As I do understand it, laws, commands, rules and edicts are for
those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway. He
who has God's grace in his heart can not go astray.
--_Anne Hutchinson_
[Illustration: ANNE HUTCHINSON]
Boston was founded in Sixteen Hundred Thirty. The village was first
called Trimountain, which was shortened as a matter of prenatal
economy to Tremont.
The site was commanding and beautiful--a pear-shaped peninsula, devoid
of trees, wind-swept, facing the sea, fringed by the salt-marsh, and
transformed at high tide into an actual island.
The immediate inspirer of the Puritan exodus from England was
Archbishop Laud, who had a cheerful habit of cutting off the ears of
people who differed with him concerning the unknowable. The Puritans
were people who believed in religious liberty. They rebelled from
ritual, form, pomp and parade in sacred things. Their clergy were
"ministers," their churches were "meetinghouses," their communicants
"a congregation."
The Boston settlers were Congregationalists, and stood about halfway
between Presbyterianism and the Independents. Oliver Cromwell, it will
be remembered, was an Independent. John Winthrop, a man very much like
him, was a Congregationalist.
The Independents had no priests, but the Congregationalists
compromised on a minister.
Charles the First and his beloved Archbishop Laud regarded these
Congregationalists as undesirable citizens, and so obligingly gave
John Winthrop his charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and said,
"Go, and peace be with you," although that is not the exact phrase
they used.
In Sixteen Hundred Thirty-three, the Reverend John Cotton arrived at
Tremont from Boston, Lincolnshire, England. In his honor, in a burst
of enthusiasm, the settlers voted to change the name of their town
from Tremont to Boston. And Boston Village it remained--Saint
Botolph's Town--governed by the town-meeting, until Eighteen Hundred
Thirty-two, when it became a city, and Boston it is, even unto this
day.
Boston now has considerably more than half a million people; at the
beginning of the Revolutionary War it had twenty thousand inhabitants;
in Sixteen Hundred Thirty-three, when John Cotton arrived, it had
three hundred seven folk. The houses were built of logs--not of cut
stone and marble--mostly in blockhouse style, chinked with mud. There
were no wharves, but John Winthrop proudly says, "A ship can come
within half a mile of my house, so deep is the channel."
John Cotton was a very strong and earnest man, much beloved by all who
knew him. Almost every family in the Massachusetts Bay Colony named a
child after him. Increase Mather named one of his sons "Cotton." The
Colonists did not leave England by individuals or single families.
They came in groups--church-groups--headed by the pastor of his
flock. They were not in search of an Eldorado, nor a fountain of
youth. It was distinctly a religious movement, the object being
religious liberty. They wished to worship God in their own way. They
believed that this world was a preparation for eternity. They believed
that religion is the chief concern of mortals here below. Had they
been told that man moves in a mysterious way his blunders to perform,
the remark would have been lost on them.
Religion was the oil which caused the flame of their lives to burn
brightly. They knew nothing of science, of history, of romance or of
poetry. Their one book was the Bible, and by it they endeavored to
guide their lives. Nature to them was something opposed to God, and
all natural impulses were looked upon with suspicion. They never
played and seldom laughed. They toiled, prayed, sang, and for
recreation argued as to the meaning of Scriptural passages. To know
what these passages meant was absolutely necessary in order to find a
right location for your soul in another world. The fear of the Lord is
not only the beginning of wisdom, but also its end.
And yet there was a recompense in their zeal, for it was the one thing
which caused them to emigrate. In its holy flame all old ties were
consumed, the past became ashes, hardships and dangers as naught, and
although there was much brutality in their lives, they were at least
different kinds of brutes from what they otherwise would have been.
They were transplanted weeds. Religious zeal has its benefits, but
they are often bought at a high price.
The Puritans left the Old World to gain religious liberty, but to give
religious liberty in the New was beyond their power. The only liberty
they allowed was the liberty to believe as they believed. Others were
wrong, they were right--therefore it was right for them to take the
wrong in hand and set them right. They were filled with fear, and fear
is the finish of everything upon which it gets a clutch. Were it not
for fear man's religion would reduce itself to a healthful emotional
exercise, a beautiful intermittent impulse. Institutional religion is
founded on the monstrous assumption that man is a fully developed
creature, and has the ability, when rightly instructed, to comprehend,
appreciate and understand final truth--hence the creeds, those
curious ossified metaphors, figures of speech paralyzed with fright.
