes nowe nexte ensuing, wch if hee neglect to pforme, it shalbe lawfull for the Gour ni7iation, etc. 56. ^''^Mr. Cotto7i's Letter Exainined, etc. 13. ^"* !Mr. Cotton says in his Reply, etc. : "The Court being held within twelve or fourteene miles distance from Sakm, travell to, and fro, was no likely cause of such distemper. And whatsoevi^r Hi Labours weie in Towne or Field, on the Lordes Dayes, or weeke dayes, (I de tract not from them) but this is all I wou.d say, That tint sodaine distemper fell not upon liim, neitlierin the field at his labour, nor on the weeke daye, at the outside, to reach So.xv.ims, where they \vqu1c1 be sure of the best which tli-j Indians had. Ihtt lie who reads Edward WInsIow's account of his visit to Soivams fifteen years before — how he v.'cnt ^np perl 0:^5 to bed, and was " wors^ weary of hIslod;^in;_^ than of his loitrncy" [Mjurt''s Relation, .\^'} — may well undcrstar.d that N\"illiams need liere use r.o unuoiited e,\aggcra;ion of speecli in declaring his small acquaintance, during all that time, with bread and bed. ]\Ir. Guild [Pnb. Narrng^rr.sctt Cinb,'\\ 32] concludes tint he went by ica. to Seekonk; so intcri;et;ng Wil liams's expressions that he was 'Sorely tossed," that he '^ steered his course to the Nahlgonsct-bay from Salcm, ctz.^' [Letter aboz'c^Tx.wA especially his comp'aint [Cot- ton''s Letter Exa77uncd, etc. 12] of "hardships of sea and land, in a bnul::.hed condition." Eut Prof Diman has pointed out [Pub. Narragansett Club,\\\ S7] that the cuinmon metaphor of "steering his course" Is to be interpreted bj' his accompanying words: "though In winter snow, etc. ;'* which would not naturally apply to a voya^;e by water; while the connection of the phrase ''hardships of sea and land, etc.," linking it with " debts, necessities, poverties and miseries," clearly points, not to the incidents of this particular journey, but lo his general c.\pericp.ces in the years since he lived at Salem. This theory that V/ilhams went by sea, was propounded years ago by Gen. G. M. Fessenden of Warren, R. I , in au ing^mlous paper stiil existing in MSS., in the archives of the K. I. Historical Society [Arnold's Hist. R. I. ix : 163]. Eut to one wlio consid ers all that is involved, the notion is Intrinsically absurd. A rowing voyage in an open boat I.i the dead of winter. [63] It may be added here, in brief, that besides tho,>c v.ho immediately identified themselves, and their future, with Mr, Williams, there were three men and eight "V'.^-.non lelt at Srdcm who cherished and avov/cd his peculiar vicv;s y'"'' that the '¦Jiiurch, as such, followed him into the vrilderricss Avilh what it regarded a.s its r.ppropriate labor ;-^' admonished him for wrong-doing v;hen he demitted his ministry y^^ and, finally, after he had repudiated his infant baptism, been rebap- tized,"'^ and, three or four months after,^ had renounced his second bapdsm and become the " Come-outer" from all current sacred rites, and existing relig ious organizations that he always after remained,"^^ the}"" consummated their exposed to those " deangerous shoulds and roring break ers" off the elbow of Cape Cod, wlilch on the io-2otli of November drove the Mayflower back [Eradford's Hist. Piy7U. FLxni. 77], would be an act of nerd'.uss foolhardlness — to say nothing of h"s ris'.c of running into the jaws of the very pinnace commissioned to arre ^t him, and within eye-shot of the ship from v,hich he was try ing to escape — cf wliich we cannot believe 'h\x. Wiiilams guilty. Eesldes, WiUiams expressly says, [Mr. Cctto7i's Letter Ex-x::timd, etc. 1] that he was *' exposed to winter miseries in aliozvlijig \Vilder7tess^'' and again, in the preface of that work, '"To the Impartlall Reader," he speaks of himself as "exposed to the mercy of an howling Wildernesse in Frost and Snow;" and still again, [/ii/i/, 33] he calls it "the miserie of a Winter's Eanish- ment amongst the Barbarians.'' These are expressions entirely germa^.e to the common theory of a land jour ney, but aim...: irreconcilable w.th the fancy that he went by water. -^¦^This came out in the April following, when the church at Salem asked counsel of the other churches v.-hat course should be taken with this minority, and whether it might not ba better " to grant them dUmls- slon to be a church by themselves;" and it was decided that the number was too small, besides that it was ques tionable policy "to raise churches on such grounds." [Winthrop's yjur7ial,\: 1S6.] Neal [Hist. N. Eng. (1720)!: I43J represents that; "sentence of banishment being read against Mr. Williams, ihe whole Town of Salem was In au uproar ; for such v, is the Popularity of the man, and such tlie Compassion of ths People, occa sioned by his Followers raising a Cry of Persecution against him, tha: he would Inve carried ofT the greatest part of the Inhabitants of the Town, if the Ministers of Boston had not interposed, etc." I h.ive met with the statement, however, io no cariier writer, whicli is a httle remarkable If it be true ; a= Neal N^ro- sonie fourscore years af'.er the occurrences took place, anrr in another country. 2" There is a passage in Cotton's Controversie Con- cer?ii7tg Liberty of Conscience in Matters of RcUgicn (1649) [14], whi cli seems to refer to this labor c 3 taking place, by letter, In a soniewhat elaborate form ; in which he forbears adding extended reasons as to a certain point: "because youmay fiad that done to your hand, in a Treatise sent to some of the brethren late of Salem, who doubted as you do." 2i3"jf Jt [-,_-, J been a negligent and proi:d part in Archlppus (as Ivlr. Williams confcsieth) to refuse to hearken to tlic la-Afull voyce of the Churcliof Colosse, admonishing him of his s'acknesse in his Miaistery; I know not but it ml.:;lit be such a like part in ?.Ir. Wil liams to refuse to hearkea to the voyce of the Church of Salem, admonishing him Jo take heed of dese/ting his MInistery. Whether is a greater sinne in a ^Ilnlster, not to fullill his Mlnisteiy, or to desert his Minister}-?" [Cotton's Reply, etc. 20.] -'¦' Winthrop's Tl??/;'/."):,', i: 293. -^'"I have bv-'cn his [Roger Williams's] Xui:;hbour these 33 years ; I have onJy been Absent in th.e time of the Wars with the Indians till this present. I walked with him in the Baptist's Way about 3 or 4 Months but in that shurt time of his Standing I discerned that he must have the Ordering of all their Affairs, or else there would be no Quiet Agreement amongst them. Ia which time he brake off from bis Society, and declared at large the Ground aud Reasons of it — that th^ir V--:^^ tism could not bs right, bc-ciuse it was not Administered by an Apostle, etc" [Letter of RicJtard Scot. Ajipcn- dW of A Ne-o England Fircbraoid Quejiched, etc. 247.] See also a letter from Williams to Winthrop, written in 1649, which gives some account of his views on Baptism, etc., at that time- [4 Mtzss. Hist. Coll. vl: 273.] -'1 [Hubbard's Geit. HiU. N. Eng. 2.>S.] See also fu.-- ther testimonies, e. g. '" At Providence, which Is twenty miles from the s:iX^i>'.:ixirliAquid7:ich'\,\\ves M^ter Wil liams, and his company of divers opinions ; mo?t are Ana baptists ; tliey hold there is no true vis,iblc Chuixh I.i the Bay, norin the world, ner any true Minister!:;.'" [Lech ford's iVii/zi^' D-:ahng, i tJ. 42.] Ualllle says, [Letters a. nd- yo2(rnals,etc. {Letter j\)Vi: 43]: " Snndry of the Inde pendents are stepped out of tho church, and f.-'llow my [64j friendly fidelity, according to the b^st light they had, by passing upon him the great censure, and excommunicating him from their fellowship.^'-' Now, in view of all the facts here hinted, the simple and only question before us must be, not what opinions Roger Williams at this time held which were incongenial with those then dominant in ^Massachusetts — whether, in point of fact, far in advance of, or far behind, those of others ; but for which of those opinions he was thus ordered beyond the jurisdiction of the plantation? Was he sent away specifically for teaching toleration ? That question I propose now to consider in the light of such evidence — cotemporary and other — as I have been able to discover, which bears upon it. Some, which would have been of extraordinary value, at least for interpreting the aspect which the subject had. at the time, in the view of the good men of the colony, seems todiave utterly perished out of the knowledge of men ;^^ enough however remains to indicate, and warrant, a clear judgment in the case. I. It is necessarily to be presumed, first of all, thatthe sentence of the Court, ordering the departure of Mr. Williams from the jurisdiction, would state with good acquaintance, Mr. Roger Williams, who says there is no church, no sacraments, no pastors, no cliurch- ofiicers or ordinances In the world, nor lias been since a few years after the Apostles." In Mr. W.'s famous debate with the Qiiakers, In ii'i72, wliich he himself reported, John Stubs asked hlin why he made certain charges against tlie Q..;a]'.>jr-;, when he was Iiimscif so guilty — "not living in church ordinances? " To which he says he replied: 'I professed that if my Soul could finde rest in joyning unto any of the Cliurches professing Jesus Christ now extant, I would readily and gladly do it, yea, unto themselves wliom now I opposed." [Geo. Fox Digged out of H is Burrozvcs, etc 66.] -^-Hugh Peter was then pastor of the church. After the excommun. cation he wrote in the church's name to tlie OLJicr cluirche-5 announcing the fact. His letter to the Dorches'.cr Cinircii has been preserved. It runs thus — under date of i-ii July, 1639; '¦ Reuerend and dcerly beloued in ihe Lord: AVce thought it our bounden duty to acquaynt yon \A\.\\ the names of such persons as haue had the great censure past vpon them in this our church, with the reasons thereof; beseeching jou in the Lord not only to reade their name; in publike to yours, but also to giue vs the like notice of any dealt with In like manner by yon, that so wee may walke towards them accordingly; for some of vs li'.:re haue had comnninlon ignorantly with such as haue bin cast out of other churches, 2 Thes. Hi: 14. Wee can doe no lesse tlien haue such noted as disobey the truth." Then follow the names of Roger Williams and wife, and eight others, who have wholly refused to hear the Church, denied it. and all the churches of the Bay, to be true churches, etc Hutchi}iS07t Papers. '^^'C^ Ecc. Hist.'w 379.] -^ I have in mind especially " a full Treatise" on the subject, twice referred to by ilr. Cotton as having been written by John Eliot. He sa^-s, [Reply io Mr. JP'il- lianis his Exatn. etc. 7]: '¦^Vhat causes moved the Magistrates so to 1 rocccd against him [R. Vi',] at that time, is fully declared byanotb.er faithful! and diligent hand. In another Treatise of that matter." And again, [Ibid, 2(1] he says: *' I referre the Readerfor Ansuer to a full Treatise of that Argument, penned by a reverend f.uthfuU Brother (the Teacher of the Churcli at irt.V:i---- bury), clc" I have never met with this treatise, nor — after considerable research — ever seen it cal.alogued as existing in any library. It seems, at first glance, im probable tha!: Cotton should refer English, and other miscellaneous readers of his cwn book, to such a treatise for information, if it exist.d only in manuscript; but we have ample evidence that many such tractates did then have a considerable public circulation, which were never printed: e.g., Edwa.-Js, in 1644, in his A?:i.z_'>chgia [201], after enumerating five or si.v books as sunpoi'ilng a certain view, adds, "and in manuscripts not a few, par ticularly in a manuscript intituled A Treatise about a Church, etc.'" \'cry likely this manuscript had been sent to England to be printed, and Cotton suppo-'Cd It had beeu; inasmuch as sometimes years then paired, before it would be known here whether a manuscript forwarded to London forthe press had been issued, or not. Cotton says it was so long before his own Letter was printed, that lie had almost forgotten it. [Reply, etc. i.] [65] some exactness the reasons in viev; of which such action was taken. If the reader will turn back to that sentence,-^* and examine it carefully, he will see ihat three complaints are therein made : (i) o\' pujlic attacks u,>on the authority of tho magistrates ; (2) of defamatory letters concerning ihem, and the churches, and (3) of contumacious persistence in this course. There is no proof here that the subject of " souldiberty " came into the question in any manner. Mr. 'Williams had denied that the magistrates had authority to proceed upon the assumption that their land-patent was good in equity, or to administer the judi cial oath to unregenerate citizens; as really as ^ and more earnestly than — he ever had gainsaid their right to " punish the breach of the ftrst table." And, although it appears from Winthrop that, in the previous July, Mr. Williams had denied to the Court the magistrates' power in matters of religion, it is not in evidence that that point was specifically made in the final trial. 2. Various testimony^^ may be cited from Mr. Williams himself, in proof that it was upon something else than his views on the subject of toleration, that he understood the action of the Court to rest. (i.) He admitted that Governor Haynes was exact in his summing up of the case ;-''^ while that only incidentally alluded to the subject of toleration, but laid no stress upon it.^^ (2.) In one of his communications to iVIr. Cotton he narrowed down the causes of his "banishment" to a single one, and that he declared to be "my humble and faithfull, and constant admonishing of them of such unclean walking between a particular Church (which they only professe to be Christs) and a Nationall."^"^ Prof. Diman, in annotating this passage, forcibly calls atten- -'^ See p. 59. '"^ Wi'.h EO much positive testimony as I am about to present, it seems hardly worth while to detain the reader with negative evidence. I only therefore here raise the qus.^tioii whether, if Mr. AVilliams's '"banishment" was due to any such \iew of his on the liberty of conscience, as II has been of late years fashionable to assert, it be not a rem.arkable circumstance tliat neiih-jr Thomas Morton (-.vho publlslicd his A'eTO English Canaan In 1637), nor Thomas Lechfo:-d (-vho published his Fl.ziu Dealing in 1642), both of whom h.Med the Colonist?, and coLild have nsed r.uch a fact with signal force — and would have had no scruples in doing so — did not men tion it; although the latter refers to Williams and his opinions? I submit, also, that it seems unaccountable that Capt. Edward Johnson — who was in Chariestown just before, and just after, the occurrence — in writing his Wouder-U''orki7ig FrovidoiCe of Si07ih Sa-jiour, (Ti'iT., within twelve or fifteen years, and in referring dis tinctly lo Mr. WMIIams therein [131], said nothing about a fact — if it were a fact — so v.-ell suited to be mentioned by him. ^^Seep. 55. -" " I ack-!OWiedge the particulars were rightly summed UD, etc." [Mr. CottoiUs Letter Kxa7/tined, etc. 5.] -¦^ E}' this he means his unceasing endeavors to con vict the colonists of sin, because they would not refuse permission to their church members, In revisiting Eng land, to worship in tlie congregations of the Church of England — the ground of his separation from his own Salem Cliurch. The statement is found In Mr. Cotto7-Ss Letter Exainitied, etc. 33; and on the same page h: repeats the avowal that he "at last suffred for sic'i admo/iitio-ns tt? the7n, the miscrie of a Winter's Banish ment amongst the Barbarl.ins." Entirely In the same lire is his declaration, in hisletterto JoIin Cotton, jr., (March 1671), to this effect: '" I first withdrew communion from yourselves for [your] halting between Christ and Anti- Christ, the parish churches, and Ciirlstlan congregations." [Proceedings Mass. Hist. Sac. 1S5S, 315.J [66] tion to the remarkable fact that Mr. Williams here makes no allusion whatever to his opinions respecting the power of the civil magistrate, " although such allusion would naturally find a place in a discussion respecting 'the evill of a National Church.'"-"^' (3.) In The Bloody Tenent Yet More Bloody (1652) IMr. Williams goes some- %Yhat at large into the matter. lie says :''' I know those thoughts have deeply possessed not a few, considering also the sinne o£ the Pattcnts, wherein Christian Kings (so calld) are invested with Right by virtue of their Chris- tianitie, to take and give away the Lands and Countries of other men ; As also considering the unchristian Oaths swallowed downe, at their coming forth from old England, especially ir. superstitious Laud, his time and domineering. And I know these thoughts so deeply .afflicted the Soule and Conscience of the Discusser^ in th.e time of his Walking in the way of New Englands Worship, that at last he carne to a pcr- swasion, that such sinnes could not be Expiated, without returning againe into England : or a publike acknowledgement and Confession of the Evill of so and so departing : To this purpose before his Troubles and Eanishment, he drew up a Letter"'- (not without the Approbation of some of the Chiefe of New England, then tender also upon this point before God) directed unto the King himselfe, humbly acknowledging the Evill of that part of the Pattent which respects the Donation ot Land, etc. This Letter, and other Endeavours (tending to wash off publike sinnes, to give warning to others, and above all, to pacitie and to give Glory unto God) it may be that Couilcells from Flesh and Eloud supprest, and Worldly policie at last prevailed : for this -.-ery cause (amongst others afleriuards re-examined) to banish the Discusser from such their Coasts and Territories. The most that could be claimed here is that there may be a veiled reference to the subject of toleration, in the phrase "other Endeavours," etc.; but it lies on the surface of the statement that Mr. Vv^illiams did not here intend to make that prominent — -least of all to represent that everything hinged upon it. (4.) Quite analagous to this is another account of the matter, which came from his pen in a letter to Gov. Endecott, written in 165 1, in which he puts it thus:-'" 'Tis true, I have to say elsewhere about the Causes of my E.mishment : as to the calling of Naturall Men to the exercise of those holy Ordinances of Prayers, Oathes, &c. As to the fre quenting of Parish Churches, under the pretence of hearing some Miriisters : As to the matter of the Patent, and King James his Christianitie and Title to these parts, and bestowing it on his Subjects by vertue ot his being a Christian King, &c. At present, let it not be offensive in your e3'es, that I single out another, a fourth point, a ^¦^Publications of tlie N'arragartsett Club, ii : 165. 2'-^ I'jf whicli word Mr. Williams here means himself. -'-It has been usu.al to assume that this *' letter" was the "Treatise " [gee p. 26 rt«.V] wliich made disturbance at Plymouth, and afterward at Boston. Eut the internal evidence of such identity, I cannot help thinking to be rather slight. -'""^ Tne Bloody Tenent Vet More Bloody, etc. (Ap pendix) 305. [67] c.uise of my r.auishmcnt also ; wherein I greatly feare one or two sad evilb, which have befallen your Soule and Conscience. The point is that of tho Civill Ma^;iits lalct Dolus. It is evident the tw-o latter causes which he giveth of his Lanishment, were no causes at all, as he e.\presseth them. There are many knowne to hold both these Opinions, That it is not la-ji- fiill io heare any of the Ministers of ihe Parish Assemblies in England, and Tliat tJie Civill I'.tjg- istrales power extendelh onely ij ihe bodies, and goods, and oulvj.ird estates of men: and yet thej- are tolerated not onely to live in the Common-wealth, but also in the fellowship of the Churches. The two former, though they be not so much noysed, yet there be many, if not most, that -'''^Prof. Gamnaell'sZ^Tir, 55; Knowles's jliir;«t;zr, So ; [ pronouncing sentence, [see p. 59 fz;//c-]. W^illiams had iElton's Life, 30. not mentioned his name; simply sayir.g, "one of the 2^Page2&. I most eminent ma^iitrates" (whose name and speech 2'^The reference is to W'iUiams's report of Govemor may by others be remembered) stood up and spake, etc." Haynes's summarizing of the points in his case when 1 Mr. Cct'.cis Letter Examined, etc. 4.] [68] arc hold, That -uie have not o^ir Land, ¦merely ly right of Patent from the King, Intt thai the Natives true ouners of all that they possesse, or improve. Neither doe I kno'.v any amongst us, that either then were, or now are, of anotlier minde. And as for the other Point ; That il is not Unufull to call a luiched Person to siocare, or pray: Though that be not commonly held, yet it is knowne to be held of some, who yet are tolerated to enjoy both Civill, and Church-liberties amongst ns. To come therefore to Partictilars : Two things there were, which (to my best observation and remembrance) caused the Sentence of his Banishment : and two other fell in, that hast ened it. [a) Ills violent and tumultuous carriage against the Patent. Bythe Patent it is, that we received allowance from the King to depart his Kingdome, and to carry our goods with us, with out offence to his Officers, and without paying custome to himselfe. By the Patent, certain select men (as Magistrates, and Freemen) have power to make Lawes, and the Magistrates to execute Justice, and Judgement amongst the People, according to such Lawes. By the Patent we have Power to erect such a Government of the Church, as is most agreeable to the Word, to the estate of the People, and to the gaining of Natives (in Gods time) first to Civility, and then to Christianity. To this Authority established by this Patent, English-men doe readily submit themselves : and foraine Plantations (the French, the Dutch, and Sv/edish) doe willingly transact their Negotiations with us, as with a Colony established by the Royall Authority of the State of England. This Patent, Mr. Williams publickly, and vehemently preached against, as containing matter of falsehood, and injustice : Falsehood in making the King the first Christian Prince who had discovered these parts : and injustice, in giving the Countrey to his English subjects, which belonged to the Native Indians. This therefore he pressed upon the Magistrates and People, to be humbled for from time to time in dayes of solemn Ilum.iliation, and to returne the Patent back againe to the King. It was answered to him, first, That it was neither the Kings intend ment, nor the English Planters, to take possession of the Countrey by murther of the Natives, or by robbery : but either to take possession of the voyd places of the Countrey by the Law of Nature (for Vacnum Domicilium cedit oceufanti :) or if we tooke any Lands from the Natives, it was by way of purchase, and free consent. A little before our coming, God had by pestilence, and other contagious diseases, swept away many thousands of the Natives, who had inhabited the Bay of Massachusetts, for which the Patent was gr.anteck Such few of them as survived were glad of the coming of the English, who might preserve thera from the oppression of the Nahargansets. For it is the raanner of the Natives, the stronger Nations to oppresse the weaker. This answer did not satisfie Mr. Williams, who pleaded : the Natives, though they did not, nor could subdue the Countrey (but left it vacuum Domicilium) yet they hunted all the Coun trey over, and for the expedition of their hunting voyages, they burnt up all the underwoods in the Countrey, once or twice a yeare, and therefore as Noblemen in England possessed great Parkes, and the King, great Forrests in England onely for their game, and no man might law fully invade their Propriety : So might the Natives challenge the like Propriety of the Countrey here. It was replied unto him : (i) that the King, and Noblemen in England, as they possessed greater Territories then other men, so they did greater service to Church and Common-wealth; (ii) That they employed their Parkes, and Forrests, not for hunting onely, but for Timber, and for the nourishment of tame beasts, as well as wild, and also for habitation to sundry Tenants; [69] ¦J \'ast •irne \i up for (iii) That our Townes here did not disturb the h antings of the Natives, but did rather keepe their Game fitter for their taking ; for they take tlrcir Deere by Trap,, and r.ot by KoLnds ; (iv) That if they cuinpl.iined of any straites wee put upon them, wee gave satisf trtirm i;; i^ome'pavmcntj, or otiier, to their content ; (v) Wo did not cunceivo that it is a just 'rj''c t'. .= .j vast a Conti nent, to make nootlicr improvement of millions oi A-./es in it, but onely pastime. But these Answers not satisfying him, this was still piesscd by him as a Nationall sinne, to hold to the Patent; yea, and a National! duty to renounce the Patent : vj/iieh 1} have done, 'had suhverled thefundamentall State, and Government of the Countrey. {b) The second offence which procured his Banishment, was occasioned as I touched before. The Magistr.ates, and other members of the GeneraU Court, upon Intelligence of some Episco pal!, and malignant practises against the Countrey, they made an order of Court to take trail of the fidelitie of the People (not by imposing upon them, but) by offering to them an Oath of Fidelitie: that in case any should refuse to take it, they might not bctrust them with place of publick charge, and Command. This Oath when it came abroad, he vehemeutiy withstood it, and disswaded sundry frora it, partly because it was, as he said, Christ's Prerogative to have his Office established by Oath : partly because an Oath was a part of Gods worship, and Gods worship was not to be put upon carnall persons, as he conceived many of the People to be. So by his Tenent neither might Church-members, nor other godly men, take the Oath, because it was the establishment not of Christ, but of mortall men m their office ; nor mijht men out of the Church take it, because in his eye they were but carnall. So the Court was forced to desist from that proceeding : which practise of his was held to be the more dangerous, because it tended to unsettle all the Kingdomes, and Common-wealths in Europe. These were (as I tooke it) the causes of his Banishment : two other things fell in upon these that hastened the Sentence. [These Mr. Cotton goes on to specify — ^ at a length which need not be here minutely followed — as being (i) the provocation given by his " heady and violent Spirit" in tae Letters of Admonition to the Churches to which the Magistrates belonged, urg ing the discipline of those Afagistrates for their course about the MarbleheaJ land ;-'' and (ii) his subsequent renunciation of, and separation from his own Church, and from all the Churches in the Bay, w-ith his preaching in his own house. ^'* He then concludes]: Thus have I opened the grounds, and occasions, of his Civill Banishment ; which whether they be sandy, or rocky, let the servants of Christ judgc.*^' (2) Again, in criticising a statement upon the 38th pa-je of !Mr. Williams's Mr. Cottons Letter Examined, etc., Mr. Cotton says :°™ Here be many extenuations, and mincings of his own carriage, and as many false aggrava tions of Guilt upon his sentence of Banishment, and t'ne Authors of it. As : i. In that he was cut off, he and his, branch and roote, from any Civill being in these Terri tories, because their Consciences durst not bow downe to any worship, but what they beleeve the Lord had appointed : Whereas the truth is, his Banishment proceeded not against him, or 2'^^ See ante p. 33. 2'^ See ante p. 4O. 2^^ Earlier in the same ii^d earnestly a!, o opposed the L.iw of the gencra',1 Court, by wliich the tender of that Oath was enjoyned : and also wrote Letters of Admonition to all the Churches, whereof the Magistrates were members, for deferring to give present Answer to a Petition of Salcm, who had refused to hearken to a lawfull motion of theirs. (3) Further we find Mr. Cotton testifying tlius :"'' The casting of him [Mr. W^illiams] out of the Comraonwealth, sprung not from his difference in matters of Church Discipline. It was well knoune that whilest he lived at Salem, he neither admitted, nor permitted, any Church Members, but such as rejected all Communion with the Parish Assemblies, so much as in hearing of the Word amongst them. And this libertie he did use, and raight have used to this day, witliout any disturbance to his Civill, or Church-Peace (save onely in a way of brotherly disquisition); but it was his Doctrines and Practises which tended to the Civill disturbance of the Common-wealth, together with his heady and busie pur- suite of the sarae, even to the rejection of all Churches here. Tkcse iltey -aiere t'nat made him unfit for enjoying Communion either in the one state, or in the other. (4) Still further, Mr. Cotton says again, in another place,^' that the reasons for which the Court proceeded against Mr. Williams, were : offensive and disturbant Doctrines, and Practises against the Patent, and against the oath of fidelitie; and against the Magistrates delay of the Petition of Salem, w/'iiir/i he himselfe inowclh. (5) And, once again, he reverts to the subject in a Letter sent to England, and printed there in 1641, as follows '.'^^ It has been reported unto you (as it seemeth) tliat we receive none into our Church-fellowship until! they first disclaime their Churches in England as no Churcltes, but as limbs of the devill ; now, I answer, God forbid, God forbid : It is true, one Sheba of Bickry"'' blew a Trtmipet of such a seditiotts Separation ; I meane one Mr. Williams late Teacher of Salem, but himselfe and others that followed stiffely in that way, wlio were all e-vcommunic.ated out of the Church and banished out of the Common-wcaltlt ; for men in that waj' , and of such a spirit, are wont not onely to renounce the Churches of England, but ours also, because we held communion with them in England in the things whiclt are of God ; see therefore how unjustly wee arc slan dered for renouncing communion with you, as is mentioned, and for it they thejnseh-ss are ptin- ished in our Contmonwea!th,citnsmci. in our Charchfi, for such A r.tichristian c.c-orhitures : by this you may see the Objection clearcly answered. I pause here only to call attention to the fact that whether, as in the last '^'•'^Ilid, 64. ^T'Ibid,a,^.^^A Coppy of a Letter of Mr. Cotton of Boston, AVrt' Englan.i, sent in A ns-.ver of certaine Objections jnade against tJ^ir Discipline a'ld Orders tliere, etc. .. -'*See the 20th chapter of zd Samuel, /-irj-;V;r. [71] extract, referring to the intensely separative spirit possessed and e.-ercised by Mr. Williams, which had so much to do in bringing tho public feeling up to that pitch which dcman.led action against lv.:a ; or describing tl:e reasons of law and equity on which i!ie Court acted in djciecing b.r!ii.-.bment ; ^ilr. Cot ton's testimony is clear and absolute to the point that ilr. Williams's opinions in regard to toleration — while they were known and were unpopular— had nothing wliatever to do with the conclusion reached. I cannot forbear to add that if Islv. Cotton be correct in his understanding and representation of the facts, Mr. Williams was by no means the first, or the last, man honestly to mis take the intent and quality of judicial action bearing heavily, and, to his think ing, unjustly upon himself. 4. Gov. Winthrop is our next witness, and we have Roger Williams's own cotemporary and abundant endorsement of him, as a prudent, candid and loving one.^^ I find si.x different references from his pen to the subject. (i) His statement in his Journal, under date of S-18 July 1635, of the things at that time laid to Mr. Williams's charge, is this •.