[2]. It is mortifying and painful, that truth compels us to except any persons among us from this remark.
[3]. Mr. Savage, in his edition of Winthrop, (vol. i. p. 42) excited, by the following note, a hope, which was unhappily disappointed: “Deficiency in all former accounts of this great, earliest asserter of religious freedom, will, we may hope, soon be supplied by a gentleman, whose elegance and perspicuity of style are already known. Several quires of original letters of Williams’ have been seen by me, transcribed by or for the Rev. Mr. Greenwood, of this city.”
[4]. “Cœlum non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.”
Ep. lib. i. 11.
[5]. The records of the church say 1598, (Benedict, vol. i. p. 473) but this statement appears to be a mistake. Mr. Williams, in a letter dated July 21, 1679, (Backus, vol. i. p. 421) said that he was then “near to fourscore years of age.” This proves that he was not born in 1598, and makes it probable that the next year was the true time.
[6]. Baylies’ History of Plymouth, vol. i. p. 284. See Appendix to this work, (A.)
[7]. George Fox digged out of his Burrowes, written in 1673.
[8]. Wood, in his Athenæ; Oxonienses, after giving an account of a gentleman named Roger Williams, says, “I find another Roger Williams, later than the former, an inhabitant of Providence, in New England, and author of (1) A Key to the Language of New-England, London, 1643, Oct. (2) The Hireling Ministry none of Christ’s, or a Discourse of the Propagation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, London, 1652, qu. &c. But of what university the said Williams was, if of any, I know not, or whether a real fanatick or Jesuit.” This assertion of Wood renders it doubtful whether Mr. Williams was educated at Oxford, or elsewhere. In the absence of all evidence, it might be thought more probable that he received his education at Cambridge, where a large proportion of the leading Puritans were educated. Coke himself was a graduate of Cambridge, and would probably prefer to place Williams there. Inquiries have been sent to England, for information on this point, but they have not been successful.
[9]. Benedict, vol. i. p. 473–4.
[10]. The refusal of the Pope, Clement VII. to sanction the divorce, would have been honorable to him, if it had not undeniably sprung from political motives. He at first prepared a bull, granting Henry’s request, but in a short time he thought it more conducive to his political interests to suppress it, and in a fit of anger against the King for a supposed insult, the Pope issued his sentence, prohibiting the divorce, and threatening the King with excommunication if he did not recognise Catharine as his wife. In six days after, he received intelligence which made him earnestly desire to annul his sentence, but it was too late. His attribute of infallibility was now found inconvenient. He could not retract. Henry was exasperated and renounced his political allegiance, though, in his controversy with Luther, which won for him from the Pope the title of Defender of the Faith, he had argued that the primacy of the Pope was of divine right! Histoire du Concile de Trent, livre i. p. 65, Amsterdam edition, 1686.