Queries of Highest Consideration, grouping Williams
with Samuel Gorton, Clarkson, J. Goodwin, and Salt-
marsh. And on May 20, appeared a pamphlet by "S. R."
propounding fifty questions to the Assembly of Divines.
( Fifty questions propounded to the Assembly to answer
by Scriptures. May 20, 1647, E-388.) Most of the argu-
ments were lifted bodily from the Bloudy Tenent^ even to
their Scripture references j the clearest examples are ques-
tions 49 and 50. No references are made to any of the
authors from whose works he got his questions.

Reverend John Cotton of Boston gave aid and comfort
to the spread of the Roger Williams ideas, by the publica-
tion at this critical moment of his The Bloudy Tenent
Washed and Made W^hite in the Blood of the Lafnby May
15, 1647, in reply to The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution
and the three other pamphlets by Williams, and in answer
to the reports Williams spread about New England during
his stay in London, such as his conversations reported by
Baillie, Edwards, Goodwin and others. Cotton defended



^"The Sword of the Christian magistrate supported, March 9, 1646,
E-516, pp. 83, 97, 152, 168.



ROCKR WILLIAMS AND THE EKGLISH REVOLUTION 31

and explained the banishment of Williams from the Bay-
refuted the charges against and defended the actions of
the Bay Theocracy condemned by Gorton, Williams, and
others whom they banished j attacked Williams and the
Providence Plantations for their religious and civil liber-
ties j stressed the blasphemies and rebelliousness and quar-
relsomeness of Williams in not obeying the church-elders
of Boston j attacked Williams for being a Seeker and a
fomentor of revolution. The honesty and integrity of Cot-
ton is questionable, and his motives were indeed sinister —
this is best illustrated in his giving the lie direct to Wil-
liams for saying that the people of New England had not
done an Indian missionary work when they claimed to
have come for that purpose. In 1646 Rev. John Kliot
began his missionary w^orkj Williams spoke and wrote his
charges against the Bay Church in 1643 and 1644. The
action of Cotton shows his unscrupulousness for his party.
Fortunately, he was not believed in England by such men
as Baillie, Edwards, Rutherford, Burgess, men who attack
Williams principles as vicious, yet believed his word over
against that of John Cotton. That is significant in the study
of the life of Williams. Cotton's entire pamphlet is against
Williams and his principle j only a few words of it are here
needed,

"Mr. Williams hath taken occasion (as is observed by
some who are acquainted with the spirit of the man) first
to rise up against me (the meanest of many) in the exam-
ining and refuting of that Letter" written by Cotton in
1637. "And then (as if, one Mordecai were too small a
morsel) to stand forth against all the churches and Elders
in New-England, in his Bloudy-Tenent ; and then (as if
New-England were but an handful ) from thence to rise up
against the choicest Ornaments of two populous Nations,
England and Scotland, the reverent xA.ssembly of Divines,
together with the Brethren of the Apology: and above
them all to address himself (according to his high-
thoughts) to propound Queries of high concernment (as



32 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

he calleth them) to the High and Honorable Court of
Parliament, So a Bird of prey, affecting to soar aloft, get-
teth first upon the top of a molehill, and from thence
taketh his rise from pole to tree, till he hath surmounted
the highest Mountains."

This pamphlet marks the beginning of the rapid decline
of Cotton's influence with the English liberals. His early
pamphlets on Independency had had much vogue. But
now the liberals left him^ several members of the Crom-
well party answered Cotton in pamphlets defending the
principles of Williams. Baillie and others still believed the
reports of Williams rather than the words of Cotton.
Meanwhile Cotton also began to quarrel with Edwards
and other supporters of the Presbyterians, and Cotton's
star was definitely in the descendency.