-^'^ That, being under question before the magistracy and churches for divers dangerous opin ions, viz. (i) that the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the first table, otherwise than in such cases as did disturb the civil peace ; (ii) that he ought itot to tender an oath to an unre generate man ; (iii) that a man ought not to pray with such, though wife, child, etc.; (iv) that a man ought not to give thanks after "the sacrament nor after meat, etc.; and that the other churches were about to write to the Church of Salem to admonish him of these errors; not withstanding the church had since called him to the office of a teacher. Nothing, it will be observed, is here said about the matter of the Patent, or about the subject of hearing the ministers of the Parish assemblies, because the minute covers not the entire subject of points of difficulty, but only so much as came under discussion at that particular session of the Court. (2) His statement, in the same Journal, of the proceedings at the final trial, is this :''' He was charged with the said two letters, viz.: that to the churches complaining of the mag istrates for injustice, extreme oppression, etc.; and the other to his own church, to persuade them to renounce communion with all the churches in the bay, as full of antichristian pollution, etc. He justified both these letters, and maintained all his opinions, etc. ^'^Witliin a year after his banishment we find W"il- liams writing to liinr thus; "Much honored Sir: the frequent experience of your loving care, ready & open toward me (in what your conscience hath permitted), as allso of that excellent spirit of wisedome 8c prudence wherewith the Father of Lights hath endued you, em bolden me to request a word of private advise, etc." [^ Mass. Hist. Coll. vi: i.S6.] A short time after we find him lllid, 233] saying: *'I therefore now thancfc- fully aclcnov.!ed;^e your v.-Lsedoine Sc gent'enes in receav- ing so lovingly my late rude & foolish lines: you beare with fooles gladly, b^'C.-u^e you are wise. I still waite vpon your loue and faytlifullnes, etc" Many lilie ex pressions might be quoted. 2''m: 1G2. -^^i: 171. [72] There is surely no evidence here that any emphasis was placed in the last and decisive session of the Court, on the tenet as to toleration ; if (under this ''all his opinions") it came up at all. (3) .-\.t the time of Mr. Williams's fiiglit from Salem, Gov. Winthrop writes, as follows:-'^ He had so far prevailed at Salem, as many there (especially of devout women) did erabrace his opinions, and separated from ihe churcltes for this cause, that some of their metnbers, going into England, did hear the ministers there, and ''oohen they came home the churcltes Iicre Jield communion loilh thein. This puts the stress of the matter, practicall}', solely upon the subject of Sep aration ; as if that were the sum and substance of " his opinions." (4) Near the middle of the following April, occurs another mention, to this effect :=™ The Church of Salem was still infected with Mr. Williams his opinions, sons most of them held it ur.lazoful to hear in the ordinary assemblies in England, because their foundation was anti christian, and we should, by hearing, hold communion with them ; and some loent so far as they ¦were 'ready to separate from the Church upon it. (5) In the letter to Endecott, to which reference was made in its place,"^ Gov. \'\''inthrop says : The things which will chiefly be layd to his charge are these: (i) that he chargeth Kinge James with a solemn pnljlic lye; (ii) that he chargeth both Kinges,-" & ethers, with blasphe- mye for callinge Europe Christendom, or the Christian world, &c.; (iii) for personal application of three places in Rev. to our present Kinge Charles ; (iv) for concludinge us all heere to lye under a sinne of unjust usurpation upon otlters possessions, etc. It is true tliat this had relation to the initial stage of the controvers}', and yet it is remarkable, if the whole contest were fought with reference to " soul- libert)-," that no mention of it finds place here. (6) After the action which was had two years subsequent to Mr. W^illiams's case in reference to Mr. Wheelwright, Gov. Winthrop felt called upon to pre pare a formal argument in defence of the order of Court. In this he refers to the earlier trial, thus :"'" If we conceive and finde by sadd experience that his [a Christian man's] opinions are such, as by his own profession cannot stand with external! peace, may we not provide for our peace, by keeping off such as would strengthen him, and infect others with such dangerous tenets? ^» /«;•Iathers by marriage; he amassed a :^reat collection of manuscripts bcariiig uijon early New England Patent, the Oath, Separ.iuon, etc.] "for these things, lie was at lcn,:;th banished the Colony, as a disturber of the peace of the Church and Coni- monueaiih. {Historical Discourse. Coll. R. I. Hist. Sac. iv: 72.] Douglass Cr753): "because of his Antinomian, Faml- listical, Erownist, and oilier fanatical Doctrines, thougli in other respects :i good man, he was ex communicated and banished from Mass. Colony by their Assembly or Le.o;! slat ure, as a Disturber of the Peace of the Church and Commonwealth-" \_Sii7>i37iary,etc.\'. 77.] Backus {i-jj-f): *'Ey the first and 'ast of tills accoimt it is evident that the grand difnculty they had with Mr. Williams was, hii denying the civil inaL;is- trates right to govern in ecclesiastical affairs." iHist. X. E7ig. i: 69.] Morse a7id Parish {1S04): "On account of these senti ments [the Oath, the Patent, the civil iiiagishates, etc.], and for I'efusing to join wilh the INIassacIiLi- setts churches, he was at Icngtli banished the Col ony, as a disturber of the peace of the Church and Conimonwcalth." iHist. N. Eng. (ed. iSoS) S6.] Graha7it{\^zf): "Had Williams encountered iho scvc.- ities to which tlie publica:ion of h!s i^ccuiiar opin ions would have exjio^ed him in longland, he would probably have lost his senses; the wiser and kinder treatmL-nt he experienced from the Massachusetts authorities was productive of liaj>- picrcfTects.'' Mlistoj'ycf U. S.{ci\.. iS56)i; 163.] Baylies (1S30): "The magi-strates, fearful of distrac tions among--t the jxn-'c, a:'>'^r a;;:;niin''\,', witli much earnestness, to r^c'alr.i hi:ii pioceoded at length to banish him from the colony 'as a dis turber of tlie peace both in the Ciuiich and Com monwealth.'" {.Hist. PJcj-.i.ofPly.n.Col.i: z^:>y'\ Bancroft {i%z-\)'- [aftormore than seven pages of grace ful rhetoric. In which lie adroit'y managi-s to evade most of the main points at is-.ue] • *'lct there be for the name of Roger Williams at !ea'5t some humble place among tiiose who havt: advanced moral sci ence, and made themselves the bcriefaclors of man kind." VliU. CoL ofU. S. (cd. iS4o)i: 37;]. Bradford {I'i^-T,'^: "They were inexcusable in their treat ment of Roger Williams, who was an honest, though an eccentric character . . merely for his honest independence of opinion driven out of the colony in the midst of a severe winter." \IIist. Mass. 33. ] Hi'dreth (iS-V>): "This threat of scliism filled up the measure of his offences." {Hist. U. S.'w 22S.] Felt ( i'^55) : "It is not easy to perceive how our General Court could have abstained, consistently witli their solemn engaze:r.ent to seek for the preservation and highesc good of the State, from dealing wilh Williams as ih.ey had." {Eecles. Hist, N. Ejig. i: 232.] Barry {tZ^l): "it was because his opinions differed from the opinions of those among whom he lived, and were considered by them as dangerous and seditious, ten-Jing to the utter destruction of their commr.nity, lint he was a sacrifice to honest con victions of trv.ih and duty." {Hist. Mass. i: 241]. 0//2't'r{ 1S5O); "Ro-er Williams was cast out into the wilderness, b::cause he taught that it was unlawful even 'to hear the godly ministers' of the Cliurch of England."* {F7trita;i Co37i]iionzvealtk., 192.] Elliott {I'^^y): [after considerable fine WTiting]: **it is difficult to see how they could resist WITliams's position," but "it must be remembered that it is not uncommon for religious controversy to de bauch llie Ir.tL'.lect and to paralyze the affections, ai d that V.': iinnis was himself injured by it" [.'.". £)ig. Hist, i: 205.] Palfrey {\^^-f~'): '"Tl-.e sound and generous principle of rt perfect freedom of th.e conscience in religious concerns, can scarcely be shown to have been in volved in th!s disp'.ne. . The questions which he rnised, and by raising which lie pro- vol;cd oyipoi-tion, were questions relating to polit ical t ,;h'.5, .".nd to the administration of govern ment. . Tliere is no reason whatever to doubt, that, correctly or otherwise, they [the Court] con sidered themselves tu be proceeding in the way which the safety and well-being of the Colony, as a civil community, required. . . In fact, the ynurg luinisicr of Salem had made an issue with his rulors a;-,d hlj neiglibors upon fundamental points of iheir pouerand their property, includ ing their I ov.cr of sel .^-protection against the tyranny from v.hich tliL-y had lately e-^caped. . . r.ut it wa.i not to be thought of bythe sagacious patriots of Mass, that, in the great work which they had in hand, they should sutTer themselves to be defeated by such random movements." [Hist. X. Et:g. i : 413, 414, 415, 417.] ^^Ilist. Mass. (ed. 1795)1: Frcface,vi 41. [79] history, and became the first comprelicnsive narrator thereof ; so that v.hat he says claims always careful and respectful coiisi;!eration. Naturalb.-, in tb.o per spective inhering in the time \Yiicn he v./. ^le ,'j,ublis;.iiv.;- in i^C^}, he d-.'.-arfs the trial of ^Ir. Williams, and its resuls. to little more than a .si.i^de pa';e. What is remarkable about his gencrali/at -.n, i^, tliat, reducing the v/hole case to a single issue, he makes that issue — not one of ioLrati';ii, but — one un named before, in that connection. He says : But what g.-ive just occasion to the civil power to intcrpoie, was his influencing Mr. Endecot, one of the magistrates and a member of his church, to cut the cross out of the Kind's colours, as being a relique of antichristian superstition. . . Endeai'ours were used tn reclaim him, but to no purpose ; and at length he was banished the jurisdiction. Studying carefully now all this evidence, I fmd it conducting the mind with irresistible force straight toward one conclusion. It is true that ^Nlr. Williams did hold, in an inchoate form, and had already to some extent ad\-ocated, that doctrine of liberty of conscience, with vihich his name afterward became prom- inendy identified. It is true that the language of the official sentence is sus ceptible of a construction which might include this among his "newe and dan gerous opinions." It is true that JNIr. Williams did hiinself claim that it was so included. But it appears to be also true that he liiinself never claimed more than this ; and that, in his own viev,', his banishment was only incidentally — in no sense especially — for that cause. Wliile the careful and repeated state ments of ^Ir. Cotton, with their reiterated endorsement by Guv. Winthrop, go to show that IMr. Williams was mistaken in supposing that the subject of the rights of conscience had anything whatever to do with the action of the Court upon his case ; action, in reality, solely taken in view of his seditious, defiant, and pernicious posture toward the State. This, it appears from the testimony of j\Ir. Gorton, and of Gov. Winslow, supported by that of Secretary IMorton, of Mr. Hubbard, of Judge Scottow, of Cotton Af ather and of Gov. Hutchinson, was the general understanding had of tlie matter bythe New England public of that day ; while Edwards and Baillie speak to the same point from over sea. And, as I am aware of nothing purporting to be proof to the contrar}-, other than the (necessarily biased, and presumably ill-informed and partial) opinion ofMr. Williams himself, before cited ; I cannot help thinking that the weight of evidence is conclusive to the point that this exclusion from the Colony took place for reasons jjurely^political, and having no relation to his notions upon toleration, or upon any subject other than those, which, in their bearing "upon the'common rights of property, upon the sanctions of the Oath, and upon due subordination to the pov/ers that be in the State, made him a .subverter of the [So] very foundations of their government, and — with all his •.vorthiness of charac ter, and general soundness of doctrine — ^a nuisance '.v.i'.h i: S"cr;v;c to them the)- had no alternati\-e but to ab.^te, in some ^'.•Iy sai'e ; j ;'..er:i, av.. k:;idest to him ! Let it here be distinctly remembered that Roger V,";:'.i-ni-; v.t.s. ;.7 1635, ^ Congregational minister in good and regular standing ; and so remained v.'ith- out any taint of doctrinal heresy for months, almost for years, after his ban ishment; so that he was not driven away because he was a Baptist. Xor was his offence, as so many~"scem" to think, that he was too tolerant in spirit for his times ; for the most grievous thing about him, and that w hich c'.early most exasperated his enemies, was that lie was so intensely rigid in his principles of Separation, that almost two years after John Robinson's treatise Of Ike LaKf nines of ff earing of the Ministers in ihe Chirrch of England, "found in his studie after his decease, and now published for the common good," had seen the light, he refused even to commune with his own church, because it would not break off from communing Yi'ith the other churches in the Bay — for t'.iat they v.ould not decree that if their members, when now and then visiting liome in Old England, should go inside the parish churches, and listen to the preaching of the Establish ment, they must undergo Ecclesiastical censure on their return for so doing ! The intelligent reader will not fail to perceive that the question which I have been laboring to settle, is one solel}- of fact, and not of casuistry; v. aether the General Court of the Governor and Company of the I^Ir.isacliusetts L'tlv did, or did not, banish Roger Williams for a certain alleged reason ; rr.ther t^ an whether they acted wisely in what they did, or v.'hether he deserved banish ment for any reason 'i These are separate ranges cf in^xstigation. That Vwiich may furnish satisfactory reply to the former, may shed no gleam of V-fX upon the latter. And having disposed of the one, it is not my purpose to ent^r upon any conclusive discussion of the other. I can hard'.y cljje, hj-,ve-,-cr, without putting on record a few further suggestions which have cjnie to me in the study of the literature of the case, and which are perhaps v;o:;hy of being noted as contributions to any exhaustive consideration of the equity of the subject. I. All candid inquiry must fairly weigh the true char.tcter of the plantation. I have shown that it was not an ordinar}' colony. It v/as a select settlement upon a vast, lonely, and almost empty continent, open on every si.'.e to the choice of other settlers of different affinities. It was first of all intended to afford its undertakers an opportunity to live together in the free and unmo lested enjoyment, and following, of certain spiritual ideas which were very dear to thern. There can be no question that they were entrusted with the legal pre rogative to purge tliemselves of alien elements ; while their right in courtesy [8i] and justice to do so, stood essentially on the same gTound on whicli a pleasure party of special friends may properly eject an incongenial intruder. And, that one of radically h.ostilc opinions, under tl.j^e ci;-:;i,;;- rincc:,, a",d with t'.e v,-orld all before liim where to choose, shoalvl ;v;:--:?t in forcing JiiniselL' up-jw them ; and, being resident among them, .-.ho'.;:d spjnd his streiigth in decryir.g their fundamental principles, not merely, Lu: ia d'ji;jg his utmost to cut the very bands by which their social order was heid together ; was a thin"- as much more intolerable to them than would be a similar procedure to the A'ineland settlement, or either of those close "communities" v.hich now exist amonT us ¦ as the necessary perils of an experiment in process of trial two centuries and a half ago under nearly every conceivable disadvantage, upon the edge of a sav age wilderness, must ovenveigh the petty risks of a modern pleasure venture in the science of sociolog}-. And how long even Vineland would tolerate the presence of one who should disturb its peace in any manner kindred to that in which Roger Williams disturbed that of the Alassachusetts Colony ; and ho-.v much the -vvell-informed community would pit}- such a disturber upon his con sequent ejectment; I leave others to judge. 2. Not less essential is some careful consideration of the essence of the man. It is difficult to look over the grand hights of the achievements, and the lofti ness of the mature quality, of some who have filled large space in the public eye, to note minutely the follies of their early days. And there was so much of sweetness, wisdom, and true nobility in the adult development of Jilr. Williams, as to make it hard for us to remember that he always had great faults, and that those faults were of a kind to make his immaturity uncomfortable to others. In itself, no student could desire to go back now to draw his frailties from their cread abode ; but if the j-ustification of others become his inculpation, the truth must be spoken. It v.-ould be a curious study of ch.-.racter to follow exhaustively tiie traces he has left of himself upon the history of his time — in what he did and said, and v,-rote ; and in wliat others wrote to, and of him, and said about him.™' Those were days of free and rugged speech, when even the best of men sometimes allowed themselves to suspect and stigmatize the motives of others, and to employ bitter words in so doing ; and j JSt allowance must be made for this. But after all due deduction, it will unquestionably be concluded that Mr. Williams did somehow exceptionally provoke the censures of t! ^ood. 2*^ I find upon my memoranda a cor.iid'jraule number of such "testimonies" of various cutemporarics in re gard to him, and u-ill transcribe here enough to indicate their quality: Air. Cotton says '^judicious m..'!nb'.-r3'' cf the Satem church fo^:nd him to be * ' se'.re-p'casins, se'Tj-.'-u!!, etc." \Reply, i,'/, he says " the judicious sort of C!tristians'' complaiacd of the "selt'e-conceited, p.id r.'iiui'jt- a ¦. 1 [82] When he lived in Massachusetts, he was evidently a hot-headed youth;^^ cf determined perseverance, vast energ)-, considerable information, intense con- uulairibe'i::e frame of h'^ SiKiIt" [Hid, 5]; and he :¦¦(- firms that nir.i;y v,.2;-c -^qi-Ieved at fhe Uiiinovc.^b'c sliiVj- ness a:'.dl!eaciinc=.-L- J V'.'a;-, b v,h in Jnd;;c;neMt a id P-acti^e" [//¦/./, 30], and ''tlie rocky flintlnesse of his selfc-conC- dence"and the "heady imruoiincjse of his Spirit, and the incorrlgiblencssethereof by any Church-way " [Ibid]. lie speaks al.'^o of ''his usuall e.-corbitant Hyi^erbolcs" [Hid, Gs] ; says Ills charges are " vehement and percnip- torj-, ai.d in a manner sorbonicall," and that he "ob truded upon the Churches of Christ his unwritten imag inations and censorious Decrees, as the very Oracles of God" [lbid,Zfj]\ and stigmatizes the ''liberty and bold- Ticsse of his ton^jne in calumniations" [lo-'d, 142]. So he says: '"Mr. 'Willa.-ns is too too credulous of sur mises and reports b'-ou^lU to him, and too too confident in dlvul^i'is of them" [I Fay of Co7ig. Chhs. Cleared, etc. 55]; and I rc;^ret to add that once lie says of Mr. "Williams: "itis no new thln^ with him, to say I did that, which I did not'." [Bioudy 'FeticJii IFaslwdyeic. 150.] JFii:ia77: Coddijtgton says Mr. Cotton called Mr. Wil liams; *' a Haberdasher of small Qaestlons against the Power.'' [-V. E. Firehra7id Qucju'hcd, 246.] I\Ir, IVinihrcp thousht h!m guilty of "presumption'' as well as*' errour " [yi7Hr,v.'ii^,. i: 122], yet Mr. Williams said he wrote to him: "Sir, we have often tried your patience, but could never conquer \V {Letter to yohn Coito7L,jr, Proceedings I\Liss. Hist. Soe. iS^S. 314.] Cov. Bradford \\\o^\';^\X. him "godly and zealous, having many precious parts, but very unsettled in jud_:;mente" [Hist. Flym. Flitjit. 310] ; and said he ought to " be pit ied and pra)-ed for," that the Lord would "shew him his errors, and rediise him into the way of truth, and give Mm a setled judgment and constancie in the same." [7^;"^, 311]. Eider Breii'ster \vas afraid of him, and glad to have liim leave Plymouth, " fearing that his con tinuance amongst them might cause divl3!0:i=;,"and fore casting that "he -would run the same course of rigid Sepa.'-ation and Anabaptistry which I^Ir. John Smyth, the Sebaptist, at Amsterdam, had done." [Morton's A'. E7ig. Me7:i. 7S.] Sir WiUia77t Mirti7i wrote most af fectionately of liim to Gov. Winthrop, but said: "he is passionate and precipitate, which may transport him into error, but I hoje liis integrity and good intentions will bring hini atla=.t into the waye of truth, and con- firme Iiini therein." [H:itch:iiso7i Fa.iers, loC] Cotton Mather s:x\il he had "a Windmill in his head"[J/7o-- 7ialia, vii: 7]; said lie was "a Preacher that had less Light than Fire in him" [Hud]; styles his oplnlnns " tur bulent and singular" [Ibid],7a-id calls him a " Plot-headed Man" and "an Incendiary." [/i/(/,S.] Hubbard i\\\.i\k% "he had a real, and great pity It was that it could not be ad-.l-_f', acc-^.Viing tn \-ao\:\ .-'' i.c'' {Ga:. H.'-.t: _V. Fi.--. -¦'¦2\\ s\;-. ¦¦ ilie i ':j"_ jt. :';' 'Ui sort '-¦f Cliriiti !¦.¦¦, in O'J and Xj v !"¦ _/r.'id, l.i .!.',d upon Inm asa ir. i.i of a ve-"/ se!.-(-ur.ci:; 't'\ uv.q'i'it, turb'/.iint rcid L.icl.-i,-i:a- bl2S,.'.;I: *' \_:j:.i,2'r.] ; calls l.'s zeal "overheated'' [ij.'d, 205], and liad heard that "lliey were wont to say in Ussc.":, where he lived, that he was divinely mad." [Ibid, 3Dj.] Eut ^'.I'.oiocvcr wishes to ^ee abtir-e come dow-n in sho-.\- er.-^, may be advised to examine the way in whicli the mild and peaceful Qual:ers free their mind concerning Ro^cr, in ths Xezo E7igla7id Firelra7id QuciiefLed oi Ceo. Fox and John Dumyeat (1679). The very title- page promises "a Catalogue of his Railery, Lies, Scorn and Elasphemles, and his temporizing Spirit made man ifest, " and the 4?3 quarto pages that follow quite redeem that promise. Two or tliree extracts of his " Neigh- bour-these-3S-years'5" letter, will show its general quali ty : " he must have the Ordering of all their Affairs, or else there wouldbe no Quiet Agreement amongst them" [247]; "that which took most with him, and was his Life, was, to get Honor amongst Men, especially amongst the Great Ones" {li^id]', " he was too forward in spread ing False Reports abroad " [Ibid, 243] ; '" though he pro fessed Liberty of Conscience, and was so zealous for it at the first coming hor'ia of the Charter, that nothing ia Government must bs Acted, till that was granted ; yet he could be the Forv.ardcr.t in their Govemment to pros ecute against those that could not Join with him in it: as v. itnc-'^s his Presenting of it to the Court at New port.'' [R. Scot, Ibidy 247.] WillLa77t. Coddi7igio7i. con- tributed to the same book the following: " I have known him [R.M'.] about 50. Years — a moer Weather-Cock, Constant only In Unconstancy. . One while he is a Separatist at New Piymouti;, . another time you may have him a Teacher, or Member of the Church at Salem, . . agali:st the King's Patent and Authority, and anothertimehe is Hired for T^Ioney,and getsa Patent fiom the Long Parliament; . , one time for Water-Eaptlsm, Men and Women must be plunged into the Water ; and then throw it all down arafn,ctc." [Ibid, 24'j ] — \\'ith all this may be compared the summarizing of a writer of the present centur}-, of his character: "a stubborn Erownist, keen, unpliant, illiberal, unforbear- ing and jjasslonate ; seasoning evil with good, and error- with truth." [Grahame, Hist. U.S.K: 166.] ^^It appears as if Winthrop — who knew him espe cially well — supposed hini to be but about twenty-five years old, when he was banished ; at any rate such is the int'erence which I draw from an expression in the earli est letter from Williams to Winthrop which has been pre served: "among other pleas for a young councellour (which I feare will be too Ught in the ballancc of tho [83] victions, a decided taste for novelty, a hearty love of contro\-ersy, a habit of hasty speech with ab,ohite carelessness of consequences, and a religious horror of all expediency; wlio:>e ixylc-J i;-,, tine's and who^e mobile sensibilities cc. A and reacted upon eat it ofn^r wi-.n intensiuing power; wliose convictions of moral obligation were as i:ke!y to b; the re,i.lt of sudden iLishes of feeling a? of calm and well balanced consideration ; and whose eyes were so intentiv fixed upon a great ideal line of dut\' stretching onward through the far future, and upward toward the judgment seat, as to withdraw his consciousness largelv from the path that was under his feet, and so to permit him to stumble into entangling inconsistencies which might have been avoided if his attention had been more recalled to the practical obligations of the hour. He fom-ot, too, that God's ships seldom have a wind fair enough to speed with a flowing sheet straight into port; and that the most pious seamanship must often manifest itself in sailing close-hauled as near toward the desired point as may be, and in getting, in the face of adverse gales ever and anon well about from the star board to the lar-board tack, and the reverse ; while the highest, devoutest skill of all may sometimes shov,- itself in laying to, in the face of a storm which, for the time being, forbids all progress. John Quincy Adams happily characterized him as "conscientiously contentious."^' Equally felicitous is Prof. Masson's phrase describing him as "the arch-Individualist."^" With all, were an abiding patience under trial, and meekness toward reproof; a calm courage, a noble disinterestedness and public spirit, and a predominant good temper in every strait, and tov.ard every opponent, which were the crown and glory of his remarkable character ; and which — abating, to be sure, a little of the "modum" — well entitled him to the eulogy which Lucan gave to Cato:=« hi mores, base dari immota Catonis Sectafuit, servare modum, -finemqiie tenerc, Naturamque scqui, patriceque impendere vitam, Kec sibi, sed toti genitum sc credere mundo. It is not, necessarily, a hyperbole to say that the better, the more devout — and !Mr. \\'illiams was devout, " the people being, many of them, much taken with the apprehension of his godliness "^^ — such a man might be ; the more dangerous, under certain circumstances, his infiuence might become. Holy One), you argue from 25 in a Church Elder;'' taken in connection with the fact tl:at he goes on to reply (i) that he [R. W.] is not a Church Elder, and (2) that he Is "in the dayes of my vanitie r.eerer vpwards of 30 then 25." [4 Mass. Hist. Coll. vi: 124.] '^'"S Mass. Hist. Coll. ix; 20S- ^^ Life of John MUton, afid History cf kis Time, ii: 600. 3*>-' Lucan, P/uirsaiia,, ii: 3x1. ^^Vi\nlh.zQ^syourinzl,i'. 175. [84] 3- It may be vvell, moreover, for the student who desires to go to the bottom of the subject of the banishment of i\[r. A\'illiams, to ettpcnd a litde thought upon die quesdon whether the importance of the transaction itself has not been overestimated and overstated. Clearly tlie action of the Court, at the time, notwithstanding the local excitement at Salem, made smail general sensation.""" It was merely the renewed exercise, for cause, of a power repeatedly before asserted.""'' In the February following, the event was lumped with some petty troubles in the church at Lynn, and with the existing scarcity of corn, as occa sioning the proclamation of a fast in the Colony.^ Thomas Lechford, who published his Newes from New England 'vc\. 1642, although he speaks of Wil liams, says nothing of it. Capt. Edward Johnson, in the Wonder- Working Providence of Sions Saviour in New England, in 1654, makes only slight and obscure reference to this, although he devotes considerable space to the dis turbances occasioned by Samuel Gorton and Mistress Hutchinson. Quaint Cotton Mather — with an obvious suggestion — entitles his chapter which is mainly devoted to Mr. Williams and Samuel Gorton, " Little Foxes."""^ Dr. Backus was the first of our historians to develop the modern idea of the vast significance of the trial, and he was writing " A History of New England with particular reference to the Denomination of Christians called Baptists." While those biographers of our day who have acted on the hints which he gave, and drawn attention to that rude court-room at New Town on the 9-19 Oct. 1635, as if it were one of the focal points of modern history, — Knowles, Gammell, Elton and Underwood — have all been Baptists. On the whole, perhaps Dr. Palfrey is nearer right, when he styles the disturbance produced by it, " limited, superficial, and transient," and goes on to add -.^ Kad it not been for later transactions, which revealed him in more favorable lights, and for the connection of his e-xile mth the origin of a. State, that exile, instead of taking the place in history in which it presents itself to us, might have been recorded simply as the expulsion o£ one among several eccentric and turbulent persons. His controversy speedily narrowed down to a merely personal dispute ; not a half-score of friends followed when he went away, nor were they of a character to show that he inspired confidence in the best and soberest men; scarcely a larger number of persons who remained behind adhered to his peculiarities ; and the return ing waters presently closed over the track his dashing bark had made. It is the son of Sirach who says :"" "there is an exquisite subtilty, and the same is unjust ; and there is one that turneth aside to make judgment appear." ^'^ I have called attention [see note 246 'e-Ta/h (i^'yS j^, Arber's reprint, 2j ] "¦"" We are acci!=--''l of ri^;!dr:es5 to sucli as differ from U3 in matters of religion. To tins v^e say that, from the first settling tli's plantation, these he'.erodo.-ces of Farai- llsm, Anaba;y.ism, and of late Quakerism, liave beea looked upon bythe god'.y here as great errors, and the promoters of them disturbers of peacs and order. Those auful and treineTidotis 77:oti6:!S of tiiat sort of people i7t Ger77ia7iy, arid eise-:vhere, hath sufficiently alarmed all pious and prudent men to provide a defensative against them." [Letter of Gov. Leverett, et al. {to~2o'M:iy i6'S) to Mr. Boyle. Birch's Life of Hon. Rob. Byyle, 456.] 81* "Democracy X do not conceyve that ever God d:d ordeyne as a fltt government eyther for Church, or Com- monweath. If the people be go'/ernors, who shall be governed? As for monarchy, and arlst'^crac}'. [his id:i of Congregationalism made it, cr.scr.t:^' y. th^ latter], they are both of them clearely approoved, and directed in Scripture; yet so as referreth th-? soveralgntie to Himselfe, and settcth up Tlieocracy i:t Lcth, as thi best forme of government in the Commonv. e-".:ii, as^ell as in the Church." {fohit Catto7:,tj Lord Say a7td SeaL Appendi.^. Hutciiinson's //"/j/. M.hs. i; 437.] ^'¦''It\\i5 then scircely ten years slcce all fears that PrinC'i Charles — now reigning Iving — would make a Spanisli marriage, had been put at rc=;t ; and, in thecon- di'ion of affairs then existing, no wise m-in cou'.d deny that such a turn of the tide as should throw iEngland back (so far as her political and ofncial-religious relations might go) into the condition of a iRoman Catholic coun- tr\'-, was among the possibilities; and I think th^ careful reader of New Knglaud history will be now and then reminded that many of the leading minds of the colony were wise enough tD keep that, and its probable relations to public affairs Itere, in memory. [86] against its charter; that disaffected persons, v/ho had been sent home for the colony's good, were doing their utmost to play into the hands of the King by accusing the settlers o[ intending rebellion, of proposing entire and absolute separation from the rnothjr coimtry, of habitually railing against tlie State, Church and Bishops, aud of revolutionary and anarchical behavior, in general. Only by remembering that at every step the chief actors in ^Mr. Williams's case would feel themselves compelled to inquire what the effect of all was likely to be in London, can one hope to arrive at any entirely fair judgment upon the quality of their action.