USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 6
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Dec.
At this juncture, an unfortunate incident occurred to give a political aspect to existing differences, and added the bitterness of partisan feeling to the asperity of religious controversy. Governor Vane convened the Court of Depu- ties to tender his resignation, alleging, in the first place, that his private affairs required his immediate return to England, and then assigning as his reason, the prevalent dissensions, which he said were, by some, falsely attributed
57
VACILLATING CONDUCT OF VANE.
to him. The court silently consented to his departure, and CHAP. II. decreed a new election. In the interval, some members of the church represented to the court that the governor's 1636. reasons were not conclusive ; whereupon Vane, acting upon this demonstration " as an obedient child to the church," declared that " without leave of the church he durst not go away" although the court had assented. The result was that a great portion of the people declared in favor of his continuance in office, and the Court of Election was adjourned to meet at its usual time, the following May. The vacillating conduct of Vane in this affair has greatly prejudiced his reputation. He has been freely charged with dissimulation in attempting to extort an expression of popular opinion in his favor, by a course more becom- ing a demagogue than a Christian statesman. The sequel gives the color of plausibility to this severe condemnation. Happy had it been for Vane and for the country if he had embraced the opportunity, given at his own solicitation by the court, to withdraw from New England. His career in Massachusetts had thus far been unique and brilliant. No other man had ever received such honors at her hands, or been more warmly admired by the people. Six months after his arrival at Boston he was chosen governor, when May 25. only twenty-four years of age. His high connections and popular qualities, notwithstanding his extreme youth, and inexperience in public affairs, combined to place him at once at the head of the State-an injudicious choice, as it proved in a few brief months.
At this court an attempt was made to reconcile the differences in the churches, and the ministers were con- voked to give their advice. The governor took a promi- nent part, and by some unseasonable remarks drew upon himself a rebuke from the fiery Hugh Peter, who openly charged him with destroying the peace of the churches. The session assumed a polemic character, and closed with a debate upon the nature of sanctification. The peace of
Dec.
58
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. II. the churches, as might have been foreseen, was more dis- turbed than promoted by this attempt at judicial inter- 1636. ference. A speech made at this court by Mr. Wilson, Dec. 31. pastor of the Boston church,1 gave offence to some of the members, who demanded a public explanation. To this Wilson acceded, and the opportunity was embraced by the Governor, and others of his congregation, to assail him with bitter reproaches. The excited laity were only restrained from passing a direct censure upon their pastor, by the firmness of Cotton, who, in lieu of it, " gave him a grave exhortation." The people seemed beside themselves with indignation during this earnest dispute upon nice points of polemic theology, which, probably, very few of them could understand .? The effect of these public discussions was to spread the Antinomian doctrines. Those heretofore enumerated were now avowed by nearly the whole Boston church, while still wider departures from the orthodox creed were secretly entertained, and awaited only the stimulus of opposition to be openly declared. The defection of Cot-
1 The organization of the Puritan churches differed from those of the present day. Beside the pastor, there were ruling elders and teaching elders, the latter of whose duties did not vary materially from those of the pastor, while the ruling elders seem to have had equal jurisdiction with him in the government of the church. Wilson was the pastor, Cotton a teacher of the Boston church, beside whom were other teachers at various times, the num- ber of these seeming to be decided by the size of the church. Beside these two classes of elders, there were deacons also, who assisted the elders. Our modern deacons approach to the character of ruling elders, while assistant pastors, as.in some large churches now, occupy somewhat the position of the teaching elders. There were two ruling elders of the Boston church at this time, Oliver and Leverett, both Antinomian in their feelings, as indeed were the entire church a little later, excepting Wilson, the pastor, Winthrop, and some two or three others .- 1 Win. 212.
2 The hair-splitting distinctions, enunciated with all the energy of an ora- cle, by the disputants on either side of this controversy, remind one of the Scotchman's definition of metaphysics -- " When twa persons be talkin' t'gither, an' t'ane dinna understan' t'ither, an' t'ither dinna understau' hi'self," while the violence with which the factions supported their respective leaders, illus- trates the intensity of what an eminent writer has termed "the exquisite 'rancor of theological hatred."
