utterance and compromised with error. He stopped short of full victory
and failed to secure the “full splendor of a complete triumph.” He
wrote differently in after days:
Since it is not good that in one parish the people should be exposed
to contradictory preaching, he (the magistrate) should order to be
silent whatever does not consist with the Scriptures.
Thus the civil ruler was made the final judge of truth and given power
to suppress what he would condemn. This was a case of tyranny changing
hands. Luther wrote to Menius and Myconius in 1530:
I am pleased that you intend to publish a book against the Anabaptists
as soon as possible. Since they are not only blasphemous but also
seditious men, let the sword exercise its rights over them, for it is
the will of God, that he shall have judgment who resisteth the power.
Melanchthon, in a letter to the Diet at Hamburg, in 1537, advised
death by the sword to all who professed Anabaptist views. Zwingli, the
Swiss Reformer, whose statue in Zurich pictures him with a Bible in
his right hand and a sword in his left, also persecuted the Baptists.
On January 5, 1527, Felix Mantz became the first Swiss Anabaptist
martyr by drowning at Zurich. This was a hideous parody of his belief
in believers’ baptism by immersion. Heinrich Bullinger, in his book
against the Anabaptists, specifies thirteen distinct sects among the
Anabaptists. He mentions twenty-five points of agreement among them,
including the following:
That secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that
the Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law-courts; nor
should ever make use of the tribunals; that Christians do not kill
or punish with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion
from the body of believers; that no man should be compelled by
force to believe, nor should any be slain on account of his faith;
that Christians do _not_ resist, and hence do not go to war; that
Christians may not swear; that all oaths are sinful; that infant
baptism is of the pope and devil; that rebaptism, or better, adult
baptism, is the only true Christian baptism.
In 1527, the Swiss Anabaptists issued a confession of faith at
Schaffhausen. Its writer was Michael Sattler, an ex-monk who was
martyred that same year. It was the first confession “in which
Christian men claimed absolute religious freedom for themselves, and
guaranteed absolute religious freedom to others.” This Baptist movement
was the target of Protestant and Catholic persecution alike and its
brave, spiritual men and women were driven to the martyr’s crown or to
exile. Many fled to Holland. The torch of truth, the advanced ideas
which they had received from the Waldensians and other pre-Reformation
movements, were handed over to the Anabaptists of Holland. These
increased in number rapidly under the toleration afforded them in
that country. Menno Simons, a Roman priest, set to thinking by the
martyrdoms about him, espoused their cause and doctrines. Baptized at
the age of forty-four, he fled to Holland, where he became the leader
of a host, which afterward bore his name, being called Mennonites.
Charles V persecuted these Baptists, and fully fifty thousand were
martyred. They were not exterminated, however, for God, as in other
days, preserved a remnant to pass the torch of religious liberty on to
others.
[Illustration: Bell of First Baptist Church, Providence]
Baptist refugees from Holland crossed over to England. Henry VIII, when
he made himself head of the Church, ordered their arrest and banishment
from the kingdom, “on pain to suffer death, if they abide, and be
apprehended and taken.” The fires of Smithfield and the inquisition
of the Protestants could not crush this movement destined of God, at
a later date, to change the world. Considered an obnoxious sect in
the reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, they carried on their
meetings secretly. They were an industrious class of skilled mechanics
and introduced into England that which afterward gave that nation its
commercial and manufacturing supremacy. The English passed a law that
each foreign workman should take and train one English apprentice.
As a result, fifty thousand English lads were trained, not only
mechanically, but also in the principles of these Dutch Anabaptists.
This spiritual training led to the Puritan revolution in England and
to the greater movement across the seas. Each of these Dutch Baptist
churches was a republic in itself, independent with its popularly
elected officers, deacons, and elders. They held, as a cardinal
doctrine, the separation of Church and State. From the sections in
which these Dutch Anabaptists lived came fully fifty per cent of the
early colonists to the New World. Fourteen English towns, in which
they formed a large proportion of the population, are duplicated by
New England towns of the same name. From the same district Cromwell
recruited his invincible Ironsides. Back of all that was good and noble
in the settlements at Plymouth and Boston and in Connecticut was the
leaven of the Dutch Baptists in that part of England from which these
early colonists came.
