Anne Hutchinson, Religious Dissenter, Midwife, APUSH

Anne Hutchinson was a prominent religious dissenter in New England. Born in England, she was influenced by her father’s spiritual ideas. In 1634, she migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to follow Puritan minister John Cotton. Hutchinson came into conflict with John Winthrop and other Puritan leaders during the Antinomian Controversy (1636–1638). She was banished in 1638 and settled in Rhode Island before moving to Long Island, where she was killed in a raid by Native American Indians in 1643.

Overview

Anne Hutchinson was born in Alford, England, in 1591 and grew up under the influence of her father, an unconventional minister who encouraged serious study of religion and debate. After marrying a merchant and raising a large family, she migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 to follow the Puritan minister John Cotton. Hutchinson held religious meetings in her home, where she discussed scripture and theology and supported ministers such as her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright. These activities were looked down on by the colony’s Puritan leaders and placed her at the center of the Antinomian Controversy (1636–1638), which challenged Puritan ideas about salvation and authority. Governor John Winthrop oversaw her civil trial in 1637, accusing her of sedition and showing improper behavior for a woman. Civil and church courts banished Hutchinson from the colony. She later settled in Rhode Island and then moved to Dutch-controlled Long Island, where she was killed in an Indian raid in 1643.

Personal Facts

Birth Name: Anne Marbury.
Born: Alford, England, in 1591. She was baptized on July 20, 1591.
Parents: Francis Marbury (father), Bridget Dryden (mother).
Spouse: William Hutchinson (1621).
Died: August 1643, in New Netherland. 52 years old.
Buried: Believed to be in Pelham Bay Park, in the Bronx, New York.

Key Details

Anne Hutchinson arrived in Massachusetts in 1634.
She held meetings at her home to discuss John Cotton’s sermons. These meetings expanded to include discussion of her own ideas on Christian theology, which posed a significant challenge to Puritan Orthodoxy.
Hutchinson taught “Antinomianism,” which emphasized “grace” over “works” and that a personal relationship with God was more important than a relationship with the Puritan clergy.
She excelled in theological arguments, taking the Puritan Doctrine of Predestination to its logical extremes by arguing that a holy life was not a guaranteed sign of salvation.
Hutchinson claimed that the truly saved did not need to obey the laws of God or man.
She was brought to trial in 1637 (civil) and 1638 (church), resulting in her banishment.
Hutchinson and her followers moved to Rhode Island and founded Portsmouth.
Later, she fled Puritan persecution and settled on Long Island, in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. When Indians raided the region in 1643, she was killed.

Significance

Anne Hutchinson is important to American History for her willingness to stand up for religious freedom in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Along with Roger Williams, she is recognized as an early leader in the argument for the Separation of Church and State. She is also viewed as an early advocate of women’s rights.

Biography

Early Life

Anne Marbury Hutchinson was born in Alford, England, in 1591.
Her parents were Francis and Bridget Marbury.

Influence of Francis Marbury

As a young girl, Anne was influenced by her father, an unorthodox minister with radical religious ideas. Anne had access to her father’s library and was deeply interested in topics related to theology and church governance. This led her to question the principles and policies of organized religion.

Francis Marbury was a deacon at Christ Church in Cambridge.
He was jailed for a year for speaking out against ministers in the Church of England.
Marybury believed some ministers gained their positions through political maneuvering rather than merit.
Despite this, Francis later served successfully in the Anglican church.
Her strong commitment to religious faith and theological debate later drew attention in Massachusetts.

Marriage and Migration

Hutchinson married a merchant, William Hutchinson, around 1621. She gave birth to multiple children and, in 1634, migrated with her family to Massachusetts with John Cotton, a Puritan minister they admired.

The Hutchinson family supported Puritan beliefs.
John Cotton shared religious views with Anne’s father.
As persecution of Puritans in England increased, many Puritans emigrated to the New World during the Great Puritan Migration.