59
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST WILSON AND WHEELWRIGHT.
ton was a sore trial to the clergy, who drafted a list of six- CHAP. teen points of supposed disagreement, upon which they II. desired his opinion. His answers were published, and also 1637. the ministers' reply to them. The dissensions at home, together with the distractions and disasters occurring at this period throughout the Christian world, were the occa- sion of a general fast in Massachusetts. The unhappy Jan. 20. dispute now assumed a more general character, extending beyond the limits of Boston, and disturbing the quiet of other churches. The baleful distinction of men under " a covenant of works," or under a "covenant of grace," divided the whole community. It was at this crisis that the mes- sage, before recited, was sent to England by Cotton and Feb. 3. Wilson, which, however truly it might describe the con- troversy in its earlier stages, gave no idea of the party virulence that had since prevailed.
The ensuing session of the General Court presented more the character of an ecclesiastical council than of a legislative or judicial body. The majority were legalists. The proceedings against Wilson, arising out of his speech at the preceding court, were investigated, but as it was impossible to identify those who had prejudiced him, no action was taken, except to pass a vote approving of the speech. The clergy were consulted as to the authority of the court over the churches, and gave the opinion that the court might proceed independently in cases of heresy dangerous to the State. This advice they immediately followed, by summoning Wheelwright to answer for a ser- mon preached by him on the recent fast day, wherein as they alleged, he had fanned the flame of dissension, instead of quenching it, thus perverting the object of the fast, and adding contempt of court to the crime of seditious preach- ing. The sermon was produced by his accusers, and defended by its author. After much debate Wheelwright was pronounced guilty of sedition and contempt, but sen- tence was deferred until the next court. The governor and
March 9.
60
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. II. some of his party protested against the judgment, but with- out effect. The Boston church petitioned in his behalf and 1637. justified his sermon. This act was declared to be pre- sumptuous ; the petition was pronounced to be " a seditious libel," and was indignantly rejected. It subsequently fur- nished the pretence for unwarrantable severity. So great was the excitement, that it was decided to hold the next session of the court at Newtown,1 a motion which itself produced a violent struggle between the two parties. The dispute had now become so warm that the leaders of the April Boston church, Wilson of course excepted, even refused to 6. sanction by their presence the ordination of ministers of the opposing faction.
May 17.
Such was the temper of the people when the Court of Elections was held at Newtown. Party tactics were applied to defer the election as long as possible. It was the last struggle of political power on the part of Vane and his friends. The zeal of Wilson, who climbed a tree to ha- rangue the assembled multitude, decided the fortunes of the day. The people clamored loudly for immediate elec- tion, and the governor was overborne by the tumult. Fierce denunciations on either side had already given place to acts of violence, when this timely exertion of the Boston pastor no doubt prevented actual bloodshed. The legalists triumphed at every point. Winthrop, who for the past year had been only deputy governor, was restored to his for- mer office of governor, and Vane, with his assistants, Cod- dington and Dummer, were no longer magistrates. Boston had deferred the election of deputies until the result of the general election was known. The next day Vane and Cod- dington, with another of the same party, were returned as deputies from Boston. The court refused to receive them on the plea of informality, but on the following day, the same deputies were again chosen, and the court was com- pelled to admit them. Wheelwright appeared to receive
18.
19.
1 Now Cambridge.
61
IMPOLITIC COURSE OF THE ANTINOMIANS.
his sentence, but was again respited, the triumphant party wishing to give an example of leniency by thus affording him further time for retraction. The prisoner remained 1637 firm, inviting sentence of death, but threatening an appeal to the king in case the court should proceed. This con- duet was fatal to the Antinomian cause. Thus far. the popular feeling, especially in Boston. had been with the liberal party, in opposition to the elergy, and to the old order of magistrates. The threat of appeal changed the political aspect of the case, and created a revulsion of pub- lic feeling. The new comers, equally with the old set- tlers, dreaded the interference of England, where the pre- latical party was now in the ascendant. This feeling was more potent than any domestic difference. The right of appeal admitted the English claim to regulate the inter- nal affairs of the province, so that the question now ap- peared like one of independence against subjection, in which the legalists supported the popular side. This event hastened the downfall of their opponents, and stimu- lated the dominant party to those acts of injustice which were now to be consummated. An order of court was passed. imposing a penalty upon all persons who should harbor any emigrant for more than three weeks without leave of the magistrates. This combination of an alien law with a passport system was aimed directly at the Antinomians, who were expecting accessions from Eng- land, and occasioned a great outery. Social visiting was interrupted, and personal insults were of frequent oceur- July. renee. The arrival of a brother of Mrs. Hutchinson, with others of the same party, afforded opportunity for a prae- tical application of the new law, and thus increased the rancor of faction.