^^*^ Preeminently is it essential that the dread, and almost horror, with which a general toleration of religious beliefs was then conscientiously regarded by most good meuj be recalled ;"^^ because it is conceded on all hands that J\Ir. Wil liams was already to some extent a believer in, and an advocate of this doc trine f^^ although, as we have seen, the subject entered only in the most unim portant manner, if at all, into the conflict of opinion which led to his removal. 2^'' The remark of the interesting anonjTnous writer to Gov. Winthrop, soon after this banishment, has great sig nificance in this connection: '''your Jisclayming of Mr. Williams's opinions, Sz your dealing wilh liim soe as we heare you did, tooke off much prejudice from you with vs, 6; hath Etopt the mouths of some." [4 Mass. Hist. Coll. vi ; 445.] ^"Wliat was then thought in "England of toleration, has been already Indic' ted in the extract from Edwards's Ca':grec>:a, bLfure cited [see wf.^ 2Zi ant.']. Thatthe coloni-^ts here had much the saiTie opinion, is welt known, and that they were prepared to act upon that judgment in civil things seems probable from Winthrop's state ment that the obstinate maintenance of such opinions, "whereby a church might run in:o heresy, apostacy, or tyranny, and yet the ci\il m.agistrate could not inter meddle,"' would be ground for public action. [yo7ir7ial, v. 163.] Dr. George E. Ellis has stated what I conceive to be the fact on this subject with admirable accuracy. *'To assume," he says, "as some carelessly do, that when Roger Williams and others asserted the right and sa.^ety of liberty of conscience, they announced a novelty th.at was alarming, because it was a novelty, to the authorities of Massachusetts, is a great error. Our Fathers were fuliy informed as to what it was, what it meant; and they were familiar with such results as it wTought in their day. They knew it well, and what must come of it ; and they did not like it; rather, they feared and hated it. They did not mean to live where it was indulged ; and, in the full e.xerclce of their intelligence and prudence, they resolved not to tolerate it among them. Tliey iden tified freedom of conscience only with the objectionable and mischievous results which came of it. They might have met all around them in England, in city and coun try', all sorts of wild, crude, extravagant and fanatical spirits. They had reason to fear tliat many whimsical and factious persons would come over hither, expecting to fmd an unsettled state of things, in wliich ihey would have the freest range for their eccentricities. They were prepared to stand on the defensive." [Lecture on Treat- lui'iit of Fttrudcrs and Disse7ttie;its hy the Founders qf Mass.^ct:., x-Ti Loivcll Lectures by S>Ie tubers of Mass. H:.t.Sc.:U-] "'^ I find no proof that Mr. Williams, at the time of his residence in iMassachusetts, had advanced to the holding of the full doctrine of liberty of conscience, which he afterwards avowed, and — subsequently modi- fi;:d. The gerni of it appears in his idea witli regard to the " first table ; " but it is not clear that he himself had then accepted it in all its length, and breadth, and con- seruences. The leisure which he Ind in the wilderness, af.cr leaving Salem, seems to have borne fruit, especially in that direction ; and to have led him on to a position unoccupied before. Cut the claim that Mr, Williams was, in any sense, the originator, or first promulgator, of the modern doctrine of liberty of conscience, though often made, is wholly without foundatiou. Robert Rrown — the founder of the T^rowiiisis — distinctly advocated it as early as 15S2 — or from fifteen to twenty years before Wilhams was born. [Sec his ZJc'ij/v ivhich sliezveth ths Life a/id J/a7:;:ers of all True Christians, etc. 26; Treatise on Refor7iz.it:o)i Without Tarryitig for Any, etc. 12.] Mr. Felt[£'^c. Hist. X. Eng. i: 294] calls at tention to the action of the Diet of Augsburg, in 1555, to the effect that " no attempt shall be made toward ter minating rehgious differences, except by persuasion aud [S7] 5. It would be well, also, that some consideration be given to the necessity, and the alternn.tive, then existing, into which Mr. Williams himself had forced the C'o]npany. Tilatters heA b.^cn pushed by h:-.:i lo such a pus^ tiiat, so fir as his inllaencc extended, all were rc.dl)' .-,¦. ;::d;i;,,- on ilio vl; .' e.'.g.: of ch.ios. Had he been permitted to remain, and bjen able to cirry o'lt his viev.s, it is not easy to see how some grand catastro^jhe coj.ld liave been averted. The patent would ha\-e been surrendered to the King v.dth repentance and humilia tion that any use had ever been made of it ;"" which would have dropped the bottom at once from under all commercial foundations, destroyed all land-titles, and disorganized business among them in every department ; while in the existing condition of the royal mind, they could have hoped for no redressive grant, or legislation. The administration of the Freemen's and E.esident's Oath"-'' would have been abrogated ; and the way thereby opened to a disinte gration of civil affairs rivaling in disastrous completeness that v.-hich would have been wrought upon their commerce by the other. In a religious point of view, their Congregational liberality would have been transmuted into an unlovely, unreasonable and bitter Separatism ; which would have made the colony odious, as well as ridiculous, in the eyes of all intelligent and high- minded men, even of that day ; in that it would insist on disfellowshiping every New England church which should decline to excommunicate one of its own members, who, revisiting Old England, should drop in to hear a sermon, even from the godliest rector, in an Established church, without avowing his repent- conference," and tlie f:ict tliat this was the principle of Jlennn, -who died in 1561." It is clear, moreover, that Sir Tliomas JIu'e developed the princijile as eariy as 1516. In the second Eook of his Utcpi.i (I quote from Ralphe Robinson's translation of 1556, in Mr. Arber's admirable reprint) he speaks as follows: " Firste of all he [Kyrg Utcoua] made a decree, that it should be law- full for euerie man to fauoure and folow what relision he would, and that he nii^hte do the best he could to bring otiier to hlsopinion, so that he di.I it peaceablie,sentelie, qulet'.v, and sober^ie, without iiastie and contentious re buking and inuehing against other. If he could not, by faire and gentle specb.e, induce them vnto his opinion, yet he should vse no kinde of violence, aud refraine from displeasaunte and seditious woordes. To htm tliat would vehemently a;id ferucntlye in this cause striue and contende, was decreed banislimcnt or bondage. This lawe did Kynge Utopus make, not only for the mainte- naunce of peace, whicli he saw through conllnuall con tention and mortal hatred vtteriy extinguished: but also because he thought this decrie should make for the furtlieraunce of religion." [145] Mos' \ikAi, how ever, Wi!;ia--ns got the idea from Her.-,' Jacob's Hura ble Siipplicztloj: for 'Tolcraticr, etc., in i6o.j, or Leon ard E'jshir's Plea fer Liberty Lp C>:scien:c.':\\ i.^>i4. S=e for a rapid glar.ce at the rise and grou'h o.'" tliis idea, M.-i^son's i^lut"n, iii : 'ed to lapse before he was brought to their bar to answer. Even then two months more passed by before any forma! trial. That trial ended in the express adjournment of the whole subject, through three farther months, to the next General Court ; in. the hope --!'¦ Which lie, fllscerning, rcno'mccd communion with the Church of Salcm, pretending l!iey held commimlon with the Churches in the Bay, and the Churches in the Bay luld communion with the Parish-Churches j:i Eng land, because they suffered their members to heare the word amongst them in England, as they came over into their native Countrey, etc." [Ibid, 30.] S-- See p. 40 a7tte. 2^" His hostility to the foundations of the Massachu setts Culony was neither confined to specLilatlon, i;or merely defensive. It was altogether revolutionary. He denied utti^rly the validity of tlic Colonial Cliarter. He refused to tahe the oath of allegiance, and, in retaliation of the remonstrances of the Mai.:aachusetts magistrates against his election, and of their v, Itliholding a grant of a lot of land, for which his church [I think it was the town] had petitioned, he prevailed on that church to \vrite let ters of admonition at'^d of ac-cus-ition against the mag istrates, to the churcliei of v.hich tiiey were members. This, in the tenip:;r q\. the times, could be considered in no other light than insilgailon to rebellion. At the next General Court, Salem was disfranchised till an apology should be made. Tliis brought to a crisis the continued existence of the Ivlii,5:ichusett3 colonial gov ernment itself. T!ie people of Salcm submitted, a^";olo- gizedj and re"urncd to their allegiance. The insurrcc- tiu:i was sn'jJ'ied, tr.i'iqiiility restored, — all \vas,qulet, '' prxter atre^'ent c-Kiinuin Catonis.^ ^^ [The Xetv E7ig' l.md Cjufederacy of 1643, in 3 Mass. Hist. ColL ix: 20S.] --* I desire to say this with all due reverence for one of the newspapers before cited. [See note i a7tie.'\ "-¦'Sea Winthrop's J'our/uil, i; 122, 151, 157, 162, 171, 175- [89] that he would be brought to "give satisfaction." At the final hearing he was tendered still another montli's additional delay ; was labored with, at length, by one of his peers in the ministry- in the vain endeavor lo persuade him to aban don his posifions ; and was then granted six additional v.ccks — whic-h vacks were subsequently lengthened into months"-' — before the requisition of final departure. It was only from a necessity induced by Ids own point blank viola tion of all the conditions on which postponement had been accorded, that his leave to remain was cut short in January. Nor was he even then " driven from the society of civilized man, and debarred the consolations of Christian sympa thy , . to find among heathen savages the boon of charity v/hich was refused at home,"^"' — a "solitary pilgrim, "^'"^ in "the sternest month of a New Eng land winter,""-"^ under "great hardship."^ It was the purpose of the magis trates to send him b}^ ship comfortably home to England ;^'^ not as a criminal for trial, but as a British subject; who having proved incompatible here, might take other chances of usefulness and happiness there.^'' Evading this by sud den flight, it was still at his option to have sought the near shelter of the Plym outh Colony, where aforetime he had found welcome, and which was never addicted to banishing people ; or to have turned his steps northward toward white men, nascent- institutions, and comfortable, albeit as yet rude, firesides on the banks of the Cocheco, or under the shadows of Agamenticus."'^ 2=c Winthrop says that he received leave to stay "till the spring."' [1: 175-] If the first of April be counted as the beginning of sp-ing, froni the g-19 October 10 i-io April, would be but Uttle more than a week less than six months. ^-'Arnold's Hist. R. I.'w 39. 2-3 Elton's Life., 31. 2-^Ganimell's Life, 57. s^f'Knowles's Me77ioir, 7.1, Judge Job Durfee, in his pleasant (if not great) poem, entitled IFhaicheer, elabo rated a vieiv much ]ll:e that of th.e author's, just c,i-Oted above. The TJehty \\ith which his poetry fo'.lows in the track of his'.orv, may be conjectured from the following extract, which depicts Williams's endeavor to explain to Waban the cause of his exile; *'3Iy brc:hrcn, theo. had persecution fled, And much I Loped, with tUcni a U'jinc to find; But to our common God whene'er ve prayed, My worship seemed ill-suited to their mind; It difTured greatly from their own, they said; TJieir an-er kindled, and, \rith speech unkind, They drove me from my fjinily and shed, To rove an exile in this tempest dread." fCanto I: Ixvili. Complete Worhi, etc. 20.J ^'^Vlinthiop's fottrnal, i: 175. There is no particle of warrant for Dr. Eentley's declaration that the magis trates intended to kidnap Wr.I-ams and transport him, but friends informed him, so that he could cicapc; nor f T the er,\.allv unfounded and '.mjust statement thai Ids liberty to remain until spring, "was only a snare laid for him." [i Miss. Hist. Coll. v: : 2.^9. ] ^- 1 am not sure that I am right in interpreting John Quincy Adams's aosertion [3 i'-Iass. Hist, Coll. ix: 209]: *' they would Iiave sent him to England for a trirl far othertuise severe, etc.,"" as indicating his belief that the idea of the government was to remit V.''illianis — as they had done some others— to an E'lgllsh tribimal for judg ment. If he meant that, I believe lie was mistaken, for I am aware of 110 evidence of such intent, on their part. Prof. Ma??on puts it dius: '" \z v.as proposed lo kidnap him in a friendly way, and sliip him back to England. This was a process to which the colonists had resorted as the simp'est andrctllylhe l-indliest, in one or two pre vious cases of refractory obstinates." [Life of fohri MiUo7i, etc. ;i: 562.] ^"^"In th:; meane time, some of his friends went to the place appointed by hinuelfe before hand, to iitake provision of housing, and c:lier necessaries {or him, against his coming; othcrv.ii-L- lie might have chosen to have gone either South-?N-ard to his acquaintanccat Plym outh, or Eastward to Pascatoque, or Aganimticus." [Replyto I'l'-. Williai7%s his F^xajft. eic. S-] [9o] Mr. Gammell intimates an injustice in the proceedings against Mr. Williams, on the ground that "there appears to ha-ic been no e.x'amination of w-itnesses, and no hearing of counsel;''"'' and this is eciioed by I'rof. Elton."'^ It is aston ishing that intimations so unfounded should come from gentlemen of such intel- liti-cnce. One would think they could neither have read the cotcm.porary account of the trial, nor studied the history of the time. No witnesses are needed where the defendant pleads guilty to all charges, and seeks to justify the acts complained of ; while the employment of counsel, in the modern sense, to aid in any trial, was then, and for years after, a thing unknown in the colony.^"" I insist, then, that forbearance and gentleness of spirit toward Mr. Williams, did characterize the proceedings of the Governor and Company of the Massa chusetts Bay. It was his bitterly separative spirit which began and kept alive the difficulty, — not theirs."'' He withdrew communion from them — not they from him."^ In all strictness and honesty he persecuted them — -not they him f^ just as the modern " Come-outer," who persistently intrudes his bad manners, and pestering presence upon some private company, making himself, upon pre tence of conscience, a nuisance there; is — if sane- — -the persecutor, rather than the man who forcibly assists, as well as courteously requires, his desired departure.'"" ^^ Life, 49. ~-^Lrre,zj. ^•¦"Thcre was no Atotirney to be had in those dayes that I knowe of." [MS. Letter cf Sam. Gorton (of date 1669) in my possession.] The " Body of Liberties " had the following (the 26ih}: *¦ every man that iindetli liim.sclfe unfit to plead his owne cause in any Court, shall have Libertie to imploy any man against wliom the Court doth not except, to helpe him. Provided he give hi7n noe fee, or reward, for his pai/ics.''^ [3 Mass. Hist. Coll. viii: 220.] Lechford was himself n Kolicltor of Clement's Inn, but while in Boston he was forbidden to plead "any man's cause vnlesse his owne," [j1/lzij. Col. Fee. i: 270]; and ho gave tlie following advice to the colonists touching that subject: '"take hccdc, my brethren, despise not learning, 7ior the worthy Laivyers of either gov.<7!, lest you repent too late." [Fl.ii/ic Deal ing, 2%.] Winthrop moreover say:, in 1641, "no advo cate being allowed," [7our7:al, ii: 36]. See, fuither, Hon. Emory Washburn's Sketches of ihe fudicial His tory of Mass. pp. 5':>-5S. "^" It was well knowne that whilest he lived at Salem, he neither admitted, nor permitted, any Cburch-menibers, but such as rejected all Communion with the Parish As- semblier., so much as in hearing of the Word amongst them." {Reply to Mr. IVillia^ns his Exa7H. etc. 0.(.] "¦^^ '' Sir, the truth is (I will not say I excommunicated you, L'.:; I first withirevv communion from yourselves fnri.a' !:\g bctucen ChrL-t and Antichrist, — tlie ptarish churches and Christian co:.gregations, etc."' {Letter cf R. li^. to Rev. Johit Cotton, jr., in Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soe. 1S5S, 315.] ^'^'' Xor is it to be forgotten, that, as to the narrow ness which repels dissentients from sympathy and com munion, it was Williams that maintained the exclusive side in this controversy, and the Mag^istrates and Min isters that maintained the liberal side." [Dr. Palfrey, Hist. X. Efig. i: 420.] "Can v.e blame the founders of the Massachusetts Colony fnr baniiliing him [R. W.] from within their jurisdiction? In the annals of religious persecution, is there to be found a martyr more gently dealt with by those ag.Tir.st whom lie began the war of intolerance. — wliose authority he persisted, even after professions of penitence and submission, in defying, till deserted even by the wife of hia bosom, — and whose utmost severity of punishment upon him was onlyan order for his removal, as a nuisance, from among them?" {John Quir.cy Adams, The X. Eng. Co/fed. of 1643, in 3 Mass. Hist. ColL ix: so;).] 3'^'\V'ithout intending in the slightest degree to cast any ridicule upon Roger Williams, I venture, in this [91] 7. Once more, it may be suggested that the accurate investigation of this topic will duly note tlie pregnant fact that, in the course of his subsequent life, !Mr. ^^'illiam3 was led to iu'^tify, in nearly every item, the treatrricnt wiiicli he recei\'od from r^Iassac'^u^cu.s. This mav be socciacallv soen in the iollowm-c particuLir^. (i) Less than tv.o }cu;s rafter his flight from Salcm wo find hini writing to Gov. V.'inthrop for advice."''' The occasion was some discontent which had arisen among the first settlers of Providence in regard to the foundation on which they stood. They had no patent, and )"ct it was needful, somehow, as Wil liams said : " to be compact in a civill way &: power.""'- Mr. Williams conceived the idea of propounding "a double subscription;'' one for the masters of fami lies, and another for the young men. And as to these he wanted Mr. Win throp's judgment. The essence of the former was to be the pledge: "from time to time to subiect our selues in actiue or passiuc obedience to such orders & agreements as shall be made b)' the greater number of the present howse- holders, & such as shall be hereafter admitted by their consent into the same priviledge & covenant in our ordinarie meeting." The latter more briefly bound the young men, and others who might be inhabitants without being admitted to this company of householders, to subject themselves " in actiue or passiue obedience '' to such laws as that company might think fit to make. This company of householders practically corresponded to the company of free men in }ilassachusetts ; and these young men, and others, occupied in Provi dence, almost identically, the position which ilr. Williams himself, aud all others who had never taken the Freemen's Oath, occupied in the Bay. And had it occurred to Mr. Williams tv.-o years before, that persons so situated ought to yield " actiue or passiue obedience ' to such " orders & agreements " as seemed wise to that majorit}' with whom the responsibility of affairs rested; he would have been able to have remained comfortably at Salem, with the con tent of many, and the sufferance of all. connection, to recall to the memorj' of those of my read ers whose i2r.i.'..:.r.iy with "puhlic characters" runs bad; a few years, two venerable persons, whose "gift'May largelyin the interruption of public meetin:^s — especially those of a particular character; and who again and again, in a limp state, had to be lugged out by main force. I refer to "Aunt Nabby Folsom," and " Father Lamson." I think many persons felt — and had a right to feel — that those venerable and eccentric bores were guilty of rank persecution in the way in which they in flicted themselves upon certain assemblies; while ihey (good souk) fancied themselves to hi martjTs to — I know not v/hat! ^^The letter h:ai-5 no date, but it addresses Winthrop as "Deputie Governor," wliich otBce he held from May 1636,10 May 1637; while internal evidence indicates that it was written soon after the settlement of Provi dence, which is believed to have been in the summer of 1636, and just before Endecott's Expedition against the Pequots, which sailed late in August, or early in Sep tember of the same year. So that the letter was proba bly written late in July, or in the early part of August, 1636 ; or from eighteen to twenty months al'ler its author exchanged his Iinme at Salcm for the courtesies — and discomforts — of the Soioants ¦n-i^v.'^ms. ="- This letter is in 4 Meas. HisL Coll vi ; iS^. [92] It is a curious commentary-, which deserves to be noted here, upon the actual position of Mr. Williams's raind at this time upon that question of "soul-lib erty " of which so much is made in his case, t'lat in this formula of civil gov ernment a.s tlius proposed l3y hirn, nothing \',hat;vcr i.--. said upon that subject; the clause " only in ci^•ill thinges," v.'hich was appended to it when actually adopted as the basis of the Providence Plantation, having been subsequently added.'"''" (2) Not long after we find Mr. Williams asserting, and seeking to exercise, the right to refuse to persons considered undesirable, permission to become residents at Providence. Under date of 8-18 jNIarch 1640, he wrote to Mr. Winthrop concerning Samuel Gorton, as follows :""" Master Gorton having foully abused high and low at Aquednick is now bewitching and bemadding poore Providence, both with his uncleane and foule censures of all the Ministers of this Country, (for v/hicli my self have in Christs name withstood him) and also denying all vis ible and externall Ordinances [the very thing which Williams subsequently did himself] in depth of Familisme, against which I have a little disputed and written, and shall, (the most High assisting) to death : As Paul said of Asia, I of Providence (almost) AU suck in his po}-son, as at first they did at Aquednick. Some fettt and jny selfe loithstande his Inhabitation, and Towne- friviledges, luithout confession and reformation of kis ttncivill and inJntmane practises at Ports- mouth :^' Yet the tyde is too strong against us, and I feare (if the framer of Hearts helpe not) it will force mee to little Patience, a little Isle next to your Prudence. ^'^ Possibly Mr. Williams underrated his influence, as it seems to be clear that Gorton, and not he, was the man eventually compelled to remove.^'' (3) It is evident, again, that Mr. Williams and his compan)' claimed, and exercised, the right to disfranchise any person who had been admitted to their number, whose presence and co-action proved to be, in their judgment, incom patible with their prosperity. We happen to have the best possible evidence of this in the case of Joshua Verin. Of him Williams wrote to Winthrop, 22 May-i June 1638, as follows :^^ Sir, we haue beene long aflicted by a young man, boysterous &; desperate, Philip Vcrins sonn -*•' Compare Staples's account in Annals cf tlie To-^n cf Providence, etc. [Coll. E. I. Hist. S,/c. v: 39] with Williams's own draft, in his letter above cited. ^^ Sec the letter in Winslow's Hypjcrisie Unniashed, etc. 53. •^¦^ It would appear from ^lorton [.V. Eng. Mcjn. loS] that the difficulty at Portsmouth, to which reference is here made, was mutinous and seditious "carriage:" "there he and they carried so iu outrage and riotously, as they were in danger to have caused Bloodshed, etc." ^^ Prudence is the island in Narragan.iett Bay over against the mouth of Bristol harbor, and the passage through to Mount Hope B.ay taken by the Fall River steamers ; and had been purchased for 'Winthroii, by Williams, of Canonicus, by deed dated 10-20 Nov. 1637. s^' ¦' Such was his [Gorton's] carriage at Plimouth and Providence, at his first settling, as neither of the Gov- emtnents durst admit or receive him into cohabitation, but refused him as a pest to all societies." [Winslow, Ilypocrisic l/nm.zjW.t, etc. bS."] So he says again that Gorton : " was whipt and banished at Roade Island, for mulinie and sedition, in the open Court there: also at Prozridcnce, asfactious tltere, etc." \tbid, 66.] »"4 l^Iass. Hist. ColL vi : 245. [93] of Salcm, v.-ho, as he hath rc£u?Ci-l to heare the word vi'^h v^ (which wc mo;o:;icd him not for) this twoUie month, so because he couh! not dra.v hi? v.ifc, a gracious c\: niodvst n-oman, to the same vngodhncs with hini, he hath trodcu her vnder fo >te tyranicallv lV bni-;^h'V : \vhi.:h bhu - fAfrzuchiz:, Is:.: ho will Laue justice (.tS i:c clamours) at other Courts, etc. It is \vorthy of notice that the reason given for thus casting this young man out of their company, was not that he was cruel and inhuman in the treatment of her whom he had vowed to love and cherish ; but that he restrained her hb erty of conscience.^-^ As if his conscience had no rights^ which, /;/ that place, were entitled to respect ! (4) Again, we discover Mr. Williams repeatedly assuming toward others, the very ground which, in Massachusetts, had been taken toward himself. a. In the case of "one vnruly person,'' concernuig whom — -probably in the spring of 1637 — '^^ wrote to ]\Ir. Winthrop thus r^' Deare sir, (notwithstanding our differences concerning the worship of God 6c the ordinances ministred by Antichrists power) you haue bene alwayes pleased lovingly t^) a.l^WL¦r my boldncs in civill things: let me once more find favour in your e^'cs to gratihe my seh'^c, Mr. James, & many, or most, of the townesmeu combined, in advising v/hat to say, or doe, to one vnruly per son \vho ofcnly in io-jjiie meeting 77iore then once professHh lo lufc for 6^ long for, a belter govern- vienl then the ccunlrey hath yet, 8c lets not to particularize, by a generaU Governour, &c. The white^^ which such a speech, or person, levells at can be no other then the raung of the funda- nieiilall liberties of tlie countrey, ivhich ought to he dearer i? vs then our right eyes. "*-'Gov. Winihro;! [four/ial, \: zZz] a short time after, throws fiinlic-r li^ht upon this case, lie s.iys, uiicler date of 13 Dec. 1633: '" at Providence, :iIso, the devil v.as not idle. Fer whereas, at tlioir first coming thiili:;-.-, Mr. Winiams and tli^ rest did make au order, that no man EhiOiild be nio'.ested for his cnnscler.ce, nuw men's wive?, and children, and ser\'anl3, claimed liberty hereby to go to a'l reliijious meetin^^, tliougli never so of:ei, or thou,:;h private, upon the v/eek-day; ; and because one Vtrin fi^fu-jed tj let li.s wile go to Mr. AVi'hams so oft as she v.as cahed for, they required to Iiave hiin cen sured. Eut there srcod up one Arnold, a witty man of their own company, and i\ i^hstood it, telling them that, when he cop.sentcd to that order, lie never intended it should extend to the breach of aiiy ordinance of God, such as tlie sabJec:;on of wives to their husbands, c'c , -and gave divers solid reasons a^'a'nst it. Then one Greene {who had i larricd the wV.z 'of one Besjerly, ^¦hose husband Is hving and no divorce, etc., but only it was said, that he had lived in aduUery, and had con fessed it) he replied, that, if they should restrain their wives, etc., all the "women in the country v.'ould cry oLit of them, etc. Arnold answered him thus: Did you pre tend to leave the Massachusetts, because you would not cffjndG'dto plca-.e men, and would you now break an ordinaace and commandment of Gvd to {ileisc woniea^ Some v/crc of opinion that, if VerIn would not suffer his wjc to have her liberty, the cliurch should dispose of her tosonieo:h:;rman, v.howould use h'_r better. Ar.ioldtold them, that it was not the woman's desire to go so oft from home, b.:t only Mr. Williams's, ar.d oLhers. In conclu sion, when they would have censured Verin, Arnold told llieni till", it was against tiieir own order, for Verin did \.\w. he c'.d oat of conscience ; and their order was, that no man sliould be censured for his conscience." Sta ples's L--; J. nals cf Providc/tcc, etc. 23] j^Ivcs, under date of 21-31 M.iy 163S (the day before tl;.; date of Mr. Vril- liams's IzXitr abuvc), the following, as the vote pas^sd in Veriu's case; ''Jo.^hua Vciln, for breach of co\enaut in rcstra'n.rq liberty of conscience, s\\?i.\ ba witheid, the liberty of voting, till he declare the contrary." Tills was, C:jrta-n'.y, an ingenious way of p'-itting it, and prob ably proved cIT-'ctlve ! ='\l J/a.z. Hist. Coll vi: c;}. 3^1 Mr. Williams uses this metaphor more than once Ju those of I:. 5 letters which have reached us. He e\-:- dently refers to the wliite spot in the center of a target at v.-hich arrows were shot. [94j Mr. Winthrop's answer to this has not come to light. If one could find it, surely it would pro\-e the triumph of courtesy over impulse in the mind of its penman, did it not contain some not unclc-^^r alhr^ion to that word of Paul: '•Happy is he that condcmneth not himself in that thing v.hich he aJlrAvctli. ''¦''- /'. In the case of 'William Harris. Harris Avas one of those who had joined ?.Ir. Williams on his first leaving Salem,'"'' and had taken a somewhat promi nent part in the early aL'airs of Providence.^ In, or about, 1657, he wrote a "booke," for which Roger Williams entered against him, at the General Court of Commissioners, which commenced to sit at Newport on the 19-29 May, 1657, the rather serious charge of High Treason.^ When the Court met at W'arwick on the 4-14 July following, by its order Harris read his "booke" in its presence, and Mr. Williams read his charge and his reply to the treatise. The following action then taken, will make it clear in w'hat Harris had offend ed, and what the attitude of his accuser, who himself had had some experience in the same line, now was:^ Concerninge William Harris, his booke and speeches upon it ; we find therein deUvered as for doctrine, havinge mucht boiud the Scriptures to maintalne, that he can say il is his conscience ought not to yield subjection to any humq-n order amongst men. Where.-is the sayd Harris hath been charged for the sayd booke, and words, with High Treason ; and inasmuch as we being soe remote from England, cannot be soe well acquainted in the laws thereof in that behalfe provided, as the State now stands ; though we cannot b-jt conclude his behaviour therein to be both contemptuous and seditious ; we thought best there fore, to send over his writinge with the charge and his reply, to Mr. John Clarke, desiringe him to commend the matter in our and the Commonwealth's bchalfe, for further judgement as he shall sec the cause require ; and, in tho meane time, to binde the sayd Harris in good bonds to the good behaviour untill their sentence be knowne."^' Whether the matter of this "booke" v.^ere any more treasonable, in itself, as an onslaught upon " human order amongst men ;" or any more dangerous in its probable influence upon the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1657, than Mr. Williams's own "treatise" against the Patent, and his other teachings, had been almost a quarter of a century before in the Bay— since neither of them have come down to us — must remain matter of conjecture. It will not be hard, I think, however, to conclude that in his treatment of Mr. ""-Rom. xiv; 22. ^^See nofe 217 aide, p. 56. ^-'^See Staples's Annals, etc. 20, 33, 35, 40, 43, 7S, 112 -, R. I. Col. Kec. i : 20, 24, 27, 31, 20;, 3O1, 363, 361, 42S, 431, etc. •^R. I. Col Rec. i: 361. ^^'Ibid, 3^4. See, also, Staples's Annals of Provi dence, 14S. ^~ The bonds were ;^5oo. Nothing seems to have come of this 'senclinj; to Kngl.iiid. Harris remained active ill nUaiis, went to England four times, was cap- tvircd on the last voyage by a Barbary corsair, sold a: AI::;iers as a slave, after sen-itude of a year ransomed Lt $1200, and, broken down by Ills trials, died in three days after reaching London in the spring of 16S1. [Ar nold's ///j/. E.I.'il 437.] [95] Harris, and in the temper which he manifested towards him, llr. Williams badh- blotted his own character, while making it forevcrmore imposiible even for his special apologists to deny that he therein endorsed the treatmer.t which h:t. 4d. ; was for a tima a Baptist, and afterwards became a Q :2ker, [Staples's Annals, etc. 35, 39, 43, 7S, -pg.] ^'^'^ i'Je-.o England Fire-brand Quer.cl-jd, etc. 247. [96] yet he could be the Forw\ardcst in their Government to prosecute against those, that could not Join with him in it : as witness his Presenting of it to the Court at Newport.'"' .And when this Avould not take Effect, afterwards, when the Commissioners'''' were Two of t'.