AHC Notes

John Cotton (1584–1652) — Cotton was a key figure in shaping the Massachusetts Congregational Church, influencing New England’s religious structure through his leadership, theological debates, and writings. His role in the Antinomian Controversy and in the defense of Congregationalism helped shape church practices, culminating in the Cambridge Platform (1648), which outlined church governance.
Great Puritan Migration (1629–1640) — The Great Puritan Migration was a cultural event in which thousands of Puritans left their homes in England, migrated to the New World, and settled in New England. Although some historians point to the 1620 Voyage of the Mayflower as the beginning of the migration, it escalated with the departure of the Winthrop Fleet in 1629. From then until 1640, it is estimated that at least 20,000 Puritans moved to the colonies in America.

The Hutchinson Family in Massachusetts

Life in the colonies was difficult, and the Hutchinsons faced many hardships, but the family was well-respected by their neighbors.

Anne had 15 children.
She was known for her skills as a midwife.
Anne maintained her interest in John Cotton’s preaching.
She became increasingly concerned with the strict religious hierarchy of Puritan leaders in Boston.

Hutchinson’s Religious Meetings

At the time, women in Massachusetts commonly met in homes during the week to discuss scripture and theology. Hutchinson started holding meetings at her home soon after she arrived in the colony.

Hutchinson started hosting Thursday afternoon meetings at her home.
Local women attended these meetings.
At first, the gatherings focused on discussing John Cotton’s sermons, reading and discussing the Scriptures, and praying.

Puritans believed women were inferior to men, but their souls were considered equal in value to God. Because of this, Purian leaders accepted Hutchinson’s leadership of these gatherings.

Word of Hutchinson’s meetings spread, leading to increased interest.
The meetings at her home increased to twice a week.
Both men and women attended the gatherings. At times, as many as 80 people attended.
The audience included magistrates, scholars, and ordinary citizens.

Henry Vane arrived in Massachusetts in 1635 and started attending Hutchinson’s meetings. He was elected governor on May 25, 1636. His support of Hutchinson and her teachings concerned Puritan leaders.

Anne Hutchinson, Preaching in Her Home, Pyle — *Anne Hutchinson Preaching in Her House in Boston* by Howard Pyle. Image Source: *A History of the American People* by Woodrow Wilson (1902).

Hutchinson’s Theological Views

Hutchinson’s discussions focused on her interpretation of the “Covenant of Grace,” the theological belief that salvation (God’s elevation of the Elect) is based purely on God’s goodness and grace, not on any human actions or efforts to earn it. She criticized some Boston church leaders for being too focused on the “Covenant of Works,” which emphasizes performing good works and following church rules and regulations as the path to salvation.

AHC Notes

Puritan leaders also believed in the Covenant of Faith, but suggested it was affected by the Covenant of Works.
They believed that compliance with Puritan laws was essential to the Covenant of Works and required compliance.
Massachusetts was a “theocracy,” meaning there was no Separation of Church and State.
Civil and religious laws were mixed.
Hutchinson argued that Puritan leaders placed too much emphasis on compliance with their laws as a means of salvation.
Puritan leaders argue that non-compliance would lead to a breakdown of society.

Dispute with John Cotton

Hutchinson gained credibility by accurately predicting the exact date of the family’s arrival in the colonies, which was nearly impossible to do for most sea voyages at the time. She claimed this clairvoyance was due to the power of the Holy Spirit.

John Cotton was alarmed by her claim of direct communication with God.
As a result, Cotton denied the Hutchinson family membership in his congregation.

Hutchinson publicly admitted that she was wrong, but many believe she did not truly recant. She simply made amends to allow her family to join Cotton’s congregation.

Growing Criticism of the Puritan Church

Hutchinson’s meetings shifted to focus more on criticizing the church, which alarmed Puritan leaders.

Hutchinson increasingly insisted that God revealed Himself directly to all believers, not just to a select group of clergy.
She argued that the clergy’s role of passing on God’s message, with their own modifications, was unnecessary.
She continued to support the Covenant of Grace and criticized the Covenant of Works.

Her open criticism of the church increased her popularity, but also raised concerns among church leaders that she might call for her followers to break away from the church.

John Wheelwright and the Antinomian Controversy

The Antinomian Controversy developed over disagreements over salvation, authority, and church discipline. The controversy arose when Hutchinson and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, challenged Puritan ministers for teaching the Covenant of Works.

