the Church and conscience."

WilHams' title to honour and pre-eminence rests, not
upon the ground that he was the earliest champion of
soul-liberty, or that, as Mr. Bancroft says, he was the

1 Leonard Busher, wlio was a member of tlie iirst Eiigiisli Cliurch
of General Baptists founded by Tliomas Helwys (see ante, p. 221),
published liis tract in 1614, in which lie says : " As kings and bishops
cannot command the wind, so they cannot command faith ; and as
the wind bloweth where it listeth, so is every man that is born
of the Sj)irit. You may force men to church against their con-
sciences, but they will believe as they did before, when they
came there." This was written thirty years before the Bloody Tenet
of Persecution. A valuable catena of references to this subject will
be found in a note on p. 414, vol. i. of Dr. Palfrey's History of New
England. We propose to advert again to this subject, pp. 357-379.



282 PURITANISM

first person in modern Christendom who asserted in its
plenitude the doctrine of liberty of conscience, but that
he planted the first civil government in which the prin-
ciple of toleration and religious liberty was explicitly
proclaimed and consistently upheld and maintained.
His title to fame is, that he was the originator and
founder of " a free Church in a free State." ^

Rhode Island Settlement. — Slate Eock, to all
lovers of freedom, ought to have an interest second only
to Plymouth Eock. It was the spot where Williams and
his four companions landed, and where, upon the neigh-
Ijouring hillside, they commenced the first settlement of
Ehode Island, to which, in recognition of " God's merciful
providence to him in his distress," he gave the name
" Providence." ^ In the course of time the first four or
five settlers were joined by others, and to a nucleus of
thirteen associates the lands granted by Canonicus and
Miantonomoh, the Indian sachems, were made over for a
sum of thirty pounds. These were formed into town-
ships, the settlers stipulating for themselves and for those
who should be afterwards admitted to the same, to render
" an active or passive obedience to all such orders or
agreements as shall be made for public good," but it w^as
expressly added, " only in civil things."

^ " The theories of freedom in Church and State, taught in tlie
scliools of philosophy in Europe, were here brought into practice in
the government of a small community," etc. — Professor Gervinus in
his Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century, p. 65.

- The town of Providence has since raised a statue to the memory
of its founder. Roger Williams is represented in the attitude of
addressing an assemljly, and on the book whicli he liolds may be
read tlie inscription : "Soul-Liberty. ]P)36."



ROGEK WILLIAMS 283

The name Providence was given, as we have seen, in
token of its founder's desire that " it might be a shelter
for persons distressed for conscience." The latitude of
this invitation proved, as might naturally be supposed,
dangerously wide. Those who chafed under the more
stringent laws and regulations of Massachusetts and of
other colonies, and those who for other reasons found
them intolerable, had a city of refuge conveniently near
at hand to which they could flee. Inevitably, Providence
became " a harbourage for all sorts of consciences."
Thither lied the disaffected, the turbulent, fanatics of all
kinds and all shades of l)elief ; every description of
" cranky " persons, " some half -crazed with those teeming
maggots of the brain which so breed in times of exas-
perating religious controversy ; others possessed by harm-
less vagaries of illogical thought, which spring up in such
seasons in some minds, and which, if they have a meaning
to those who cherish them, are incomprehensible to every-
body else." ^ Happily for the future of this settlement,
arrest was at length laid upon the tendency to religious
anarchy and political disorder, and out of this primal
chaos order and restraint and progress gradually emerged.

Anne Hutchinson and the "Antinomian Dispersion."
— In the wake of the disturbance occasioned by Ptoger
Williams, and by his expulsion from Massachusetts,
there followed another controversy, bitterer by far than
any that had yet broken out. This was theological,
and raged round what was known as the doctrines of

^ A Popular Hisfonj of the United St((tes, by Bryant and Gay, vol. ii.
p. 40.