-.em at Providence, being in the House of Thomas Olney, .Senior, of the same Town; Roger Wilhams propounded this Question to them : JTe liave a People here amongst us, -which toill not Act in our Government loitlt us : IVhat courte shall we laheiuilh them ? Then George Cartwright, one of the Commissioners, asked him : What manner of Persons they were? Do they live quietly and peaceably amongst you? This they could not deny; Then he made them this answer : If they can Goruern Ihemsel-jes, they have no need of your Government, At which they were silent. (5) Still further, it is evident that Mr. Williams's own subsequent statement of his doctrine of Liberty of Conscience is adequate to condemn himself, and justify the Massachusetts men in the course which tlrey reluctantly took. This doctrine we find him explaining, in Jan. 1654-5 — almost twenty years after he left Salem' — -to his fellow-citizens of the town of Providence, as follows :^ That ever I should speak or write a tittle, that tends to such an infinite liberty of conscience, [as that it is blood-guiltiness, and contrary to the rule of the gospel, to execute judgment upon transgressors against the public or private weal] is a mistake, and which I have ever disclaimed and abhorred. To prevent such mistakes, I at present shall only propose this case : There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and woe is common ; and is a true picture of a common-wealth, or an human combination, or socictj'. It hath fallen out some times that both Papists aud Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be embarked into one ship. Upon which supposal, I aflirm that all the liberty of conscience that ever I pleaded for, turns upon these two hinges : That none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews or Turlcs, be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship ; nor compelled from their own particular prayers, or worship, if they practice any. I further add, that I never denied, that notwithstand ing this liberty, the commander of this ship ought to command the ships course ; yea, and also command that justice, peace and sobriety to be kept and jjractised, both among the seamen and all the passengers. If any of the seamen ref use to perform their service, or passenger to pay their freight : if any refuse to help in person or purse, towards the common charges or defence ; if any refuse lo obey the common laios aud orders of ihe ship, concerning their common peace orpres- erz ation ; if any shall vntt'niy and rise up against their commanders and ofpeers ; if any should preach or ivrite that there ought to be no commanders nor ofRcers, because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor orders, no corrections nor punishments; I say : I never denied but in such cases, whatever is pretended, the commander, or commanders, may judge, resist, compel and punish such transgressors, according to their deserts and merits. The clauses which I have italicised above, it seems to me in spirit, if not in -'"'-' I take it this refers to his accusing Harris of High Treason. ^'-•^This was the term then emploj'ed in Rliode Island, to designate those delegates of towns to the General As sembly, which were known as " Deputies,*" or " Repre sentatives," in Massachusetts. ^'"¦^ Bac'iius's Hist. N. Eng, i; 297. It is also upon the Providence Records. [97] letter, fully include the case of i\Ir. Williams himself when he was preachin- and writing against the Patent and the Oath, and refusing to obev, and doinp- aU he could :o persuade others to rise up ag.vn.L the usages and lavs which, founded upon tiu-m, v. 're fell by the magistrates to lie for ''the common peace-' and ¦' preservation." (6) I find in tho manner in which Mr. Wilhams repeatedly speaks of I'.ie raen who banished him, and their associates, after yei.is had added something to his own experience and wisdom, a change of tone and temper concerning them, with evidence of his recognition of their right to exercise some litde selection in their company. For example, he says, probably in the autumn of 1672 :"" This [Separation] (as before I hinted) was the heavenly Principle of those manv precious and gallant Worthies, the Leaders and Corner-Stones of these Kew England Colonies, viz.: they desired to worship God in purity according to those perswasions in their Consciences, which they believed God had lighted up. They desired such for their Fellow Worshippers as they (upon a Christian account) could have evidence that to be true and real Worshippers of God in Spirit and Truth also. This does not sound much like the " abundant ignorance and negligence, and consequently grosse abominations and pollutions of Worship ;"'=¦ the "spirit ual! guilt liable to God's sentence and plagues;" the "spirit and disposition of spiritual drunkennesse and whoredome, a soule-sleepe and a soule-sick- nesse;"=® the "Antichristian filthines and communions with dead works, dead worships, dead persons in Gods worship : "¦"¦'^^ the "immoderate worldli- nes" an "Ulcer or Gangrene of Obstinacy;""" a " form of a square house upon the Keele of a Ship, which will never prove a soul-saving true Arke, or Church of Christ Jesus, according to the Patterne ; """' and the other fierce denuncia tions with which he fulmined against the churches of the Bay, when he himself in his youthful rashness lived among them. Quite as little does the following, from the same curious volume, — penned "when nearing the sober limit of four-score " ''- — where he testifies to i"-* A large effusion of the Ploly Spirit of God upon so many precious Leaders and Followers, who ventured their All to i\cw England upon raany Heavenly Grounds, three especially: First, the enjoyment of God according to their Consciences. Secondly, Of holding out Light to Americans. Thirdly, 7"he advancing of the English Name and Plantations. These three ends the most High and Holy God hath graciously helpt his poor Protestants in a Wilderness to Endeavour to promote, etc. ^^ Geo. Fox Digg'd, etc. Apev.dl.c, etc. 15. ''^'< Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined, etc. iS. ^''Ibid, 27. ^^Ibid,2i. 3"»/i/.i', 33. =" Ibid, 45. 3'2 Prof. Diman, Pub. Har. Club, v ; iii. '•^ Geo. Fo.v Dig^d, etc. Apendix, etc. 93. [98] (^) Again I find him a few years later, when he seems to have passed fourscore (and it is the last utterance but tvo which has been preserved from him) addressing a paper to tlie town clerk of Providence- — of date 15-25 Jan. i6So-i,- — -in which he speaks solemnly and earnestly in regard to tho conduct of those who hindered the welfare of the State by refusing the payment of taxes, on some excuse of conscience. From the twenty considerations which he enu merates, take the following as indicating the maturest temper of his mind:"* Governm.ent and order in families, towns, etc., is the ordinance of the Most High — Rom. xiii. — for the peace and good of mankind. It is written in the hearts of all raankind, even in pagans, that mankind cannot keep together without some governraent. Ko governraent is maintained without tribute, custom, rates, taxes, etc. It is but folly to resist, (one or raore, and if one, why not more ?) God hath stirred up the spirit of the Governor, magistrates and officers, driven to it by necessity, to be unanimously resolved to see the matter finished ; and it is the duty of every man to maintain, encourage, and strengthen the hand of atUhorily. Flere he clearly urges one of two alternatives, either: (i) that the person who finds his conscience leading him to conclusions which would array him against the government under which he lives, should take that circumstance in conclusive proof that his conscience is acting wrongly, and ought not to be obeyed ; or (2) that such a person, while accepting such decision of conscience in the abstract, should waive it in the concrete, so far as to submit himself to the ordinance concerning which he doubts, when the safety and welfare of the government appear to depend upon it. This reasoning almost half a centuiy before would have saved him from all those conflicts in the Bay, out of which his expulsion grew. (8) And, finally, there was that in ?ilr. Williams's conduct in regard to the Patent — then and after, — which clearly condemned himself, and went so far, at least, toward justifying the Massachusetts men. a. In the first place, he must have known before he sailed from England to ally his fortunes with those of this plantation, what, for substance, its Patent was ; must have known the vital and all-per\-asive quality of the relation of that instrument to the legal and coramercial affairs of the colonists ; and must have known that it was as impossible for them, in the situation which they occupied, essentially to modify its character; as it would be for the man suspended over the dizzy edge of Dover Cliff, that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! unassisted, to exchange a bad rope for a good one, as he hangs ! *^* Knowles's Memoir, 351. Mr. Knowles, as in other | cases, fails to indicate where his authority may be found. [99] "Under these circumstances" — pertinently inquires one of the most intelli gent and thoroughly informed writers who has contributed to the discussion of this subject"'" — '' under these circumstances, it m.ay not unreasonably be askc-.i, why did he come at all within the jurisdiction of a government whose charter-id privileges it ^^-ere a sin to acknowledge, and purchase a house, and settle down as an inhabitant ? .A.nd why did he finally regard a banishment from the place as a punishment grievous to be borne ? " b. In the second place, it is not easy to see how i\Ir. Williams could be free from serious blame for the representations which he made of the terms and spirit of the Patents of Kings James and Charles. The exact lano-ua'^e which he employed in his " treatise " is not, to be sure, in our possession ; but we have it for substance, reported by Winthrop and Cotton, both of whom had read the document ; while its author's own admissions in his books which remain, endorse the general correctness of the representations which they make. (i.) He charged King James with telling " a solemn public lye," in claiming in his Patent to have been the first Christian prince that discovered New Eng- land."'" But the Patent does not undertake to state who discovered New En"-- land. What it says on that subject is the following :"" Forasrauch as We have been certainly given to understand by divers of our good Subjects, that have for these many Yeares past frequented those Coasts and Territorycs, between the Degrees of Fourty and Fourty-eight, that there is noe other the Subjects of any Christian King or State, by any authoritie frora their Soveraignes, Lords, or Princes, actually in Possessio7t ofajty cf the said Lands or Precincts, whereby any Right, Claira, Interest or Title, may, might, or ought by that meanes accrue, belong, or appertaine unto them, or any of them. [It then refers to the devastations of pestilence and war by which the territory in question had been left, for many leagues together, without inhabitant, or claimant; as suggesting that the tirae had corae for set tling the land so deserted, and proceeds :] In Conteraplacion and serious Consideracion whereof. Wee have thougt it fitt according to our Kingly Duty, soe much as in Us lyeth, to second and foUowe God's sacred Will, rendering reverend Thanks to his Divine Majestic for His gracious favour in laving open and rroealing the same unto tis, before any otiier Christian Prince or Sttte, by which iNIeanes without Offence, and as \\e trust to his Glory, AVee may with Boldness goe on to the settling of soe hopefull a Work, etc. [Further on,''' this e.\press proviso is inserted, viz.:] Provided always that any of the Prem ises herein before mentioned, and by these Presents intended and meant to be granted, le r.o: actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian Prince, or Estate, etc. Surely every candid mind must admit that there is nothing here to justify the strong and oft"ensi\-e language employed by Mr. Williams. 2"^Mr. Charles Deane, LL.D., who is especiaUy fa miliar with ali our charter literature. See liis discussion of this subject in Proceedings ofi\Tass. Hist. Soe. 1S71- ¦873, 353- ¦'¦'¦Ibid, 343. ^^^See the Patent, in Hazard's Historical Collections, 103-11S. '^'•¦^Ibid, III. [lOO] (ii.) He charged both kings "with blasphemye for callinge Europe Christen dom, or the Christian world, etc." "'' Winthrop goes into an eir'-^.tive argu ment"'" to sk w tliat it could not be " Blasphemye " to " nair.e thing .s from t!ie better parte, .o call all baptized ones " Cliristiai-.s to distir.guis:.; them from the Turks, etc," and to style " a nation that professethe the f:.:-.h of Jesus Christ (be it in truethe or not) from other nations which professe him not, :o saye they are Christians." Eut he might have gone further. The words " Christendom," or " Christian World," do not appear to be found in either Patent ; the nearest approach to them being the innocuous descriptive term cited above : " Chris tian Prince, or State," which Charles expressly quotes from his fadier's grant, to incorporate it in his own. To undertake to raise substantial mutiny in the plantation by v.-orking up so simple and harmless a thing as this into a fierce charge of "blasphemye," seems now to have been as uncandid, as it was absurd. (iii.) He charged upon those Patents " a sinne of unjust usurpation upon others possessions."^^ This was his great point : that Kings James and Charles had made the pretence of giving to the colonists, land which really belonged to its own aboriginal inhabitants."" There are two aspects in which this matter may be regarded ; that of abstract right, and that of the existing law of nations. First, as to abstract right. By abstract right a white man is as good as an Indian. Had the individuals composing the Massachusetts Company been driven hither by irresistible east winds, been shipwrecked upon Cape Ann, and found themselves upon the soil without previous intent ; they wouid ha\"e had the natural right to occupy without purchase any land found free from occupa tion which their necessities required, — because no person existed who could claim prior right to hold or sell it. God made it for men. No men, as yet, held it from Him. Therefore whatsoever men might first desire, need and take possession of it, must have the abstract right to do so. And if they found sav age neighbors roaming over adjacent soil, occupying and using territory which would be useful to them ; such new comers would acquire, and succeed to, all that Indian right of occupation and of use, when they should have amicably purchased the sam$. And thenceforth these new comers, either primarily by their own occupation, or secondarily by succeeding to that exercised before 3^3 /*?-ja-i'ar/?.x.r, f/r. (as above) 343. I right to hold] our Land by Pattent frcm the King, but s^^ Ibid, 3-14. I that the Natives are the true owners of it, and that we -^^/y/'rt', 343. j ought to repent of such a rccei\-ing it by PattenL" [Mr. ^-He admitted that tho following was a fair statement Cotton's Letter Examined, eic. 4. See also his Bloudy of Ills opinion, viz : '' Tliat we have not [i. r., liave no I TcnetU }'et more Bloudy, et:. 277.] [IOI] them by the aborigines, would — so far as abstract justice goes — be in equita ble possession of all territory so acquired. Nor could the fact that the T\I,assa- chusctts Company actually came with :i purpose, and a Patent from the Kin--, vacate or impair the natural right ^¦.hich tlie}- would have possess-d in the case supposed. So that since — -notwitlistauding their Patent — the New En^'dand men always did honorably pay all Indian claimants for the territory on which they sat down ;"¦*' so far as abstract right went, Mr. Williams clearly had no ground for censuring the colonists. Second, as to the law. This was perfectly w-ell settled then, and it remains essentially unmodified, and in full force, to this day. Three principles were in volved : {a) the King was the original proprietor of all the land of a kingdom, and the true and only source of all land titles ; (If) the discovery of a new coun try vested the title of it in the King by whose subjects, and authority, it was made ; and (f) this right of ultimate dominion over a newly discovered country, was subject to a right of occupancy on the part of the original savage inhabitants. With regard to this latter principle, which has been adopted by our own govern ment, and applied to its relations to the American Indians, Chancellor Kent remarks : ^' The rule that the Indian title was subordinate to the absolute, ultimate title of the govern ment of the European colonists, and that the Indians were to be considered as occupants, and entitled to protection in peace in that character only, and incapable of transferring their right to others ; was the best one that could be adopted with safety. The weak and helpless condi tion in which we found the Indians, and the immeasurable superiority of their civilized neigh bors, would not admit of the application of any more liberal and equal doctrine to the case of Indian lands and contracts. It was founded on the pretension of converting the discovery of the countrj' into a conquest ; and it is now too late to draw into discussion the validity of that pretension, or the restriction which it imposes. Itis established by numerous corapacts, trea ties, laws and ordinances, and founded on imraeraorial usage. The country has been colonized and settled, and is now held, by that title. It is the law of the land, and no court of Justice can permit the right to be disturbed by speculative reasonings on abstract rights.'""'' ^^ John Cotton says: ''if we tooke any Lands from the Natives, it was byv/ay of purchase, and free con sent." VRe^-ly io Mr. VyCilHa:ns,ctc. 2-j.'\ This was in accordance with the original instructions given by tlie Company to Endecott, as follov/s: "If any of the sal- v.agcs ptcnd ri^^dit of inb.critanco to a'.i or any pt. of the lands grai;:'.t'-d in o' pattent, wee pray yo*^ er.dcavo' to pfchase their tytle, that wee mayavoyde the least scruple of intrusion." [Miss. Col. Rec. i: 394] Aud in 1C76 Gov. Josias Winslow declared : *' I tliink I can clearly say that before these present troubles [Philip's War] broke out, the English did not possess one foot of land in this Colony, but what was fairly obtained by honest purciiase of the Indian proprietors." [Increase Matli- ci'% Brief History, etc. Postscript,^. z.'\ Vattel bears the same testimony. [Droit des Gens. c. i. sec. Sr, 2og.j See a'.:o I^id t'le Pilgrims lorojig ike Indieins ? [Con~ gregational Quarterly, i: 129.} 2*^ Commentaries on A merican Lazu, iii : 4G3. ^¦^ There have been several decisls'.-.s of our Supreme Court on tlus general subject. In t';:; case of yolutson V. M'lntosh, [S IVheaton Rep. 543] tlie conclusion was substantially that above stated by Chzacc'.ior Kent. Iu the case of Cherokee Nation v. Slate cf Georgia, [5 Peters' U. S. Rep. 1] and that of Worcester v. State of Georgia, [S Peters' U. S, Rep. 515] the s.ame princi ple was restated. In tlie latter it was held tliat royal grants, or charters, asserted a title to the country as [I02] If now, Mr. Williams were cognizant of the law of nations, he knew that under it the king was quite right in granting, and the Massachusetts grantees in receiving', their Patent ; so that no reason for complaint existed on that score. While, if he were familiar with the facts in the case, he knew that those grant ees interpreted their Charter as only protecting them outwardly from France, or Spain, or some other European power, while giving them the right to acquire by amicable purchase from the Indian, that title of occupancy and use which remained in him, and was essential to their full ownership ; and which, in point of fact, they did acquire in every instance in which they made a settlement. Both together satisfied the demands of law and equity. And when both are faithfully considered, it is very difficult to acquit Mr. Williams of ignorance, or unfairness, or both, in what he said about them. c. In the third place, Mr. Williams afterwards accepted for the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and was there active under, a Patent from the English crown, which made for it precisely the same assumptions with, and was open to precisely the same objections as, those for Massachusetts, which a quarter of a century earlier he had so unsparingly denounced. It is only important, for the purpose which I have in view, that I should call attention here to two facts : (i.) Roger Williams was a consenting party to this Charter. Of the twenty- three persons on whose behalf John Clarke petitioned the king for it, he was the tenth."'" He was also the tenth of the twenty-six grantees named in the instrument. He was the third of the ten Assistants therein nominated. So much as this, indeed, might have happened without his knowledge or assent. But we find him at once uniting wdth others in carrying out the provisions of the new Patent on its arrival. He was present to give his "solemn engage ment, by oath, or otherwyse, for the due and faythfuU performeance " of his duty as an Assistant, at the first meeting of the General Assembly under its provis ions, at Newport i-ii March 1663-4.^^ His name was placed first on the list by that Assembly made of the freemen who were "accepted members of this Compan)', Corporation and Collony."^ He was appointed to transcribe the Charter.^'" He was, at once, ex-officio as an Assistant, named as a magistrate under it.^ He served under it as a Deputy in 1667, and as an Assistant in the against Europeans only, leaving Ihem blank paper so far as the rights of the natives were concerned. See the general question of the inherent propriety of the advance of civilization, nof.vithstanding the adverse claim of rude tribes to keep it out, argued with candor and ability by Chancellor Kent. [Commentaries, etc. '-cii: 469-473.] ^^ See the Charter in exteftso, in R. I. Col. Rec. ii; 3-21. =3'/ii'rf, 22. ^^Ibid,i\. ^ Iiid, Hi. ^'"Ibid, 2S. [i03] years 1664, 1665, 1670, 1671 and 1672,'^''' and during all these years I find no trace of any the least complaint against this Patent, or objection to it, from his lip or pen. (li.) This Charter in that vital point of th-j assumption of the crown to own and grant the lands of the natives, .against ^^hich Mr. Williams had so strenu ously objected, was kindred in spirit to, and in fact identical in language with, the previous Patents to Massachusetts of Charles the First, and^'hi^ father James the First. I will prove this by arranging that clause of each of the three Charters to which reference is made, in parallel columns :=•*- [Two Massachusetts Charters.] James I. 1620. do by these Presents absolutely give, grant and confirm unto the said Councill . . and un to their Successors for ever, all the aforesaid Lands and Grounds, etc. . . . to be hold en of Us .. as of our Manor of East Greenwich in our County of Kent, in free and comon Soccage, and not in Capite, nor by Knights Ser vice, yielding and paying therefore to Us, our Heires, our Successors, the fifth part of the Ore of Gold and Silver, which from time to time, and att all times heereafter, shall happen to be found, etc. Ch.vrles I. 162S-9. doc for vs, our heires and suc cessors, give and grant vnto the said Sir Henry Rose-.veil, etc., all landes and groundes, place and places, soyles, woodes, etc., lyeing within the said boundes and lymytts, and every parte and parcell thereof . . to be holden of us, our heires and successors, as of our mannor of Eastgreenewich in our Countie of Kent, within our realme of England, in free and coramon soccage, etc. yeild- ing and paying therefore to vs, etc. the fifte parte onlie of all oare of gould and silver, etc. \fZhode f sland Charter^] CH.i,rj.i;s IL 1663. for vs, our heires and success- ours, doe give, graunt and con- firme vnto the sayd Governour and Comp.any, etc. all that parte of our dominioncs in New England, in .-\raerica, con- tcyncing the Kahantick and Nanhygansct Bay, and coun tryes and partes adjacent . . . to be holden of ¦vs, our heires and successours, as of the Mannor of East-Greenwich in our County of Kent, in free and comon soccage, etc. yeild- ing and paying therefor, to vs, etc. only the fifth pact of all the oare of gold and sil ver, etc One glance is sufficient here to establish the fact that this second Patent of Rhode Island, in so far as it touches the immediate subject under considera tion, is indistinguishable from the two Massachusetts Patents. Mr. Williams clearly began at Providence with the endeavor to carry out faithfully his own radical ideas. When he went to England in 1643, ^^ obtained, through the Commissioners of Plantations, a Charter which contained no grant of land, but simply empowered the Providence planters to rule themselves, con formably to the laws of England, "so far as the Nature and Constitution of the place will admit." ^^ The colonists undertook as individuals to extinguish the ^'^^Ibid, 22, 96, 1S5, 302, 373, 431. *°-Find these clauses; King James's, in Hazard's Hist. Colli: iii; King Charles Ist's, in Mass. Col, Rec.i: 7,9; King Charles lid's, in R. I. Col Rec. ii; i^, ig. ™ See the First Patent, R. I. CoL Rec. i : 143-14S. [io4] Indian titles. It proved a difficult work^-^* The same Indian might sell the same land to different parties. Boundaries were elastic. And, in the absence of any supreme power to adjudge between contestants, confusion reigned. Under that Charter the Providence plantation v/as not a success.^'' And, hav ing learned visdom by experience, there seems to have been a general consent, on the part of all, to accept, if not to seek, a second Charter which should bring them into a closer fellowship with their sister colonies. Surely, now, the circumstance that Mr. Williams, having tested his own theo ries on this subject through the greater part of a generation, found it wise quietly to abandon them in favor of the exact doctrine which he had written and preached against at Plymouth and Salem; is one calculated to shed light upon the question whether the Massachusetts men of 1635 were wholly unrea sonable in thrusting him — such as he then was — out of their company; and deserves the serious consideration of all who wish to reach a full and fair judg ment of Roger Williams as he really was. And not until the student has patiently considered the points here presented — the peculiar character of the plantation ; the idiosyncrasies of the man; the actual nature of a "banishment" often overestimated, as well as misunderstood; the temper of the times ; the quality of the necessity which ]\Ir. Williams him self had created, and the nature of the alternative which he had forced upon the colonists ; yet the thorough and inexhaustible kindness with which, never theless, they treated him; with the facts that — in nearly every particular — he subsequently confessed the substantial justice of their dealing with him, s^i Jud-e Suiii'.a;!, in liis History of the District of Mai7ie{tT:)l). c'.ir-cusses the whclc subject of Indian titles. He s.tj's: ''as t':e Savages h.id no ideas of a permanent U3e and i.Tiprovcrr.cnt of the soil, or evi^r had a p,;rsonaI, or individtial ri^ht in it, or ever, by annexing theirlabour to it, rendered it better, or more apt, for the use of man ; I am led to conc'ude that they liad no more property in the soil on which they hunted, than they had '\i\ the ¦waters in which they fished." His further conclLisIon is that: "the Indian convcyancesclcarly amounted to noth ing more than a contract, made by the Chief, on consent of Ills tribe, tint the Savages should not make war on the whi^o people for taking lands to a certain extent into possession. In this way we may account for one Sa chem'.", se'.lin,^ the same tract to sevtral different pur chasers: for if t!ie deed was oa'.y aa ai^recmeat upon peace and friendship, there could, in the Indian's view, bene immorality ill making the contract v, ith as many as might appear to demand it. And a wish in some of the savages to trade wilh the white people, and to learn the art of agriculture, might be a principal motive." [p. 135.] "^^ As to this, I refer the reader loan authoriiy before cited : " It would probably be no departure from the truth to say that the f:;overameni of ' Providsnce Plantation;,* under this [the firs:] charter, and indeed the govern ment of Providence before the charter went into opera tion, was a failure. Th^re seemed to be no authority for the setdemcnt of disputes which constantly arose. Perhaps fit materials for a government were wanting. Tiiese disputes related largely to their lands. Williams is iiisponsible for ratich of this disorder. The careless and indefinite manner in which the original conveyances of Providence and Pa-.vtuxet were drawn, as well as those subsequently made by him to his companions, was the source of a bitter and prolonged controversy, not finally settled till the next century. It shows th.at Wil liams, however able a dialectician, was a poor man of business. "These Indian deeds at best, and however carefully drawn, were often a source of perplexity and litigation in all the colonies." [Mr. Cluirles Deaiie, LE. D. Pro- ccedi/igs Mass, Hist. Soe. 1S73. 356.] [I05] and that in the important matter of the Patent, he abandoned his own opinion to revert to theirs — will he be in a position fitting him to speak wisely and con clusively upon this vexed pa.-sage of New England history.'"'^ 'J T seems to be a ver)' natural thing that a fev,- words should here be added as JL to some of the essentials for a just judgment in regard to the Baptists, the Quakers, and the general subject of religious liberty, as related to the opinions, the policy, and the conduct of our fathers. I shall confine myself to three or four suggestions merely, without entering upon any full discussion of topics too fruitful for these narrow limits. I. We are to remember that the founders of Xew England lived in the earlier half of the seventeenth, and not the later half of the nineteenth, century. So ^^I scarcely think there has been so much honestly meant misrepresentation concerning any other person in modern history. Two strong yet entirely unlike motives have led different writers to draw from an imperfect ac quaintance with the subject, mistaken inferences in re gard to it. The Baptists, as I have already intimated, have done this on the one hand. The Unitarians, in earlier days when they were more drawn than at present to speak harshly of the founders of N'e.v England, fell into the same temptation, on the other. This seems to account for some, at least, of Dr. Efntley's frequent blunders. It may, perhaps, explain Dr. Parkman's averment: "at the present'day, when just notions of re ligious liberty have extensively pre'-ailed, they [/. ^. the causes of jMr. Williams's banishment] v.iil be deemed, of course, utterly insufficient; and nothing but a full con sideration of the condition of our Puritan fathers, and the dangers of an infant colony, as well as of the general spirit of the times, will protect them from the charge of oppressive cruelty." {Christia/t Ejrzi'ri'ier, xvi: Si.] Possibly from the same source came the dxtH77i : "If the Massachusetts colonists erected their c;\-il and ccclesias- cal organization on an illiberal basis, tliey, and not Roger Wiiiiams, must be held responsible tor the bad conse quences v.hich might have resulted to it from his procla mation of a vital principle " \Xorih A r.ierisan Revie'.L; Ixi: 9-] Thatthe (Baptist) Christian Rez'iezv{\: 273] should say; "The first annunciation cf this great prm- clple [/. e. of religious freedom] by Ro^er Williams, awakened suspicion in the colony; his boldness in the cause of truth confirmed it ; and the firmness with which he defended his opinions in every ca.