Puritan leaders viewed these ideas as a threat to social order and clerical authority, leading to civil and church trials, banishments, and a clear demonstration of the close connection between Church and State in early New England.

Wheelwright preached at her Boston home after colonial officials denied him permission to establish his own church because his ideas were considered controversial.
Wheelwright’s preaching challenged religious authority because he acted without official consent.

Hutchinson became involved in the dispute because she provided Wheelwright with a place to preach and because she organized religious discussions among women. Many male magistrates and ministers started to view Hutchinson’s leadership in religious discussions as suspicious.

Massachusetts Bay leaders feared “Antinomians,” people they believed supported the Covenant of Faith and argued that faith alone brought salvation without obedience to biblical, church, or state laws. Although Hutchinson and Wheelwright likely did not identify as Antinomians, Puritan leaders still associated them with the controversy.

Hutchinson and Wheelwright accused many Puritan ministers of teaching the Covenant of Works by stressing outward behavior over inward faith.
These accusations threatened the authority and legitimacy of the Puritan clergy in Massachusetts.

The religious controversy led to political conflict, including disputes over the colonial government’s authority to regulate the economy. Merchants and artisans who questioned government economic control supported Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and Cotton.

AHC Notes

Antinomianism means “against law.”
The term was applied to Johannes Agricola, a disciple of Martin Luther, who pushed the Covenant of Grace to extremes by suggesting that good works did not lead to salvation, and evil works did not take it away.
Puritan leaders referred to the critics of the Covenant by Works as Antinomians because they opposed church laws.
The Antinomian Controversy is also known as the “Free Grace Controversy.”

Impact of the Pequot War

The Pequot War (1634–1638) was going on at the same time as the Antinomian Controversy. The war intensified the situation, threatening the colony’s security and survival. Escalating tensions between the Pequot people and English settlers in Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay sparked the conflict. Violent incidents, including the murders of traders John Stone and John Oldham, led to retaliatory expeditions. Key battles included the Mystic Fort Fight, where English forces decimated the Pequots. Ultimately, the Treaty of Hartford in 1638 ended the war, marking the demise of the Pequot tribe as an independent entity.

The 1636 Synod

As support for Antinomianism increased, people called for Wheelwright to replace John Wilson as the pastor of the Boston church. Puritan leaders were forced to take action. In October 1636, they met with the leading proponents of the Covenant of Grace: Cotton, Hutchinson, and Wheelwright.

Hutchinson admitted that she believed most of the Puritan ministers were unfit for their positions.
Cotton and Wheelwright clarified their stance on the Covenant of Works by suggesting that compliance with Puritan laws demonstrated the Covenant of Grace.

John Winthrop, New England Confederation Governor, Portrait — John Winthrop. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Puritan leaders, who included John Winthrop, agreed to let Wheelwright preach at the Mount Wollaston church, 10 miles south of Boston. This did not resolve the unrest that was spreading in Boston.

Governor Vane disagreed with Winthrop and the others.
After a second meeting was held in December 1636, Vane resigned as governor.
Members of the Boston church wanted him to rescind his resignation, but he was at an impasse with the Puritan leaders.
The Massachusetts General Court (the elected assembly) called for a day of fasting, which was set for January 19, 1637.

AHC Notes

John Winthrop (1588–1649) — Winthrop was a Puritan leader who played an important role in the establishment, growth, and governance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for nearly 20 years. Winthrop was a neighbor of William and Anne Hutchinson, and an outspoken critic of Antinomianism.

Wheelwright’s Fast Day Sermon

On the Fast Day, Wheelwright was supposed to deliver a sermon on the need to reconcile the differences between the two factions. According to various accounts, Wheelwright did the opposite, attacking Puritan leaders.

Winthrop recalled that he called Puritan ministers “antichrists” and “stirred up the people against them with much bitterness and vehemency.”

Wheelwright was charged with contempt and sedition and appeared before the General Court. The Puritan leaders had enough support to convict him of the charges, but did not issue a sentence.

The Boston church protested.
At least 60 people signed a petition in protest of Wheelwright’s conviction.