284 PURITANISM

Antinomianism. The leader in this controversy was a
woman of such " busy spirit, competent wit, and voluble
tongue, yet profitable and sober carriage," that she soon
drew companions and disciples round her, and extorted
even from her enemies testimony to her masculine under-
standing and power of eloquent persuasiveness. Mrs.
Anne Hutchinson, the harbinger of the " revolt of woman,"
as she has been termed, had followed her favourite
minister, the Eev. John Cotton, from Lincolnshire to New
England. She had brought over with her, says Win-
throp, " two dangerous errors — first, that the person of the
Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person ; second, that no
sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification."
In exposition of her views, she lectured in Boston twice
a week, and large numbers of her own sex flocked to hear
her, many forsaking their own ministers and proclaiming
themselves her followers. " It began to be as common,"
says Winthrop, " to distinguish between men by being
under a covenant of grace or a covenant of works as in
other countries between Protestants and Papists." Mrs.
Hutchinson found staunch supporters in her brother-in-
law, the Piev. John Wheelwright, and Sir Henry Vane, at
that time governor of the colony ; even the sober-minded
and judicious Cotton declared in her favour ; and a con-
siderable number of persons of influence in the colony
adopted her views, and abetted her arraignment of
ministers and priest-ridden magistrates living under a
covenant of works. She claimed to possess, and to live
and teach under, the influence of special divine inspira-
tion, a claim which of all others the more sober-minded
Puritans of that n^e were least able to tolerate. The



ROGER WILLIAMS 285

contest grew hot and furious, and at length issued in
what is known in the history of Massachusetts as the
Antinomian Dispersion. Anne Hutchinson was l^rought
to trial before the Court of Massachusetts. Sentence
of expulsion was passed upon her, and she, accompanied
by a goodly number of friends and sympathisers, made
their way to Providence, where they were hospitably
received by Eoger WilHams, and, at his advice, settled
down in Ehode Island, and founded the two towns of
Portsmouth and Newport.

Says Professor Masson : " These two, I should say, —
this man in his prime from Carmarthenshire and this
woman from Lincolnshire, now with wrinkles round her
eloquent eyes, — were the two spirits in New England
that had most of the incalculable in them, and had shot
furthest ahead in the speculative gloom." -^

1 Masson's Milton and his Time, vol. ii. p. 577.



(Browtb an& 2)evelopnicnt of IRcw lEnolant)



287



Memorable Events and Dates

Long Parliament met 1640

Charles i. beheaded 1649

Four Colonies of New England united , . . 1643

Commencement of Protestant missions . . . 1646



Contents of Chapter IV *

Connecticut colonised — Thomas Hooker, father of American de-
mocracy — Connecticut professes no allegiance to British Crown —
New Hampshire — New Haven — The Pequot Indians — Roger
"Williams as peacemaker — Pequots implacable — Exterminated — Mis-
sionary labours — John Eliot, apostle to the Indians, translates Bible
— First missionary corporation — United colonies — Rhode Island left
out — Massachusetts predominant — Expansion of New England —
Attitude of England — A Governor-General of Commission threatened
— Resistance of colonists — False relation between colonies and mother
country — Measures to prevent emigration, esj)ecially of clergymen —
Eight ships arrested — Cromwell and Hampden not on board — Loss
to mother country by New England — Long Parliament — Emi-
gration stayed — Prosperity and longevity of colonists — Contrasted
with Europe— Winthrop's fine description of liberty.

Leaders

In Rhode Island . . Roger Williams.
In Connecticut . . Thomas Hooker.
In New Haven . . John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton.



•2S8



CHAPTER IV

Growth and Development of New England

It is quite beside the purpose of this work to give any
detailed and connected history of the colonies of Con-
necticut, Ehode Island, New Hampshire, and the way in
which they rose into political importance. Only as this
bears upon the establishment of the Puritan theocracy
in New England does it come within the scope of our
present purpose.

