RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS
(1631-1638)
The history of the beginnings of the Massachusetts colony shows that
there was no real unity in church matters among the first emigrants.
The majority were strongly tinctured with Puritanism, but
nonconformity took on many shades of opinion. When it came to adopting
a form of religion for Massachusetts, the question was decided by the
ministers and the handful who then enjoyed the controlling power in
the colony, and not by the majority of inhabitants. It was in this way
that the Congregational church, and not the Presbyterian church, or a
simplified form of the Anglican church, obtained its first hold upon
the colony.
The adoption of the law of 1631 making membership in the
Congregational church the condition of citizenship, and the arrival at
a later day of so many talented ministers embittered by persecution
against the Anglican church, strengthened the connection and made it
permanent. "God's word" was the law of the state, and the
interpretation of it was the natural function of the clergy. Thus,
through church influence, the limitations on thought and religious
practice became more stringent than in the mother-country, where the
suffrage took in all freeholders, whether they were adherents of the
established church or not.
In Massachusetts even Puritans who declined to acknowledge the form of
church government prescribed by the self-established ecclesiastical
authority were practically aliens, compelled to bear the burdens of
church and state, and without a chance of making themselves felt in
the government. And yet, from their own point of view, the position of
the Puritan rulers was totally illogical. While suffering from
persecution in England, they had appealed to liberty of conscience;
and when dominant in America the denouncers of persecution turned
persecutors.
A spirit of resistance on the part of many was the natural consequence
of a position so full of contradiction. Instances of contumacy
happened with such frequency and determination as should have given
warning to those in control. In November, 1631, Richard Brown, an
elder in the Watertown church, was reported to hold that "the Romish
church was a Christian church." Forthwith the court of assistants
notified the Watertown congregation that such views could not be
allowed, and Winthrop, who went in person with the deputy governor,
Dudley, used such summary arguments that Richard Brown, though "a man
of violent spirit," thought it prudent to hold his tongue thereafter.
In November, 1634, John Eliot, known afterwards so well for his noble
work among the Indians, in a sermon censured the court for proceeding
too arbitrarily towards the Pequots. He, too, thought better of his
words when a solemn embassy of ministers presented the matter in a
more orthodox light.
In March, 1635, Captain Israel Stoughton, one of the deputies from
Dorchester to the general court, incurred the resentment of the
authorities. This "troubler of Israel," as Governor Winthrop termed
him, wrote a pamphlet denying the right of the governor and assistants
to call themselves "Scriptural Magistrates." Being questioned by the
court, the captain made haste, according to the record, to desire that
"the said book might be burned as being weak and oppressive." Still
unsatisfied, the court ordered that for his said offence he should for
three years be disabled from bearing any office in the colony.[1]
The first great check which this religious despotism received
proceeded from Roger Williams, who arrived in February, 1631, in the
_Lyon_, which brought supplies to the famishing colonists of
Massachusetts. He was the son of a merchant in London and a graduate
of Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of master of
arts in 1627. In his mere religious creed Williams was harsher than
even the orthodox ministers of Massachusetts. Soon after his arrival
he was invited to become one of the ministers of the Boston church,
but refused because that church declined to make a public declaration
of their repentance for holding communion in the churches of England
while they lived in the home country.
He was then invited to Salem, where he made himself very popular by
his talents and eloquence. Nevertheless, within two months he advanced
other "scrupulosities," denying the validity of land-titles proceeding
from the Massachusetts government, and the right of the magistrates to
impose penalties as to Sabbath-breaking or breaches of the laws of the
first table. Winthrop and his assistants complained to the Salem
church, and this interference prevented his intended ordination at
Salem.[2]
Williams presently removed to Plymouth, where his peculiar views were
indulged, and where he improved his time in learning the Indian
language and cultivating the acquaintance of the chief sachems of the
neighboring Indian tribes. When, two years later, in 1633, Williams
returned to live at Salem for the purpose of assisting the minister,
Mr. Skelton, who was sick, the rulers of the church at Plymouth
granted him a dismissal, but accompanied it with some words of warning
about his "unsettled judgment and inconsistency."[3]
Williams was soon in trouble in Massachusetts. While at Plymouth his
interest in the Indians led him to prepare for the private reading of
Bradford a pamphlet which argued that the king of England had no right
to give away the lands of the Indians in America. The pamphlet had
never been published, but reports of its contents reached Boston, and
the court of assistants, following, as usual, the advice of the
ministers, pounced upon the author and summoned him to answer for what
it was claimed was a denial of their charter rights.