AHC Notes

John Wheelwright (c. 1592–1679) — Wheelwright was a Puritan minister and founder of Exeter, New Hampshire. He became a central figure in early Massachusetts religious conflict through his close alliance with Anne Hutchinson. Educated at Cambridge and ordained in England, he lost his parish for criticizing the Church of England, then migrated to Massachusetts in 1636. Wheelwright supported Hutchinson’s claim that salvation came through faith rather than good works, a stance that led to his 1637 conviction for sedition and banishment. Later pardoned, he returned to public ministry and spent his final years as a pastor in Salisbury, Massachusetts.

Election of 1637

When it came time for elections, the Puritan leaders moved the election site from Boston to Newtown (Cambridge), which weakened support for Antinomian candidates.

Vane was still conducting his duties as governor.
Winthrop won the election on May 17, 1637, and other officials who supported him were elected as well.

With Winthrop in control, the General Court passed a law that banned travelers from remaining in Massachusetts for more than three weeks. Historians suggest this was meant to keep the Antinomian population from increasing.

Soon after, Samuel Hutchinson, William Hutchinson’s brother, arrived with a group of immigrants.
They were denied.
Vane protested, but Winthrop refused.
Vane left Boston on August 3 and never returned.

The Synod of 1637

The dispute between the two factions continued, and Puritan leaders held another meeting on August 30, 1637, at Newtown.

They discussed a list of items regarding Antinomian theology.
They went over issues with the existing church that had come up during the controversy.

It took three weeks for the participants to define Puritan doctrine to their satisfaction, and the synod ended on September 22. According to most sources, the Puritan leaders believed the Antinomians would stop preaching their “free grace” message.

The Antinomians quickly returned to their teachings.
This created more confusion.
Antinomian supporters retained seats in the November 1637 elections, including William Asplinwall, William Coddinggton, and won seats, including John Coggeshell.

General Court of 1637

The General Court convened on November 2, 1637, and started interviewing the winners of the election. Winthrop still held enough control over the General Court, and some of the Antinomians were rejected. The inhabitants of Boston responded by electing other Antinomians to replace them.

A few days later, the Court turned its attention to the Wheelwright case. Winthrop argued that the colony had been at peace before his arrival.

Although the Pequot War was going on, Boston was not yet involved.

Wheelwright continued to defend himself, and the Court adjourned without sentencing him. The next day, the Court rejected some of the Antinomians elected by Boston as replacements. This escalated the arguments, and the Court banished Wheelwright and Aspinwall.

Afterward, the Court turned its attention to Anne Hutchinson.

The Trial of Anne Hutchinson

Winthrop quickly levied charges against Hutchinson. The initial complaint centered on her gender and social role, accusing her of engaging in activities “not fitting for her sex,” rather than directly challenging her religious views.

Initially, her meetings were approved to educate and strengthen women’s faith. Over time, her actions extended beyond the content of her message, increasing their significance.
She broadened her activities by speaking to both women and men and moved beyond simply explaining John Cotton’s sermons, offering independent commentary and criticism.
Her actions increasingly threatened the authority of the church and colonial leaders.

Winthrop and others saw her as a challenge to the Puritan way of life and to religious and civil authority. They brought charges against her to restore her to what they saw as her “proper place” in Puritan society.

Winthrop acted as both prosecutor and judge during Hutchinson’s trial in 1637.
He charged her with supporting John Wheelwright, who officials had banished from Massachusetts for sedition.
Winthrop also accused Hutchinson of holding religious meetings for women in her home.
She was charged with violating the Fifth Commandment for failing to defer to the church leaders.
Hutchinson was charged with Antinomianism.

Hutchinson defended her beliefs with clarity and confidence during the trial. She denied violating her role by citing scripture passages that supported women’s involvement in spiritual matters.

Hutchinson argued that no law prohibited private meetings held inside homes.
She claimed that allowing people with different religious views to speak was a spiritual issue, not a matter for a civil court.
Hutchinson explained that both faith and obedience to church rules were necessary, provided those rules were made in good faith.

She argued that it was her duty to discern between true and false preaching and share this insight with those seeking spiritual guidance. When asked how she could make these distinctions, she replied, “By an immediate revelation by the voice of [God’s] own spirit to my soul.”