Robert Browne, who is the reputed founder of English Congregationalism,
advocated his peculiar views after dwelling for some time in a Dutch
Anabaptist community. Here he promulgated his ideas. A part of his
congregation fled to Middleburg, a Baptist stronghold. After two years
he quarreled with these folks and returned to England, where he became
reconciled to the Established Church and for forty years afterward
administered to an Established Church parish. The Baptist principle,
however, had been stamped upon the few years of his ministry when he
started a new order.
At the close of the sixteenth century most of the Anabaptists in
England were Dutch. Slowly, however, English Baptists were coming into
existence, and they soon formed themselves into small groups. Browne
did not go so far as the Baptists, but in church government he took
their New Testament position. As far as is known, the first definite
English Baptist church was organized in London in 1611, with Thomas
Helwys as pastor. The members had been exiles in Holland and were
baptized there by Rev. John Smith, the famous Se-Baptist, formerly a
Church of England clergyman.
This English Baptist church formulated a confession which contains the
first declaration of faith to include, as the teaching of Christ, the
absolute separation of Church and State.
The magistrate by virtue of his office, is not to meddle with religion
or matters of conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of
religion or doctrine; but to leave the Christian religion free to
every man’s conscience.
Prof. Mason says:
It was, in short, from their little dingy meeting-house, somewhere in
old London, that there flashed out, first in England, the absolute
doctrine of religious liberty.
These of whom mention has just been made, were called General Baptists.
In 1644, the Particular Baptists issued a confession, equally
explicit and clear. Religious liberty to them was the right, and
good citizenship the duty, of every Christian man. Their historic
confession, a confession of seven associated churches, was the first
declaration, in England or in Christendom, by a body of associated
churches on the question of absolute religious liberty. Many of these
Baptists were imprisoned.
Many denominations which today favor religious liberty, were opposed to
it in those days of Baptist persecution. For example, the Presbyterian
ministers of Lancashire declared, “A toleration would be putting a
sword in a madman’s hands, a cup of poison into the hand of a child,
a letting loose of madmen with firebrands in their hands, etc.” The
Presbyterians, then, would gladly have been a national church. The
Puritans of the Bay Colony had no higher thought than a theocracy
for themselves. To insure uniformity of worship in their colony they
resorted to whippings, banishments, fines, and hangings. The Pilgrim
Fathers were farther advanced, but historians fail to find that
they had a higher ideal than to secure a freedom to worship God for
themselves. They certainly never dreamed of extending an equal freedom
to all who differed from them in religious opinions. John Robinson,
the renowned pastor of the Pilgrims, defended earnestly the use of the
magistrate’s power “to punish religious actions, he (the magistrate)
being the preserver of both tables, and so to punish all breaches of
both.”
By Protestants, with the exception of the Baptists, full religious
toleration and liberty was feared and hated. The most advanced were
far from the Baptist position. This explains the bitterness of the
persecution against Roger Williams and the Baptists. In fact, Roger
Williams was so far in advance of his age, and that in common with
the noble host of martyred Baptists, that he seemed dwarfed in the
distance. The future even more than the present time will enable us to
value his and their worth.
IV
SOUL-LIBERTY AT HOME IN A COMMONWEALTH
It is his unique title to preeminence and fame that he was the first
to found an absolutely free church in an absolutely free State, and
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations remain a monument of his
sagacity and daring and penetration, a center from which the light of
soul-liberty has radiated far and wide till it has flooded a whole
continent, and shines with concentrated splendor in the constellation
of States which now form the great Western Republic.--_J. Gregory, a
British writer on Puritanism._
Against the somber background of early New England, two figures
stand above the rest--John Winthrop and Roger Williams. The
first--astute, reactionary, stern--represented Moses and the law. The
second--spontaneous, adaptable, forgiving--represented Christ and the
individual. It is needless to say with which lay the promise and the
dawn.--_I. B. Richman._
He was the first man in modern Christendom to establish civil
government on the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality
of opinions before the law, and in its defence he was the harbinger
of Milton, the precursor and the superior of Jeremy Taylor.... Let
then the name of Roger Williams be preserved in universal history
as one who advanced moral and political science, and made himself a
benefactor of his race.--_George Bancroft, in “History of the United
States.”_
In the seventeenth century there was no place but the wilderness for
such a John the Baptist of the distant future as Roger Williams.