A pamphlet controversy, respecting Wheelwright's ob- noxious sermon, occupied both parties until the all-en- grossing synod assembled at Newtown, which was to heal every difference, and to settle the creed of New England.
CHAP II.
30.
62
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. II. A list of eighty-two "erroneous opinions" and nine "un- savory speeches," supposed to embrace the whole cata- 1637. logue of prevalent heresies, was presented and condemned.1 Only five points of difference remained between Cotton and Wheelwright on one side, and the rest of the ministers on the other .? An earnest and protracted effort at reconcili- ation upon these metaphysical niceties, at length, through the medium of ambiguous expressions, wrought the de- sired end in the case of Cotton, who, with more perhaps of prudence than good faith, " explained, distinguished, and prepared to yield." 3 Wheelwright maintained his ground, and calmly awaited the penalty of contumacy. Sept. 22. The synod, after twenty-four days' labor, dissolved, with the gratifying result that Cotton, heretofore the great leader and theological dictator of the Puritans, after having suffered a temporary eclipse, "recovered all his Oct. 12. former splendor among the other stars."4 A day of thanksgiving was appointed for the success of the synod, and for the recent defeat of the Pequots. A little later it was discovered that, in respect to the former, the result had not been decisive. Although the pliant Cotton had
1 These are duly set forth in T. Welde's pamphlet entitled " A short story of the Rise, Reign and Ruin of the Antinomians, Familists and Libertines that infested the Churches of New England," a very scarce and curious spe- cimen of our early polemic literature. The copy which I have read is the London edition, 1644. It contains, besides an elaborate preface, 66 quarto pages, 20 of which contain the catalogue of errors, with their confutation, by the synod ; 24 embrace the proceedings of the General Court of Nov. 2d, (erroneously printed Oct. 2d in the book,) 1637, which punished the Antino- mian leaders, and the remainder are occupied with the trial of Wheelwright in the preceding March, with an account of Mrs. Hutchinson's excommunica- tion. The whole is a bitter and bigoted ex parte statement by an actor in the scenes described, and will only repay a reading by the antiquary or the cu- rious theologian. A remarkable instance of " bibliographical disingenuity " in relation to this book is exposed by Mr. Savage in a lengthy note in 1 Win- throp, 298-300.
2 They are enumerated in 1 Winthrop, 285.
3 The expression is Hildreth's. Hist. of U. S., i. 247.
4 Magnalia, B. vii. c. 3, ยง 5.
63
TRIAL OF THE LEADERS.
deserted to the stronger party, Wheelwright and his friends were none the less active in disseminating their views.
CHAP. II.
1637. Nov. 2.
At the next General Court a summary course was adopted, based upon the petition or remonstrance that the Boston church had presented, the preceding March, in behalf of Wheelwright, and which had then been branded as a "seditious libel" upon the court.1 Wm. Aspinwall and John Coggeshall, both deacons of Boston church, and deputies from that town, were dismissed from the court ; the one for having signed, and the other for defending the remonstrance. One of the two deputies elected to fill the vacancies thus created, was immedi- ately dismissed for the same cause, and the town properly refused to elect another in his place. William Codding- ton, the third deputy from Boston, acting under instruc- tions, then moved a reversal of the censure against Wheelwright, and a repeal of the alien law. This demon- stration of the firmness of Wheelwright's friends caused the court to summon him the same day to receive sen- tence, which, since his conviction in March, had been from time to time deferred. He was sentenced to banish- ment, and required to leave the jurisdiction within fourteen days, upon penalty of imprisonment. John Coggeshall, who a few days before had been expelled from his seat, was then summoned, and narrowly escaped the same punishment, but was released upon being disfranchised, and admonished to keep the peace on pain of banish- ment .? William Aspinwall was next called to trial for the same offence, and sentenced to be disfranchised and
1 This petition is preserved in Welde's " Rise, Reign and Ruin," p. 23-25, and is copied by Mr. Savage in 1 Winthrop, App. E., where the reader will find it difficult to detect sedition or presumption in its earnest but respectful language. It was drawn up by Wm. Aspinwall, afterwards the first Secre- tary of R. I. Colony, and signed by about sixty of the principal men in Bos- ton, some of whom, banished at this court, soon after settled the island of Rhode Island.