This claim of direct communication with God created a sensation and sealed her fate.
Her claim was similar to the Quaker belief in following an “inner light,” which Puritans considered heresy.
Hutchinson’s mentor, John Cotton, quickly distanced himself from her when he realized his association with her could damage his credibility.

The Banishment of Anne Hutchinson

Winthrop and the other judges condemned Hutchinson. She was banished from Massachusetts on November 17, 1637. She was held in prison for roughly four months and then brought to trial before church leaders, who excommunicated her in March 1638.

Hutchinson, her family, and about 60 followers moved to the more tolerant colony of Rhode Island, which was led by Roger Williams, in 1638.
Her group is considered one of the founding groups of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
One of the followers was William Coddington.

AHC Note

Richard Bellingham (c. 1592–1672) — Bellingham served several terms as the Governor of Massachusetts in the middle part of the 17th century. He was the last living signer of the original charter of Massachusetts, and Nathaniel Hawthorne included him as a character in “The Scarlet Letter.” He served as a magistrate during Hutchinson’s trial and voted to banish her.
Roger Williams (c. 1603–1683) — Williams was the founder of Rhode Island. He was an advocate of the Separation of Church and State, Religious Freedom, and the rights of Indians. His beliefs helped form the concepts found in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In October 1635, he was accused of sedition and heresy by the Massachusetts General Court. He was convicted and banished.

The Portsmouth Compact

On March 7, 1638, some of Hutchinson’s followers and supporters, including William Coddington and John Clarke, met at Coddington’s home in Boston. They agreed to leave Boston, and 23 men signed an agreement known as the Portsmouth Compact. The compact organized the men into a Christian government under the leadership of Coddington. The compact said:

“We whose names are underwritten do hereby solemnly in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick and as He shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given in His Holy Word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby.”

Some of them, including Coddington, traveled to Providence and visited Williams. He helped them buy land from the Narragansetts on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay, where they established a settlement they called Pocasset. Later, the town was renamed Portsmouth, and the island was renamed Rhode Island.

Hutchinson arrived in Providence in April and then took boats to the settlement on the island, where she became the first woman to play a role in founding a town in the English Colonies in Colonial America.

AHC Notes

Less than a year later, disagreements at Portsmouth led Coddington and others to move to the southern tip of Aquidneck Island, where they established Newport.
Coddington clashed with Roger Williams and other Rhode Island leaders, and he tried to establish his own colony.

Move to Long Island

Hutchinson’s family soon felt unsafe in Rhode Island because of the growing influence of Massachusetts leaders.

William Hutchinson died in 1642.
Afterward, Anne moved the family to Long Island, which was part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
Anne Hutchinson and nearly everyone in her family were killed in an Indian raid in 1643.
John Winthrop interpreted her fate as “God’s hand” at work.
One of her young daughters, Susanna, who was around 10 years old, was kidnapped and taken. Years later, the Massachusetts General Court helped secure her return.

Massachusetts Body of Liberties

In 1641, four years after Hutchinson was banished, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties was adopted. It was the first legal code established by European colonists in New England and was composed of a list of liberties, rather than restrictions, and was intended as guidance for the General Court. According to various accounts, Winthrop was a member of the committee that drafted the laws.

The Fate of Mary Dyer

Mary Dyer was an English-born colonist who became a leading Quaker figure in New England. After supporting Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy, she moved to Rhode Island and later converted to Quakerism. Her repeated returns to Massachusetts to defend her faith led to her public execution on June 1, 1660.

Born Marie Barrett, she migrated to Massachusetts Bay by 1635.
She married William Dyer, who worked as a milliner in London.
She lived in Boston and joined the church there.
She associated with Anne Hutchinson.
Opponents of Hutchinson used a miscarriage suffered by Dyer to attack Hutchinson’s religious views.
Dyer supported Hutchinson by walking out with her at her excommunication from the church in March 1638.
William Dyer was punished by being disarmed and losing his voting rights for supporting Hutchinson.
The Dyers moved to Rhode Island with the Hutchinsons.