Colonisation of Connecticut. — We do not pro-
pose, therefore, to give any extended description of the
new communities that were formed, and the Puritan
villages which rose in rapid succession upon " the delight-
ful banks " of the Connecticut, nor of the rich harvest
that sprang from the cultivation of these alluvial lands.
Thomas Hooker, " the light of the Western Churches,"
was the chief pioneer in this movement. He was one of
the most learned and eloquent of the Puritan leaders,
and was specially distinguished for his broad and advanced
views in regard to the self-governing power of the people.
Winthrop and Cotton held such views to be both inex-
pedient and dangerous. Winthrop defended the restric-
tion of the suffrage, on the ground that " the best part
19



290 PURITANISM

is always the least, and of that best part the wiser part
is always the lesser." Hooker, on the other hand, held
that "in matters which concern the common good, a
general council, chosen by all, to transact businesses which
concern all, I conceive most suitable to rule, and most
safe for relief of the whole." To this position Hooker
steadfastly adhered, and hi the course of a sermon preached
by him, after Connecticut had commenced its separate
and independent existence, he maintained that " the
foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the
people ; that the choice of the public magistrates belongs
to the people of God's own allow^ance ; and that they who
have the power to appoint officers and magistrates have
the right also to set the bounds and limitation of the
power and place unto which they call them." The
government of Connecticut was settled on a purely demo-
cratic basis, and its Constitution was the " first w^ritten
Constitution of modern democracy," ^ and more, perhaps,
tlian any other man, Thomas Hooker deserves to be
called the father of American democracy. " Well
knowing," its preamble recited, " where a people are
gathered together the AYord of God requires that to
maintayne the peace and union of such a people there
sliould be an orderly and decent government established
according to God, to order and dispose of the afTayres of
tlie people at all seasons as occasion shall require ; doe

' "We have passed from tlie world of unwritten to tliat of written
Constitutions, from a world of government by usage, tradition, and
chartered privileges, wrested from kings, to a world of government
Ijy public reason embodied in codes of political law." — The United
SfateSj an Outline of Political History^ hj Goldwin Smitli, D.C.L.,
p. 20.



GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 291

therefore associate and conjoyne ourselues to be as one
Pnblicke State or Commonwealth, and doe, for ourselves
and our successors, and such as shall be adjoyned to us here-
after, enter into Combination and Confederation together,
to maintayne and preserve the liberty and purity of the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we now professe,
as also the discipline of the Churches ; which, according
to the truth of the said Gospell, is now practised amongst
us : as also in our civill affairs to be guided and governed
according to such Lawes and Eules, Orders and Decrees as
shall be made, ordered, and decreed, as followeth : " ^ . . .
What is omitted from the written Constitution is almost
as significant as what it contains. Such expressions as
those introduced into the compact drawn up in the cabin
of the Maijfioiver, " dread sovereign," or " gracious King,"
are conspicuous by their absence. Connecticut recog-
nised no allegiance to the British Crown, nor to any govern-
ment outside its own bounds. It refused to make church
membership a condition of exercising the franchise, and
also church attendance compulsory, in this respect
departing from the practice of Massachusetts, and con-
forming to the example of New Plymouth. " More than
two centuries have elapsed ; the world has been made
wiser by the most varied experience ; political insti-
tutions have become the theme on which the most
powerful and cultivated minds have been employed,,
and so many constitutions have been framed or
reformed, stifled or subverted, that memory may de-
spair of a complete catalogue; but the people of Con-
necticut have found no reason to deviate essentially

1 Dr. Borgeaud's Rise of Modem Democracy, p. 121.



292 PURITANISM

from the frame of government established by their
fathers." ^

New Hampshire. — The settlement of ^N'ew Hamp-
shire in 1623 need not detain us further than to note that
of its four towns, two were founded by Antinomians driven
out from Boston. The other two were founded by Epis-
copalians, and were the first-fruits of the colonising efforts of
Gorges and Mason. In 1 641, at the request of a majority
of the settlers, this colony was added to Massachusetts.

New Haven. — The colony of New Haven was
founded in 1638 under the leadership of John Daven-
port, a clergyman, and Theophilus Eaton, a merchant,
possessed of considerable substance. Davenport was very
apprehensive lest his flock should be led away by the
Antinomian heresy which had broken out in Massa-
chusetts, and for this and other reasons connected with
the insufficiency of Massachusetts as a place of trade,
they wished to withdraw from its jurisdiction and set up
an independent government of their ow^n. Each of the
towns was to be governed by seven ecclesiastical officers,
known as " pillars of the Church." These seven w^ere to
gather round them others who were eligible for member-
sliip in the Church, and these were to be the nucleus of
the new State. The Bible was their statute-book, and
" the choice of magistrates, legislation, the rights of in-
heritance, and all matters of that kind were to be decided
according to the rules of Holy Scripture." - They re-

^ Bancroft's History, vol. i. p. 302, revised edition, p. 319.
- Records of the Colomj and Plantation of Neio Haven, ed. Ch. J.
Hoadley (Hartford, 1857), ]). 12.



GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 293

jected trial by jury, that being no part of the Mosaic law.
Church membership was the condition of citizenship ; he
who was not fit for that was unfit for this, for the State
must be " according to God." This law had the effect of
disfranchising more than half the settlers in the town of
Xew Haven, nearly half in Guildford, and less than one-fifth
in Milford. " The first leaders of the colony of New Haven
represent the clerical tendencies of Congregationalism." ^
Thus Xew Haven, even as to its basis of government,
was the very opposite of Connecticut ; it was less demo-
cratic even than Massachusetts : it was indeed an absolute
theocracy, but founded upon the voluntary concurrence
of the people themselves. It maintained its separate
existence, however, for only about twenty-five years ; at
the end of that time it was annexed to Connecticut.

The Pequot Indians. — Immediately after the
little federation of towns in Connecticut had been
formed, and before they had taken the step of separating
from Massachusetts, they found themselves threatened
by a new and alarming peril. The various tribes of
Indians inhabitino- the regions in the midst of which
the colonists had made their home, always regarded the
latter as game to be hunted down, tomahawked, and, if
possible, exterminated. Of these tribes the Iroquois and
the Pequots were the most cruel, vindictive, and ruth-
less. The latter were living in close neighbourhood to
the settlers in the Connecticut valley, and they had seven
hundred warriors at their command. The Pequot Indians
formed an alliance with their hereditary enemies, the
1 Dr. Borgeaud's Rise of Modern Democracy^ p. 135.



294 PURITANISM

Narragansetts, and conceived the design of falling upon
the colonists, who were less than two hundred in number.
This conspiracy was frustrated by Eoger Williams, who,
with consummate skill and courage, succeeded in dissolving
this ill-starred alliance. Writing many years afterwards,
he says : " I had my share of service to the whole land in
that Pequot business . . . the Lord helped me imme-
diately to put my life into my hand, and scarce acquainting
my wife, to ship myself all alone, in a poor canoe, and
to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas, every
minute in hazard of life, to the sachem's house. Three
days and nights my business forced me to lodge and mix
with the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose hands and
arms, methought, reeked with the blood of my countrymen
massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom
I could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my
own throat also." ^ Williams was so far successful that
he was able to prevail upon the IS'arragansett chiefs to
refrain from their design, and the result was, they made
a treaty of alliance with the English. But the Pequots
were implacable, and were not to be turned from their
hostile purpose. Connecticut appealed to Massachusetts
and Plymouth for aid, which was readily granted. A fierce
battle ensued, one fought at desperate odds on the part
of the colonists ; but the savages could make no stand

^ " Williams' opportunities of studying the Indian character were
perhaps greater than those of any other man of his time. He was
always an advocate for justice towards them. But he seems to have
had no better opinion of them than Mr. Parkman (see his Jesuits in
North America), calling them sharply and shortly wolves endowed
with men's brains." — Lowell's Among my Books, New England Tico
Centuries Ago, p, 277.



GROAVTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 295

against the disciplined forces of the white men, and the
deadly precision of their arms. A terrible rain of Eng-
lish bullets, assisted by a still more terrible conflagration,
did most effectually the work of extermination. It is
computed that some six hundred Indians perished, while
of the English only two were killed, and about twenty
wounded. " Thus," exclaimed the exultant leader, " did
the Lord judge among the heathen ! " " There remained
not a sannup or squaw, not a warrior nor child of the
Pequot name." A nation had been wiped out of
existence. It was a bloody but decisive arbitrament.
It led to the establishment of a peace which lasted
for forty years, Xo doubt, as Mr. Gold win Smith
observes, the Puritan had his cruel moods, and his
notions about smiting the Canaanite in New England as
well as in Ireland ; but in this instance the fierceness of
the founders of Connecticut was not without provoca-
tion and excuse. They were fighting not only in self-
defence, but for their very lives, and for the xery exist-
ence of their hearths and homes.

