the puritans errand into the wilderness reconsidered

When the letter came to the attention of authorities in Boston, they examined it and condemned its author. He argued that the patent issued by England was invalid and that they had no right to settle there unless they compensated the Indian people. In a letter to Governor John Winthrop, Williams disputed the colony’s claim to the land. Had Williams’ disagreements been limited to theological disputes with church leaders, he might have continued his work unimpeded by his opponents, but he quickly ran into difficulty with the magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The two men engaged in a public exchange of letters that grew from a doctrinal disagreement into a theological controversy, with Williams writing The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, John Cotton replying with The Bloudy Tenent, Washed, and Made White in the Bloud of the Lambe, and a rejoinder by Williams entitled The Bloody Tenent Yet More Bloody.

When John Cotton came to New England two years later, he was appointed teacher of the Boston church. When he arrived in New England in 1631, Williams declined an invitation by the congregation in Boston to serve as their minister, explaining later, “I durst not officiate to an unseparated people.” 3 He spent the next several years with the more separated churches of Plymouth and Salem. This man with an overheated brain was Roger Williams, whom Mather described as having “zeal, but not according to knowledge,” with “less light than fire in him.” 2 Mather’s negative view of Williams is not surprising, given that his maternal grandfather, John Cotton, was Williams’ chief antagonist. Mather went on to claim that the whole country of America was once set on fire by a man with the rapid motion of a windmill in his head. 1Ĭotton Mather began the final book of his Magnalia Christi Americana, published in 1702, by telling the story of a windmill in the Netherlands that turned so wildly during a violent storm its grinding stone became overheated, causing the mill to catch fire and setting the entire town ablaze.

The church now is the primitive church and the church on judgment day the obedience and liberty of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth is our liberty, our obedience, till time’s end. Windmill-Holland (oil on canvas) by Leonid Afremov UNDOMESTICATED DISSENT: DEMOCRACY AND THE PUBLIC VIRTUE OF RELIGIOUS NONCONFORMITY

The puritans errand into the wilderness reconsidered