When Williams appeared for this purpose, in January, 1634, the
objections of the court shifted to some vague phrases in the document
which they construed to reflect upon the king. These expressions were
readily explained by Williams, and he was promptly forgiven by the
court on his professing loyalty and taking the usual oath of
allegiance to his majesty.[4] Perhaps this singular behavior on the
part of the court is explained by the apprehension generally felt that
Ferdinando Gorges, in England, would succeed in his attempt to vacate
the charter of Massachusetts. If the charter had been successfully
called in, Williams's ground of the sufficiency of the Indian title to
lands might have proved useful as a last resort.[5]
Nevertheless, in November, 1634, the authorities were on his track
again. The pretext now was that Williams "taught publicly against the
king's patent," and that "he termed the churches of England
antichristian." This revamping of an old charge which had been
explained and dropped was probably due to a change of attitude towards
the English government. In May, 1634, the general court elected the
intolerant deputy governor, Thomas Dudley, governor in the place of
Winthrop; and when in July the news of the demand of the Lords
Commissioners for Foreign Plantations for the surrender of the colony
charter was received at Boston, the new governor took steps, as we
have seen, to commit the colony to a fight rather than yield
compliance.[6]
Nothing, however, resulted from the charges against Williams, and it
was not until March, 1635, that he again excited the wrath of the
government. Then his scruples took the shape of objections to the
recent legislation requiring every resident to swear to defend the
provincial charter. Williams declared that the state had no right to
demand an oath of an "unregenerate man," for that "we thereby had
communion with a wicked man in the worship of God and caused him to
take the name of God in vain."
Williams was, accordingly, summoned to Boston in April, and subjected
to confutation by the ministers, but positive action was deferred.
While the matter remained thus undetermined, the church at Salem
elected him teacher, and this action was construed as a contempt on
the part of both Williams and the Salem church. Accordingly, when the
general court met in July, 1635, Haynes now being governor, it entered
an order giving them till next court to make satisfaction for their
conduct. At the same court a petition of the Salem church for some
land in Marblehead Neck was rejected "because they had chosen Mr.
Williams their teacher."
Affairs had now drawn to a crisis. The Salem church wrote a letter to
all the other churches protesting against their treatment, and
Williams notified his own church that he would not commune with them
unless they declined to commune with the other churches of the colony.
When the general court met in September, Salem was punished with the
loss of representation, and thereupon gave way and submitted. Not so
Williams. In October, 1635, he was again "convented," and on his
refusing, in the presence of all the ministers of the colony, to
renounce his opinions, he was banished from Massachusetts. The time
given him to depart was only six weeks, and though some of the laymen
in the church opposed the decree, every clerical member save one
approved it.
Liberty to remain till spring was afterwards granted Williams, but he
was admonished not to go about to draw others to his opinions. As
Williams was one of those contentious people who must talk, this
inhibition was futile. It is true that he no longer preached in his
church, as the congregation had submitted to the will of those in
power. But he conversed in private with some of his friends, and
arranged a plan of establishing a new settlement on the shores of
Narragansett Bay.
When information of this design reached Boston in January, 1636, the
authorities, on the plea that an heretical settlement in the
neighborhood might affect the peace of the colony, determined to get
rid of Williams altogether by shipping him to England. An order was
sent to him to come to Boston, which he declined to obey on account of
ill-health. Captain Underhill was then sent to take him by force, but
before the doughty captain could arrive, Williams, getting
intelligence of his purpose, sick as he was, left his wife and two
infant children and hurried away, and no one at Salem would give
Underhill any information.[7]
Thirty-five years later Williams wrote, "I was sorely tossed for one
fourteen weeks, in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bed or
bread did mean." In this extremity he experienced the benefits of the
friendly relations which he had cultivated with the Indians at
Plymouth, for the Pokanokets received him kindly and gave him some
land on the Seekonk River.
The long arm of the Massachusetts authorities reached out for him even
here. He was soon advised by his friend, Governor Winslow, of
Plymouth, that as his plantation was within the limits of the Plymouth
colony he had better remove to the other side of the river, as his
government was "loath to displease the Bay." So Williams, with five of
his friends, who now joined him, embarked in his canoe and established
his settlement in June, 1636, at Providence, where he was joined by
many members of the church of Salem.[8] This was the beginning of
Rhode Island, or, rather, of one of the beginnings of their complex
colony.