Now in 1647, The Bloudy Tenent stands, independent
of Roger Williams, as the clarion call to liberty and refor-
mation or revolution. Cromwell, Lord Fairfax, Fleetwood,
Harrison, and Ireton, among the leaders in the Army, had
allowed the Sectarians preachers liberty of preaching to the
soldiers, with the result that by July 23, 1647, pamphlets
begin to speak of "dangerous designs driven on by the Sec-
taries in the Army." (Works of Darkness brought to
light, (Anon) E-399.)

Sectaries and maJignants "introduce an universal Lib-
erty and Toleration of all sorts of false and heretical opin-
ions j all the Sectaries in the kingdom labor with might and
main to promote this, in one Pamphlet 'tis boldly asserted
. . . see Williams' Bloody Tenent of Persecution for cause
of Consciences^ and then the author quotes. "Numerous
pamphlets there are abroad besides broacht by the seducing
Chaplains of the Army and their accomplices," quoting
Mr. Dell, Saltmarsh, J. Goodwin "and Queries." There
are an "abundance of other Pamphlets which cry up this
their Diana of Toleration j yea their Army Chaplains have
so corrupted their hearers and disciples . . . that the whole
Army now contends for Toleration by the Sword in the



ROCKR WILLIAMS AND THK ENGLISH KEVOLUTION 33

Field which their Teachers could never make good by
Arguments either in press or print; yea the whole Army
declares this to be the design.'""*

Thomas Edwards, who was greeted as "our much sus-
pected friend . . . Scavenger General, throughout Great
Britain, New England .... The Grand Reformer," in a
pamphlet against liberty of conscience covering over two
hundred pages again attacks Williams as the chief of the
offenders. (A Treatise against Toleration and pretended
Liberty of Conscience, June 28, 1647. E-394.) John
Goodwin is the chief target of Edwards for his influence
as a leader in England. More than a dozen references are
made to Williams and The Bloudy Tenant some of them
covering many pages. In a ridiculous display of pedantry,
Edwards brings against Williams and fellow liberals argu-
ments from Plutarch, Aristotle, Plato, Calvin, Melanch-
thon, Beza, Peter Martyr, Zanchius, Bullinger, Musculus,
Chemnitius, Gerardus, Gerson, Bucanus, Cartwright, Sen-
eca, Aurelius, Livy, Diogenes Leartius, Herodotus, Xeno-
phon, H. Parker and others. Martin Luther and St.
Augustine were here on the side of the liberals. I shall
quote only a few^ short passages to show with whom and in
what rank Williams is placed by Edwards:

"This decree of Artaxerxes had been according to Mas-
ter Goodwin, The Bloudy Tenent, and other Libertine's
opinion, such a wicked and bloudy doctrine."

The calling of the Old Testament as typical "this thread
runs all along through their works. M.S., The Bloudy
Tenent, The Ancient Bond or Liberty of Conscience stated y
The Storming of Antichrist with many other phices." This
discussion covers pp. 1 7ff.

"Grand Patrons of Toleration, Munus Celsus Senesis,
Acontius, The Bloudy Tenent, M.S., Hagiomastix to make
void these places of Scripture," Exodus, Leviticus, Deu-



'Refcrs to The Army's Humble Remonstrance, June, 1647.



34 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

teronomy, these commands abrogated by Christ about
"magistrate's power de facto in matters of religion."

"In their Libertines Pamphlets, as Bloudy Tenant,
Storming of Antichrist , Co?npassionate Scnnaritan, Justifi-
cation of Toleration, Queres upon the Ordinances for pre-
vention of Heresies.^*

And that Williams maintains "that captial punishment
in Israel is in type only."