Sufficient unto the day is the knowledge thereof. What is best today
is best for the future. We must realize that life is a voyage and we
are sailing under sealed orders. We open our orders every morning, and
this allows us to change our course as we get new light.
These Puritans knew the voyage from start to finish, or thought they
did. They never doubted--hence their inhumanities, their lack of
justice, their absence of sympathy. And all the persecutions that had
been visited upon them, they in turn visited upon others as soon as
they had the power. Their lives were given over to cruelty and
quibble.
These church-groups seemed to understand intuitively that a little
separation was a good thing. If this were not so, things would have
been even worse than they were. There were groups at Salem,
Charlestown, Newtown, Cambridge, Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester,
Mystic and Lynn, each presided over by a "minister." This minister was
a teacher, preacher, doctor, lawyer and magistrate. In times of doubt
all questions were referred to him. The first "General Court" was a
meeting composed of the ministers, presided over by the Governor of
the Colony, and all things ecclesiastic and civil were regulated by
them.
Of course these men believed in religious liberty--liberty to do as
they said--but any one who questioned their authority or criticized
their rulings was looked upon as an enemy of the Colony. So we see how
very easily, how very naturally, State and Church join hands.
Puritans were opposed to a theocracy, but before the Colony was six
weeks old, the ministers got together and passed resolutions, and
these resolutions being signed by the Governor, who was of their
religious faith, were laws. The "General Court" was a House of Lords,
where the members, instead of being bishops, were ministers, and the
State religion was of course Congregationalism.
All that is needed is time, and the rebels evolve exactly the same
kind of institution as that from which they rebelled. The Puritans
fled for freedom, and now in their midst, if there be any who want the
privilege of disagreeing with them, these, too, must flee. And so does
mankind ever move in circles.
Successful religions are all equally bad.
* * * * *
Anne Hutchinson arrived in Boston, September Eighteenth, Sixteen
Hundred Thirty-four, on board the good ship "Griffin." With her was
her husband, William Hutchinson, and their fifteen children. It had
been a pleasant passage of seven weeks.
The Hutchinsons came from Boston, England, and had been members of the
Reverend John Cotton's church. It had been their intention to leave
for the New World with him the year before, but they had been detained
by the authorities, for just what reason we do not know. If the
persons who held them back a year had succeeded in keeping them
entirely, it would have been well for them, but not for literature,
for then this "Little Journey" would not have been written.
The Hutchinsons were accounted rich, having a thousand guineas in
gold, not to mention the big family of children. John Cotton had told
of them, and of the many fine qualities of heart and mind possessed by
Mrs. Hutchinson. Several of the Hutchinson children were fully grown,
and we are apt to think of the mother as well along in years. The fact
was, she had barely turned forty, with just a becoming sprinkling of
gray in her hair, when she reached the friendly shores of America.
Life on shipboard is a severe test of character. The pent-up quarters
bring out qualities, and often attachments are made or repulsions
formed, that last a lifetime. On board a co-ed ship, people either
make love or quarrel, or they may do both.
The "Griffin" carried more than a hundred passengers, among them two
clergymen who are known to fame simply because they crossed the sea
with Anne Hutchinson. These men were the Reverend John Lathrop and the
Reverend Zacharius Symmes. Religious devotions occupied a goodly
portion of the Puritan time, both on ship and on shore. The two
clergymen on the "Griffin" very naturally took charge of the spiritual
affairs on the craft, and apportioned out the time as best suited
them. There were prayers in the morning, prayers in the evening,
preaching in the forenoon, prayers and singing psalms between times.
Mrs. Hutchinson was a physician by natural endowment, and made it her
special business to look after the physical welfare of the women and
children on the ship. This was well; but when she called a meeting of
all the women on board ship, and addressed them, the Reverend John
Lathrop and the Reverend Zacharius Symmes invited the themselves to
attend, in order to see what manner of meeting it might be.
All went well. But in a week, Mrs. Hutchinson kind of got on the
nerves of the reverend gentlemen. Both men were strictly class B:
stern, severe, sober, serious, sincere, very sincere. Mrs. Hutchinson
was practical, rapid, witty and ready in speech; they were obtuse and
profound. Of course they argued--for all parties were Puritans. Daily
disputes were indulged in about the meaning of misty passages of
biblical lore. The ministers attended Mrs. Hutchinson's meetings, and
she attended theirs. They criticized her teachings, and she made bold
to say a few words about their sermons. The passengers, having
nothing better to do, took sides.