The religion of the ruling class in Massachusetts, though bitterly
hostile to the ritual of the English church, was a matter of strict
regulation--there were rules regarding fast days, Sabbath attendance,
prayer-meetings, apparel, and speech. The wrath of God and eternal
punishment formed the substance of every sermon. In the church at
Boston this rigid system found a standard exponent in the pastor, John
Wilson; but the "teacher," John Cotton, a man of far greater ability,
sometimes preached sermons in which he dwelt upon the divine mercy and
love. The result was that the people crowded to hear him, and more
persons were converted and added to the church in Boston in the
earlier months of Cotton's residence than in all the other churches in
the colony.[9]
Among the members of Cotton's church was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who
knew Cotton in England and had crossed the sea to hear his teachings.
After her arrival, in June, 1636, she made herself very popular by her
ministrations "in time of childbirth and other occasions of bodily
infirmities." Soon she ventured to hold open meetings for women, at
which the sermons of the ministers furnished the subject of comment.
From a mere critic of the opinions of others Mrs. Hutchinson gradually
presumed to act the part of teacher herself, and her views on the
questions of "a covenant of works" and "a covenant of grace" attracted
much attention.[10] The former of these terms had been used by
Protestants to designate the condition of the Catholic church, which
imposed as the condition of salvation penances, confessions,
pilgrimages, legacies to the church, etc.; while the latter expression
described the condition of all true Protestant Christians who found
peace in the consciousness of holiness of spirit and faith in Jesus
Christ.
Mrs. Hutchinson gave an emotional rendering to the "covenant of
grace," and held that the divine spirit dwelt in every true believer
and no demeanor in life could evidence its existence. To the
Massachusetts ministers this doctrine seemed like a claim to
inspiration, and struck at the whole discipline of the church. But
what disturbed them more than anything else was the report that she
had singled out two of the whole order, John Cotton and her
brother-in-law John Wheelwright, to praise as walking in "the covenant
of grace."[11]
The quarrel began first in the bosom of the Boston church. Wilson, the
pastor, resented Mrs. Hutchinson's preference of Mr. Cotton, the
teacher, and began to denounce Mrs. Hutchinson's opinions. The
congregation divided into two factions; on the one side was the
pastor, supported by John Winthrop and a few others, and on the other
were Mrs. Hutchinson, young Harry Vane, then governor, and the large
majority of the members. Mr. Cotton was not identified with either
side, but sympathized with the latter. Matters verged to a crisis when
the Hutchinsonians announced their intention of electing Mr.
Wheelwright, who had not long since arrived, as a second teacher in
the church.
The election was to take place on Sunday, October 30, 1636; but
October 25 the general court met and the ministers from other parts of
the colony came to Boston and held a conference at which Cotton,
Wheelwright, and Wilson were present, and there was a general
discussion of all points in controversy. They agreed that
"sanctification" (_i.e._, a holy deportment) did help to evidence
"justification" (salvation); but there was more or less difference on
the question of the "indwelling of the Holy Ghost." Mr. Wheelwright
argued in its favor, but held that the indwelling referred to did not
amount to "a personal union with God," as Mrs. Hutchinson and Governor
Vane contended.
The conference instead of quieting aggravated the difficulty. Five
days later, when Mr. Wheelwright's name was voted upon, Winthrop rose
and hotly objected to him on the ground that he held unorthodox
opinions respecting the indwelling of the Holy Ghost and was apt to
raise "doubtful disputations." As a consequence the church would not
elect Wheelwright in the face of an objection from so prominent a
member as Winthrop. Next day Winthrop continued his attack, insisting
that Wheelwright must necessarily believe in a "personal union."
At this juncture Governor Harry Vane unfortunately gave to the
existing difficulties a political aspect. Vane was the son of one of
the secretaries of state of England. Having taken a religious turn, he
forsook all the honors and preferments of the court and obtained the
consent of his parents to visit Massachusetts. Almost immediately
after his arrival, he was elected, in May, 1636, when only twenty-four
years of age, governor of the colony, with John Winthrop as deputy
governor. After the quarrel in regard to the election of Wheelwright,
Vane, who had become tired of the distractions in the colony, convened
the general court, December 10, 1636, to tender his resignation upon
the half-reason that his private affairs required his presence in
England.