-e, led to his final banishment," is not remarkable: esfecially when one finds that the pen z.q writing was the same wliich soon after gave to the world that History cf Rhode Island which I have already had occasion to criticise as partly failing, through a lack of thoroughness, to do jusdce to the subject. From another quarter of the compass, still, come the fierce criticisms of that modern High-Church man, the late Peter Oliver, who says: "Roger Wiiiiams was cast out into the wilderness, because he taught that it was unlawful even 'to hear the godly ministers* of the Church of England. Harmless enough, truly, was this fanaticism in IMassachusetts, at the time he spoke, etc." [Tlie Puritan Co7nmo7i'wealth, 192.] Dr. Hague perhaps capped the climax of absurdity, when [Histori cal Discourse Delivered at tlic celebration, of the Sec- 07Ld Ce7ite7i?iial of the First Baptist Church in Prozd' de7ice, 7 Xov. 1S39, 20, 91] he called him, as he escaped from Salcm, a "ve7ieral'le pilgrim," and declared that " howe-veri.;rong might have been his aversion to any class of sentiments, however pungent his invective, he never b-etrayed one wish to infringe on the freedom of an oppo nent, or to use any other than moral means in promoting his opinions.' Nearest of all to the truth of the m.itter. Prof. Masson says of Roger Williams: "Personally he was most likeable — sincere to the core, and of a rich, glowing, peculiarly affectionate nature, which yearned even towards those from whom he differed publicly, aud won their esteem in return. But what were they [the colonists] to do? Mere religious whimsies they might have borne with so far in Williams, including even his Individuali-:n, or excess of Separatism; but here were attacks on law, property, social order! For a time it was hoped [h^.t reasonings, moderate censures and moral pres sure would bri:ig him round. Eut, though ha shifted frnoa place to place — leaving Salem for a time for Xev,- Plym outh, where he tried to get on wldi the mild Brewster, and then returning to Salem, where the people were so at tached to him that they would have him to be their * pas tor' on the d-ath of Skelton ( 1634) — yet as he became more determined in his singularities, and maintained them by writing."?, harder raeasures were used " [Life of John Milton, etc. ii: 561.] [io6] obvious a thoua:ht ou'^ht not to need even an allusion : but we find men contin- ually refer.'ing to the beginnings of our colonial career in terms which imply absolute forgetfulness of its simplest postulates. Surely the stream of social life and feeling in this rude wilderness could not be reasonably expected to rise higher than its fountain in the affluent and cultured metropolis of the mother- country. And yet — to take a single illustration — while Parliament was (as late as 4-14 Dec. 1660) there ordering the disinterment of the decaying remains of Cromwell, Eradshaw, and Ireton, in order that what was left of their mortal part should be hanged at Tyburn, and their heads stuck on poles upon the top of Westminster Hall fronting the Palace Yard ¦f''' and while Evelyn, almost in the beginning of the eighteenth centuiy, saw the quarters of Perkins and Friend — " a dismal sight!" — set up upon Temple Bar;"^' there are writers, and among them those of whom one would e.xpect a better learning and candor,™ who speak of such New England facts as, that when " King Philip " had been shot in Bristol woods in 1676 (he being, from a legal point of view, considered a rebel against King Charles the 2d) his body was quartered, and his head exposed for years at Plymouth ;*" as of barbarities so shocking, and inhuman, as almost to compel us to look upon our fathers as monsters, and not as men ! Wc may as well blame the New England colonists for not using the telegraph and the fast mail train, when as yet they had neither a courier, nor so much as even any rude road along which a passenger wagon might jolt its way; as to find fault with them for not lifting themselves in all the dopiain of thought and feeling out of the intellectual and spiritual average of their days, up toward tlie broader culture of subsequent ages. Nor, unless we take special pains to force our minds back toward the low level of the acquisitions of their time, shall we find it easy to comprehend how comparatively little they knew, and could know, in many directions in which knowledge has so long been common and cheap with us, and our immediate fathers before us. I date the era of the settlement of Nev.r England, here, with the advent of the Pilgrims of 1620, rather than with that of the Puritans of ten years later, because it synchronizes exactly with the birth-date of that revival of learning, which is commonly identified with the first issue of the fnstaiiratio Afagna of Lord Bacon, in that year.^°^ And I now desire to call the reader's attention to the' meager quality of the scientific and general erudition of that era, which is revealed in s^'KiHsht's/'o/. Hist. Eng. iv: 248. 333 Evciyn's Diary, 10 Apr. ifr,6. M^Even Jlr. Drake, Biog. and Hist, of Indians cf N. A.i.1 Ith ed.) 227, falls to remember — as might have been expected from hb large information — the obvious principle here considered; and Mr. Savage in his anno tation of Gov. Winthrop's Joumalvi\otz than once trans gresses iL [E.g. i: 53. 167; ii: r74, etc. <«> Increase Mather, Brief Hist. 47 ; Niles's///ri. Ind. and. Fr, \Vars,'\n 3 Mass. Hist. ColL vi: 190; 'Pliacli- er^sHist, Plymouth, 3S9. ^^tLal'mm's Introduc, to Lit. of Ettrope, etc, ii: 391. [io7] thi periods by which it was separated from the advent of various discoveries, and inventions, which long, long ago, have taken their places with us among- famiiiar things. When the :>I:iyflo-,i er dropped her anciior in Plymouth haibo° wise men were still in doubc whether the Coperniean, ought to supplant the Ptolemaic, world-theory.'''- It was two years after that date before Ascllius dis covered the fact, and the philosophy, of the chyle, and its relation to the diges tive process ; and two years, before England saw her first newspaper.'"'' It was five years, before hackney-coaches began to be kept for hire in London.^^ It was eight \-ears, before William Harvey, in his Exercilatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis, promulgated the doctrine of the circulation of the blood.*^ It was eighteen years, before Galileo announced the first true law of motion.*' It was tw-enty years, before Gascoigne, by fixing a cross of fine wires in the focus of the telescope, raised it from an instructive curiosity to the dignity of a far-seeinc eye that can accurately note celestial phenomena ; and twenty-eight, before the barometer began to be available as an indicator of the hight of mountains, or the coming on of storms.*"^ It was thirty-six years, before Huyghens, applying Galileo's oscillating pendulum to a simple registry of wheels and pinions, fur nished the world with a measure of time more accurate than the sun itself.*'^ It was forty-four years, before Willis described the nerve-center, and laid the foun dation of that knowledge of the nervous system which we now possess.'"® It was forty-six years, before Newton, sitting in his garden, was led on to the develop ment of the law of universal gravitation, " the greatest scientific discovery ever made."''"^'' It was forty-seven years, before the erection of the observatory of Paris, followed eight years after by that at Greenwich, opened the way for the modern progress of astronomy.''" It was fifty-two years, before the same great mind which had developed the law of gravitation, enabled men to e.xplain the rainbow, by demonstrating that light is composed of ra)'s of different colors and var}-ing refrangibility.^'- It was fifty-three years, before the first almanac, in present shape, was published at Oxford, Eng.''" It was fifty-si.x years, before Romer discovered the fact that light travels along its course in a measurable time.'"' It was se\-enty-five years, before Dr. Woodv/ard began to comprehend, ^''-Dr. Wliewell sliews that Lord Cacnn v.-as not a Co perniean, and Iililton undecided ; and thinks that Salus bury, ^\ho, in i66r, published a translation cf some of Galileo's V. orl.s, perhaps did as much as an;- one else to convince England. [Hist. Induct. ScU-Kces, i: 295-299.] ^^ Ibid,'\:\: 338; Vow&zs's, Handy-B soli about Books, etc. 97. *'^* Appleton' s Cyclopedia, sub voce " Coach. '' '^'^ Whewell's //wi?. hiduct. Scier.ces.'^iX: 331. •^' '' Ibid, ii : 20. ^^'' Ibld,'\'.: 20S; Appleton's Cyclopedia, si^ wQft. ^¦^Wh^wcW'z Hist. Induct. Sciences, ii; 210. «"/i/J, iii: 35i. "01bid,ii: 117, 121. '"Ibid,i\: 215,216. "=/i;'t/, il: 2Sr. *" Powers's Handy-Book, etc. 39. *'*Wheweh's7/£r^. Induct. Sciences, ii: i9> [io8] and announce. the fact that the surface of the earth exists in geological strata.'' It was eighty-nine years, before a daily newspaper was started in England.^'" It was one hundred years, before the thermometer \\'as made available for its uses of observation.""^ It was one hundred and thirteen years, before Dufay expounded the laws of electricity."' It was one hundred and twenty-six years, before Cuna;us invented the Leyden jar, and produced the electric shock.-'' It was one hundred and thirty-eight years, before Cronstedt setded the first principles of the science of m.ineralogy.^" It was one hundred and forty years, before the establishment of street lamps in London.''^^ It was one hundred and forty- eight years, before Watt produced, and patented, the steam-engine.*^ It was one hundred and fifty-one years, before Arkwright was manufacturing cotton cloth by means of spindles and looms driven by water.*'^ It was one hundred and sixt}'-four years, before Cavendish found out that water is compounded of o.xy- gen and hydrogen gas.*-'' It was one hundred and seventy-one years, before Galvani announced the science which took his name, and which has made the telegraph possible in our own time.''^^ It was one hundred and ninety-eight years, before the first ship crossed the Atlantic under steam ;*-° and two hund red and nine years, before Stevenson's "Rocket " led the long succession of locomotives of the nineteenth century.''^'' Separated from the present in point of science by this far remove, we are to take note also that in many departments of feeling as well as thought, the Eng lish people in the days of which we speak were in a condition so unlike that of their children, as to make it difficult for us to do them justice ; as witness one further fact — that m.ore than two hundred persons were hanged in England, and thousands were burned in Scotland, during the seventeenth century, for witchcraft alone.*^^ 2. We need to refer again*-'' to the fact that the theory of the toleration of \various and variant ideas in religion, had not then established itself in the .World among reputable doctrines. The ancient idea was of one all-embracing, •infallible and unchangeable church. And in England the Reformation had '"/i/J, ill: 411. *^^'Po\\zrs's Har.dy-Book, etc. 40. *^^ Applcton's Cyclopedia, sub voce. 413 Whe-.vell's Hist. Induct. Sciences, ill : '¦-^•'Ibid, Hi: II. *'^Ibid, ill: 193. *-^ Old England, 'n: 359. ^-- Appleton's Cyclopedia, sub voce. *^ Ibid, sub voce "Arkwright." *-' Whewell's ///i^. hiduct. Sciences,''ln: ^Ibid, iii : 62. ^-•"'Appletons's Cyclopedia, sub voce '^ Steam naviga tion." ^-^ Ibid, sub voce *" Steam carriage.'' ^'^^'\3^\\ti.x^% Salem U-'itchcraft, etc. i: 347. Not only was there this palliation for the witchcraft delusion at Salem, but it is a fact also that even William Penn pre sided, in his judicial character, atthe trial of two Swedish women for witchcraft ; so that nothing saved Pennsylva nia from a like blot upon her annals, but the accident of a flaw in the indictment. [Ibid, 414.] *^ See p. 86, and note 317, ante. [i09] scarcely more than transferred that idea from the Pope's church to that of tlenry \TII. And when our fathers dared lo differ with that State church in matters cf polity, they did so with the sincere belief that the government was riglit in i'.s fundamental principles, only mistaken in t!ieir application ; ri-I.t in rigidly ruling with reference to spiritual things, only wrong in tlie dau bv which that rule was determined ; right in compelling men as to their church polity, only wrong as to the kind of polity which was the object of such com pulsion. It would be the hight of absurdity, therefore, to e.xpect that, when landed after a voyage of three thousand miles in the North American wilder ness, such Englishmen should launch themselves at once into a subsequent centur)-. The only course natural to them was — mutalis mutandis — to repro duce as well as they could on the v.-estern side of the Atlantic the mother- country, as they thought she ought to be, and as, if they had had the power, they would have made her to be, at home. ^ The notion of toleration had had existence for more than a century, as a purely speculative conception. Eut as a practical working-day principle, it was almost inevitable that it should only be the birth of a considerable and painful experience. As new sects were evolved, and each took its turn of bearing per secution, each necessarily claimed for itself the right to be ; and so, each add ing one new demand in that direction, the way was gradually prepared for the idea of general, and equal, liberty for all. There can be no doubt that Mr. Wil liams, though far from being the discoverer, or first promulgator, of the doc trine, and though holding it originally in a crude form, was in his maturer years one of its most zealous and successful advocates, and that he did much in his connection with civil affairs in Rhode Island to favor and further it. But it cannot be held to be in any sense a just matter of reproach lo the iMassachu setts men that they shared the training, and so tho prepossessions and preju dices, of their time, and dreaded the advent of those new ideas in religion which tl;ey honestly conceived must, almost of necessity, be pernicious — as men dread the malarias and miasmas of an unknown low country. 3. We ought not, further, to forget that new sects in those days were apt to be associated with the ideas of fanaticism, and civil license, in their most offen sive and dangerous form; so that for this reason good men, and the lovers of good order, were prejudiced against them in advance. I think, indeed, our fathers strongly doubted whether any religion were tolerable for the English State, e.xcept the Established Church, and their own form of dissent from it. John Cotton early taught the Church in Boston (New England) that the pour ing out of the third vial [fiev. xvi : 4-7] should be so interpreted as to endorse the Statute of 27th Elizabeth, which put to death Priests and Jesuits ; " because [IIO] they had bloudy intendments in their comming, intending to kill the Queene, or corrupt tlie State with unwholsome and pernicious Doctrine, to draw the peo ple fi'om tiieir allegc.ance, to the cludxnce of the Sei of Rome."^''"' Nor, be it remembered here, is the question strictly so much what these nev/ sects really did hold and teach, as v,h;it th.v were tlien commonly reported and believed to hold and teach. Ephraim Pagitt, in his ffcrcsiogi-aphy,^^'^ and a few kindred writers, were responsible for the creation of a serious popular distrust of novelties in religious faith. Pie represents the Familists as teaching that Plenry Nicholas could no more err than Christ; that his books are of equal authority with the Bible ; that all days are alike ; that they attained perfection, and needed not to pray for the forgiveness of sins ; w^hile he declares that they indulged in a lewd and shameless life.*'"' He says the Antinomians held that it is sufficient for a wicked man to believe, and not to doubt of his salvation ; that the child of God cannot sin, and need not ask forgiveness for any of his acts — it being nothing less than blasphemy for him to do so ; that, if a man knows himself to be in a state of grace, though he get drunk or commit murder God sees no sin in him.'^ The following extract will convey some notion of the spirit in which Pagitt wrote, and will make it easy to see how a community leavened wdth such ideas should regard the advent of men of novel sentiments with apprehension. After describing fifteen or twenty such sects, — he names more than forty — and giving some details of the heresies and excesses of each, he goes on :''''' They preach, print and practice their heretical opinions openly : for books, fide the bloudy Tenet, witnesse a Tractate of divorce, in which the bonds are let loose to inordinate lust : a pamphlet also in which the soul is laid a sleep from the honr of death unto the hour of judge ment, with many others. Yea, since the suspension of our Church-government, every one that listeth turneth Preacher, as Shoe-makers, Coblers, Button-makers, Hostlers and such like, take upon them to expound the holy Scriptures, intrude into our Pulpits, and vent strange doctrine, tending to faction, sedi tion and blasphemy. V/hat mischiefe these Sectaries have aheady done, wee that have cure of souls in London finde and see with great griete of heart : viz., Our congrcg.ations forsaking their I'.astors ; our people bccomraing of the Tribe of Gad, running after seducers as if they were mad ; Infants not to be brought to the Sacrament of Eaptisme ; men refusing to receive the holy ConimLinioii, ^^ Tile Povjring ovt of the Seven l'iais,etc,{c!X. 1^42) 3d Vial, 4 ; (cd. 1615) 34. *"t This was first published in 1645. I have seen in the British Museum, and the libraries at Cambridge, [Eng.] other editions; of 1645 (again), 1646, 1647, 1647 (again), 1654, and iCCi \ v.hile Lowndes mentions another of 1662 ; showing a very large circulation for the book. <-- Hcresiogratliy, (cd. 16541 S0-S7. W. Wilkinson quite sustains most of thc;.e charges of I'agltt, in his Con futation rf Certaine Articles d.lrcered vnto the Fani- ilye of Lone,(c.uitlL Certaine prof tab'e Notes to kno-M an Heretique, especi.zlty a-i Ajiabaptisi), etc, 1579. ^-^Ibld, 91-102. ''^IbiiL'va. [ill] and the Lords Prayer accounted abominable, etc. .'V Volumn will hardly contain the hurt that these Sectaries luave in a very short time done to this poor Churcli ; and doth not the Common- ons ? Who arc the luccndiaiies wealth suffer with the Church ? 'Whence are all these distracti that have kindled and blo\.u tUij fire among us, but I Quite in the same vein is Mr. Thomas Edwards, who says in his famous Gan- grccna '.^'''^ This Land is become already in many places a Chaos, a Babel, .another Amsterdam, ye.a, worse ; we arc beyond that, and in the highway to Munster (if God prevent it not) but if a gen eral Toleration should be granted, so much written and stood for, England would quickly becoine a Sodom, an Egypt, Babylon, yea, worse then all these : Certainly, as it would be the most provoking sin against God that ever Parliament was guilty of in this Kingdome, like to that of leroboam, to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth ; so it would prove the cause and fountain of all kind of damnable heresies and blasphemies, loose and ungodly practises, bitter and unnatural di', isions in families and Churches ; it would destroy .all Relig ion, and as Polutheisme among the Heathen brought in Atheisme, so would many Religions bring in none among us ; let but the Reader well review and consider of all the Heresies, blas phemies, practises laid down in this Book, all broached and acted in England within these four last yeers, yea more especially within this last yeer ; and if one man hath observed and gathered so much, tyhat Armies of blasphemies and monstrous heresies arc there thinke we, if ali that have been vented were drawn into one Synopsis ? . . . Should any man seven yeers ago have said that of many in England (which now all men see) that many of the Professors and people in England shall be Arrians, Anti-triaitarians, Anti-Scripturists, nay blaspheme, deride the Scriptures, give over .all prayer, hearing Sermons, and other holy duties ; be for To!cr.ation of all Religions, Poperie, Blasphemie, Atheisme, it would have bin said, It cannot be; and the persons who now are fallen, would have said as Hazael, Are w-e dogs that wc should doe such things ? and yet we see it is so ; and what may we thanke for this, but liberty, impunity, and want of government ? We have the plague of Egypt upon us, frogs out of the bottomlesse pit covering our land, comming into our Houses, Bed-chambers, Beds, Churches ; aman can hardly come into any place, but some croaking frog or other will be comming up upon hira. And in much the same w.iy mourns Robert Baillie :'''° It is marvailed by many whence these new Monsters of Sects have arisen : Some spare not, from this ground, liberally to blasplicm the Reformation in hand, and to magnifie the Bishops as if they had kept down, and this did set up, the Sects which now praedominate. But these murmurcrs would do well in their calm and sober times, to remember that none of the named Sects are births of one day ; but all of them were bred and born under the wings of no other Dame than Episcopacy : the tyranny and superstition of this Step-mother, was the seed and spawn of Brownisme, the great root of the most of our Sects ; all which were m.any yeers ago brought forth, however kept within doors so long as any Church-Disciplin was on foot : Now, indeed, every Monster walks in the street without controlement, wliile all Eccleslastick Gov ernment is cast asleep; this too too long inter-reign and meer Anarchy hath invited every ^'¦' Gangraena, or a Catalogue and Discovery of many of the Errours, Heresies, Blaspliemies and pernicious practices qfilie .'sectaries of this time, etc. ( 1646), 120. 4^0 A Dissz'asive from tlie Errours of the Time : ly herein the Tenets of the princlpall Sects, etc., ars dra-ain togetiier, etc. (1645), 6. [112] unclean creature to creep out of its cave, and shew in publike its mishapen face to all, who like to behold.There can be no manner of doubt that — strong as this language seems to our time, it fairly expressed ihe predominant fcclhig of the majority of the good men of the seventeenth century. They dreaded rhese new sects from afar, as they dreaded conflagration, or the plague. In fact Pagitt makes use of these exact comparisons :*"' How dangerous the fostering of Hereticks hath been. Histories declare, viz.: Alraighty God sent downe fire from heaven, and consum'd Antioch, being a nursery of Hereticks [Paulus Dia- con, lib. 15-] And also how tlie earth opened, and swallowed Nicomedia, the meeting place of the bl.asphemous Arians \_Theod, lib. 2, cap. .xxvi] : also in the Commentaries of Sleidcn, how the .'Anabaptists meeting first in Conventicles, surprised Munster, and how hardly Amsterdam escaped them, Lambertus Ilorlensius writeth. The plague is of all diseases most infectious : I have lived among you [this e.xtract is from the Dedication to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London] almost a Jubile, and seen your great care .and provision to keep the City from infection, in the shutting up the sick, and in carrying them to your Pest-house ; in setting Warders to keep the whole from the sick; in raaking of fires and perfuming the streets ; in resorting to your Churches ; in pouring out your prayers to Almighty God with fasting and almes to be propitious to you. T/ie plague of Heresie is greater, and you are ncraj in -more danger then ivhen yon buried five thousand a iveeh t 'you have power to keep these Hereticks & Sectaries from Conventicles, and sholing together to infect one another. Fire is dangerous, many great Cities in Europe have been almost ruinated by it: I have seen your diligence and dexterity in quenching it in the beginning ; your breaking open your Pipes for water, making flouds in your streets ; ) our Engines to cast the water upon the houses : your industry and palnes is admirable. Heresie is as dangerous as fire ; use your best endeavours to quencJi it, before it consumes us ! And even a man of so good and gracious a spirit as Samuel Rutherford of St. Andrews, whose " Letters " are so fragrant with the sweetest manifestations of the Divine life in the soul of man, as to have won for themselves a perma nent place in the closet-literature of the Church, in his Survey of The Spiritual Antichrist (1648) — I quote from a copy in my possession bearing the auto graphs both of John Cotton, and John Norton — could speak oi:'^ the lawlesse Spirit of Enthysiasts, the murtliering spirit of Anabaptists, Libertines, Familists, who kill all, as Antichristian, tJial are not of their toay. 4. Still further, it is obvious that the Anabaptists and the Quakers presented themselves to the early settlers of New England in a guise eminently calculated to e.xcite prejudice and hostility against themselves ; the more especially as our fathers were — as wc have seen — far from being prepossessed in their favor. *^^ Heresiography,ete. xlii. ( ^""Partil: 239. It is not necessary to take space here to recount the painful and bloody his tory of thos'e monomaniacs of Munster, wlio, just one hundred years before ihe settlement of Xew England, had made the name of Anabaptist one to excite loathing and horror. It is sufficient to note that our fathers supposed they had the most undoubted authority for the conclusion that these persons not only believed Christ not to be true God, being only a gifted man ; that there is no original sin, and that infants ought not to be baptized; but believed that they themselves acted bya divine inspiration; that they were the righteous, and that the righteous had the right to w^ash their feet in the blood of the v.'ickcd; that property ought to be held in common ] that it is unlawful for a Christian man to be a magistrate, or to obey a magistrate ; that an oath is not to be used in processes of justice ; and that a believer should not be tied to one wife, but may marry as many as he likes.^^ The New England men supposed they had abundant w^arrant for the truth of statements involving the name of Anabaptist with the most indecent, aswell as painful, frenzies;*^'* and they found the prom- *"^The niitliorltles on \\hich they especially relied, ap pear to have been tiiese, viz. : Sleidanus De Siata Rc- ligio7iis, etc. Coriine/itarii, Libri. 5,(1555); Lambertus '^QX\jzn-^\\i.%Tvy7ivltvv77iAr.ahaptisiarv7:i,l^i^i,%,h\x\'(\\?:.zt. is in the Uritish Museum a reprint, of date 1637); EulHn- ger's An II olsu77i A 7itidoius^ or CounterPo'ysc7i^ agay7ist tlie pestilent heresye a7id Secie of A7'aliaptistcs, etc. (15.;$), and his Tliree Dialogues bet'weene the seditions Uberti7i.€, or relell A jiai'y.ptist, a7id the ir^tc obedient Christian: 'u.-hercifi Oliedic7i:e to i\Iag:st.-ates is han dled, (155 1 — this is in the Bodleian Library at O.-cford); Llartinus Duncanns's A7iabaptisticce Hcreseos Coufnta- iio,etvere Christia/ii Baptis/ni, ac potissi/iiuTft Pede'jap- tis77tatis A ssertio, eic. 1 549, [acopy of which is in the Bod leian Librar>^, Oxford] \ Guy de Erez's De ll-'ortel, de Oorspr07!ch, eii het Fo7zda7i'-e7it der jyeder-dooperen van 07ise7i tijde, etc. [first published in 1565, and again in 1570 — of which edition a copy is in the Mcnnoni'.e Librnry in Amstcrdnm. It was published also in French, from which portions, translated by "J- S."~the Catalo-ue of the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, says " Joshua Scot tow"— v.ere printed at Cambridge, K. E, in iC ¦ ; of Tvhichcopiesarcinthe Antiquarian, andMass. Ilist. Soc Libraries, under the title of The Rise, Spring a7ul Fou7i- daiion of the A /labaptisls, or R-jbaptizcd, cf onr Tune, etc. 4" pp. 52]; Cartwright's Tiuo Letters 'written cner into E7igland: the C7ie io a goJ^y Ladie, ivhercin the Anaba*ti^tes errours are co7fnted, et:. (15S9) ; CaH.n s A Short j7istruct'tou for to arme all gjod Christian People agay7ist the pestiferous errours cf ihe coin 7710 n SectecfAnahaptisies, etc. (1544— thisisln theBodleian. It. was printed again at Landon in i54':)) \ and the work of Pagitt, above quoted. The godly Henry Ainsworai — one of the gentlest, loveliest and most learned of the English Drownists — had publlbhed in \(>i-^, A. Season able Discourse ; or a. Censtire upon a. Dialogue cf the A 7iabapt ists, etc., which came toascco-d edition in 1643, and a third in 1644. [Among other boc!:s that one would do wtW to consult who v. i^hes to complete his knowledge of the subject, may be named : Catroa's H iUoire des A r.- abatistcs ta?ii e7i AHeiitagitCt llolia/ide qik A rgleierre, etc. Paris, 16:5; J. Gd.^ii\.\il5 De A 7iabaptis7niexordio, erroribsis, hidoriis ttbo>iii7ia7:d:s, co^futationibus ad- J ect is, etc. Easilea;, 1544 ; Mclancthon's Adversus An- abaptistasjndiciu7n, etc.; J. H. OUlui^s Aji/i.'ztes A 7ia- b'l/'Sistieijhoc est, Historia ti7UversaCis de Aiabaptisi- aritin. or Igi ne,progrcssu, f actio lulnis et scliis7ttatis, etc. P.asilea;, 1672 ; and Kcrs^enbrock's Gcschicli^e der IVie- dertdiijferzu Milnstcr, etc. 1771.] ^^^ I cite here, under the veil of the original Latin, one scene which appears to possess abundant auihentica- tlon ns h.aving occurred at Amsterdam in 1535: '" In uico S^.h\:\.no I oa7incs Sibert:ish':0a\\.?\)2.^, pannlcida. Aberat is per hos dies procul a domo in orienta'.ib. urbibus, ubi nogotlabant. Hue septem uiri et quinque fccr.i.r.es con- veuciant; inter quos unus, cui Theodo'-ito sartori nomen erat, sc prophetam ci:;crat. Mane pnulo post tertiam Iioram, in seci-etiori a-r'.iLim p.irte i.ronuin se hi terram ad oraiidum prothtta in congpecLu omnium porrc.xit- Dum orat, tantus cmnlbus lioiror ircc.^sit, ut 'ecus i::'Si3 ino~ ueri, & omnia tremere uiderentur. . . Quatuor horis doccnda Sc prccando ab.--.umi.t!s, propheia galeam caplti detractam, & thoraceni ferrcimi exntum, ensem & alia bellica instrumenta excussa, in igncrncongessit. His spoliatui totus stetit nudus, ut non esset quo ca qux ab oculishominura sunt remouenda, lc natura tegi haberi [114] inent good men, whose opinions they had been accustomed to receive on other subjects with the greatest deference, referring to such Anabaptists with a degree of reprobation '^^^ which was surely calculated to impair the v/elcome v.-ith which they might receive any neu' comers avowing that peculiar faith. The first mention of Anabaptism in the history of the New England colonies appears to be in connection with Air. Williams, and his new settlement at Provi dence ; where early in 163S, becoming convinced that he had not been himself baptized, and seeing no other v/ay to obtain the pure ordinance, he submitted to it at the hands of one Ezekiel Hollyman ; after which he turned round and himself rebaptized Hollyman and some ten others.'^'^ This course of procedure was not, in itself, calculated to increase the respect felt by the IMassachusetts men for this ism. Nor v/as the matter much mended, when, a few months after — on the logical ground that Hollyman had been, on this theory, unbaptized (and therefore unauthorized to administer the rite) when rebaptizing him — Air. que occulta uoluit, conderentur. Mandat sub lixc impe- riose sex ca;teris, ut suo example sc totos exuant. Par- uerunt iussui. Inde & foeniinn: uirorum cxemplum se- cuta;, adeo omnem uestltum po^ucrunt, ut r.on cs^et funiculus reliquus, quo capitis comasKubstringcrcnt,nn]!a natural! uericundia ductal. Sic enim ccnsuerat propheta, uniuersum id quod e terra natum faciumoiie esset, in igncniconjici oporterc, holocaust uni Deo id futurr.m arbi- tratus. Grauis dirusque fcetor uc.-.tlur.i igne correptarum, totam iam domum ita oppleacrat, ut mulier domtis hos- pita, qu:E_ harum rcrum ignara oininum crar, co cxper- recta, Iccto cxi'irct, focos cxploraiura, ecquod incendium uaquam esset. In tabulatum sursum progres^a. nudos undccim promiscuos ibi offendit. Cui illlco pro unperio mandat, ut 5: ip'^a ad prxescriptuni se ostendcret. Ob- teniperauit nulla mora, uestes in focum super aceruum aliarum cumulault. Ita nudatis duodeclm, nondum liquebat, quid rerum inceptarent. Ibi omnib'.is Iniperat propheta, ut currendo, c:amandoqL:e se imitarentur. Mox in publicum domo egrc^si horribili clamore per ur- bcm sursum deorsum dlmldiatam peruagantu.'