The entire Treatise by Edwards is a tacit admission of
the fact that the Bloudy Tenent has become the embodi-
ment of the demands of the Army, the citizens and the
Sectarians in England against the claims of the Scotch
Covenanters and their stranglehold upon English public
and religious life. Three days later appeared a pamphlet
with a picturesque title of The Last Will and Testament
of Sir Janies Independent, ( Anon. July 31,1 647, E-400 ),
who was dangerously sick of a disease, "My body I give to
the Earth, which I ordain to be wrapped or shrowded in
twelve Sheets of Paper sewed together, taken out of the
Books heretofore written by my dear Sons, to wit. The
Arra^nguient of Mr. Persecution, Bloudie Tenent, and
Comfort for Believers,^'' and nine others. The palbearers
were to be Wiet, Sarmon, Tue, Lambe, Hawes, Hobson,
Burton, Simpson, Jo. Goodwin, Saltmarsh, and Hanserd
Knollys.

Two pamphlets, one by Cartwright, ( The magistrate's
authority in matters of religion, Aug. 12, 1647. E-401 )
the other by Rutherford, (A survey of Spiritual anitchrist,
Nov. 1647. E-415) appeared against the Army and Sec-
tarians. They both deal with the immediate civil crisis;
neither mentions Williams, except by implication. Both
writers refer to Cotton's The Bloudy Tenent Washed and
the principles of Williams, as well as to other pamphlets
which deal with him. Rutherford has this to say of Crom-
well and others, page 257,

Cromwell has no "spiritual unity in the Army" but
Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, followers of Saltmarsh,



R0(;KR WILLIAMS AND THK KNOLISH RF.VOLUTIOX 35

Mr. Dell and Seekers. These men disclaim in print both
"Presbytery and Independency." The Independents in
Old England are not like "those in N. England," but hold
"other unsound and corrupt tenets especially that of Lib-
erty of Conscience, which bordereth with Atheism, Scepti-
cism, and with all faiths, and no faith."

The first part of the Civil War for the supremacy of
Parliament and the Presbyterians, covered the years of
1642 to 1646. The second period extended from 1646 to
the death of the King, January 30, 1649. The second
period was a three-cornered quarrel: the Scotch Presb}'-
terians in control of Parliament with the Sectarians and the
Levellers, and the Royalists against both the former. The
growth of the idea of Toleration among the Royalists is
expressed by Jeremy Taylor's The Liberty of Prophesy-
ing, June, 1647, in which he stands for toleration in
religion.

Lilburn was released from the Tower in 1647, and
became active in the Army and for civil liberty. In Regal
Tyranny discovered (Jan. 6, 1647. E-370) he declared:
"the people in general are the original legislators and the
true fountains ... of all just power" j all power of the
House of Commons is "merely derivative and bounded
within this tacit commission to act only for the good of
those that betrusted them"; and that it is lawful to rebell
against tyrants. All of which Williams stated in The
Bloudy Tenenty 1644 (See quotations above. ) These same
ideas are restated again in four pamphlets: The Compas-
sionate Samaritan^ (Thomas Bedford, Jan. 1647, E-370 ),
Hagiomastix, or the scourge of the saints, ( John Goodwin,
Feb. 5, 1647. E-374), The Independent Catechism,
(Richard Burton, June, 1647. E-1182 ), and Four Delib-
erate and Solid Queries. (Anon. June 3, 1647. E-516. )

Three men who had been closely associated with Wil-
liams in 1643 and 1644, published tracts in defense of the
Leveller opinions. I shall quote from the pamphlet by
Richard Overton, prisoner of Newgate and author of the



36 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

pamphlet The Arraignment of Mr. Persecution ^ in 1645,
in defense of Williams, of which several editions were
published to meet the popular demands. On July 17,
1647, Overton published An Appeal (E-398. Br. Mus.j
"for the Liberties and freedom of England." The doc-
trines of this book are people's sovereignty, full liberty of
conscience, natural Rights, principles of Right Reason,
right of rebellion, and "equity of law is superior to the
letter of the law,"

"all betrusted power if forfeit falls into the hands of
the betrusters, as the proper center" and its forfeiture
allows for non-obedience.

"By natural birth all men are equal and alike born to
like propriety and freedom, every man by natural instinct
aiming at his own safety and weal . . . for every individual
in nature is given an individual propriety by nature, not to
be invaded or usurped by any . . . for every one as he is
himself hath self propriety."