The First Great Awakening

The influence of Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams, who defied church authority, was a precursor to the First Great Awakening, a religious movement in the American Colonies during the first part of the 18th century. It is best known for emphasizing spiritual devotion, individualism, and freedom, which contributed to the ideals of the American Revolution.

The movement was led by influential figures such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. It challenged the old idea that monarchs and clergy were responsible for interpreting God’s will and passing it along to the people. Instead, the First Great Awakening focused on an individual’s ability to have a personal connection with God, a belief Hutchinson also held. This gave individuals the freedom to interpret the Bible.

The First Great Awakening was the first movement shared across all the colonies, helping transform colonial society and establishing a common “American” identity.
It was a response to the growing influence of the Enlightenment and the emphasis on reason and rationalism, which led to the idea that a person’s destiny was not pre-ordained by God (“Predestination”) or controlled by churches and monarchs.
The movement went away from traditional Calvinist ideas that God only provided salvation to an “elected” group, such as the Puritans, and challenged the idea that the Pope or the King of England stood between the individual and God.

AP US History

Anne Hutchinson is part of the following units, topics, and chapters in the AP US History curriculum:

Definitions

Anne Hutchinson — Hutchinson was a Puritan religious leader who is best known for her role in the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hutchinson was a strong advocate for religious freedom and believed that individuals should be free to interpret the Bible for themselves. She also believed that salvation was a matter of faith, not good works, which was at odds with the beliefs of the Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. Hutchinson was eventually excommunicated from the church and was forced to leave the colony.

Antinomianism — Antinomianism is a belief that Christians are not bound by moral laws or rules, but are saved by faith alone. Some members of the Puritan community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony held this belief, including Anne Hutchinson, who was excommunicated for her antinomian beliefs. The belief was seen as a threat to the authority of the church and the social order in the colony, and those who held these beliefs were often ostracized or punished.

Antinomian Controversy (1636–1638) — A religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that centered on disagreements over salvation, authority, and church discipline. The dispute emerged when Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright criticized Puritan ministers for teaching a “Covenant of Works” that stressed outward behavior rather than inward faith. Colonial leaders viewed these ideas as a threat to religious unity, social order, and clerical authority, leading to civil and church trials, banishments, and a clear demonstration of the close connection between church and state in early New England.

Appendix

Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomians in Massachusetts

AHC Note — This narrative of Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy is adapted from The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History, by William Carlos Martyn (1867). Please note that minor edits and corrections have been made. We have also added additional spacing to improve readability.

Singularly enough, Massachusetts Bay, despite its exclusive policy, possessed from the very outset a strong charm in the eyes of those who dissented from its formulas. They soon swarmed in Boston and Salem, and notwithstanding the banishment of Koger Williams, the “heretics” continued to thrive.

Ere long the public mind “was excited to intense activity on questions which the nicest subtlety only could have devised, and which none but those experienced in the shades of theological opinion could long comprehend; for it goes with these opinions as with colors, of which the artist who works in mosaic easily and regularly discriminates many thousand varieties, where the common eye can discern a difference only on the closest comparison.”

From this fermentation, a profound and bitter struggle bubbled up. The strife filled the interstices of the Pequot War, whose prosecution it sadly crippled; and indeed, at one time, it threatened to rend the colony by civil war.

Two distinct parties were early developed. One was composed chiefly of the older colonists, headed by Dudley, Phillips, Wilson, and Winthrop, an able coalition of clergymen and politicians. These were earnest to preserve the state as it was. They disapproved of innovation and “dreaded freedom of opinion as the parent of various divisions.” They said, “These cracks and flaws in the new building of the Reformation portend a fall.” They were anxious “to confirm and build up the colony, child of their prayers and sorrows; and for that they desired patriotism, union, and a common heart.” They dreaded change because they knew that “Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.”

The other party was iconoclastic. It was “composed of men and women who had arrived in New England after the civil government and religious discipline of the Pilgrims had been established. They felt cramped under the theocracy, and having come self-banished to the wilderness to enjoy toleration, they resisted every form of despotism over the human mind, and “sustained with intense fanaticism the paramount authority of private judgment.” “They came,” observes Bancroft, “fresh from the study of the tenets of Geneva, and their pride consisted in following the principles of the Reformation with logical precision to all their consequences. Their eyes were not primarily directed to the institutions of Massachusetts, but to the doctrines of its religious system; so to them the colonial clergy seemed ‘the ushers of a new persecution,’ ‘a popish faction,’ who had not imbibed the principles of Christian reform. They applied to the influence of the Pilgrim ministers the doctrine which Luther and Calvin had employed against the observances and pretensions of the Roman church.”

