America’S Debt To Its 17th Century Rebels 2009.With Voice

America’s Debt to Its 17th-Century Rebels:
Roger Williams,
Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Morton

Rebellion is Nature’s Plan
Be grateful to the child who refuses to clean his or her room
Be grateful to the Puritans who refused to obey the Anglican Church
Be grateful to those who refused to obey the puritans.

Purification of the Anglican Church
All the puritans wanted to purify the Church of England of what they considered to be “the relics of Popery.’’
Anything that would be found in a Roman Catholic Church they didn’t want in the Church of England. All statues of the Virgin Mary, and the Saints they considered idolatrous
They didn’t want prayer books.

Westminster Cathedral
Photo by Paul Keleher Creative Commons Attribution

Not plain enough
Westminster Cathedral represents all the puritans opposed: excessive ornamentation, and much too Roman Catholic Architecture.
“God’s altar needs not our polishing,” asserted the puritan divine Cotton Mather

Three Main Groups of Puritans
Those who stayed in England and eventually defeated the monarchy and the Church of England
Those who remained nominally in the Church of England, but went to Massachusetts Bay (now Boston) to worship in a Purified church
Those who separated completely from the Church of England and went to Plymouth

The Separatists and the Mayflower
Of the 104 passengers on board, fewer than half were Puritan Separatists (or ‘”saints” as they called themselves.)
The others they called “strangers,” even though they belonged to the Church of England.

The Mayflower II in Plymouth Harbor
Photo by Paul Keleher, Creative Commons Attribution

The question of authority
Because they knew they were right, Separatists, established their authority over the majority with the Mayflower Compact.

The United Minority Won

American Theocracy

With God at the top sending them directions through the Bible and signs in nature, the Separatist minority ran a rather intolerant government:
Mandatory church attendance
No separation of church and state
Strict punishment for profanity, fornication, bestiality, and usury.

Rebels against rebels
Thomas Morton
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson

Thomas Morton: Puritan Scourge
Morton, an Anglican, helped found a rival colony near Plymouth.
The rivalry was essentially commercial, particularly with gun sales to Indians.
But Morton seemed to take delight taunting the Separatists.

The Idolatrous Maypole
Morton set up a maypole on his own property and had a party with native Indian women.
As he anticipated, the Separatists were enraged, and sent the militia, under Captain Miles Standish (“Captain Shrimp” to Morton)
Standish arrested Morton and sent him back to England for trial

The English Court Exonerated Morton
Morton returned to what seemed to be his calling in life: tormenting Puritans.
In his struggles, Morton made two important observations: the Puritans may have been sticklers for rules and regulations, but they lacked humanity. The Indians had great humanity and kindness.

Roger Williams: the First Modern American Thinker
The Puritan magistrate, John Winthrop thought that Williams was “unsettled in his wits” and ordered his arrest for speaking dangerous ideas.
His dangerous ideas were: separation of church and state, freedom of religion, and the equality of the Indians.

Williams’ Great Escape
Williams eluded the long arm of the law and founded Rhode Island, the first refuge of religious freedom in the New World.
Ironically, Rhode Island became home for many Roman Catholics.

The Tragic Case of Anne Hutchinson
She dared to say that people can form their own beliefs without the intervention of the magistrates.
She also discussed the Bible in her own home with her friends.
For her courage, she was banished and died in the wilderness.

Anne Hutchinson in Boston
The rebel from exile to glory
Photo by Vic Thompson
Date: July 10,2008

America’s Outlaws Become Respectable
In 1938, bill 488 eliminated the laws that imposed exile on Roger Williams. A University and a National Park were also named after him.
Anne Hutchinson was given a statue in front of the state house
Thomas Morton’s New England Canaan is a well-respected book in American Colleges and Universities

New Rebels Needed
After our first rebels became respectable, we needed new ones to move us ahead.
They soon emerged in a neighborhood near you.