When land was sighted, and at last the "Griffin" passed slowly through
the mouth of the harbor, all disputes were forgotten and a joyous
service of thanksgiving was held. I said all disputes were forgotten:
two men, however, remembered. These men were the Reverend John Lathrop
and the Reverend Zacharius Symmes. They felt hurt, grieved, injured:
the woman had usurped their place, and besprinkled their sacred
offices with disrespect--at least they thought so.
When anchor was dropped, they were among the first to clamber over the
side and pull for the shore. They sought out John Winthrop, Governor
of the Colony, and told him to beware of that Hutchinson woman--she
had a tongue that was double-edged. John Winthrop smiled and guessed
that a woman with fifteen children could not help but be a blessing to
the Colony. The two ministers drew down long Puritan visages and
thought otherwise.
* * * * *
The capacity for intellectual endeavor in a well-balanced woman is not
at its height until her childbearing days are in abeyance. At such a
time, in many instances, there comes to her a new birth of power:
aspiration, ambition, desire, find new channels, and she views the
world from a broad and generous vantage-ground before unguessed. The
frivolous, the transient, the petty--each assumes its proper place,
and she has the sense of value now if ever.
A great man once said in his haste that no woman under thirty knew
anything worth mentioning, her life being ruled by emotion, not
intellect. The great man was then forty; at fifty he pushed the limit
along ten years. At thirty feeling is apt to cool a little, and the
woman has times when she really thinks. Between forty and fifty is her
harvest-time, and if she ever realizes cosmic consciousness it is
then.
Anne Hutchinson was rounding her fortieth milestone when she conceived
a great and sublime truth. It took possession of her being and seemed
to sway her entire life. This truth was called "Covenant of Grace."
Its antithesis is "Covenant of Works."
All theological dogmas, at the base, have in them a germ of truth. The
danger lies in making words concrete and building a structure upon
grammar.
Covenant of Grace and Covenant of Works are both true, but the first
is sublimely true, while the second is true relatively. Both phrases
come from Saint Paul, who was the very prince of theological
quibblers. Covenant of Grace means that if you have the grace of God
in your heart, your life will justify itself; that is, if you are
filled with the spirit of good, inspired by right intent, and possess
a firm faith that you are the child of God, and God has actually
entered into a covenant with you to bless, benefit and protect you
here and hereafter. Also, that under these conditions you can really
do no sin. You may make mistakes, but this divine covenant that is
yours transforms even your lapses, blemishes, blunders, errors and
sins into blessings, so that in the end only the good is yours.
When you have gotten your mind and soul into right relationship with
God or the Divine Spirit, you do not have to seek, strive, struggle,
or painstakingly select and decide as to your actions. God's spirit
acting through you makes you immune from harm and wrong. Your mind
being right, your actions must of necessity be right, because an act
is but a thought in motion.
So, enter into the Covenant of Grace--make a bargain with God that you
will keep your being free from wrong thought--lie low in His hand.
Let His spirit play through you, relax, cease wrestling for a
blessing, and realize that you already have it. Then for you all of
the harassing details of life become simplified. What you shall say,
what you shall do, how you shall dress, what the particular actions
of the day shall be--all are as naught. Life becomes automatic,
divinely so, and regulates itself if you but have the Covenant of
Grace.
The opposite view is the Covenant of Works. That is, you make an
agreement with God that you will obey His will; that you will control
and guard your "work," or actions; that your conduct will be correct.
Conduct then becomes the vital thing, not thought. By a "work" was
meant a deed, and you got God's assurance in your heart of salvation
through the propriety of your acts. Turner painted painstakingly
before he acquired the broad and general sweep. Washington, Franklin
and Lincoln, all in youth, compiled lists of good actions and bad
ones.
People in this stage set down lists of things which they should not
do, and also lists of things they should do. Young people usually make
lists of things they want to do, but must not. This stage compares
with the stage of realism in art. You must be realistic before you
become impressionistic. They want God's favor, they wish Him to smile
upon them, and so they are feverishly intent on doing only the things
of which He approves. Likewise they are fearful of doing the things of
which He disapproves.
Moses made a list of seven things the children of Israel must not do,
and three things they must do; and these we call the Ten Commandments.
The question of Covenant of Grace or Covenant of Works is a very old
one, and it is not settled yet. It goes forever with a certain type of
mind. Our criminal laws punish for the act--magistrates consider the
deed. And it is only a few years ago since a judge in America focused
the world's attention upon himself by refusing to punish delinquent
children brought before him for their deeds. He organized the Juvenile
Court, the sole intent of which is not to punish for the act, but to
go back of this and find out why this child committed the act, and
then remove the cause. And in doing this Judge Lindsey had to become a
lawbreaker himself, for he often violated his oath of office by
refusing to enforce the law where a specific punishment was provided
for a specific offense.