-. Clamor consenticns Oinnium hie erat: I'ae, it.~.e, Tiac ; d'-iiiia tii7idicta; diid/ta tinidtcta ; diuina iti7tdicta. Nun- quam in ulta inorialiuni mngitus lunTendlor fuit audltus, ncc cxistimabant liorriblliorem ullo a;L;o exaudirl posse. Clues armati in publicum prosillimt, & forum iiuiadimt, rati ab hostlbus nrbem cnptam fuisse. CantI omnes in uincula ducuntur, extra unani nnilierem. Hrcc quo fjc- rit delapsa, inter nu'los con-:'ire tiideo. In curi.i dum nudi sedent, nulla uerecundla ta'jU, neiitituni cblatuni reiecerunt; tegi pertlnncitcr recusauic^, Jir ?/«iyciw .Yrr/- /rt/c;« f ijc dictitarunt. [Lamb. Jlortcns. Tvsnv't. Ana baptist, etc. (cd. i5!'^)59-'Ji-] Inalltdcbook, nowmarkcd as "rarissime" by the dealers, prmted at Leyden in the year before John Robinson and his company went thither from Amsierdam, entitled A pocalypsis I /isigni7un Ali quot H.-ercsiarcharvj7i, etc. is given [p. 5^']^ disgusting portrait of this " prophet" tailor ; which is surely ugly enough to take some possibility of genuineness. [See ad ditional details in Pontanas Rerzi7n et itrbis Atu. Hist. (1611) 35; Wagenaar's A77'.sterda7n, i: 239-247; and Erandt's /;'a.'. Ref. (London, 1720)1; 60.] ^" I have never examined Calvin's work above referred to [note43:;] ; but I fmd him in his preface to his /".yj/itT- p.iii7:ychia, calling the Anabaptists a '"'nefarious herd," and adding; '" against whom nothing I have said, equals their deserts." [Calvin's Traces, (ed. Edinburgh, M.txzccu) hi; 416.] Eullinger calls them the *" very messengers of Salhan himselfe." {Fiftie Godly a}:d Le.zrned Seri7L0iiSt f i'r. (ed. i5S;)p. 569.] Ainsworthsaldof the Anabaptists: " very ignorantly and erroneously have they propounded their opinion ; with some truth mixing much erroi-, that the blind mr.y lead the blind into the ditch." {Season able Discourse, ed. 1644, 13.] In the Ai pocalypsis ¦;^:iO\t. cited [note 440] occurs the fo''lowIng: ''Anabaptistarum dncirina, Lector candlde, simpliclter mcnJaclum est, & fucus. Tu cos DIvInipotes ac Prophetas censes? r.alic- ris. Pseudoprophetas s\int & falsi doctores. Quorum colluvione ac pr-stc nego ab orbe condlto quidquam no- centiusex Avernlf.iucibusprodijsse," [ill.] Even Jeremy Taylor declared (and this was as late as 1647) that Ana- bapti'^m is '"as much to be rooted out as anything that is the greatest pest and nuisance to the public interest." [Liberty of Prophesying, sec. 19.] *'- Winthrop's yournal,i; 293. Winthrop says that Mr. Williams was seduced into Anabaptist views by the influence of Mrs Scott, a sister of diat famous disturber, Mistress Anne Hutchinson. [115] Williams renounced the rebaptism, and remained for the rest of his days — under the name of "Seeker" — a " Come-outer " from all religious rites and organisms.'"' A little before this time certain English clergymen had se;-it over a list of thirty-two questions in regard to re!igio-a; affairs in New .E:-igland, one of which (the 30th) was to the point whether all the New England churches ¦were agreed in their faith and procedures. In 16.1.3 au answer, drawn up by Richard Mather'^" was printed, in -ivhich, in reply to this question, it is affirmed that all the churches in the plantations of Plymouth, the iMassachu setts and Connecticut agreed together ; but that Anabaptism existed at Provi dence, and Famllism at Rhode Island."^ The ne.-st we hear is in July i64r, when Winthrop says of the Rhode Island people :^ Divers of them turned professed Anabaptists, and -Mould not wear any arms, and denied all magistracy among CItristians, and maintained that there were no churches since those founded by the Apostles and Evangelists, nor could any be, nor any pastors ordained, nor seals admin istered, but by such ; and that the church v.-as to want these all tie time she continued in the ¦n-ilderncss, as yet she was. The words -which I have here italicised, indicate that these Anabaptists who w'ere thus introducing the doctrine into New England, were infected with some, at least, of the loose and offensive notions which had characterized the sect in Europe, and in its earlier days. In July 1644, one Thomas Painter, then of Hingham, who seems to have been an idle, obstinate and rather worthless person,""^ suddenly turned Anabap tist, and, " having a child born, he would not suffer his wife to bring it to the ordinance of baptism." The matter was aggravated by the fact that he was not himself a member of any church, although his wife was ; and by his " obsti nacy " and " very loose behaviour." They thought they exercised much patience with him, but finally :"^ because he was very poor, so as no other but corporal punishment could be fastened upon him, he was ordered to be whipped ; not for Ms opinion, but for reproaching the Lord's ordinance, and for his bold and evil behaviour, both at home and in the court. <"/&-\xt for such as differ from us oj/fy i;i j:tf^- meni, in point of baptism, or some other points of lesse consequence, and live peaceably amon^sS us, without occasioning disturbance, &c., such have no cause to complaine ; for /.'' haih never heene as yet putt in cxeeiUion against auy of Ihem, although such arc Icuownc to live amongst us. An explanation ^vas also given in England by Mr. Winslow, which was by authority,^ and which was, as follows :^^ You have a severe law against Anabaptists, yea one was whipt at Massachusets for his Religion ? And your law banisheth them? Ans. 'Tis true, the Massachusets Governement have such a law as to banish, but not to ¦whip in that kinde. And certaine men desiring some niitigation of it ; It was answered in my hearing: 'Tis true, we have a severe law, but wee never did, or will, execute the rigour of it upon any, and have men living amongst us, nay some in our Churches of that judgment, and as long as they carry themselves peaceably as hitherto they doe, wee v;iU leave them to God, our selves having performed the duty of brethren to them. And whereas there was one v.hipt amongst us; 'tis true wee knew his judgment what it was : but had hee not carried himselfe so contemptuously towards the Authority God hath betrusted us with in an high exemplary meas ure, wee had never so censured him : and therefore he may thank himself who suffered as an evill doer in that respect. ''^¦' But iiie reason luherefore t-':e are loath either to repeal: cr alter ihe lazv, is, Because zcee ivould have it re7naine in force to beare zuilizesse against their jiid^cpie^tt and practice, 'which ije conceive them to he erroneous.'^'^ At the very time when this lav/ had been passed, a minister who denied the lawfulness of Pedo-Baptism -was President of the infant Harvard College ; while the divine who was elected, in 1654, to be his successor, believed immersion ^'^ Hiitchi7i:on Papers, 21G. 4:0 "Our hono'cd Gov'n'', Deputy Gov^'n'', Rich: Eel- llngli:!!!!, Esq., £; M*". Auditor Gcr.''all are appointed a comiuee to piisj ^ c:caminc a^l tlic answ-' y* arc brought into this Co''te to y° petition of Docto' Child tz M^. Foule, &C., Zz out of all to draw up such an aiisw' there to as they ih'.n'rxC niOit ni^etc, & psent y" r.amc to this Co'tc. Ll furthr to trcate luth I^fr. l^i7islozu &= tJ agree zoth hi}7t as an agent for Tis, io answer to zuhat shalbe ohiected r.gai::zt 7is i7s. E7:gla!ul,£z glvcmg engagement to y'^ said JM'' Winslow accordingly." {Mass. Col. Rec. ii: 162.] ^¦^ Hypocrisie U7i77'.asked, eic. ioi. *^ I take it the reference here is to the CiSe of Painter before mentioned, [p. 115.] '"''Gov. Leverett, and others, in the letter to Hon.. Robert Coylc to which I liave already referred [see note 313 a7ite'] give much the same account of this ir.a:tcr. It wili be remembered that thoy w rote in 1O73. Tl-^ey say : *' Hence, [on account of the general alarm felt rit ths dangers threatened, by Anabaptism, etc.] froin our first times, laws ha\c been made to secure us from .hac dan ger; which Iiave, at some times, upon just occasions, beeu cxccut:^d, upon some of that sort of people, who have exceeded the rule3 of moderation in matters of p.-actic^ : but this we may say tru^v, tliat some peaceable Anabaptists, and some of other sects, \vho have deported tliemselves quietly, have and do live here, under the pro tection of this government, undisturbedly." [Letter, eta Appendix to Life of Hon. Rob. Boyle, 456.] [ii8] essentia! to the validity of the rite ','¦'-' so that there certainly seems to be some evidence, at least, that the case was as stated above. In the autumn of 164S, a liulc excitement was temporarily caused in conse quence of some ''great misdemeanor," coramitted by Edward Srarbuck, of Dover, one of the Assistants, ''with profession of Anabaptistry;'''" but nothing is set down as having come of it. Five years after the statute took its place on the records, we find traces of uneasiness in Massachusetts over the fact that the older Plymouth Colony — . far excellence, the " Old" Colony — was exercising towards the Anabaptists a tol eration which it was feared would grow to a common danger. One Obadiah Holmes, a native of Preston, England, who had been excommunicated from the church in Salem, and had removed to llehoboth and, in some wa}', joined himself to Mr. Newman's church; in 1649 seceded from the same with eight others and organized an Anabaptist church.'*^' He was e.x;communicated again and his companions also, while the Plymouth Court was petitioned to take action in the premises. That Court responded by enjoining these schismatics "to refrain from practices disagreeable to their brethren," and citing them to appear before it ; on which appearance. Holmes and two others were merely bound over in ^10, one for another.^'''^ Whereupon the General Court of IMassachu setts wrote a letter to the General Court of Plymouth, complaining of their lenity, and urging a greater stringency ; asking them to consider that " the infeccon of such diseases, being so neere vs, are likely to spread in:o our juris diccon, eLC.''''^"- It does not appear that any Plymouth action followed this inter cession, but Plolmes, with a few of his followers, soon removed to Newport, where he joined himself to the Anabaptist church, which some five years before had been formed there by Dr. John Clarke, and his friends.'"^' Some months before this, William Coddington, sick of the unsettled state of civil affairs, which proved to be the result of the unorganized individualism which was then the key-note of the Rhode Island plantations, exaggerated by '"'Quincy's Hist. Har. Univ. i : iS, 25. *-^l^lass. Ccl. Kec. il: 253. ^-^BIl^ss's Hi^i Rehoboth, 205. '¦™ B.iylira's It ist. Mem. Plym, Col ii ; 210; Plym. Col Rec. il: i-tr, 156, 162. «M/.wi-. Cu/.iTf.- iii; 173. Tlic letter beslns: "Wee have lic.ird hceretofore cf diuerse Annibnpti^ts, .iriscii^-p in your jiirisdlccoTi, rtnd connived at; but beiiic; but few, \\ee\veil hoped that it misht Iiave pleased God, by the endeavors of yourselves and the faithfull elders \v^ yow, to have reduced such erring men againe into the ri-ht way. Eut now, to our great greife, wee are credibly in formed that your patient bearing \v'"^ such men hath p.duccd another ciTect, namely, the multiplying and en- creasing of the same errors, and wee feare maybe of other errors also, if timely care be not taken 10 suppresse the same. Perticulerly wee vnderstand th?,t w^^'in this few weekes there ha'/c binn at Sea Cunche thlrteene or fower- teene p'sor.s rebaptized (a swifte progresse in one toune ;) yett wee heaie not of any cfTectuall restriccon is entend- ed thereabouts, etc." Seekonk had been the original In dian name of Rehoboth. ^''-Backus's Hist. iV, Eng, i: 149. He thinks the Church must have been formed in 16^4, or earlier. the normal fact of the eccentric and impracticable character of many of the individuals who were then naturally attracted, or driven, thither ;^'^^ had "-one to England to see if something could not be done in the Vi'ay of reraedy. He there obtained leave from the Council of Siaie to institute a separate govern ment for the islands of Rhode Island and Conanicut ;¦"-'' he to be Governor, with a Council of not more than six Assistants.'"" In the autumn of 1650, it was understood that he was on his way home with this new instrument, and it was further understood that it was 'Sir. Coddington's desire, and intention, to bring about under it, if possible, the introduction of Rhode Island into tlie Confederacy then existing of the other Colonies, if not absolutely to procure its annexation to Massachusetts. Clarke and Coddington had not been on the best of terms since the disturbance occasioned by Nicholas Easton,** and, with many of his Newport adherents, the Anabaptist pastor was bitterly opposed to the new-coming order of things. When the crisis approached, he seems to have felt that a little persecution of the Anabaptists — if such a thing could be man aged — by Massachusetts, might serve an important purpose, in prejudicing the Rhode Island mind against Coddington's scheme.'^^ An occasion appears accordingly to have been made by which the red flag of the Anabaptistical fanaticism could be flouted full in the face of the Bay bull. Among the early settlers of Lynn was one William Witter, a farmer residing at Swampscott, who, as early as 1643, had become so inspired with the genius of Anabaptism as to call infant baptism "a badge of the whore." ^"^ By 1646116 had progressed in this lovely spirit so far as to declare " y' they who stayed whiles a child is baptized, doe worshipp y" Dp'ell," and "broake y"^ Saboath."*"" Knowledge of his case reaching Mr. Clarke, a pilgrimage was determined upon for the purpose of public sympathy with this person, if not his open rebaptism, and reception into the New-port fellowship.'*''' Such an expedition had in itself *^Dr. Palfrey does not hesitate to intimate that the Rhode Island colonies then took the social sewerage of their neighbors — to the benefit of the latter: " It was an advantage to have, near by, a sufficient receptacle for the overflow of communities which would be the more whole some for being drained. " [Hist. N, Eng. 'u: 343.] ^¦^ Conanicut was the island lying between Rhode Island and what is Kingstown — now incorporated as the town of Jamestown. *^^ yournal of the Council of Stale, State Paper Oince, cited by Palfrey, ii : 3 44. ^'¦¦^'SV'mihro^' s yournal ii: -lo- 4C7':if Massachusetts was intolerant of Baptists, and if the execution of Coddington's scheme would place the Rliode Island Baptists more or less under her control, I the necessity of sell^defence admonished them that, if possible, that scheme sliould be defeated. . . . He judged well, that, at this moment, some striking practical evidence of the hostility of Massachusetts to Baptists would be eiT-cacious to excite his Rhode Island friends to oppose the ascendency of Coddington." [Palfrey's //w/. N, Eng. ii: 350] *-3 Lewis and Newhall's Anftals of Lynn, 2og. ^"¦"^ ^dass. Ccl. Rec.'\\\: 67. The tctlerant spirit cf the Court comes out here in the record : " v° Court expst their patience toi\^ds him, only admonishing him till they see if he contlaew obstinate, etc." See also Z^-wly d~^ .A'"c-:w- hatl, 219. '"' Gov. .\mold [Hist. R. I,'\: 234] says the church '" deputed ' * Clarke, and his two companions, " to \'i3it [I20] a promising look. It would lead through Boston, yet not far enough beyond it, to imperil the desired publicity. Yet nothing was neglected which should rea sonably avail for fullest success. Clarke himself had left Boston fourteen years before to avoid being sent awa}', and he knew that his presence in the Islassa- chusetts must bring him at once under the operation of the Anabaptist law of 1644 ; while, as an Assistant under the Rhode Island government,^'^ and as pas tor of the Newport Anabaptists, he doubtless felt himself to be sufficiently a man of mark to be tolerably sure of being "persecuted." But, for further security against failure, he took along with him John Crandall, son-in-law of Samuel Gorton ; and also — to make assurance doubly sure — that very Oba diah Holmes who, a short time before, had been the occasion of the complain ing letter of the Massachusetts Court to that at Plymouth. The scheme succeeded perfectly. Saturday, 19-29 July 1651, saw this mis sionary company, after a three days' progress through the enemy's territory,^*^ at their journey's end. Possibly it had been their original intent to attend ^Messrs. Whiting and Cobbett's "meeting" on Sunday morning and interrupt the same;**^ but when the time came, not seeing their way clear to that, j\Ir. Clarke preached at Witter's house to his two companions, their host and a few others who gathered an aged member, residing near Lynn, etc. '' But Witter ¦^¦as not soz'ery "aged" — being only then about 67 [Sav age's Ge7i. Did. iv: 620;] nor does it appear to be by any means certain tl";at be ^\a5 a member or the New port Church, or of any other. EacUus, indeed, professes to quote [i : 215] from tlie "Newport ChurcIi Papers," the statement tliat \\'itter was "a brother in the cliurch, ¦who, by reason of his advanced age, could not undertake so great a journey as to visit the church." Eut one can not helpth'nking tliat those " Papers" must have been written lon;^ after the date of the occurrence (as is the obvious fact villi some of the "Papers" of the First r3'j'.!st Cliuich of Providence — which are not in accord v.ith tlie truth of history,) and that their author confused the order of events. It is certain that neither Clarke nor Holmes, in the minutely circumstantial accoimt which Imm'jdlatc'.y after both gave {HI Neives, ctc.'\ say anything about being sent by the church; nor about Wiiter's being a church-member. They s.iy they went *'upon occasion of buslne.^se." They speak (a year after) of him, as a Papttstwith themselves; but in noway do they InUmate ilut he had previously been such, ex cept in desire. Furthermore Lewis and Ncwhall {A71- 7ials, etc. 230] say that Clarke rebaptized Witter on this occasion. This ¦view receives strong support: (i)from the language of the 77titti7nus [4 JMass. Hist. Col. ii : 31] which consigned the three men to Boston jail: "for sus pition of having their hands in the rebaptizing of one, etc" (nobody suggesting that any person other than Wit ter ¦was now rebaptized;) (2) from the language of the sentence, {Ibid, 32]-.\ir.ch declared th.at Clarke had "ad ministered the sacrament cf tlie Supper to one excom municate person [Ho'ines,] to another under admonition, and to another that was an inhabitant of Lin, and not in fellowship with any churcli'" [v.ho was this, if it were not Witter?] ; (3) from the fact that 'W'iiterwaspresented at the Salem Court, in the November following, "_/?r beinge rebaptized," \_Salc7nCo'.iri Rec. 25, g mo. 1651]: which is a veiy remarkable fact if he had been, as Backus and Arnold claim, a member of the Newport Anabaptist Churcli for years ; but which was a perfectii- r.atural oc currence, if, after having been inclined for a long period to Anabaptist views, he had now been rebaptized by Clarke on this visii, — ostensibly on '"business," but really for this purpose. The preponderance of evidence seems to me very clearly agaii-.st the statement which has been common among Baptists, and which I see that my friend the learned professor of Ecclesiastical His tory- an the Baptist Theological Seminary at Newton, is repeating in "Centennial Notes" ia a prominent jour nal of that denomination, while these pages are going through the press. ^''^R. I. Col Rec. i: 216, 220. •*'- Clarke's III A'e^wes frotJZ Hetu England, etc, 1-4. ^"^"Not having freedom, in our Spirits for want of a clear CaU from God to goe unto the Publike Asserablie to declare there what ¦^¦as the mind, and counseU of God concerning them." {Ibid.\ [121] with them.-*'^ They were interrupted by two constables with a warrant, ar;d taken to the " ordinary •' for safe keeping. In the afternoon the officers carried them to '-the meeting," where they deliberately put on their hats in tirae of prayer, (and kept them on until the constabl-.s '^ plucked " them oft",) while Clarke v.-ent to reading a book, and, as soon as there was a pause, sprang to his feet and desired " to propose a few things." The pastor wanted to know whether he were a member of any church, and the magistrate, who had issued th2 war rant (Robert Bridges) said that if the congregation were willing to hear him he might speak, otherwise not ; and Clarke beginning at once to attack the church as "not constituted according to the order of our Lord, &c.," the congregation concluded not to be willing, and he was soon silenced. On Monday they v.-ere examined by this magistrate, who decided to send them to Boston jail until the next Court ; but, in some way giving him the slip, they managed to get back to Witter's, where they completed their interrupted service, and Clarke adminis tered the Lord's Supper, having, it would seem, previously rebaptized V/it- ter. On Tuesday Bridges made out his mittimus, and they were lodged in prison in Boston. The next week on Thursday — 31 July-io Aug. 1651 — they had their trial. Being charged with Anabaptism Clarke disowned the name, and denied that he had ever rebaptized any ; on the trickish plea that^ since one's first child-baptism was no baptism, he had never /-(r-baptized. He further "testified " against the Court ; as did his companions. All ended in their being fined — -as v/as usual in those days, to be whipped if they could not pay — and imprisoned until the matter be adjusted, the one way or the other. Endecott, as he was so apt to do, lost his temper while talking with Clarke, and said as much as that, while the Newport Anabaptist might liave some suc cess in dealing with weak-minded persons, he could do nothing whatever in an argument with the ministers ; which Clarke insisted was tantamount to a promise to grant him a public disputation, and began to petition for that. The project seems to have been entertained by the magistrates, but before anything came of it somebody paid Clarke's fine, and he was very willing to leave for home.*'"'' The same thing was done with Crandall. Holmes seems to have had sterner stuff. Although "there were who would have paid the money ^'^ if he would accept it," he "durst not accept of deliverance in such a way.'"'''' He accord ingly received thirty stripes.*'^ When, in the following year, Clarke published ^"¦^ "And to 4 or 5 Strangers, that carae in unexpected after I had begun." [Ibid.] ^¦'Ibid, 13. 4;= His fine was ;£3o. [Ibiit.] *'^ See his letter to London, detailing the entire trans action, in Clarke's /// Netxies, etc, ig. *^s Arnold thinks lie was "cruelly whipped." [Hist. R. I. i: 235]. Eut Clarke says "it was so easie to me, that I could well bear it, yea and in a manner felt it not ; " and that he told the magistrates after it was over; "you have struck me as witli Uoses" [lit iVewes, etc. 22.3 Dr. Palfrey suspects the executioner had orders [l22] his version of .ill this in England, he was careful to declare that one purpose which he had in view in it ail, was to make known "hov.- that spirit by which they [the Massachusetts authorities] arc led, v.-ould order the whole World, if either brought under them, or should come in unto them;"'''' — th.it is, how they would treat Rhode Island Baptists, were they to be annexed to their Colony. The careful reader of New England history for that year will be apt to find, , in the state of mind toward Massachusetts produced at Nev.-port by this epi sode, and the relation of that state of mind to the reception of Coddington's plans after his return — the exact date of which is not given, but v.-hich ap pears to have been a few days subsequent to the whipping of Holmes ^'^ — the ground of what at the least will be a strong suspicion that there was a wheel within a wheel here revolving, and that the Massachusetts men in this thing, if sinning, were also adroitly made to serve a purpose in Rhode Island i politics by their sin. A few years passed in comparative quiet, when trouble arose in Charlestown. One Thomas Gould, a member of the church then under the care of Zaehariah Symmes and Thomas Shepard, withheld his child from baptism. The church la-bored with and admonished him, but seem to have had long patience with him, in the face of unbecoming, if not contemptuous, conduct on his part. In the autumn of 1656 and the spring of 1657, he was dealt with by the County Court for his error. The next year, as he constantly neglected the Lord's Day meetings, he "was admonished for his breaking away from the church in weighty schism, and never having used any means to convince the church of any irregular proceeding, but continueing peremptiously and contumaceonsly to justifie his schisme. "¦*¦'' He gradually found sympathizers, and on Sunday 8-iS Nov. 1663 a private meeting was organized at his house w-hich — 28 May-7 June 1665 — grew into the first Baptist church of the Colony.''^' The church under Mr. Symmes, not being able to secure any tokens of repentance, on the 30th July-9 Aug. following, excommunicated them, " for their impertinency in their schismatical withdrawing from the church, and neglecting to hear the church.*^^ The Court then took action. Gould and his companions were sol emnly charged " not to persist in such pernicious practises." All ended in their adherence to their course, and their being disfranchised and fined, and — as they would not pay their fines — in their temporary imprisonment. "to vindicate what they thought the majesty cf the law, at little cost to the delinquent." [Hist, N. Eng, ii: 353-] *'¦¦' III Newes, etc, i. ""Clarke [-t Iffass. Hist. Coll ii: 4.(,] gives the date of Holmes's sentence as 31 July-io Aug. 1651 ; while Ar nold [Hist. R. I.'i: 23S] places "August, 1651" in the margin of his reference to Coddington's reaching Rhode Island on his return. **^ Charlestown Church Records, 6th 4th rao. 1658. "- Now the First Baptist Qiurch of Boston, *.^ Ibid, sub die 30 July, 1665. [i23] After a time something Ld the General Court to tr^^ another course, and a great debate as to the matters at issue be-an by appointment, on the 14-24 April 166S, between Revs. John yVllin of Dccliirjo, Thornru Cobbett of Ipswich, John Higginson of Salem, Samuel Danforlh of Ilo^xbury, Jonathan jMitchell of Cambridge and Thomas Shepard of Charle~:ov,ii ; and Gould, v.ith seven sym^ pathizers; three of v/hom were from Newport. Tto da^-s were spent in close discussion, '' wth a great concourse of people,*' the effect of which — as might have been anticipated — was not as '-prevalent wth » these Baptists, as the Court '^ could haue desired ;" so that, neither party yielding, the chief offenders — Gould, Turner and Farnum — were banished, and refusing to leave were again imprisoned. Strong sympathy was called out in their behalf. A petition with sixty-six signers interceded for them. But Gould was not set at liberty until in 1670. The society retreating to Noddles Island, a warrant was issued against them there.^'^^ Various petty persecutions followed, and although in March x6Si-2 the messengers of the colony were instructed to inform the king that " as for the Annabaptists, they are now subject to no other pcenal statutes then those of the Congregational way;" it cannot be denied that as compared with the " Stand ing Order," the Baptists, in one way or another, did have more or less cause of complaint; until, so lately as 1S34, the amendment to the third article of the Bill of Eights put a final end to the policy inherited from the mother coun try, and cherished for more than two hundred years, under which all "dissent ers '' had to a greater or less extent suffered. It seems fair, notwithstanding all here set dov/n, to claim for our fathers a course of procedure toward the Baptists which v/as liberal for that time ; as it surely was far more humane than that which the professors of the same faith received in the father-land.*®^ -^-'Thls stor-y of Gould (or GoM, as his name ¦was then spelled) is to!d at considerable length by Mr. Frotliinj;- hAm[lIistt'ry of Clj^iirieptozu'i, 163-172 J and is nuichd\\e!t upon a^so by /Ja^h.-is {'1 : 355-415] See further, iilass. Col. Rec. V : 271, 272, 347 ; and S. Willard's AV Siitor Ultra Crepida7n, etc. 16S1- 4to. pp. 27. ^'¦'A glance at the facts will show that the Baptists vrere more persecuted, and longer persecuted, in Eng land than hcr>: Edward Wightman had been burned at Burton-upcn-Trent, 11-21 April lOii, for being a Bap tist, [Crosby's Hist. E7ig. Bap. i : io3 ; Ivimey's Hist. E7ig. Bap. i; 123; Evans's Early E7ig. Bap. i: 233.] Edward Carber, minister to a small Baptist congregation in London, was thrown into prison in 1641, and kept there ele%-en months Tor denying the baptism of in fants." {Crosby, i: 219; Ivliney, i: 163.] Hanserd Knollys was more th.in once imprisoned for the same ciuse, \_Crj:by,\: 22O-231.] Sanuiel Dates in 1O4) lay for some t'nie in irons, and was tried for his life for immersing a female, and was nearly dro\mcd by a mob after his acqLiIttal. {Crosby, i: 236; Ivii/zey, i: i')j.'\ John Bunyan lay in liedford jail twelve years, because he had b-irea jrulltyof holding a Baptist "convcnt'cle," in defiance of the law. {Crosby, ii : 92; l7/i::iey,\: 301; Erian^, ii; 2*3;.] Thomas Grantham — thi author, in 167S, of Christia7US7}nis Priinitivus — was ten times thro-mi into the common jail ; often being kept there for months at a lime. [Taylor's Hist. Eng. Gen. Baptists, i: 211; Crosby, ii: 149.} In 1661 Baptist meetings ia London were again and again broken up by\-iolence: [I24] It was almost twenty years after the foundations of the Massachusetts Col ony had been laid, before the sect of Quakers began to arise in England. George Fox of Drayton in Leicestershire, an ignorant but zealous shoemaker, conceis'ing himself raised up to disapprove of the existing institutions of relig ion, spent a long time in solitude, in roaming up and down the laud, in fasting and meditation. He was a stern ascetic, clad in leather, and with his mind predisposed toward impressions of severe and outlandish duty. He fancied it was revealed to him that "the Lord forbad him to put off his Hat to any Men, high or low; and he v/as required to Thoic and Thee every I\Ian and Woman without Distinction, and not to bid People Good Morrow or Good Evening; neither might he bow or scrape with his Leg to any one."^ It was furthermore " opened to him" that "Physicians, Lawyers, and Priests are generally void of that True Knov.iedge and Wisdom they ought to be guided by,"*®^ that '• Steeple- houses '' are not " Churches," but are to be cried against as "idol-temples;" and that it was his calling to go about '^to declare openly against all sorts of Sins," interrupting courts, market-gatherings, and especially church-services ; which latter function he carried out in such a w^ay as to make himself, to the popular thought, a common nuisance in the northern counties. As a matter of course he saw the inside of several prisons. Equally as a matter of course, he gained disciples. They called themselves "Friends," sometimes ''Children of the Light," because they professed that they had in their conscience the light of Christ shining within. But the nickname of Quakers was soon applied to them, and has never become outworn."^^ and Baptist ministers were thrust into close confinement \\I;h.out the ceremony of a warrant. {Crosby, ii: i6i- 1G4.] John James, preacher to a London congregation of Seventh-day Baptists, was imprisoned, on pretence of treason, and hanged at Tyburn 26 Is'qv.-6 Dec. 1661. {Crosby, ii: 165-171; Ivii7icy, i: 320-327; Taylor, \\ 256-260.} From a Narrative of ihe AppreJie7uli7tg etc. of Johfi fa7ncs, eic. ipo. 1662, it appears that the poor man was treated with infamous barbarity. No sooner was the sentence of deadi passed than the tipstaff seized his cloak, and demanded payment for tlie use of it until the day of execution; and the day before his dcaih the hangman came and demanded of him J^io (finally offer ing to take f. 10) to give him an eaay death, declaring he would torture him exceedingly unless he were paid; to whom James replied: " I must leave that to your mercy, for I have nothing to give you." In i66.