The life and soul of the crusade against the theocracy was Anne Hutchinson, whom Johnson styled, “the chiefest masterpiece of woman’s wit.” She was the equal, in tact, and zeal, and honest conviction, of the best of those brilliant women who, in the salons of the French capital, inspired the French Revolution of 1793.

Anne Hutchinson was the wife of a Boston merchant, the daughter of a Puritan preacher in England, and had been one of John Cotton’s most devoted parishioners ere he was driven into exile.

In 1634, she followed Cotton to America and was received into his church at Boston, in spite of some strange theories which she had avowed on the voyage. Her active benevolence and unflagging kindness to the sick soon wedded to her many hearts. She planted herself deep in the affections of the city.

The male members of the Boston church had a habit of taking notes of the sermon on Sunday and then holding weekday meetings for the recapitulation and discussion of the doctrines advanced, which was seen as a very commendable practice. Mrs. Hutchinson, thinking perhaps that a woman’s influence and intellect were not sufficiently recognized in the church, inaugurated a similar series of weekday conventicles (meetings) for the ladies of Boston.

Mrs. Hutchinson’s lectures, for she was ever the chief speaker, attracted crowds, and they were countenanced by Henry Yane, who then occupied the gubernatorial chair, and by his host, John Cotton; below whom stood a crowd of warm adherents, flanked by John Wheelwright the clerical brother-in-law of the lady speaker, and by the hearty influence of John Coddington one of the wealthiest of the colonists. “Thus the women,” says Cotton Mather, “like their first mother, hooked in the husbands also.”

Soon, the vigorous and daring mind of Anne Hutchinson struck off new watchwords. Much was said of a “Covenant of Works” and a “Covenant of Grace,” and between these, many fine distinctions were made. “Under these heads, she and her friends classified the preachers of the Bay. Those who were understood to rely upon a methodical and rigid observance of their religious duties as evidence of acceptance with God were said to be ‘under a covenant of works.’ Those who held to certain spiritual tenets were ranged ‘under the covenant of grace.’ These phrases began to be bandied about. ‘Justification’ and ‘sanctification’ were in all mouths; even children jeered each other, and there was no stemming the heady current of discussion as it swept on.”

Winthrop and his coadjutors looked upon the debate with equal horror and alarm. Two words, which were then common, expressed to them a vague but frightful danger; Antinomianism was one, and Familism was the other. The Antinomians were a sect of German extraction, and their name meant against the law; for they held that “the gospel of Christ had superseded the law of Moses.” But the word had been made the shelter of sad excesses and many base acts, so that it was in bad odor among the Pilgrims, who esteemed Antinomianism to be a cloak to cover the naked form of license.

Familism had been nursed into vicious life in Holland, where, in 1555, Henry Nicholas formed a “Family of Love,” who, in their opinions, “grieved the Comforter, charging all their sins on God’s Spirit, for not effectually assisting them against themselves.” The Familists had long been numerous, factious, and dangerous in England, and their practice was even worse than their doctrine; for their laxity of morals made them the sappers of social order.

Anne Hutchinson does not seem to have been inoculated with the virus of Familism, but she was, of course, an Antinomian, since she assailed the theocratic law; and therefore, to the heated minds of the Pilgrims, she might easily appear to be the fleshly tabernacle of both and the very incarnation of heresy.

Meanwhile, the debate grew in bitterness. Mrs. Hutchinson, when taunted with Familism and Antinomianism, retorted by nicknaming her foes Legalists; “because,” she said, “you are acquainted neither with the spirit of the gospel nor with Christ himself.” Boston echoed the phrase with wild delight, and “Legalist! Legalist! Legalist!” was dinned into the ears of the clergy of the Bay.