Overton, like Williams, has here the Jefferson doctrine
complete. How improper to give credit to Lilburn alone.
The other two men were William Larner and Henry
Overton, brother to Richard; the former wrote A Clear
and full Vindication of the Artny, and the latter A Decla-
ration by the Congregational Society in London. ( Julv 12,
1647. E-397; Nov.'^22, 1647. E-416) They argued the
same religious and political doctrines handled in An
Appeal. Full Discourse of the Poiver of Parliaments
(Anon, a doctor of divinity, July 24, 1647. E-399) is
filled with uncredited verbatim quotations from The
Bloudy Tenent. A very good example of the pamphleteers'
method of taking over the ideas and phraseology from The
Bloudy Tenent is that of Samuel Richardson in The
Necessity of Toleration. (Sept. 17, 1647. pp. 1-22.
E-407.) Since space does not allow me to quote every
pamphlet that borrowed from Williams this one example
must suffice, page 15:



ROGKR WILLIAMS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 37

"If the magistrate be a Member of a Church, yet he
ought to be excommunicated, if he deserve it.

"Sins of the Magistrate are hateful and condemned,
Esa. 10. 1. Mich 3\. It is a Paradox, that a Magistrate
may be punished by the Church, and yet that they are
Judges of the Church.

"If that Religion the Magistrate be perswaded be true,
he owes a three-fold duty.

"First, Approbation, Esa. 49. Rev. 21. with a tencier
respect to the truth, and the professor of it.

"Secondly, Personall submission of his Soule to the
powers of Jesus his government. Mat. 18. I Cor. 5.

"Thirdly, protection of them, and their estates from
violence and injury, Rom. 13, to a false Religion he owes,

"I. Permission ( for approbation he owes not to what is
evil) as Mat. 13. 30. for publick peace and quietness.

"2 Protection of the Persons of his subjects (though of
a false worship) that no injury be offered to the persons
or goods of any, Rom. 13.'""'

Mr. Richardson uses no means to show that it is not his
own. This is copied from Williams even to the periods and
commas and parentheses. Many of the Sectarians and Lev-
ellers followed similar methods with Williams, Goodwin,
Lilburn, Overton and others j and they in turn from
Williams.

By the summer of 1647, the Presbyterians found that
the Army which they had hoped to continue as their tool
for oppressions was rearing to become a menace and mas-
ter. Their party pamphleteers began to talk of the Army
with reference to "examples of Jack Straw, Wat Tyler,
Cade, Ket, the Cornish, Kentish, Northern Rebels and
their Confederates." The Sectaries "whose religion is
Rebellion, and whose faith is Faction" were now in control
of the Army. Cromwell and General Fairfax had a difficult
task steering a course between King and Parliament and



^Sce 77?^ Blotitly Tenent, p. 214 for this same material.



38 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

the uneasy Army. The unrest and dissatisfaction of the
Army is hrst expressed by "A Humble Representation,"
June 4, and "A Solemn Engagement," June 5, under the
leadership of Lilburn, Overton, Walwin, and others. On
July 15, Ireton made the first deliberate attempt to set
forth a political program for the Army in "A Declaration
of the Army." On July 18, in "The Heads of Proposals"
Ireton prepared a constitutional scheme for the Council of
the Army. And on October 9, Lilburn presented a scheme
in "The Case of the Army." Civil theories were plentiful.

"The Case of the Army" has perhaps been overesti-
mated for its originality. Lilburne asked for a "paramount
law" or constitution, biennial Parliaments, manhood suf-
frage without regard to rank or wealth or birth, suprem-
acy of Parliament in legislation and control of officials,
abrogation of King and Peers. For said he, "all power is
originally and essentially in the whole body of the people
of this nation," and that "their free choice or consent by
their representors is the only original foundation of all
just government." In all this Lilburn has not done more
than restated Tlie Bloudy Tenent doctrine which I have
quoted in the early portion of the paper.