(. twelve Bap tists, ten men and two women, taken at their meeting near AiUbury, were tried and sentenced either to conform to the Church of England, or abjure the realm, and refusing to to do either, they were sentenced to death — but the king finally pardoned them. {Crosby, ii : iSr.] As late as 16C5, Elizabeih Gaunt — an Anabaptist who spent most of her time in visiting and succoring poor people — was an-ested at London on a charge of treason, was con demned, and bnrjied at Tyburn (23 Oct.- 2 Nov.) {Crosby,, iii: 1S5 ; Ivi77iey, i: 455; Bishop Burners Hist, cf his oiun 7":';;;^:, 64S.] Crosby says that, about 1G70, the i^opular enmity rose against the Baptists so in England, that they were denied the use of the common [unconsecrated] burial places, and some, he says, "have been taken out of their graves, drawn upon a sledge to tiieir own gates, and there left unburied \ " {Hist. Etig. Bap. ii: 239 ] And to this day no Baptist however saindy in England, alive or dead, has the same religious rights, social positioQ, or privileges of sepulture, as he might have were he a Conformist of the most worthless character. <3G Sewel's History of tlie People called Qnahers, etc. iS. *^Ubid, 17. ^S3" Qervas Bennet," — ajustice of the Peace, and an Independent, — "hearing that G Fox bad hira and tli032 [1=5] The times favored rank growths in morals and religion ; and, by 1654, as many as sixty of these ranting reformers were ron.ming up and down England, while emissaries of this "Nev; Liglit" had cro-scd tin; Loidcr irto SLO-'.m;',' the channel to Ireland,"'' and the North Sea U- /.v.d.md r :,d KolLiiid, v. hence — Ignorance of the Language of the country iniencring with their capacity for abusively enlightening steeple-house congregations — ihrr,e v.hD had und-jr- taken the Dutch contract returned home, having found "but slight Entertain ment there." ¦'^'' As the Quakers grew in numbers they grew also in heat, and in the capacity of making themselves intensely disagreeable to the average of decent people. Abundance of books were published by them, and against Them. And some of the more extravagant — or insane — of their number, broke out into excesses, which sometimes only failed of the guilt' of blasphem.y by virtue of the infinite silliness that was in them. James Nayler, in 1656, entered Bris tol riding on a horse led by a woman, while other attending women cast scarfs and handkerchiefs on the ground before him, the company shouting " Holy, Holy, Hosannah in the Highest,^^ etc." I One Isaac Furnier, having whitried a Doctor's title from the post of his door, "because the Spirit did testify so unto hira," being asked whether, if the Spirit moved him to stab the Doctor with his knife, he should, do it, answered "yes."''°- One Perrot, getting into prison at Rome, wrote letters, in which the Quakers themselves thought " some Sparks of Spiritual Pride" might be seen, which he signed "John," in "Imitation (as it seems) of the Apostle John."*°^ Edward Burrough, coming into London on the 23 N0V.-3 Dec. 1658, meeting the funeral procession of Oliver Cromwell at Charing Cross, "felt such a Fire kindled in him, that he was, as it were, filled with the Indignation of the Lord, whose Fury ran through him, to cry: 'Plagues! Plagues! and Vengeance against the Authors of this Abomina tion !' "^" Even the gentler sex felt the fierce frenzy, and a woman rushed past the guards one day into the Parliament House, with a pitcher in her hand, which she smashed to fragments before the Commons, shrieking: " So shall ye be broken in Pieces ! "'^'¦'^ about him; Tremble at tlie J^'ord cf the Lord I toolc hold of this weighty Stiyinswilh such an airy Mind, th'.t from thence he took Occasion to ca'.l him, and ]r3 Friends, scornfully Q'J-VKers. This new and unusual Denomination was taken tip so e2ger!y, and spread so amori^ the People, that not only the Priei.ts therefrom that Time gave no other name to the Professors of the Light, but sounded it so gladly abroad that it soon ran over all England . . neighboring Countries and adjacent Kingdoms, etc" {Ibid, 24. Sea also Netv England Fire Brar.d Quenched, etc. i : 26.] , "'Ibid,-;?,, qi. ^'"lild, lOZ. ^•¦^li'-.l 136. Fox and other Q.iakcrs considered NT;,l^r "clouded in his understandlisg ;" — \.i VvicyS.i, l.itjr, became of that cpin'ou — others ihon;;ht they all were so ; and, necessarily, \vl".h the masses of the people, Q.uihei ism took tlie credit of the whole. ^^-Ibld, 133. '¦¦'-Ibid, eSe. "'/i/o', 1S7. '^'^Ibid, iSo. tl26] Some peop!e fancied that these strange fanatics were Franciscan friars, in disguise;'-"" and, altogether, many of the English people became stirred quite to alarm by them. As a matter cf couLbe tidings of these thinc;3 in due tirae crossed the Atlan tic to these reraote shores. They lost nothing in crossing. The colonists made up their minds that those turners of the world upside down vv'ould be coming hither also, and that such coining ought to be resisted. Franciscans in dis guise or madmen without disguise, in any event, their presence v/ould be vmsavory and their influence pestilential — and, if possible, New England must be kept clear of them. By the autumn of 1654 some of the tracts of Lodowick JNIuggleton and John Reeves, who had acted somewhat as forerunners of Fox, and had boldly claimed to be the "last two witnesses and prophets of Jesus Christ,"*'" were found to have been shipped to Boston ; and the General Court ordered them to be put to what it thought to be their best light-giving use, after the lecture, in the market place, by the executioner.''"^ Twenty years had hardly yet effaced from the iMassachusetts mind the grievous troubles which had been connected with Mrs. Anne Hutchinson's teachings and career ; and the burned child dreaded the fire. I have said that these tidings suffered no diminution in reaching New Eng land. It is to be remembered, by every one who wishes fairly to weigh the con duct of our fathers, that the real question is what kind of people they thought the Quakers to be when they began to thrust themselves into the colony ; even more than what kind of people these Quakers actually were. And it would be easy to show that there had come out of England stories, supposed to be authentic, which were calculated to make any community having the ordinarj' instincts of propriety, shrink with loathing from all threatening of Quaker con tact ?*«» *^ Information to that cffuct was lodged tmder oath with the auihorlties of Bristol, Eng., 25 Jan. -5 Feb. 165 ',-5: " that certain Persons of the Franciscan Order in I\.omc, have of late coinc over into England, and under the Notion of Quakers, drawn together several Multitudes of People in London, etc. {Ibid, S5.] ^^ Spoken of In Rev. xi: 3. [See Sevjel, 3S6; Pal frey's //"/j^ /.'. E. ii: 453.] <'-^J\Iass. Ccl. Rec. iv (i) : 204. *-^^Scc Thomas Underliili's Hell Broke Loose ; or an Hisio}y cf ih^ Qnalcrs both Old a-.id Keiv, 1660; {pas- jz';;/,but especially 6, 33, 36;] aud John"\VIggan's ./'l?:/z'- chrisfs stro7igest Hold Overtiirncd ; or, the Eo7tnda~ tion of the Religion of ihe People called Quakers, Bared and Razedf 1665 ; Bxi:ter's Quaker's Caiechis77z, etc., 1656; John Faldo's Quaheris77t no Christianity, etc., 1673 ; John Brown's Qm,keris7ti the Pathivay io Pa- ganis'.n, etc., 167S. Lesser kno^n — many of iheni later — authorities are Schwarmgeistcr - Erut's Xc-.ie, odcr Idist. Erzehlu7ig von d. Quakers, dcne7', der Ra);ter, etc., etc., 1661 ; Croese's Quaher-Htstorie, xi7tu7ig, 1G96 ; Feustking's Gynaeccntji Haeretico- Ea7Uiticu77t, odcr Ilistorie u. Bcschreib, d. falschc/i Propheti7incn,Qua.ckeri:i7ie:i, etc, 1704; and Qiuicker- Grcucl; das ist, Abzchcidiclie Irt'.:n:i der Qniickcr, i;o2 [in th.e Boston Public Library]; A It'dming to Souls to be'ti'are of Quakers a}id Quakerism, etc., 1677 ; A Brief Discovery cf so7!ze of the Blcispltemous and Seditiozts Principles and Practices ofilte People called [I27] In the spring of 1656 the General Court appointed a Fast Day, among other things, "to seeke the Lice of God in behalf of our native coun[''rjc in referenc to the abounding of errors, especially those cf the f^aunio's and Quakers, cfc"''"' ^yithin a month a Barbadoes vessel arrived, bringing tw, Q^uiker wornen. Lnder the alien law, which had been passed in the old Antinomian times,"''-' these were sent back as soon as possible, and some books which they had brought were burned. In four or five ^\•eeks (7-17 August) another vessel arrived from England with four men and four women of this sect on board, and the matter was made more impressi\-e by the fact that some stray idler getting on board the ship in the harbor, by the time her anchor was down, had been enrolled as a convert ! On their examination before the magistrates, they used their tongues freely in "testimony;" one of the women informing two of the elders that she considered them as "hirelings, Baals, and seed of the serpent." They were kept in jail until the ship sailed on her return, when they were sent home in her.^''- The next meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies was held at Plymouth, commencing on the 4-14 of the following September. The Mas sachusetts authorities, by a communication to them dated 2-12 of that month, among other suggestions which seemed to them to require notice, say:'"'''' heere hath arived amongst vs seuerall p.sons proffcssing themselues quakers, fitt Instruments to propagate the kingdome of Sathan; for the Securir.g of ourselues and our Xaighbours from such pests wee haue Imprisoned them till they bee dispatched away to the place from whence they came, etc. [going on to urge that] some general! rules may bee alsoe comcnded to each Gcnerail court to prevent the coming in amongst vs from foraigne places such Notorious here- tiques as qual^ers, Ranters, etc. The Commissioners, after clue consideration, responded by the recommenda tion following, viz. -.^'^ Wee doe further propose to the seuerall generaU Courts that all quakers. Ranters, and other nolorious heretiques bee prohibited coming into the vnited Collonies, and if any shall hceraftcr come or arise amongst vs, that they bee forth with cecured, or remoued out of all the Juris dictions. The public sentiment of the Bay Colony then fully justifying the step here proposed, at the meeting of the General Court on the 14-24 October next Qnihers, etc., 1699; and Some Few of the Quaker's Idany Horrid Blasphemies, Heresies, and their Bloody, Treasonable Principles, Destrnctti'e to Government, etc., 1699. [The last th.ree are in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester.] ^Mass. Col. Rec. iv(i): 276. ^'^'^ Ibid, i: 196 ; Winthrop's yournal, i : 224. "= Palfrey's Hist. jV. Eng. ii : 464. ^?Acts oft/ie Commissioners of the United Colonies, ii: 156. ^^ Ibid, 15S. Both these citations may be found also in Hazard's Hist. ColL ii: 347, 349- [128] ensuing, a law was passed, whose terms are worth considering, for the indica tion which they give of the honest convictions then entertained in Massachu setts, as to the character of these persons i^-"" ^Yhcrcas there is a cursed sect of Iirureticks lately risen vp in the world, v,-ch are comonly called Quakeis, loho take zppon Ihem to be imcdiately sent of God, and infallibly asisted bythe Spirit to speake & write blasphemouth o-^'mons, despising gouernment c^ the order of God in church &' covion-cuealth, speaking evill of dignitjes, reproaching and rcijling -magistrates and min isters, seeking to turne the people from the faith & gaine proseljtes to theire pernicious wajes, this Court, taking into serious consideration the p.mises, and to prevent the lile mischiefe as by theire meanes is ¦wrought in our native land, cloth heereby order, etc., etc. The provisions of this law were severe. The ship-master who should bring them was liable in ;^ioo, and to carry them back, if he could not prove his ignorance of their character. The Quaker was to be wiiipped, and imprisoned until his re-shipment ; which was lo be as speedy as possible, and he restrained from all chance of making converts during the interval. Any person importing Quaker books was liable for them in ^5 apiece ; and any person defending Quaker opinions, was finable — for the first offence ;f 2, for the second ^4 ; and, if obdurate, was to be banished. The law was intended to be so severe as to furnish an absolute preventive against the dreaded immigration. It was quite in accord, however, with the best wisdom, and the most humane temper of those times ; and, as we shall see hereafter, its working was child's play com pared with treatment which was meted out to the same offenders in England. The New Haven plantation passed a similar law in the following spring;^ and even the tolerant Old Colony was moved from its usual m.ildness to take tem porary measures against the common enemy.^''' The great hobby of the Quakers of those days was to "testify;" which was usually accomplished by rude intrusion upon sacred places and services, with violent speech. And they seemed almost to suspect their own fidelity if they could not succeed by such " testimony " in so exasperating somebody as to receive harsh treatment in consequence. The similia similibus curantur princi ple did not prove to work wel! in their case, and the sterner the statutes which were made against them, the more they were stirred up to test their severity.^^ ^^^ I\Iass. Ccl. Rec. iv(i); 277. ^^^'Rec. Ccl i\'e-aj Haz-en, ii: 217. "'^ See Volume of Laws — Rec. Plym. Col. xi : roo. The law passed in 1657 was repealed 11 June, 16C0. [Ibid, IOI.] cos I "j'he Turk's method of dealing witli the Qualtcr emissaries was the happiest. Prompted by that super stitious reverence \:hich he was educated to pay to luna tics, as persons inspired ; he received these visitors with delerential and cerenionious cbser\'ar.ce, and witli a pro digious activity of geuutlections and salams bowed them out of his country. They could make nothing of it, and in that quarter gave up their enterprise in despair." [Palfre/s ///li. A'. Eng. ii; 473 (note).] [I29] Being banished, theyhad "a religious concern '''¦' to thrust themselves back upon the forbidden ground. Provoked by this persistent pertinacity the Col onics at List, after exhausting all milder statutes in vain,''-'' on recommendation of their Commissioners"'^ — of date 23 Sept.-3 Oct. 1658 — applied to the case of the Quakers that provision which since the days of Nicholas Frost (Oct. 1632) in ^Massachusetts,"'" and John Dawes in Connecticut,"''^ had been resorted to to enforce the law of banishment ; and which ele', en years before had been applied to the case of Jesuits and other emissaries of Rome ;^" namely: that such ban ishment be "upon pajne of death,'' should the subject of it venture to return within the jurisdiction. '^'^ In every preceding case this provision had been found effectual, and not a doubt seems to have been entertained that the expe rience of the past would be again repeated, and that, under cover of this most emphatic testimony to the point that the New England Colonies did not desire, and did not intend to tolerate, upon the premises which with great self-denial they had secured, and settled, and which they had every legal and moral right to control, the presence of these wild enthusiasts, they would be able to live without molestation from them. The view generally taken was ably stated in a treatise prepared at the request of the Court, by John Norton, and designed "to manifest the evill of theire [the Quaker] tenets and dainger of theire practises as tending to the subvertion of religion, of church-order, & civill government, and the necessitje that this gouernment is put vpon (for the preservation of religion & theire oune peace & safety) to e.xclude such persons from amongst them, who, after due meanes of conviction, shall remaine obstinate & pertina- tious, etc."^'" The book was published at Cambridge in 1659, and the tenor of it may be inferred from a single sentence :"'^ The wolf which ventures over the wide sea, out of a ravening desire to prey upon the sheep; when landed, discovered and taken, hath no cause to complain, though, forthe security of the flock, he be penned up with that door opening upon the fold fast shut, but having another door purposely left open whereby he may depart at his pleasure, cither returning from whence he came, or otherwise quitting the place. °^' '" Bessc's Collection of the Suf/erings of the People catted Quakers, etc. -i:: i S t . "»See Statutes of Oct, 1657 and May, 165S. [ilass. Col. Rec. iv ( I :) 30S, 321.] '¦'O-Acts of Com. cf Unit. Col., etc. ii r 212. C12 See p. 16 ante, and IMass. Col. Rec. i : 100. ^¦¦^Pub. Rec. of Ccl of Conn, i: 242. ^^^Jllass. CoL Rec. 'ii: 193; iii: 112. ^'-'IbldjWU): 34^' l"^ Ibid, iy[i) :34s. '¦^' Heart cf Nelu England Kent, etc. 56. ="Fra;'.c-.5 Howgil replied to this treatise widt The Heart cC i.'c-jJ p n^t.md Hardened through ll'iclcd- ness; in a cliaracteristic spirit saying to Norton therein: "ih.ou ir.Mit not think that this poor. Tract of thine, which is f.;'.l of Deceit and Confusion, Error, Blasphemy and Madr;ss; though thou pub'ith it by the Appoint ment of the General Court, that it will cover your Wick edness, or hide you from being discovered to moderate People, neither will shelter you in the Day of the Lord [i3o] For a time all went well under this law. The first six Quakers apprehended under it, were Laurence and Cassandra Southv.-ick, Josiah, their son, Samuel Shatiuck, Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Euft'um, all of .Salcm '.'¦'¦' ar.d being ban ished they came not again. Then follov,-ed others v.ho im:i.gint;d ihemselves "moved of the Lord " to enter the IMassachusetts Colony, ard " constrained in the Love and Pov.'er of the Lord, not to depart, but to stay in the Jurisdiction, and to try the bloody Law unto Death.""-" William Robinson, ^Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyer were first tried, convicted, and sentenced, "for re- belljon, sedition & presumtuous obtruding themselves vpon vs, not w'listand- ing theire being sentenced to banishment on pajne of death, etc.,"'-' and neither party flinching, the two men were hanged ; the woman being persuaded at the last moment — "finding nothing from the Lord to the contrary""- — to accept of the deliverance offered, if she would depart to Rhode Island fromwdience she came. When the worst thus came to the worst, the people scarcely sustained the government; which felt itself called upon to make appeal to its constitu ency, in which — insisting that it desired the Quakers' "life a'osent rather then theire death present" — it recapitulated with succinct force the legal aspects of the matter, fully demonstrating the lawfulness of what had been done, and making out a strong case in defence of the position that " Christ and his saints were led by one spirit, and those people by another ; for rather then they would not shew theire contempt of authoritje, and make disturbance amongst his peo ple, they choose to goe contrary to the expresse directions of Jesus Christ, & the approoved examples of his saints, although it be to the hazard & perrill of their oune lines ;"'-" yet, withal, conspicuously failing to demonstrate also either the wisdom, or the humanity, of their course. Mary Dyer could not be eas)'. Where she spent the winter is not known, except that she was not in her proper place with her husband and children, at Newport.'^-* Could she have felt "a motion of the Lord upon her spirit" to attend to His Word as it is revealed in such passages of the Scripture, as that which commands believers to study to be quiet and to do their own business ;"'' and especially that which ordains that women be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their ow n husbands ;¦''-" in place of mistaking the crude . . neither all this Coverir.g which tt.nu lia-t made v ill not vindicate your wickLd fracticcs, nor shelter you from the Storms, and Tlutnders, a:id P'a;^iies, a::d Terror, and AVratli, which is to be poured out, etc." [ll'orhs, 321,323 ] "•^^ Bishop's AVty Er.gl.znd yudged, etc. (1&61), 79; [ed. 1703, 100.] ^^Ibid,cji. [ed. 1703, 114.] See also Besse's Cc.VriT- iian, etc. ii: 198-220, and Se-icel, 219-227, 263-269. t=' Mzss. CoL Rec. iv (i): ,v!3. ^-- Mary Dyer's Letter to tho Court. Eesse's Collec tion, etc. ii : 205. ^¦^ l\lass. CoL Rec. ivCi): 3S6, 390. ^-'" I have not seen her above t'.is half-year." Letter of William Dyer to Gov. Endecott, 27 May, i6£o; cited by F.alfrey. [Hist. jV. Eng, ii: 479.] ^^ I Thess. iv: 11. ¦^=»TiL ii: 5. [i3i] fancies of her own heated imagination for the voice from heaven, she might have filled out a useful life, and slept in peace by the side of her kindred. But when the May flowers bloomed again, her restless spirit led her stealthily by forest by-paths back to Boston, and to a fate which with as just, as somber, a pathos her husband characterized as one : " for I know not what end, or to wdiat pur pose.""-' If her own interior intent had been, however, to make an unpopular enactment still more unpopular by illustrating the terrors of its severity, there can be no doubt that she succeeded in the same. For a time various expedi^ ents were resorted to, to get round the terrible law witliout more blood.^^ But there was to be another sufferer. William Leddra, who had been ban ished, " was under such necessity of Conscience that he could not forbear return ing thither.""^ Lie was tried, and, as there was no conceivable reason under the law as it was, why he should not be, he was found guilt}-. . He was offered life and freedom if he would go away ; but his answer was : " to make you a promise I cannot."™ The issue was too square to be evaded, and this fourth poor enthusiast was hanged. But it was the last of these deplorable executions. Winlock Christison was at the same time awaiting his fate in Boston jail, but his courage failed, and he wrote to the Court his promise: " that, if I may have my libarty, I have freedome to depart this Jurisdiction ; and I know not yt ever I shall com into it any more."""' So great was, by this time, the division of feeling in the government itself, and so decided the popular disapproval of their course, that, in any event, his life would have been spared, and his submission was useful only to break the fall of the magistrates. The General Court which was in session ; "being desirous to. try all meanes v,-th as much lenity as may consist with our safet}', to prevent the intrusions of the Quakers, etc," hastened to make large alteration in the law, with the purpose of substituting milder pen alties for that of death ; only nominally retaining that, if, after three trials, the court should "judge not meete to release them."^~- But no enforcement of the severities of the new statute ever took place. This mildness was the sober second thought of the Government, and its cheerful concession to the will of the ''^William Dyer's Letter, as above. ^'^ Mass, Col, Rec, iv(i): 419, 433. '== Sewel's History, etc, 263. ^^ Ibid, 266. See also concerning his case, Eesse's Collection, etc, ii : 213-220; Bishop's Neiv England yudged, etc. 15.1,11: ii, [ed. 1703,] 64, 313, 326. ^^ Mass. Archives, x: 273. Hutchinson recognizes this paper. [Hist. Mass. (ed. 1795) i : 1S6.] The Quaker historians were evidently unaware that the archives of the enemy contained this proof positive, in his own hand-writing, that Christison showed the white fe.ather ; for they unite in representing him as *' resting in sweet peace and quietness," in view of his approach ing doom — as continuing "in Faith aud Patience, ready to abide the good Pleasure of God concerning him, and to suffer Death for a pood Conscience, as his Brethren had done before him," with more which is even more violently inconsistent with the actual facts. His release they attribute to "some Intelligence from London.'' [Vishaii's l.'^ew England yu.-igcd,'-i\: 35 (cd. 1703,340); Sewel's History, etc. 271 ; Eesse's CoU, etc. ii: 223.] '^''Mass. CoL Rec. iv(2): 2, 3. [132] people ; and not its sullen submission to the mandaimts of Charles the Second — as it has been the fashion to allege/''"^ The document so called was not given at Whitehall until 9-19 September, 1661, and was not served upon the Governor at Eoston until more than six weeks after that date^* — or more than six months subsequent to the enactment of the new law, and the clear adoption of the more humane policy. If it were a trial to some of the best men of the Colony to be driven to this letting-down, in which they did not — with their light — believe;^ it must have been, on the other hand, both a chagrin and a solicitude to the prominent advo cates of the new policy, that the Quakers seemed for some time after to be more than ever filled with the spirit of disorder. Ever}' person who fancied that it might be a fine thing to be a disciple of the terrible "man in leathern breeches," ^^ seems, all at once, to have put on airs and "testified." These new lights were particularly hard on the ministers of religion. They always called them '^Priests," generally with one or more unfriendly or scurrilous adjectives. "Dark Priests," "Wicked Priests," "Blockish Priests," "Blasphe mous Priests," " Oppressive Priests," " Priest-tories," " Hireling Priests," "Notorious Thieves and Robbers," "Savage Brutes," "Develish Priests" — are a few of the elegant and charitable references which one finds thickly scattered through the pages of Bishop, Fox, Howgil and Burnyeat, and their compeers, and applied to those humble and self-denying men who had brought the old truths of God dear to the church in every age, into this wilderness, and were patiently trying to prepare here the way of the Lord. They thrust themselves into private houses, and " warned " their tenants.^"'^ They wrote vituperative letters to people.^^ They had " a burden of the Lord " to post up wrathful, ^^ "procured a Mandai7iHs from that jMonarch, by Tft'liich an effectual Stop was put to the Proceedings in New England of putting !Men to Dcalli for Reli^^ion, by wliich tiieir b'ind Zeal and Fury would otherwise probably have destroyed many innocent People." {Bessc, i : xwii.] ^¦""''Sewers History, etc. 273. Bishop's Nc'u E7zg. Judged, etc. W: 3S [ed. 1703, 344,] Palfrey .,\\: 520. ''""Eishopsays: "Then said your Governour [Ende cott] after they [the Court] had voted once [in Christi- son's case] and some of them would not consent, ' I coiiid find in my Iicnrt' (such a thtrst had he after the blood of the Innocent) *to go home,' beln^ in a great rage; and so misbehaved himself on the Seat of Jiid:.;e- mcnt, that he furiously flung something on the Table, etc." {Ibid, ii: 34 (ed. 1703, 339)-] ""Geo. Fox's Journal, 55. " It was a dreadful thing to them [the Priests] when it was told them 'The man in leathern breeches [Gca Fox hiniself ] is come.' " C.17 Two Quaker women did this to Roger WiKiams. "They bid me," he says, *' Repent and Hearken to the Light within me. [As if Roger had ever been noticeably lacking in that grace I ] I prayd them to sit down, that we might quietly reason together ; they would not ; then standing, I a:,>kt them the ground of their such Travel and Employment ; they alledged Icels Prcpi-.csie ; I an swered, that was fulfilled, that was not cvcrydayes work; besides their business was not Proiibetical but Apostolical, Bcz. They regarded not my Answei'S nor Admonitions, but powred the Curses and Judgements of God against me, and hurried away. " {Geo. Fox Digg'd, etc. Apc7tdix, etc. 27. j ^'•'^ See one of John Smith's to Gov. Endecott, [5/j/it7/, n: 124; (ed. 1703) 445]; another of Mary Trask and [i33] scolding, and in:ipudent documents in the market-places.^'^-' And, not satisf'cd with anything short of actual distuibance of tlie public peace, ia many, even of the remote coimtry towns, these people on the LorI's Day, and iu time of rel^'- ious worship, invaded the " stcLplc houses ¦" — fc\v- of v inch, to be sure, t:v;n aftbrded steeples — and, with immovable hats on their infatuated lic-ads, broke up the service by clamorously announcing that such exercises were an abomi nation to the Lord.^" Some of them devoted themselves to travelling from tov, n to town, "being moved " to "visit the Seed of God in those parts."^'^ George Wilson rushed through the streets of Boston shouting: "The Lord is coming with fire and sword !" ^ Thomas Newhouse " gave a sign " in the Boston meet ing-house, carrying two glass botdes in his hands; which, doubtless in imita- tation of the London woman in the Parliaraent House,'"'' he dashed together, by way of emphasizing his bawl : " So shall ye be broken in Pieces ! "^^ Edward Wharton was " pressed in spirit " to repair to Dover and proclaim "Wo, Ven geance and the Indignation of the Lord" upon the Court in session there.^-^' John Liddal wandered as far as Flatbush, with his half insane cry: "Turn; turn ; from your evil wayes." ^*° In this thing the women quite outdid the men. Elizabeth Hooton prome naded the streets of Cambridge, and subsequendy those of Boston, shrieking : " Repentance ! Repentance ! A day of Howling, and Sad Lamentation is com ing upon you all from the Lord ! "¦'^' Mary Tompkins, on the First Day of the week at Oyster River, broke up the service of God's house by " declaring t'ne Truth [that is to say, freeing her mind] to the People ; " the scene ending in deplorable confusion.^'^ Hannah Wright, a mere girl of less than fifteen sum mers, toiled " in the motion of the Lord " from Oyster Bay, L. I., through all the long hard journey to Boston, that she might pipe in the ears of the Court: " a Warning in the Name of the Lord."""* Catherine Chatham exhibited herself in the streets of Boston "under a great Exercise and Concern of Mind" clad in sackcloth, " as a sign of the Indignation of the Lord against that oppressing and tyrannical Spirit which bore Rule in the Magistracy of that Place."'"'' Margaret Smith to the same [Ibid, ii: 130, (ed. 1703) 453] t and one of George Keith to the Ministers of Eos- ton. U'res. (Sr* Ind. Fis. Cliurches in N. Eng. and Else-eolicre, Brctighi to the 'Pest, etc. 204-] ^-¦'Sce Geo. Keltli'.s "CaU and Warning from the Lord, to the People of Eoston, and New England, to Re pent, eic.," which was *'Eet up in the mo:^t publick place in tlie Town of Eoston, the 21'' of the 4''' Mouth [21 June-i Juiy] i6S3." [//•.¦'/, 195.) ""Hutchinson's Hist. Mass. (ed. 1795) i: 1S7: Bishop, ii: 50, 144; (ed. 1703) 354, 471. ">i;/j , ii; S7; (ed. 1703)400. Eesse's Collection, ^J- Bisliep, il : 46 ; (ed. 1703} 351. '^^^Sce p. 125 ante. ^^¦^ Bishop, ii: 113; (ed. 1703) 431. ¦""'^ //'.'(/, 11 : ioS;(ed. 1703)425. ^^'lbld,'u: 107 ; (ed. 1703)424. ^'^ Ibid, ii : ip, 103 ; (ed. 1703) 414, 41S, A, igi. '¦^''Ibid, ii : 76; (ed. 1703) 3S6. ^^ Ibid, ii: 136; (cd. 1703)461. ^^Ibid,'\\: 104; (ed. 1703)420; Besse,'u: 2-^z. [134] I^Iargaret Brewster improved upon this. She went, in 1677, in time of public service into "Thatcher's meeting" [the Old South] in Boston on Sunday, "in Sackcloth, with Aslics upon her Head, and barefoot, and her Face blacked," and, \\ ith three other voiiicn and a man, nride " a horrible Disturbance, ' so affrighting some delicate females who were present as to endanger their senouj illness ; her call to do so b.ing that "she v.as constrained in a prophetick I\Ian- ner " to warn the people that she "had a Foresight given her of that grievous Calamity called the Black-Pox." =-' This was bad enough. But there was a lower depth. About five years after the last Quaker execution, and the adoption of a humaner polic)-, Mrs. Lydia Wardell found herself " under a Duty and Concern " of marching stark naked up and down the aisles of the church in Newbur}-, in time of public Sabbath service, in consideration of their miserable condition — as "a sign." The Quaker historian, with sweet simplicity, describes the result, as follows : " This she performed, but they, instead of religiously reflecting on their own Condi tion, which she came in that Manner to represent to them, fell into a Rage, and presently laid Hands on her, and hurried her away to the Court at Ipswich, which was held at a Tavern in that Town.""" Not long after, Deborah Wilson, "being a young woman of a very modest and retired Life, and of sober Conver sation," imagined herself inspired of the Lord to perambulate the streets of Salem in utter nakedness, as symbolizing tlie " naked truth " to a wicked and corrupt generation.'