2 He was soon after exiled, and became the first President of R. I. Colony.
64
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. II. 1637. Nov. 15.
banished, but was allowed to remain until spring. Several other signers of the petition and chiefs of the Antinomian party, were in turn brought before the court, and pun- ished by disfranchisement and fines, among whom were William Balstone 1 and Captain Underhill, who thus re- ceived the reward of his distinguished services in the Pe- quot war. The male leaders being thus summarily disposed of, the author of all this commotion, Mrs. Hutchinson herself, was brought into court. Her trial occupied two days. It was opened in the form of questions between the court and the accused, the object of which was to deduce from her own admissions the evidence of her guilt. Even the report given by Welde, one of her prosecutors and judges, leaves her, at the end of the first day, un- scathed by the dialectics of the court. The next morn- ing, however, she undertook a defence in a lengthy speech, wherein she broached the doctrine of inward revelations, enforcing her views by scriptural quotations, and claiming in a manner to be herself inspired ; in evidence of which, she enumerated sundry revelations that she had received, and among them that she should go to New England and be persecuted, of which revelation she asserted her present trial to be a fulfilment. "The court saw now an inevi- table necessity to rid her away ;" 2 sentence of banishment was pronounced, and she was handed over to the marshal to await its execution.
Jan. 19.
A most remarkable act, unparalleled in the subse- quent history of the American States, concluded the pro- ceedings of this memorable court. The principal men of the proscribed party in all the towns were ordered to deliver up their arms and ammunition before the 30th of the month, unless they would "acknowledge their sin in subscribing the seditious libell," before two magistrates. 3
1 He was one of the four assistants chosen in 1641 in the island of R. I.
2 Welde, p. 41. For this and all the foregoing cases tried at the Nov. court, 1637, see Welde's Rise, Reign and Ruin, pp. 23-42.
3 Winthrop, i. 296, note.
65
BANISHMENT OF MRS. HUTCHINSON.
Seventy-five names are enumerated as the objects of this astonishing order, which naturally enough, as the finale to so much tyranny, aroused a strong feeling of indignation. The governor took an early occasion to justify the conduct of the court to the excited congregation with whom he was a worshipper.
The secular arm having been so efficiently exercised to purge the state, the ecclesiastical authority was next ex- erted to purify the church. Many of the signers of the no- torious petition were proceeded with "in a church way " by admonition, and when this failed to convince them of their sin, excommunication was pronounced against them. The more serious errors before alluded to, as being secretly 163 8. entertained by the followers of Mrs. Hutchinson, were now openly avowed, and gave occasion for earnest consulta- tions between the magistrates and elders. A few of the most intelligible of these notions were : "That the law is no rule of life to a Christian," that "union to Christ is not by faith," that "there is no such thing as inherent righteousness," that " the Sabbath is but as other days," that " there is no resurrection of the body," and many other dogmas, which, however harmless they might appear when explained by their propounders, were fraught with danger when adopted in their literal significance by the multitude, unskilled in ethical subtleties.1 Mrs. Hutch- inson was examined before the church upon these latter charges, and gravely admonished by the teacher, Cotton. A vain hope was felt that she might recant, for which end she was permitted to reside for a few days at Cotton's house ; but when the examination was renewed her ob- duracy was manifest, and "the church with one consent 22. cast her out." The virus of Antinomianism had become
1 A list of twenty-nine theses, from which the above five examples are se- lected, was presented at the examination of Mrs. Hutchinson before the church, 15 March, 1638, all of which she defended. They may be found in Welde's book, pp. 59-61.
VOL. 1-5
CHAP. II.
- 1637.
March 15.