"The Agreement of the People" appeared on Nov. 3,
1647 and was the work, so it is believed, of Ireton, Lil-
burn, R. Overton, and Walwin, the authors of the previous
remonstrances. "The Agreement" combined the demands
of "Heads of Proposals" and "Case of the Army" turned
into a sort of civil constitution. It contained four articles.
I. Proportional Representation in Parliament; II. Disso-
lution of Parliament on definite date; III. Biennial Parlia-
ments; IV. Rights of Parliament: 1. a single house, to be
supreme; 2. to make, amend, and repeal laws; 3. to erect
and abolish offices and courts, control officials, conduct for-
eign affairs, and make peace and war. There were five
reservations: 1. religious liberty; 2. no impressment for
war; 3. no penalty for part in Civil War; 4. equal justice;
5. equal laws, aimed at safety and well-being of people.



R()(;i:R WILLIAMS AXD THK kn(;lish kkvolutiox 39

These ideas and principles have been lauded as unprece-
dented. Let us look at Providence Plantations in 1647.

Every principle underlying "The Agreement" was
expressed in The Bloudy Tefient in 1644, and, as we have
seen, by others frequently afterwards. In May, 1647, the
democratic federated Commonwealth of Providence Plan-
tations was organized. (Richman: Rhode Islandy Vol. I
and II.) It was created by the people who remained the
sovereign of the states they formulated a constitution,
erected a civil government responsible to them directly;
by manhood suffrage they elected the representatives and
a "President" of the civil state. The constitution defined
democracy, individualism, natural and civil rights and lib-
erties by a bill of rights, and set limits to state interference
with the individual and a sphere of state functions, and
granted liberty of conscience. Providence Plantations had
a great deal more rights and liberties assured to the people,
than was demanded by the Agreement.

In Providence Plantations furthermore the democratic
state was an independent State making peace and war and
conducting foreign affairs. Here was in reality the Utopia
of the English Levellers. Their "Agreement of the Peo-
ple" was a dream of visionaries in England, granting less
liberties than was actualh' enjoyed by the individuals in
the colony of Roger Williams. Could it not have been
possible that the framers of "The Agreement" had before
them the Constitution of Providence Plantations as their
model :

The Presbyterians did not remain idle meanwhile. On
December 4th appeareci two pamphlets attacking the
Agreement. The Ar))iy Anatomi'zed (Anon. 1647. E-419)
calls it the work of Sectaries, Independents and schimat-
ics in their great design of "a Universal Toleration and
Liberty of Conscience for all men, in all religions." The
Grand Design (Anon. Dec. 8, E-419) calls it the work of
Cromwell and Ireton in their "plausible pretences of Lib-
erty, Freedom, indempty, and security." A Pair of Spec-



40 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

tacles for the C it tie (Anon. Dec. 4. E-419) calls it the
work of "profane and ignorant persons for the ruin of
Religion, all Government, order, confounding all distinc-
tion of men." "The Design hatched by Philip Nye, Tom
and John Goodwin, and the rest of the Rabble." That
Cromwell and Ireton are the heroes of the Rabble. That
the solders were "instructed in their erroneous Tenets" by
the sectarian ministers, "Trunpeters of Rebellion" j "that
foggy, cock-brained, blustering. Hocus-pocus Peters,"
Saltmarsh, Dell, Erbury, Walwin, Hewson, Clarkson, and
many other sectarians. And may it not have been largely
the work of these sectarian ministers who spread the Lev-
eller ideas by their preaching and teaching, rather than the
pamphleteers themselves.

Whatever part Williams had in supplying the inspira-
tion and principles for the Leveller movement, there can
be no doubt that the work of carrying on the rebellion fell
not to Williams but by those who lived and worked in
England for the Leveller cause. Williams was, however,
able to practice in the American wilderness the principles
which the visionaries failed to establish in England.