Next day one of the assistants very feelingly regretted the coming
loss, especially in view of threatened attacks from the French and
Indians. The remarks took Vane off his guard. Carried away by his
feelings, he burst into tears and protested that, though his outward
estate was really in peril, yet he would not have thought of deserting
them at this crisis had he not felt the inevitable danger of God's
judgments upon them for their dissensions. Thereupon the court, of
which a majority were his opponents, declined to allow his departure
on the grounds assigned. Vane saw his mistake and reverted to his
private estate. The court then consented to his departure, and a court
of elections was called for December 15 to supply the vacancy caused
by his resignation.
Before this time arrived the religious drama took a new turn. The
friends of Mrs. Hutchinson knew the value of having the head of the
government with them, and would not dismiss Vane from the church,
whereupon he withdrew his resignation altogether. Till the next
election in May the colony was more divided than ever. Mr. Wheelwright
was appointed to take charge of a church at Mount Wollaston, but his
forced withdrawal from Boston was a source of irritation to his
numerous friends. Mrs. Hutchinson remained and was the storm-centre,
while Vane, who now sought a re-election, was freely accused of
subterfuge and deception.
A day or two after December 15 the ministers and the court held a
meeting at which very hot words passed between Governor Vane and Rev.
Hugh Peter. Wilson, the pastor of Boston, also indulged in caustic
criticisms directed at Governor Vane and the other friends of Mrs.
Hutchinson. By this speech Wilson gave great offence to his
congregation, who would have laid a formal church censure upon him had
not Cotton interfered and in lieu of it gave his fellow-preacher a
good scolding, under the guise of what Winthrop calls "a grave
exhortation."
The clergy were very anxious to win over Mr. Cotton, and about a week
later held a meeting at Boston and solemnly catechised Cotton on many
abstruse points. The storm of theological rancor was at its height.
Harsh words were hurled about, and by some orthodox ministers Mrs.
Hutchinson and her friends were denounced as Familists, Antinomians,
etc., after certain early sects who cherished the doctrines of private
inspiration and had committed many strange offences. On the other
hand, some of Mrs. Hutchinson's friends scornfully referred to the
orthodox party as legalists and antichrists, "who walked in a covenant
of works."
Harsh words are only one step removed from harsh measures. The
legalists were in a majority in the general court, and they resolved
to retaliate for the treatment Mr. Wilson had received at the hands of
his congregation.[12] At the general court which convened March 9,
1637, Wilson's sermon was approved and Wheelwright was summoned to
answer for alleged "seditious and treasonable words" that were used by
him in a sermon preached in Boston on a recent fast day. This action
brought forth a petition from the church of Boston in Wheelwright's
behalf, which the court declared "presumptious" and rejected.
Wheelwright himself was pronounced guilty, and thereupon a protest was
offered by Vane, and a second petition came from Boston, which, like
the first, went unheeded, and only served at a later day to involve
those who signed it.
Amid great excitement the legalists carried a resolution to hold the
May election at Newtown (Cambridge) instead of Boston, a partisan
move, for Newtown was more subject to their influence than Boston. At
this court in May the turbulence was so great that the parties came
near to blows. Threats resounded on all sides, and Wilson was so
carried away with excitement that he climbed a tree to harangue the
multitude. The Vane forces struggled hard, but were badly defeated,
and Winthrop was restored to his former office as governor, while the
stern Thomas Dudley was made deputy governor. Vane and his assistants,
Coddington and Dummer, were defeated and "quite left out," even from
the magistracy.[13]
Secure in the possession of power, the legalists now proceeded to
suppress the opposing party altogether. An order was passed commanding
that no one should harbor any new arrival for more than three weeks
without leave of the magistrates. This was to prevent any dangerous
irruption of sympathizers with Mrs. Hutchinson from England, and it
was applied against a brother of Mrs. Hutchinson and some others of
her friends who arrived not long after.
August 3, 1637, Vane sailed for England, and thenceforward the
Hutchinson faction, abandoned by their great leader, made little
resistance. In the latter part of the same month (August 30) a great
synod of the ministers was held at Newtown, which was the first thing
of the sort attempted in America, and included all the teaching elders
of the colony and some new-comers from England. This body set to work
to lay hold of the heresies which infected the atmosphere of the
colony, and formulated about "eighty opinions," some "blasphemous,"
but others merely "erroneous and unsafe." How many of them were really
entertained by Mrs. Hutchinson's followers and how many were merely
inferences drawn from their teachings by their opponents it is hard to
say.