66
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. neutralized by its own excess. A warrant to execute the II. sentence of banishment was immediately issued, and the 1638. arch heretic departed into exile, to meet ere long a dread- ful death.1 Wheelwright with his family removed to the head waters of the Piscataqua, where he commenced the settlement of Exeter .? The larger portion of the exiles, among whom was the husband of Mrs. Hutchinson, had already gone forth to seek a refuge in the wilderness.
Thus ended the Antinomian controversy in Massachu- setts-the most bitter strife that has ever agitated New England, adding the severity of political conflict to the fierceness of doctrinal contention. Now that two centu- ries have passed away, and the names of Legalist and An- timonian are known only to the student of history, we may calmly review the causes and trace the results of this stormy episode in Puritan annals.
The different phases presented in the progress of the dispute are accounted for by the changing elements, which at various periods it involved. Originally it was purely of a theological character. Matters of abstract belief, upon which all were agreed in their practical application, were discussed in their metaphysical bearing. Terms not used in the Scriptures were employed to express shades of thought in relation to the sublimest mysteries of the inspired volume. The specific purpose for which this " barbarous terminology " was first applied, was soon over- looked, and the fact that such expressions were merely " of human invention." was forgotten in the heat of discussion. Thus they came to assume a reality in the minds of the dis-
1 Her subsequent history is soon told. She went first to Providence, and thence to Aquedneck, which had just been purchased by the fugitives of her party, and where her husband died in 1642. Soon after this bereavement she removed with her family to a spot near Hurl Gate, within the Dutch jurisdiction, where in a short time she, and, with the exception of one child, all her house- hold, sixteen in number, were murdered by the Indians in 1643-a tragedy which the bigoted Welde narrates, as a special providence upon this " Ameri- can Jezebel."
2 Belknap's New Hampshire, i. 37.
67
THEOLOGICAL ASPECT OF ANTINOMIANISM.
putants, and gave to the argument a material instead of CHAP. II. - an abstract significance. The people who listened re- ceived the subtile theses of the debaters as the words of 1638. an oracle, while fanaticism readily embraced the doctrine of inward revelation, which was first cautiously insinuated and then boldly announced. The spread of dangerous heresies was stimulated by the rigid discipline of the Puritan churches. The desire for uniformity in creed and ceremonial produced a stringency of regulation that precluded, even in non-essentials, that latitude which a sound discretion would allow. This strictness, however congenial to those who ordained it, was offensive to subse- quent settlers, whose feelings were thus enlisted, from the moment of their arrival, in any movement that promised relaxation. Furthermore, the principles of the Reforma- tion, with which the new-comers were strongly imbued, but which had lost some portion of their hold upon the Puritan mind, when the possession of power had diverted their application, favored a degree of liberality and toler- ance distasteful to the rulers of Massachusetts. The right of private judgment was merged in the authority of cor- porate decrees. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, which in the hands of Luther and Calvin, had shivered the gorgeous ritual of Rome, seemed, to the Antinomians, to be lost in the scrupulous attention paid to formal and protracted worship. On the other hand, " Calvinism run to seed " was an expression used by the Legalists to describe the position of their opponents. The antagonist elements of human character were here de- veloped on the arena of religious strife. In its theologi- cal aspect, the Antinomian controversy was the system of Geneva, logically pursued, in conflict with the practice of Massachusetts-a struggle for freedom of thought and ac- tion against the spirit of formalism.
Politically considered, it presents a phenomenon not unusual in the history of the world, but singular enough in
68
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. II. a community so entirely controlled, through moral means, by the clerical profession. It was a demonstration by the 1638. masses against spiritual domination-a protest of the peo- ple in opposition to the clergy. The colony was still a close corporation in which but a small number of residents were admitted to the privileges of freemen. The test act 1 was now working its legitimate effect in arousing a spirit of hostility to existing institutions, which was specially directed against those who were supposed to be its authors and most strenuous advocates. A sense of in- justice was preparing the minds of the people for overt resistance to the supremacy of the clergy. The shrewd and cautious Cotton maintained their cause until the re- action, caused by the indiscretion of Wheelwright, was apparent, and the political leader of the faction was dis- graced at the general election. When the powerful influ- ence of Vane was thus withdrawn, Cotton made good his reconciliation with his offended colleagues, and still ap- peared as the devoted servant of the people. Up to this period the political phase of the controversy was as dis- tinctly marked as its theological character.
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