The entire and sole offense of Anne Hutchinson was her emphasis of a
Covenant of Grace. She had first gotten the idea from the Reverend
John Cotton; but it had enlarged in her mind until it took possession
of her nature, perhaps to the exclusion of some other good things. All
of her exhortations to the women on shipboard were: Don't be anxious;
don't be fearful; don't worry about the cares of your household or the
conduct of your husband or children. Don't be anxious about your own
conduct. Just dedicate your lives to God, and in consideration of the
dedication His grace or spirit will fill your hearts, so that all of
your actions will be right and proper and without sin.
Of course, this plea was met with specific questions, such as, if
works are immaterial and grace is all, then what shall I do in this
case, also that and the other? And how about teaching the catechism
and memorizing the Ten Commandments? Must not we say prayers, and
attend divine worship, and pay tithes, and obey magistrates?
Little minds always find endless food for argument and disputation,
right here. To leave the question to Nature and let actions adjust
themselves, they will never do. They want direct orders covering all
the exigencies of life. To meet this demand the Torah of the Jews was
devised, telling how to kill chickens, how to remove the feathers, how
to pass a stranger in an alley, how to cook, eat, pray, sleep, sing,
and cut one's hair.
Thus we get such peculiar laws as that it is a sin for a Jew to make a
fire at certain hours, to trim his beard, or for a Chinaman to clip
his cue. All barbaric people devise codes covering the minutiae of
conduct. With the Hopi Indians the maidens dress their hair in one way
and the married women in another, and if a married woman clothes
herself like a maiden, she is regarded as past redemption, and is
killed. One of the Ten Commandments, that against making graven
images, was founded on the fallacy that sculpture and idolatry were
one and the same thing. The Puritans believed that the arts of
sculpture and painting were both idolatrous. Some believed also that
instrumental music was the work of the devil. While a few believed
that wind-instruments, like the organ, were proper and right, yet
stringed instruments were harmful and tended to lascivious pleasings.
Now there are churches that use the pipe-organ, but allow the use of a
piano only in the lecture-room, or guildhouse. The United
Presbyterians disunited from the main body by abjuring all music but
that of the human voice, and then they split as to the propriety of
using a tuning-fork.
The Baptists have always played the organ, but the cornet as an
instrument to be used in leading congregational singing has caused
much dispute and contention. And while the cornet is allowed by many,
the violin is still tabu absolutely in certain districts. All this is
"Covenant of Works": be careful concerning what you do--have a
sleepless and vigilant eye for conduct--look to your deeds!
Anne Hutchinson cut the Gordian knot of law at a stroke, by saying,
"Get the grace of God in your hearts, and it is really no difference
what you do, or do not do." Now this is a very old idea. The elect few
who get their heads into a certain mental stratum have always come to
a belief in the truth of the Covenant of Grace.
When Jesus plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath day he violated
Jewish law, and showed them then and at various other times that he
had small respect for laws governing conduct.
Persons who take this view are regarded as anarchists. They are looked
upon as enemies of the State; consequently they are dangerous persons,
and must be gotten rid of. Their guilt is always founded on an
inference: they do not believe in this, hence surely they are guilty
of that.
During the Civil War it was assumed by a large contingent that if you
believed in equal rights for the colored man you were desirous of
having your daughter marry a "nigger."
Many good men assume that if you believe in giving the right of
suffrage to women, you want your wife to run for the office of
constable. There are those who assume that men who do not go to church
play cards; those who play cards chew tobacco; those who chew tobacco
drink whisky; those who drink whisky beat their wives; therefore all
men should go to church.
All of Anne Hutchinson's troubles came from inferences; these
inferences were the work of the clergy.
* * * * *
Those first Colonists lived practically communal lives, as pioneers
usually do. In their labors they worked together and for one another.
If a house was to be built, there was a "bee" and everybody got busy.
When a shipload of emigrants arrived, the entire town welcomed them at
the waterside. The Hutchinsons were especially welcome, coming as the
near and dear personal friends of John Cotton. Mrs. Hutchinson and
several of her children were housed with the Cotton family, until they
could build a home of their own.