He did not belong among the diplomatic builders of churches, like
Cotton, or the political founders of States, like Winthrop. He was but
a babbler to his own time, but the prophetic voice rings clear and
far, and ever clearer as the ages go on.--_Edward Eggleston, in “The
Beginners of a Nation.”_
SOUL-LIBERTY AT HOME IN A COMMONWEALTH
Portsmouth, Newport, and Rhode Island, with common interests and
ideals, were protected and throve under the original charter granted in
1644. Charles I was surrendered to the Parliamentary forces in January,
1647. The colony, therefore, felt strong to act under the Parliamentary
charter granted them. A general assembly of the people was called,
and the charter was adopted. Shawomet, settled by the Gortonists, had
also received a charter from the same source and, in honor of Warwick,
their protector, they changed the name of their town to Warwick.
They were admitted also to the General Assembly. The first meeting
of the Assembly declared that the form of government in Providence
Plantations was “democratical,” that is to say, “government held by
the free and voluntary consent of all or of the greater part of the
free inhabitants.” The seal of the colony was an anchor. The executive
branch of the government was vested in a president of the colony and
four assistants, one from each town. These officers, elected by the
General Assembly, had no part in legislation. The Assembly at that time
was not composed of delegates, but included all the freemen of the
colony. Each town had a court of commissioners composed of six members.
These four town courts combined became a General Court of Trials,
having to do with the weightier offenses, and also acted as a Court of
Appeals from the town courts. There was also a general treasurer, a
general recorder, a general sergeant, and later a general solicitor.
A code of laws was drawn up. One, the Statute of Archery, shows the
isolation of this colony. It required that every man between seventeen
and seventy should keep a bow and four arrows. Fathers should furnish
each of their sons, between the ages of seven and seventeen, with “a
bow, two arrows, and a shaft, and to bring them up to shooting.” This
was done because the colony could not get gunpowder for firearms,
since the other colonies refused to sell them any, or allow it to be
exported through their posts to them.
[Illustration]
The Fourth Paper,
Presented by
Maior Butler,
To the Honourable Committee of
Parliament, for the Propagating the
Gospel of _Christ_ JESUS.
VVhich Paper was humbly owned, and
was, and is attended to be made good
{ Major _Butler_. } { Mr. _Jackson_.
By { Mr. _Charles Vane_. } { Mr. _VVall_. And
{ Col. _Danvers_. } { Mr. _Turner_.
ALSO
A Letter from Mr. _Goad_, to Major
BUTLER, upon occasion of the said
PAPER and PROPOSALS.
_Together with_
A Testimony to the said fourth Paper,
By way or Explanation upon the four
PROPOSALS of it.
_BY_ R. W.
Unto which is subjoyned the Fifteen Proposals
of the MINISTERS.
_London_, Printed for _Giles Calvert_, at the Black-spred-Eagle at the
West-end of _Pauls_. _M DC LII._
ROGER WILLIAMS’ SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND
The ambitious designs of Coddington in seeking to divide the colony
were such that Williams and Clarke were obliged to go to England in
1651. Coddington had secured a charter making him governor for life
of Rhode Island, then the richest portion of the State. Williams and
Clarke in 1652 secured an order-in-council nullifying Coddington’s
commission. Williams remained in England until the summer of 1654 and
labored there for the interests of the colony and also for the general
benefit of all oppressed people, including the Jews. In his appeal to
the Parliament, found as a comment in the tract entitled “Butler’s
Fourth Paper,” an original copy of which is in the John Carter Brown
Library, at Providence, he says:
Oh, that it would please the Father of Spirits to affect the heart
of Parliament with such a merciful sense of the Soul-Bars and Yokes
which our fathers have laid upon the neck of this nation, and at last
to proclaim a true and absolute Soul-Freedom to all the people of
the land impartially, so that no person be forced to pray nor pay,
otherwise than as his Soul believeth and consenteth.
He plead especially that permission be granted the Jews “to live freely
and peaceably amongst them.”
He was on intimate terms with Milton, to whom he read and from whom he
received instruction in certain languages. He also was associated with
Sir Henry Vane. Returning to his colony in 1654, he at once exercised
his influence in smoothing out its many and varied difficulties.