Winthrop and his friends were exasperated, and they invoked the courts to interfere. Several of the Antinomians were heavily fined. Wheelwright, who, in a fast-day sermon, had strenuously maintained the Antinomian tenets, was formally censured by the General Court for sedition.

Then the innovators were, in their turn, angered. ‘The fear of God and the love of neighbors was laid by;” Mrs. Hutchinson and her adherents clamored all the louder; and Vane, disgusted and dispirited, tendered his resignation, and craved permission to return to England, but “the expostulations of the Boston church finally turned him from his design,” and kept him at his post.

Meanwhile, Wheelwright, provoked at his censure, had appealed to England. This wrecked Vane’s administration, and ruined the Antinomian cause; for the patriotic feeling of the colony ran so high, that “it was accounted perjury and treason to appeal to the king.”

In the elections of 1637, public opinion was made manifest; Winthrop, with the towns and the churches at his back, outvoted Vane, whose sole support was Boston, and the fathers of the colony once more grasped the helm.

Winthrop originated, enacted, and defended the alien law. This found in Vane an inflexible opponent; and, using the language of the time, he left a memorial of his dissent. “Scribes and Pharisees, and such as are confirmed in any way of error.” These are the remarkable words of the man who soon embarked for England, where he afterwards pleaded in Parliament for the liberties of all classes of dissenters, “all such are not to be denied cohabitation, but are to be pitied and reformed. Ishmael shall dwell in the presence of his brethren.”

Now that the founders of the colony had emerged from their brief eclipse and regained their pristine influence, they decided to initiate measures that should definitely silence the unseemly “noise about the temple.” An ecclesiastical synod was convened! Assembling in the summer of 1637, it branded eighty-two opinions then in vogue as heretical, and summoned Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and others for examination.

They appeared, and Cotton, who had satisfied the other clergymen of his orthodoxy, tainted for a space by his connection with the Antinomians, was set to examine Mrs. Hutchinson; “Which was hard for him to do, and bitter for her to endure; for she had been his protege.”

This remarkable woman was now in her element. She was calm, and she was firm, and she was keen; for, “Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues.”

But one bold avowal sealed her doom. “We have,” she said, “a new rule of practice by immediate revelations; by these we guide our conduct. Not that we expect any revelation in the way of a miracle; that is a delusion; but we despise the anathemas of your synods and courts, and will still follow the whisperings of conscience.”

This speech caused widespread alarm. It seemed to squint towards anarchy. “The true parents of the brats began to discover themselves,” quaintly comments old Mather, “when the synod lifted the sword upon them.”

An insurrection of lawless fanatics seemed to be brewing. The magistrates decided that the danger was desperate; that Anne Hutchinson was “like Roger Williams, or worse,” and so, says Winthrop, “we applied the last remedy, and that without delay.”

Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and Aspinwall were solemnly exiled as “unfit for the society” of the Pilgrims; and those of their followers who remained were ordered to deliver up their arms, lest they should, “upon some revelation, make a sudden insurrection.”

Thus ended the ecclesiarum praelia (battles of the churches). “And thus,” says Cotton Mather, “was the hydra beheaded.”

“This legislation may be reproved for its jealousy, but not for its cruelty; for it condemned the ‘heretics’ to a banishment not more severe than many of the best of the Pilgrims had encountered from choice.” But it is a sad chapter, and perhaps Mather was right when he wrote, “What these errors were it is needless now to repeat; they are dead and gone, and buried past resurrection; it is a pity to strive to rake them from their graves.”

The exiles, followed by great numbers of proselytes, on quitting Massachusetts Bay, wandered southward, “designing to plant a settlement on Long Island, or near Delaware Bay. But Roger Williams welcomed them to his vicinity,” and obtained for them a resting-place. They colonized Rhode Island, or Aquidneck, as it was then called. “It was not price nor money that got Rhode Island,” wrote Williams; “it was gotten by love; by the love and favor which that honorable gentleman, Sir Harry Vane, and myself had with that great sachem, Miantonomoh.”

Being thus held by the same tenure that Providence owned, Aquidneck was based upon the self-same principle of intellectual liberty; and though the two were not united in one state until after the Stuart Restoration, they clasped hands in equal brotherhood, and were buoyed by toleration.

Written by Randal Rust