First Protestant missionary labours. — It is pleasant
to turn from such scenes of carnage to scenes in which
humanity and Christian philanthropy are seen at work,
redressing the wrongs and ameliorating the sufferings
which man's inhumanity to man has been the means of
inflicting. The settlers did not deal with the Indians
they dispossessed of the lands whicli had been their
hunting grounds and those of their ancestors from time
immemorial as men who had no right to justice and com-
pensation. They paid for the lands they occupied, and for



296 PURITANISM

the seed-corn they used. But there were those among their
own number who could not allow that justice and even-
handed dealing exhausted their obligation to the tribes
around them. It is interesting to remember that it was
within the Puritan commonwealth that the first Protestant
missionary movement originated. The Pilgrim Fathers
were the first to move in this good work. One of their
number was set apart " to promote the conversion of the
Indians." In December 1621,Piobert Cushman appealed
to England on behalf of " these poor heathen," and in 1636
the colony legislated for the " preaching of the gospel
among them." John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians,
famous both as a linguist and preacher, moved with pity
for a race so benighted, and living in such ignorance and
misery, gave up his settled ministry at Ptosebury, near
Boston, and devoted himself for forty years to the con-
version and civilising of the Indians in their forests and
wigwams. He published an Indian grammar and a com-
plete translation of the Bible in the Indian language.
This w^as the first Bible printed in America, and remams
to this day, though printed in a language which has
become extinct, and which very few living scholars are
able to read, a monument of his prodigious industry and
patience and skill. Through the labours and influence
of this devoted man and others like-minded, it is estimated
that in 1674 there were no fewer than four thousand
" praying Indians," as they were called. Schools w^ere
established, and many learned to read and write. The
effect of these labours was to a large extent nullified by
internecine strife among the various tribes, and by their
gradual retreat and disappearance before the march of



GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEAV ENGLAND 297

civilisation ; but the spiritual harvest which sprang from
the seed thus sown is beyond all human power to com-
pute, and is bearing fruit even to the present day. It is
interesting to note in this connection that the first Pro-
testant Missionary Corporation was that called into
existence by the Long Parliament, and was formed for
the " Propagation of the Gospel in New England." To
assist this object Oliver Cromwell, then Lord Protector
of England, issued an order for a collection to be made
in all the parishes of England and Wales.

The United Colonies of New England.— The

time had now come when it was felt that the federal
principle, which has since received such majestic embodi-
ment in the Republic of the United States, might with
great advantage be applied to four of the then existing
colonies. Accordingly, in 1643, Massachusetts, New
Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven entered into a
confederation " to advance the kingdom of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in
purity with peace." This was deemed necessary in view
of their exposure to common dangers arising from the
" people of several nations and strange languages " by
whom they were surrounded, also because " the sad
distractions of England " cut off from the mother country
all hope of assistance. They entered, therefore, " into a
firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity, for
offence and defence and succour upon all just occasions,
both for preserving and propagating the truth and liber-
ties of the gospel, and for their own mutual safety and
welfare." These four colonies were " made all as one,"



298 PURITANISM

under the name, " The United Colonies of New England."
Ehode Island was left out of this arrangement. The
attitude of the people of that island had been so inde-
pendent and defiant, that to them no terms of union
could be proposed : tliey must be abandoned to their
own perversity and condition of isolation. Ehode Island
determined to get from the old country the protection
she could not obtain in the new. With this object in
view Eoger Williams departed for England, and after
making a brief acquaintance with its stormy politics,
returned, bringing with him a charter, thanks to the
good offices of Sir Henry Vane — " the sheet anchor of
Ehode Island," confirming the new colony in the posses-
sion of the most absolute rights and privileges. For
some time Ehode Island seemed to be drifting rapidly in
the direction of anarchy, on account of its " headiness
and tumults"; but the character of the men chosen to
administer the government was happily the means of
keeping the vessel right, and enabling it to steer at
length a straight prosperous course, and " Ehode Island
was not long in showing the world that civil society