During this second visit to England he issued three publications. John
Cotton had written a reply to the “Bloody Tenent,” publishing it in
London, in 1647. It had the following title:
The Bloudy Tenent, washed, and made white in the bloud of the Lambe:
being discussed and discharged of bloud-guiltinesse by just Defence.
Roger Williams in 1652 printed his rejoinder to Cotton’s book. Its
title is descriptive of its contents:
The Bloody Tenent yet More Bloody: by Mr Cottons endevour to wash
it white in the Blood of the Lambe; of whose precious Blood, spilt
in the Blood of his Servants; and of the blood of Millions spilt in
former and later Wars for Conscience sake, that Most Bloody Tenent of
Persecution for cause of Conscience, upon a second Tryal, is found now
more apparently and more notoriously guilty, etc., etc. By R. Williams
of Providence in New-England. London, Printed for Giles Calvert, and
are to be sold at the black-spread-Eagle, at the West-end of Pauls,
1652.
It is a small quarto of three hundred and seventy-three pages. Two
copies are in the Library of Brown University, one, a presentation copy
from Williams to his friend, Dr. John Clarke, of Newport.
[Illustration]
THE
BLOUDY TENENT,
_WASHED_,
And made white in the bloud of the
Lambe: being discussed and discharged of
bloud-guiltinesse by just Defence.
WHEREIN
The great Questions of this present time are
handled, _viz._ How farre Liberty of Conscience
ought to be given to those that truly feare God? And how farre
restrained to turbulent and pestilent persons, that not onely
raze the foundation of Godlinesse, but disturb the Civill
Peace where they live? Also how farre the Magistrate may proceed
in the duties of the first Table? And that all Magistrates
ought to study the word and will of God, that they may frame
their Government according to it.
DISCUSSED.
As they are alledged from divers Scriptures, out of
the Old and New Testament. Wherein also the practise of
Princes is debated, together with the Judgement of Ancient
and late Writers of most precious esteeme.
_Whereunto is added a Reply to Mr._ WILLIAMS
Answer, to Mr. COTTONS Letter.
_BY_ JOHN COTTON Batchelor in Divinity, and
Teacher of the Church of Christ at _Boston_ in _New-England_.
_LONDON_,
Printed by _Matthew Symmons_ for _Hannah Allen_, at the _Crowne_ in
_Popes-Head_-Alley. 1647.
[Illustration]
THE
BLOODY TENENT
YET
More Bloody:
BY
Mr _Cottons_ endevour to wash it white in the
BLOOD of the _LAMBE_;
Of whose precious Blood, spilt in the
Blood of his Servants; and
Of the blood of Millions spilt in former and
later Wars for Conscience sake,
THAT
Most Bloody Tenent of Persecution for cause of
Conscience, upon a second Tryal, is found now more
apparently and more notoriously guilty.
In this Rejoynder to Mr _Cotton_, are principally
I. _The Nature of Persecution_, }
} Examined;
II. _The Power of the Civill Sword }
in Spirituals_ }
III. _The Parliaments permission of_ } Justified.
_Dissenting Consciences_ }
Also (as a Testimony to Mʳ _Clarks_ Narrative) is added
a Letter to Mr _Endicot_ Governor of the _Massachusets_ in _N. E._
By R. WILLIAMS of _Providence_ in _New-England_.
_London_, Printed for _Giles Calvert_, and are to be sold at
the black-spread-Eagle at the West-end of _Pauls_, 1652.
Roger Williams published his fifth work in 1652. It was a pamphlet of
forty-four small quarto pages, entitled:
The Hireling Ministry None of Christs, or A Discourse touching the
Propagating the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Humbly Presented to such Pious
and Honourable Hands, whom the present Debate thereof concerns. By
Roger Williams, of Providence, in New England. London Printed in the
second Moneth, 1652.
The purpose of this work was to oppose a legal establishment of
religion, and the compulsory support of the clergy. An original copy
is in the Library of Brown University, two copies are in the American
Antiquarian Society Library at Worcester, and one in the John Carter
Brown Library, Providence, R. I.
The same year he issued a pamphlet entitled:
Experiments of Spiritual Life & Health, And their Preservatives, In
which the weakest Child of God may get Assurance of his Spirituall
Life and Blessednesse, and the Strongest may finde proportionable
Discoveries of his Christian Growth, and the means of it. By Roger
Williams of Providence in New-England. London, Printed, in the Second
Month, 1652.