The enemies of Williams and his doctrine in Massachu-
setts Bay did all in their power to undermine the good
name, honesty and influence of William in both old and
new England. The Way of Congregational Curches
Cleared by John Cotton appeared February 9, 1648,
(E-426. Br. Mus. pp. 18, 21, 27, 28ff) and contained
three references to Williams purposing to question his
integrity:

"I have lately maintained in my reply unto Mr. Wil-
liams his Answer to my I>etter" that I was against rigid
separation.

"And of late (through the Grace of Christ) one of our
fellow Elders. Mr. Eliot, Teacher at Rocksbury, having
gotten the knowledge of the Indian language preacheth to
them every week: one week to one congregation on the
fourth day, to the other on the sixt the week following."



ROC.KR WTLLTAMS AND THK ENCLISH KKVOLl'TION 41

Cotton says they willing give ear, reform vicious habits,
are trained up in English families and in their schools.

In reference to Bloudy Tenent, Cotton calls Williams'
words "such arrogant comparisons are as smoke in God's
nostrils, Isa. 65. S. the first born of vanity, and the first step
to apostacie."

"Mr. Williams is too too credulous of surmises and
reports brought him and too too confident in divulging of
them."

In reply to Williams' statement to Baillie that Cotton
intended to leave Boston in the Hutchinson controversy,
he says "if ever I had removed, I intended Quinipyack,
and not Aquidncck." On Pages 79 and following. Cotton
tries to descredit Williams' work among the Indians and
exalt Eliot.

Another Bay settler who helped to keep Williams before
the English reading public was Rev. Thomas Shepard in
The clear sun-shine of the Gosfel breakings upon the
Indians in New England. (March 8, 1648. £-431). He
also took part in the campaign of the Bay clergymen to
discredit Williams and exalt Eliot before the Board of
Indian missions corporation at Cooper Hall, London. The
words of this worthy minister tell their object. Mr. Wil-
liams reported when in England in 1643 and 1644, that
the New England churches had been neglecting their orig-
inal intention of converting the Indians. This report caused
much comment and numerous complaints to reach Boston,
John Eliot began his mission work as a reply to the chal-
lenge froni Williams. In 1648 Shepard wrote that they
have twenty-nine orders of agreement, Feb. 1648, by the
Inciians of Concord, the orders were prepared by Capt.
Seward, Puritans using the military to convert the Indians.
This showed, remarked Shepard very plainly the good
work of the Bay Elders.

"Mr. Eliot excells any other of the English" — this to
counteract Williams.

Eliot admitted the Indians listen to him because "the



42 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

better sort of them perceiving how acceptable this was to
the English, both to magistrates, and all good people."

The diabolical intent of Rev. Shepard in this pamphlet
appears on page 3 1 : "Mr. Eliot's conference with a Narra-
gansett Sachem a sober man this year^ after that he had
taught this Sachem the Law of God, and had shewn him
the means of salvation by Christ j he then asked him if he
did know and understand those things? . . . He then asked
him, why he did not learn of Mr. Williams who hath
lived among them divers years? and he soberly answered
that they did not care to learn of him, because he is no
good man but goes out and works upon the Sabbath day."
Rev. Shepard added, he gave this "to shew what the ill
example of English may do."

But the ministers of England were far more anxious to
cry down Williams, than ever his beloved brethren in
Massachusetts Bay. On December 14, 1647, the ministers
of the Province of London, called Sion College, met in
Alphage parish within Cripplegate, London, at their Lon-
don headquarters and prepared A Testimony to the Truth
of Jesus Christ . . . "against the errors, heresies and blas-
phemies . . . being collected out of their authors own books."
The length of the pamphlet was something more than
thirty-five pages. Page 17 has the denunciation of the
Seekers j page 18, of Williams' errors against lawful oaths
with extracts from Master Cotton'' s Letter Examined;