^'" Having, "in part, performed some part thereof as afore said, she was soon laid hands on," and dealt with by the magistrates for her indecent exposure.^'"' It is a remarkable fact that not a word of censure — not even so much as any hint of concession that these crack-brained zealots might possibly have been mistaken in their apprehensions of duty — escapes the principal Quaker writers in their reference to these sickening exhibitions ; while it seems difficult for them to fmd language strong enough to express their horror of the "cruelty" which, in the interest of public decency, sought to repress such excesses.^^ Indeed, '-'-^ Ibid (ed. 1703) 491 ; A, 103 : Bcsse, il : 2(30. ^-" Ibid, ii : 69 ; (ed, 1 703 ) 3 76 ; Bes-:, 11 : 235. ^'¦'liie careful reader will Le strixk at several points with the remarkable resen;blaTicc beLuecn thc^e Quaker outrages i;[.ou ^Iccjr.cy and pro,;rlcty, and tlio^e of the Aiiabaplists cf tlic cei.tniy before. 'l]iL-se wretched fe males copied tite frenzy of tlie follo\\crs of the tailor of Amsterd.irn [see ]'. 114 ante] ; v.hile the shouts of many, 1:1 the churches and the streets, almost literally repro duced tile l^i I 'indicia! divlna Vindicta 1 divlna Viiulicta ! of tiiose miserable dupes. ^¦^ Bishop, ii : 74 ; (ed. 1703) 383 ; Bessc, ii : 236. '¦'¦^ It will be noticed that I have cited Qu.aker witnesses altogether, in proof of the above sliair.cful occurrences. Elshop c.ills the authorities v.Iio dealt with Lydia War dell " ttnreasonable bruit beasts, whose name sliall rot, and their memory l-erish'' [11: 69; (ed. 1703)377]; and says the treatment of Deborah Wilson w-.\s ''a savage cruelty seldom lieard of, as it was most barbarous injus tice," dor.eby "Wicked Rulers." [Ibid, ii: 74(ed. 1703) 333], Besse says: '"this cruel sentence wa:. publickly executed on a Wom.aii of exemplary Virtue and unspotted Chastity, for lisr Obedience to ivhat she lellcred the Spirit cf the Lord had enjoined lur to do." [ii: 235.] [i35j when, in the great debate at Newport in August 1672, between Roger Williams and the Quakers, he made a strong and telling point ag,ti;r--t tliLrn of '• their stripping slark naked their .A[cn, and Women, a:, i .Alaidu.i , eix! pa;,^i:r>- dent in pubiiek places and Streets unl-i the Aiscn,..' ., r-f Men '.nd ^V,uths,'^nd so were beheld and gazed upnn by tli-m ! Av\ inis under a pretence of Leiug stirred up by God as a Service or Worship uiv.j God, as ;-n act of Ch.istian Religion proceeding from the immediate moving of the most holy Spirit of God, most glorious in purity, and purity and holincs:, it self;" they undertook first to deny that any of their women had ever thus transgressed, and when cor.ftited as to this by Air. Williams's citing out of their own Bishop the two cases above referred to, they finally settled down upon the conclusion that: "if the Lord God so commanded his Sons and Daughters, it must be obeved !"^^ Perhaps the most revolting occurrence connected with this passage in New England history, is one related by Increase Alather. He says:""' I think myself bound to acquaint the \vorld, that not many moneths a;o, [his book was pub lished in 16S4] a man, passing under the name of Jonathan Dunen [Dunham] (alias Singletcrry) a singing Quaker, drew away the wife of one of Marshf!;;.', to follow him; also one Marv Ross, falling into their company, was quickly possessed with the devil, playing sitch frentick and dia bolical tricks as the like hath seldom been knoun or heard of ; for she made herself naked, burning all her clothes, and, with infinite blasphemy, said she was Christ, and gave names to her Apostles, calling Dtmen by the name of Peter, another by the name of Thomas ; declaring that she would be dead for three dayes, and then rise again ; and, accordingly, seemed to die. And while she was pretendedly dead, her Apostle Dunsn gave out that thev should sec glorious things after her resurrection ; but that which she then did vr.s, she commanded Dunen lo sicri- ficc a dog. The inanand the two women Quakers danced naked together, having nothing but their shirts on. The constable brought them before the magistrates in Plimoitth, where Ross uttered such prodigious l^lasphemy as is not fit to be mentioned ; Dunen fell down like a dead man upon the floor, and so lay for about an hour, and t'ten came to himself. The magistrates demanding the reason of his strange actings, his answer v.'as, that Mary Ross bid him, and he had no power to resist.™ It is to be conceded that the better sort of the new sect by this time had be gun to repudiate excesses like these last of Dunham and his crew ;^' but it was inevitable that the sober portion of the population of New England should find ^'•^Geo. Fo.-e Digg'd, etc. 3S-40. ^'-^ A n Essay fjr tile Recording of Illustrious Prov idences, etc. [Russell Smith's reprint, 1S36] 244. ^* Plymouth Records endorse the general fidelity of the above narration. The hearing before the magistrates was in July 1OS3. The dog belonged to John Irish, of Little Compton, R. L, and was slaughtered and thrown upon ''a fierin the said house, against the declared will of the said Irish." Jonatlian Dunen [Dunham] was "centat^ced to be publicldy whipt att tlie post,*' and or- djred out of the jurisdiction, and was further ci..:. ^craned to be "soe serued as oft as hee shall vnessesaryly returne into it to deseminate his corupt principles." [Plym. Ccl. Rec. vi: 113.] •~^ See es; -c;ally Gcrge Keith's The Preslytert.in and Iiclependent Vi-::ble Chii^ctics in h'eio England, and el:e--ojliere, Broiigiit to the Test, etc., Witii a CaU and I'/arnir.g, etc., to Repent, etc. (1691), 215. [136] it difficult to draw the line between "Old" and "New Quakers," and should be slov/ to see in any \\ho passed under that name, the cpialities which create and adorn reputable and ct^tiinable citizenship. Three thoughts sttggest themschcs after t'.:!.; glance at such facts. I. It is easier to find fault with our fithers in this, as ia some other matters, than to put ourselves in their place, and declare, with confidence, how we should have improved upon their methods. To have throv.n open the plantation to free Quaker ingress, with England in the condition in which it then was, would have been to have invited the influx of an unmanageable, overwhelming and disastrous host, and must have been tantamount to the surrender at once of all those peculiar ideas and cherished purposes, the attempt to attain and develop which for themselves, and their offspring, had inspired, sustained and sweetened their difficult enterprise. To keep it shut against such immigrants was v.hat they undertook, by processes which would have availed with reasonable raen, and with any unreason.able men short of the exceptional zealots with whom they were compelled to deal. They surely had the right to put Quakers outside their jurisdiction, and to do their best to keep them there.^'' They had found the sentence of banishment " on pajne of death " if violated, effectual in all pre vious cases ; and the government had no reason to suppose it would not prove effectual in this case, until it found itself confronting William Robinson and INIarmaduke Stevenson with halters round their necks. Doubtless it should then have relented — since they would not. But that had not been the New- England way ; nor was it any where the temper of those times. Barrow and Greenwood and Penry had been hanged in England, avowing their loyalty to the Queen with their last breath, purely and simply for their religious faith ;^'^ while these men added to the most serious offence in doctrine, most flat defiance of the State. Doubtless in that supreme moment when Alary Dyer w-as spared, "vpon an inconsiderable intercession,""'^- it would have been the wisest policy to have spared the others also ; but if in this enlightened day there be any son of those Puritans who in the most exigent crises of his own affairs, has never failed to adopt that course v.-hich his own afterthought, not merely, but the after thought of seven generations, could endorse as the best possible — let him cast the first stone at the memory of the fathers for their offence.''^" "^^See the discussion of the right of the Colony to control Its mcntbership, with reference to the ca^e of Roger Williams, p. ijanle. See further the suggestions on pp. So, Sl ante. •^^ Waddington's Congregational History, il : 79, 91. •^"-Afais. CoL Rec. iv (1): 3S6. ^""•^Dr. Palfrey sums up his clear and candid account of the m'.ttcr thus: "No householder has a more un qualified title to dcc'are who shall h.ave the shelter of his roof, than had the Govemor and Company of Massa chusetts Eay to decide who should be sojourners or vis itors within their precincts. Their danger was real, though the experiment proved it to be far less than was at first supposed. The provocations which were offered [^37] 2. As it was, the Quakers suffered lightly in Xew England as compaied vrith their experience in the mother-country. Joseph Besse, in 1753, published in two folio \olumcs an elaborate account, apparer.iiv founded upon most p.iticnt and extended research, of the sufll rings v.hich ¦- the I'coplu called Quakers ¦•' hid been called to undergo "for the testimony of a good conscience."-''' His statistics, a-nd his detailed narratives, cover all the countries into which Quakers had wandered. He has gathered together one hundred and scicnty (170) instances of w-hat he conceives to have been various hard usage of the Quakers in New England ; four having been hanged, tiacnty-lyjo banished o;-i pain of death, and Iwcnlyfive banished on pain of lesser penalties. ^'-^ At the same time he gives — to a greater or less extent- — -the particulars of thirteen thousand izuo hundred and ffly-eight (13,258) instances of the contempo raneous persecution of Quakers in England, Scotland and Ireland.-^" Two hun dred and nineteen (219), were sentenced to banishment in one lot from Bristol."''' Three hundred and sixty (360) suffered death — not by hanging, but by prison hardships, and in other w-ays bitterly known to all who for any reason in those days came under the ban of the State.'^ Many were carried off by prison fevers,™ and the like distempers. Some almost literally rotted in jail, in a confinement extending to eight and ten years, before death brought relief"^'" Hundreds of those who did not absolutely perish in close confinement, came near to death in consequence of the shocking privations which they \\ere com pelled to endure.'''^^ Some who were in extreme old age, and even totally blind, were mercilessly imprisoned, simply for being found in attendance at a Quaker meeting.^"- Some were cast into the midst of con\ icted felons, who robbed and abused them.''" Seven were, on one occasion, in Alerionethshire, kept confined ten weeks in an uncleansed hog-sty, with the normal occupants all that time noisily seeking repossession, and the frequent rain drenching them through the shabby roof.^'^ were exceedingly o.Ter.sive. It is hard to say what should have been done with disturbers so umnanager.ble. But that cue thing should nr.t have been done till they had become more miecli'evou-, is ]i'ain enoii,„'h. lliey should not have been put to death. Sooner than put Ihem to death, it were devoutly to be wished that the annoyed dwellers in Massachusetts had opened their hospitable dra.'.ing-rocms to naked women, and suffered their ministers to ascend the pulpits by steps paved with fragments cf glass bottles." [History Ke-cu England, ii:4S5-] "¦>¦ A Collection of tlie Suffer ings cf the People tilled Q::.ihers, etc., from 1650 to 16S9- London. vo-5. fol. (,¦:.¦}. Iv, 767, 648). '-' ¦' Ibid, i : x-vx ; ii : 624-626, '^Ibld,:.: 539-624. ^"^ Ibid, i: 31 ; il; 637. -'"''> J bid,':',: 634-636. -^'•' Ibid, 1: 533, 69^:1; ii: loS, "-'' Ibid, 1 : 609, 642, 644. =:t/i;^/,i: 652,745. ™ /i;-..', i : «6. ^''^ Ibid, i; 600, 692. '¦' Ibid, i : 74S. [138] One cannot wonder that Francis Howgil should have spoken to the English nation a "Warning" even sharper than those which he dispensed to Nev,- Eng land ; saying of the Quakers:"'" Ti-cv I'.ave been as for a Pre}-, and for a Spoil unto all, and unreasonable Jlcn have plowed long Furrows uoon their Hacks, and they have had no Helper in the I'ianh ; but, on the con trary, every one hath lent his Hand to bow them down, and tread upon them as Ashes under the Soles of their Feet, and yet no Evil to lay to their Charge. . . Therefore O Xjtion, con sider and take this one Warning more, that thou proceed not further to thy Flurt, and thou repent when it is too late. I repeat the expression of my conviction that it is not a reasonable demand from any man, that the first settlers of New England be condemned as lacking in all that w-as fairly to be expected of them, if they did not at once out-meas ure the mother-country in the scope of their charity, or the breadth and large ness of their public spirit. And I am quite willing that their treatment of both Baptists and Quakers be compared, in all the details w-hich history has pre served, with that received by those persons in England, and in London itself; confident that the more extended the investigation, the more triumphant will the vindication of the Puritans be made. 3. Nor is it possible to forget that there is a constant exposure to erroneous conclusions on such a subject as this, by means of the- almost inevitable color ing which is thrown back upon the past from the associations of the present. The Baptists of our day are quiet and w-ell-beha\ ed persons, comparing favora bly in spiritual attainments and usefulness, in general culture, and in special cases of scholastic eminence, with any other denomination of Christians known to the nineteenth century. While the broadbrim.med, and drab-clad Quaker of our time has such marked preeminence in all the peaceful and thrifty virtues, as to make it almost impossible for us to think that any person bearing his dis tinguishing name, could ever have been other than a benediction among his fellows. Eut the simple, inexorable, fact of history remains, that the Quaker of the sev enteenth century — and it is a very curious study to mark in how many points the Baptists of that day resembled the Quakers''™ (and it might be one still more curious to philosophize upon it) — was essentially a coarse, blustering, conceited, disagreeable, impudent fanatic ; whose religion gained subjective cr:. -fli,, Da-iunlngs cf the Gospel-Day, etc. ( 1676) 342. Howgil had published, in 1659, The Popish Inquisi tion Neioly Erected in Ne-iii England, etc., aud also Tlie Heart of iVeiu England Hardned, etc., in answer to John Norton's '* Heart of New England Rent." etc. ''-'¦ See this subject briefly, but very suggestively, han dled by Prof. Diman in his Introduction to the edition published in 1^72, by the Narragansett Club, of Wil liams's Ceo. Fox Digg'd out of his Burroines, etc. [Pull. Nar. Club, v: viii, ix.] [i39] comfort in exact proportion to the objective comfort of which it was able to depri\-e others ; and which broke out into its choicest exhibitions in acts which w-ere not only at that time in the nature of a public scandal and nuisance, but w-hich even in the brightest light of this nineteenth century, and in those lands wh-c:re freedom of conscience has gained its most illustrious triumphs, would subject those who should be guilty of them to the immediate and stringent attention of the Police Court. The disturbance of public Sabbath worship, and the indecent exposure of the person — whether conscience be pleaded for them, or not — are punished, and rightly punished, as crimes by every civilizecl government. Those men, whom Roger Williams knew as "Pragmatical and Insulting Souls," " Bundles of Ignorance and Boisterousness," v^'ith " a Face of Brass, and a Tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lyes and Fury;" and to argue against whom — at the age, it would seem, of more than three-score and ten — he rowed "with his old bones " from Providence to Newport ='^ up to midnight before the appointed morning of discussion ; were as unlike the sleek, benig nant Friends, whom all people now take pleasure in knowing, as the wild Texas steer, maddened by the fever-torture of thhst and the goading torment of the jolt and clatter of a cattle-train ; broken loose and tearing terribly through crowded city streets — tossing children, trampling women, and making dan gerous confusion thrice confounded everywhere, until calmed by some police man's rifle — is unlike the meek-eyed and patient ox which leans obedient to the yoke, as with steadfast step he draws the straight dark furrow behind him, along which, by and by, the harvest of autumn is s-.veetly to smile. This, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter. Our fathers, if they were better in many things than Englishmen of their d;iy who did not help to colon ize New England; made no pretence to be such' — surely made none to excel their generation in their theory of liberty of conscience. They came here to secure that freedom for themselves, which they would much have preferred to enjoy at home, but cottld not there attain. They never dreamed that they were settling the Bay in order to afiford harbor for all sorts of persons who could not live comfortably else'vvhere. They were settling it for themselves ; for those who thought essentially as they did; and for their children after them. Having bought and paid for it ; and exiled themselves and variously suffered for it ; and knowing that before the bar of God and the tribunals of man, they had indefeasible right to it; they wanted that territory to themselves, for their own use. The world was all before others where to choose. There w.as land enoujrh ^^'' Geo. Fox Digfd, etc. 24, 63, etc. ; see also Pub. \ yar. Club, v; x.^ix-x\-xvlii. [i4o] lying waste in the outreaching wilderness, for a hundred Baptist and Quaker colonies. And surely it was not an unnatural, nor, under the circumstances, an inhospitable, desire, that the=e alien elements should go elsewhere. The Puritans did whtit they could to make thein go. They failed. Probably they submitted to the inevit.able with as good a grace as any of their children — or any of this generation who are the children of v,-iser, or weaker, men — could have taught them to do. They did not at once outgrov/ their past, or their present; but they ne\-er undertook, nor claimed, to do so. And if Alassachusetts as Colony, and Commonwealth, failed to abolish all lingering union between Church and State until within the memory of the middle-aged men of to-day ; there is this to be said about it, that it is by no means sure that any middle- aged man of to-day will live long enough to see the mother-country — to say nothing of the rest of the world — stand, on this question, where the Bay State has been standing for more than the last forty years. They held no abstract theory about liberty of conscience. Fevf men of their generation really did that in the modern sense ; being quite contented with a doctrine on that subject which would assure their own personal liberty of thought and action. °'^ And they never "persecuted" either Baptists or Quakers, for differing with them. This point was made clear by an erainent New England jurist, when he said :^'^ A man persecutes nobody, by defending his own from encroachment. The lands w-ithin their chartered limits were theirs. The government was theirs. The faith and modes of worship were theirs. Under their grant frora the Council at Plymouth, and their Charter from the Crown, they secured to themselves, as we have seen, substantially a fee-simple in their lands, which they could protect against all encroachments. They endeavored to secure to themselves, also, a theologic fee-simple so to speak, or at least a life-estate, and they were exceedingly tena cious of this, and more sensitive to trespasses upon it than to trespasses upon property, in the proportion that the concerns of religion held a higher place in their estimation than mere tem poral affairs. There was little tetnptation to commit trespasses upon their temporal fee. But there were other zealots besides themselves, wlto were quite desirous of becoming tenants in common, at least, if not disseizors, of their ecclesiastical fee. The attempt was promptly met, first by warning off ; and when tiiat failed, by an ecclesiastical action of trespass, resulting in a fine ; and when that failed, by a process of ejectment, called a sentence of banishment. The New England men while they lived, only asked fair and just treatment. ''"^Thls is the way the Romanists pleaded for L'berty of Conscience in Lngland : " .Since there nuist be Here sies, and our judgments are as different as our F.ices ; since breeding and education doth so nuich sway, and hath so ptreat influence on many Religions; and that Sectaries aie grown numerous; we ought to have a Lat itude of Chaiity for those that dissent, if they be not Impellers or turbulent Tncerduiries'' [Tlie Advocate of Conscience Liberty, or an AJrology for Toleration Rightly Stated, etc. (1673.1 53 ] -''¦' Hull. Joel Parker, Loiiielt Lectures by Members iilass. Hist. Soc. 41S. The extract on thenext pageCi4i3 is from Rev. Dr. Ray Palmer's Poenx entitled " Home.'* [Poetical H'orhs, 13S.] [141] They ought to have it now that they are dead. And they ought to have it from their own. The man who to-day rejoices in this rich heritage of their becjueath- ment, owes it to common honesty ti> form upon ibc facts of the case an intelli gent and candid opinion, as to the real character of the first settlers of Alassa chusetts. It is a much less difficult task to abuse them on hearsay, than it is to imitate their virtues. As sings one of their sons : Not faultless were they, else were they not men; Yet less their own the faults than of their time ; Of times long past, when many an error reigned As yet unchallenged, blinding all alike To truths since seen as in the midday blaze. Beyond their fellows, keenly had they pierced Error's thick-veiling mists, and Truth discerned In her diviner forms ; aside had flung Falsehoods long honored, maxims cherished long, That mighty ills had wrought ; the good, the right. In their great hearts they worshiped ; these they sought, As misers search for gold, with deathless love ; Clung to them found, as with the grasp of fate ! What if perchance from ardor so intense Of quenchless earnestness, their zeal o'erglowed At times, and tliey — their vision not yet clear- There erred where all the world had erred till then? Ah ! ye who meanly seek to tear away The honors thickly clustered round their brows, Yours, yours the lack of heavenly charity Ye charge on them ; yours with far less defence I On you returned at last shall rest the shame ; And as the sun from the clear mirror wipes The envious vapor that its luster dimmed, Just Time their names to honor shall restore. CiiROXOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. [Dates Jlot exactly identified arc m.-irled -.--lai a das'ii'^ Day of vvk. Month. Old Style. Month. New Style. Year. I Page- Th. F.M. W. F.Th. T.Th. W.T. T.T. T.Th. W. F.M. T.W. T.T. T. II Apr. 3 Nov. 23 June I Jan. 9 July 7 July — Jan. 4 Mar. 30 April Summer.26 Aug. 10 Feb. 23 Aug. 7 Sept. . 2$ Sept. 19 Oct. II Nov. I Dec. 5 Feb. I Mar. 12 April 3 INIay iS May 14 June 6 Sept. 27 .Sept. 3 Oct. — Oct. 21 Apr. 13 Nov. S July II Jan. ig July 17 July 14 Mar. 10 May 5 Sept. 20 Feb. 2 Sept. 17 Sept. 8 Oct. 29 Oct. 21 Nov. II Dec. 15 Feb. n Mar. - Jan. 22 x\pr. 13 May 2S May 24 June 16 Sept. 7 Oct. 13 Oct. 1 5991 1603 J 16 II 16201621 1623-41624 16251626-7 1627162S-91629 1629-30 1630 1630-1 163 1 1632 1632-3 Roger Williams born, probably in Wales Edward Wightman burned as an Anabaptist in England . . King James's Patent to Council for New England .... R. W. elected Scholar at Sutton's Hospital Patent sold by Ld. Shefiield to Cushman, Winslow, etc. . - R. VV. obtained an exhibition at Charter House R. W. matriculated at Pembroke Coll. Cambridge .... R. W. took degree of E. A. there R. W. probably beneficed in Lincolnshire New grant and confirmation of Charter by Charles I. . . . Act of Company authorizing Endecott to form a gov^ at Salcm Endecott sends home the Brownes •• ''Agreement" signed by Winthrop and others Gen. Court of Company in London approves Endecott's course First meeting of Company on N. E. soil, at Charlestown. Process issued against T. IMorton Court-order in case of T. Morton Order to T. Gray to remove beyond the jurisdiction .... Another Roger W'illiams (of Dorchester) applies to be free- 123 9 Two gentlemen refused permission to settle without " testi mony" • R. W. and wife sail in the Lyon from Bristol for Boston Lyon arrives off Nantasket Seven common folks, with Sir Chris. Gardiner, "banished" R. W-. invited to be Teacher to the Boston Church, and declines Letter from Winthrop and otlrers to Endecott at Salem about R. W • ^ 1 T. Walford and wife ordered bej'ond the jurisdiction . . . The otiier Roger Williams takes the Freeman's oath . . . Ratcliffe ordered beyond the j urisdiction Lynn ordered beyond the jurisdiction Court-order in case of Plaistow R. W. goes from Salem to Plyraouth Nich. Frost ordered away on pain of death, should he return Visit of Winthrop and Wilson to Ply.-nouth over Sabbath . R. W. studies Algonkin, and fraternizes with the Indians . His eldest child bom at Plymouth Sir Christopher Gardiner, and others, petition the king against the Colony 13 14 14 17 33 14 4 14 2S 14 14 19 5 i5 6 [i44j Day of v.k. Mo.\TH. Old Style, Month. New Style. YE.vr.. E ^^ E N T . Page. Summer. i''33 R. W. r-jnio'.-'j-. 10 ;-:!eni, a^sisiing Mr. Skelton, '"Lut not in office'' 7 T. 3 Sept. 13 Su-pt. Ciipt. Stu;i& order ;:': r rf under penalty of death 1(3 27 Dec. 1S331633-4 R. W. and ^^-. i. .-¦¦¦-: object tn rnlnistcra' meetings . . . Court takes ac:;on :i'_:'.it R, W.'s " treatise" 3(3 F. 6 J.an. 27 Th. 3 Jan. 13 Jan. .( Winthrop v,r:-.c-= I.. E'-Ji-cott about R. W 27 Th. 24 Jan. 3 Feb. (1 Court met about R. W.'s ''treatise," and he promises sub mission • - ¦•*••••••••••••••• 29 — Feb. " Order in Council detaining ships for N. E. and demanding the Charter 21 Th. 21 Feb. 3 IM.ar. " Cradock replies to Cc-.mcil that the Charter is gone to Mass. 13 Th. 7 Mar. 17 Mar. " Troubles about v.:.':".=n's veils at Boston, etc . 31 M. 23 Apr. -July 8 May 1634 Commission granted :o rec;ulate Plantations, etc Magistrates decline :o surrender Charter till Court meets . 22 22 S. 2 Aug. 12 Aug. (( Mr. Skelton dies at Salem ..¦¦ 34 M. 4 Aug. 14 Aug. *' Jeffery shows Gov. "Winthrop T. Morton's exultant letter . 22 W. 3 Sept. 13 Sept. (( Court meets, keeps quiet about Charter, and begins fortifying 22 w. 17 Sept. 27 Sept. " Fast Day (special) R. VI. preaches at Salem — faithfully . . 31 Th. 18 Sept. 2S Sept. " Griffin arrives \\:th copy of Commission of 2S Apr.-S May 22 W-. 5 Nov. 15 Nov. " Complaint tliat the- il^g has been mutilated at Salem ¦ . . 3" Th. 27 Nov. 7 Dec. K R. W. summoned to the Court 32 — Dec. " Cudworth writes tha^ R. W. is at Salem, but not pastor . . 36 W. 19 Feb. I Mar. 1634-5 Court convenes the Elders for advice ........>. 23 32 M. 3 Mar. 13 Mar. Court meets and orders continued military preparations ¦ . W. I Apr. 10 Apr. 163s Resident's Oath en::cted — which R. W. preaches against . 33 Th. 30 Apr. 10 JMay Court sends for R. V/. in regard to that attack 33 Th. 14 May 24 May <( Court modifies existing form of Freemao's Oath 33 (( R. W. ordained by Sa'.em Church, its pastor ..... 36 T. 16 June 26 June Ship arrives ^^itli news that the old N. E. Council is dis solved -. 23 W. S July iS July " R. W. cited to next Court to answer for his teaching against the Oaths, e-.c 37 " Salem people petit'.'-.n Court for some iVIarblehead land . . 33 ". The Court lays the reiition on the table for the lime . . . R. V/. sends letters of coraplaint to the other churches . . . 33 39 W. 23 July I Aug. (f Eoston Church rep'.ies to Salem Church letter 42 " R. W. and Elder Sharpe reply to this Boston letter .... 42 S. 15 Aug. 23 Aug. " The Great Storm 43 44 46 g. 16 Aug. 26 Aug. " R. W. sick. SendE letter to his church withdrawing com munion • <*>•.¦•...¦>...... W. 2 Sept. 12 Sept. " Court meets. Sends Salem Deputies home to ask questions . *' Writ of Quo zuarri;:to granted in England against Colony 23 T. 6 Oct. 8 Oct. 16 Oct. 18 Oct '. Particular Court meets at New Town ¦•..>..... 49 40 Th. Gen. Court meets, and; among other things, tries R. W. . . (< List of members. List of ministers, etc. . ....... 51 " Court orders John Smyth beyond the jurisdiction 56 F. 9 Oct. 19 Oct. 11 (I R W "bmish-d" 60 R W talfpn <;Vl: F. 20 Nov. 30 Nov. R. W.'ssix weeks of leave expire, Court permits him to stay till spring, if he will not teach his views 60 " Judgment given on the Quo warratito in London 23 •( R, W. recovers, breaks his pledge, and begins to preach again . 61 [145] D.iy of vvk. M. T. M. Th. W. W. Month. IvIontii. Old St>le. New Style Th. M. W. w. s. M. T. Th. F. T. W. - Jan. — Aug. lo Nov. Early 21 May 2 2 May I July S Mar. - July 14 Mar. - July 13 Nov. Autumn i8 Feb. Spring 4 Nov. Autumn Summer iS Oct. 29 Oct. Summer 30 Oct. 16 July 19 July 20 July 21 July 22 July 31 July 5 Sept. 25 Nov. iSOct. — Jan. 20 Nov. in 31 May : June 11 July iS Mar. 24 Mar. 23 Nov. 2$ Feb. 14 Nov. 2.S Oct. 8 Nov. 9 Nov. 26 July =9 July 30 July 31 July I Aug. 10 Aug. 15 Sept. S Dec. 2S0ct 1639 1640 164116431643-4 1644164s 1645-6 1646 1648 1649 E V E N T . 1650 1634 1634-5 Co..-: meet and take action iu R. W.'s ci:.e . .... c,, Tt--,' send Jair.s I'enn, their I.tari-li-al, to cllu R. Vw'. . . ' 61 A conuuiite.; from Salcui insist that he Is sl'di too sick ... C2 R. W. starts through th-; woods for .Sozuams 12 Tl.- Court direct Underhill to put K. W. on board ship . - 62 He goes to Salem for that purpose, bat finds the bird fiown. 62 K. W. writes to Mr. Winthrop a.sklng advice ....... 91 IR. W. buys Prudence of C^wo/iicraj for Gov. Wintlirop . . 92 R. W. is rebaptized 114 Providence disfranchises Verin 93 R. W. writes Gov. Wintlirop about Verin . 92 Hugh Peter notifies the Dorchester Church that Salem Church has excommunicated R. W. ........ 64 R. W. WTites Gov. Winthrop about Samuel Gorton .... 92 Anabaptists first mentioned in New England ....... 115 Wm. Witter at Swampscot calls Infant Baptism hard names 1 19 R. W. gets first Charter of Rhode Island 103 T. Painter refuses to have his child baptized at Hingham . 115 General Court pass a law aga-inst the Anabaptists 116 Divers persons request an alteration ill this law ...... Ii5 Witter Is presented at Salem CouTt for violent speedi on Baptism Seventy-eight persons petition for alteration in Anabaptist law -- General Court adopt declaration about Anabaptists, etc. . . Ed. Starbuck commits some Anabaptistical offence .... Obadiah Holmes et aL secede from Rehoboth Church and form an Anabaptist Church Complaint made to Plymouth Court of Holmes, et al. . . . Mass. General Court WTlte letter toTlj'mouth Court about Holmes s< af., remonstrating against its mild way of treating them Plymouth Court acts mildly tow.irds tlicm, notwithstandlnj Holmes goes to Newport and joins Clarke's Anabaptist Church there Coddington obtains in England New Charter for R. I. - . Geo. Fox first imprisoned in England as a Quaker, and that new Sect begins to make a noise in the world .... Clarke and p.arty leave Newport to obtain a Httle persecu tion In Massachusetts They reach Witter's house at Swampscot Clarke preaches there, and the party is arrested. ..... They get back clandestinely to Witter's house and finish service, having rebaptized Witter Are sent to Eoston jail Have their trial Holmes whipped — having insisted upon it • • Witter presented at Salem Court for having been rebaptized As many as 60 Quaker Missionaries at work in Europe . • First Quaker books arrive in Mass., and are made hght of in the market-place, by Court-order R. W. explains to his fellow citizens of Provitlence what he means by liberty of conscience 116 ii5 iiS iiSiiS iiS 119 120120 120 121 121120 "5 126 55 YALE UNIVERSITY !Bi6289b