Mrs. Hutchinson was regarded as an especially valuable arrival, for
she had rare skill in medicine and a devotion in nursing the sick that
caused her to be looked upon with awe. With children she was
especially fortunate. Hers was the healing touch, for she had the
welling mother-heart, the heart of infinite love; and the cures she
worked by simply holding the stricken child in her arms and breathing
upon it were thought to be miraculous.
With pioneers, children are at a premium. Puritans regarded the death
of a child as a visitation of the wrath of God; it filled the whole
settlement with terror. So naturally, any one who could stay the hand
of death was regarded as divinely endowed. Also, they were regarded by
some with suspicion, for these people believed there were two sources
of power, God and Satan.
Anne Hutchinson smiled at this, and told the people that sickness was
a result of wrong living or accident, and was not a manifestation of
the wrath of God at all, and the cure was simply worked by getting in
harmony with the laws of Nature.
Here, unwittingly, Mrs. Hutchinson was treading on very thin
theological ice. She was contradicting the clergy. She thought Nature
and God were one--they knew otherwise. But her days were so filled
with the care of the sick who besieged her house, that she was forced
in self-protection to give the people strong meat.
There were times when the weather was bad, and the whole settlement
would sink into melancholia. These people were on the bleak hillside,
facing the sea. Back of them, hedging them close, was the forest, dim,
dark and mysterious. In this wood were bears, wolves, panthers, which
in Winter, lured by the smell of food, would occasionally enter the
village to the great danger of life. At nightfall the settlers would
go inside, bar the windows and doors, and look to their matchlocks,
which in emergency might be needed.
Now and again came Indians, proud and painted, and paraded through the
village threateningly, and innocently helped themselves to whatsoever
they saw which they needed. Mrs. Hutchinson's power of healing had
gone abroad among these red men, and now and again an Indian mother
would stop at her door with a stricken papoose, and such were never
turned away.
The houses were small, ill-ventilated, overcrowded, and the singing,
praying and exhortation were not favorable to the welfare of the sick,
nervous or tired. The long severe Winter was a cause of dread and
apprehension. This was weather to which English people were not used,
and they had not grown accustomed to battle with the snow and ice.
Instead of facing it, they went into their houses to protect
themselves against it. So there was much idle time, when only prayer
and praise for a God of wrath filled the hours. Not a family was free
from disease, not a house but that upon the doorposts were marks of
blood.
The word "psychology" had never been heard by Mrs. Hutchinson, but the
thing itself she knew. She sought to relieve the people of gloom, to
stop introspection and self-analyzation. They quarreled, strife was
imminent; and when, with the dread of Winter, came the added fear of a
Pequot uprising, the whole place was treading the border-land of
insanity. It is doubtful whether Anne Hutchinson knew that insanity
was infectious, and that whole families, communities, can become
possessed of hallucinations--that towns can go mad, and nations have a
disease.
But this we know, she challenged the eight ministers who were there in
the Colony by calling meetings of women only, and teaching a gospel
which was at variance with what the eight learned men upheld. Her
theme was the Covenant of Grace. Get His spirit in your hearts and you
will not have to trouble about details. All your anxious care about
your children, your fear of disease, and horror at thought of death,
will disappear. This fear is what causes your sickness.
"You think some of your acts have been displeasing to God, and
therefore you suffer; but I say, if you but have the Grace of God in
your souls, and have transcendent minds, you can never displease Him."
It will be seen that this is the pure Emersonian faith which has not
only been applied to life in general, but to the arts. Anne Hutchinson
was the mother of New England Transcendentalism. Self-consciousness is
fatal to the art of expression; he who fixes his thought on the
movements of his hands and feet is sure to get tangled up in them;
good digestion does not require the attention of the party most
interested; and he who devotes all of the time to his spiritual estate
will soon have the whole property in chancery. Man is not a finality--
he is not the thing--the play's the thing: life is the play and the
play is life. Man is only one of the properties. Look out, not in; up,
not down, and lend a hand. And these things form the modern
application of the philosophy of Anne Hutchinson.
The ministers got together in secret session and decided that Anne
Hutchinson must be subdued. She was a usurper upon their preserve, a
trespasser and an interloper. Fear was the rock upon which they split.
And I am not sure but that fear is the only rock in life's channel.
Mrs. Hutchinson had told them that sermons, prayers and hymns were
mere "works," and that a person could do all that they demanded and
still be a thief and a rogue at heart, and that this close attention
to conduct meant eventual hypocrisy. On the other hand, if your mental
attitude was right, your conduct would be right.
"Even though it is wrong?" asked the Reverend Mr. Wilson.