This book is in the form of a letter addressed to his wife, upon her
recovery from a dangerous sickness. A limited edition was published,
comprising sixty small quarto pages. For years no original copy has
been found. There is an original copy now in the John Carter Brown
Library at Providence, R. I.
[Illustration]
The
Hireling Ministry
_None of_
CHRISTS,
OR
A Discourse touching the Propagating
the Gospel of CHRIST
JESUS.
_Humbly Presented to such Pious
and Honourable Hands, whom
the present Debate thereof concerns._
_By_ ROGER WILLIAMS, _of_ Providence
in New England.
_London_ Printed in the second
Moneth, 1652.
[Illustration]
EXPERIMENTS
OF
Spiritual Life & Health,
And their
PRESERVATIVES
In which the _Weakest_ Child of _God_ may
get _Assurance_ of his Spirituall _Life_
and _Blessednesse_
And the _Strongest_ may finde proportionable _Discoveries_
of his _Christian Growth_, and the _means_ of it.
By _Roger Williams_ of _Providence_ in
_New-England_.
[Illustration]
London, Printed, in the Second Month,
1652.
From time to time local difficulties arose in the various towns.
Ambitious men, seeking their personal welfare, rather than the
public weal, disturbed the serenity of the colony. Certain settlers
at Pawtuxet sought to be part of the Bay Colony; Coddington, at
Newport, desired to be governor for life of the Islands of Rhode Island
and Conanicut. Two rival assemblies were organized at Newport and
Providence. Roger Williams used his influence and greatly helped to
solve the vexing problems. A new colony, with a new and revolutionary
ideal, was being born, and the birth-throes were great, owing to the
fact that they were pioneers in this work of building a democracy.
They had no illustrious precedent to follow. It is a marvel that their
difficulties were not more and greater.
In 1656, the United Colonies urged the Providence Colony to banish all
Quakers from their realm. They replied that “_FREEDOM of Conscience is
the ground of our charter, and it shall be maintained_.” In 1658, the
United Colonies threatened the Providence Colony with exclusion from
all intercourse or trade with all the rest of the colonies, if they did
not banish the Quakers. Meanwhile the Bay Colony was unrelenting in its
persecution of the Quakers. Some were banished, and a few were put to
death.
In September, 1658, Cromwell died. His son Richard succeeded him,
and after a short time retired. Charles II ascended the English
throne in June, 1660. Immediately all acts of the Parliament under
Cromwell were repealed, and Providence Plantations lost its charter.
The Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies immediately asserted
anew their claims for the territory about the Narragansett Bay. Dr.
John Clarke, of Newport, was in England representing the claims of
the Providence Colony, and, in 1663, secured for it a new royal
charter. The old Colony of Providence Plantations ceased to exist.
The new colony was called “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.”
The charter defined the bounds of the colony, gave it freedom in all
religious matters, a system of government, a power to organize courts
and to enforce their decisions, power to raise a standing army of
defense, and other essential things. The new seal of the colony was
“Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” with an anchor and the word,
“Hope,” above it.
[Illustration]
George Fox
Digg’d out of his
Burrovves,
Or an Offer of
DISPUTATION
On fourteen _Proposalls_ made this last Summer 1672 (so call’d)
unto _G. Fox_ then present on _Rode-Island_
in _New-England_, by _R.W._
As also how (_G. Fox_ slily departing) the Disputation went on
being managed three dayes at _Newport_ on _Rode-Island_, and
one day at _Providence_, between _John Stubs, John Burnet, and
William Edmundson_ on the one part, and _R.W._ on the other.
In which many _Quotations_ out of _G. Fox_ & _Ed. Barrowes_ Book
in _Folio_ are alleadged.
WITH AN
APENDIX
Of some scores of _G. F._ his simple lame Answers to his Opposites
in that Book, quoted and replyed to
By R. W. of _Providence_ in N.E.
_Roger Williams_
BOSTON
Printed by _John Foster_, 1676.
[Illustration: Models of Indian Village in Roger Williams Park Museum
Courtesy of “Providence Magazine”]
The Model of a Southern New England Indian Village
Oval House of Birch Bark and Mats Corn-field
Women Smoking Fish
Round House of Grass Long Council Chamber Making a Long House
Indian Men Feeding Dogs