When these heresies were all enumerated and compared with the opinions
of Cotton and Wheelwright, only five points of possible heterodoxy on
their part appeared. Over these there was a solemn wrangle for days,
till Cotton, shrinking from his position, contrived, through abundant
use of doubtfull expressions, to effect his reconciliation with the
dominant party. After a session of twenty-four days the synod
adjourned, and Wheelwright, alone of the ministers, was left as the
scapegoat of the Antinomians, and with him the majority determined to
make short work.[14]
At the general court which met November 2, 1637, the transgressions of
Wheelwright through his fast-day sermon were made the basis of
operations. For this offence Wheelwright had been judged guilty more
than nine months before, but sentence had been deferred; he was now
sentenced to disfranchisement and banishment. Many of his friends at
Boston, including William Aspinwall and John Coggeshall, delegates to
the general court, experienced similar treatment for signing the
petition presented to the court in March, 1637, after the verdict
against Wheelwright.[15]
An order was passed for disarming Mrs. Hutchinson's followers, and
finally the arch-heretic herself was sent for and her examination
lasted two days. In the dialogue with Winthrop which began the
proceedings, Mrs. Hutchinson had decidedly the best of the
controversy; and Winthrop himself confesses that "she knew when to
speak and when to hold her tongue." The evidence failed wretchedly
upon the main charge, which was that Mrs. Hutchinson alleged that all
the ministers in Massachusetts except Mr. Cotton preached "a covenant
of works." On the contrary, by her own evidence and that of Mr. Cotton
and Mr. Leverett, it appeared that Mrs. Hutchinson had said that "they
did not preach a covenant of grace as clearly as Mr. Cotton did,"
which was probably very true.[16]
Her condemnation was a matter of course, and at the end of two days
the court banished her from the colony; but as it was winter she was
committed to the temporary care of Mr. Joseph Welde, of Roxbury,
brother of the Rev. Thomas Welde, who afterwards wrote a rancorous
account of these difficulties, entitled _A Short Story_. While in his
house, Mrs. Hutchinson was subjected to many exhortations by anxious
elders, till her spirits sank under the trial and she made a
retraction. Nevertheless, it was not as full as her tormentors
desired, and the added penalty of dismissal from church was imposed.
After her excommunication her spirits revived, "and she gloried in her
condemnation and declared that it was the greatest happiness next to
Christ that ever befell her."
In this affair Winthrop acted as prosecutor and judge. Before the
spring had well set in he sent word to Mrs. Hutchinson to depart from
the colony. Accordingly, March 28, 1638, she went by water to her farm
at Mount Wollaston (now Quincy), intending to join Mr. Wheelwright,
who had gone to Piscataqua, in Maine, but she changed her mind and
went by land to the settlement of Roger Williams at Providence, and
thence to the island of Aquidneck, where she joined her husband and
other friends.[17]
Such was the so-called Antinomian controversy in Massachusetts, and
its ending had a far-reaching effect upon the fortunes of the colony.
The suppression of Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends produced what
Winthrop and the rest evidently desired--peace--a long peace. For
fifty years the commonwealth was free from any great religious
agitations; but this condition of quietude, being purchased at the
price of free speech and free conscience, discouraged all literature
except of a theological stamp, and confirmed the aristocratic
character of the government. As one of its mouth-pieces, Rev. Samuel
Stone, remarked, New England Congregationalism continued till the
close of the century "a speaking aristocracy in the face of a silent
democracy."[18] The intense practical character of the people saved
the colony, which, despite the theocratic government, maintained a
vigorous life in politics, business, and domestic economy.
[Footnote 1: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 70, 81, 113, 179, 185; _Cal.
of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 180.]
[Footnote 2: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 49, 63.]
[Footnote 3: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 370; Hubbard, _New
England_ (Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, V.), 203.]
[Footnote 4: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 145, 147.]
[Footnote 5: Eggleston, _Beginners of a Nation_, 282.]
[Footnote 6: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 163, 166, 180.]
[Footnote 7: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 188, 193, 198, 204, 209,
210.]
[Footnote 8: Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st series, I., 276.]
[Footnote 9: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 144.]
[Footnote 10: Adams, _Three Episodes of Mass. Hist_., I., 339.]
[Footnote 11: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 239; Hutchinson,
_Massachusetts Bay_, I., 435.]
[Footnote 12: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 240-255; _Mass. Col.
Records_, I., 185.]
[Footnote 13: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 256-263.]
[Footnote 14: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 261-288.]
[Footnote 15: Ibid., 291-296.]
[Footnote 16: Hutchinson, _Massachusetts Bay_, II., 423-447.]
[Footnote 17: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 296-312.]
[Footnote 18: Adams, _Massachusetts: Its Historians and its History_,
57.]