The effect of the synod was the usual one, of increasing the pertinacity with which the different parties held their opinions. Mrs. Hutchinson continued her lectures, and nearly all the members of the Boston church became her converts. She forsook the public assemblies, and set up a meeting in her own house. She accused the greater part of the ministers in the country as preachers of error. The civil power now interposed, to apply the remedy for heresy, which has often been used, when argument had failed. Mrs. Hutchinson was summoned before the General Court, and many of the ministers. She was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be banished. The church excommunicated her, though she is said to have recanted her errors. Rev. Mr. Wheelwright, her brother-in-law, who had publicly espoused her cause, was likewise banished.

The Court proceeded to a more extraordinary measure. Nearly sixty citizens of Boston, and a number in other towns, were required to surrender their arms and ammunition to a person appointed by the Court, under a penalty of ten pounds; and were forbidden, under the same penalty, to buy or borrow any arms or ammunition until further orders. The pretence, as set forth in the act,[[176]] was a fear, that the principles which they had learned of Mrs. Hutchinson and Mr. Wheelwright might impel them to disturb the peace of the community, as certain persons in Germany had done. Though anabaptism is not named, it is easy to perceive, that this dreadful phantom, which so haunted the imaginations of our ancestors, was, on this, as on other occasions, made the apology for oppressive measures. That it was a mere pretext, in this case, we have the best reason to believe, for Winthrop[[177]] honestly attributes the act of disarming these men, to the part which most of them had taken in a remonstrance to the General Court against its measures in relation to Mr. Wheelwright. The act itself proves the same point, for it provides, that if any of them would acknowledge their guilt in signing the “seditious libel,” they should be exempted from its operation. The General Court was as jealous of its prerogatives as King James I.; and to prevent these individuals from expressing their disapprobation by acts more energetic than a remonstrance, the Court thought it prudent to deprive them of offensive weapons. By an act, passed at the same session, a severe punishment was decreed for those persons who should speak evil of the judges or magistrates.

These transactions have been recited, not only from their connection with the settlement of Rhode-Island, but because they furnish ample illustrations of the multiform mischiefs which ensue from an interference by the civil magistrate in the affairs of the church. Had Mrs. Hutchinson been permitted, without notice, to expound and prophecy as she pleased, it is probable that her zeal would have soon spent itself, if unsupplied with fuel by her vanity. Or if she had been left to the salutary discipline of the church, as she would now be, no serious effects would have followed. But the injudicious excitement among the clergy, and still more, the improper conduct of the magistrates, gave importance to the affair, and produced a convulsion in the Commonwealth, which would have ruined a community less intelligent and pious, and the perils of which may be inferred from the act of the General Court, disarming a portion of its citizens. The Court, having assumed the office of inquisitors into the religious opinions of men, was forced, by a regard to consistency, to prosecute its measures to the end, and punish the heretics by disfranchisement and expulsion from the Commonwealth. Thus were the affections of many of the inhabitants alienated from each other, and from the government, and the colony was deprived of a large number of its citizens.

But God, whose high prerogative it is to educe good from evil, made this unhappy feud in Massachusetts the occasion of establishing a new settlement on Rhode-Island. Many of the individuals who had been disarmed, and others who were banished, removed from Massachusetts. Some of them went to Connecticut, others to New-Hampshire, and several to Providence. But a number of persons, among whom was John Clarke, a learned physician, agreed to migrate together, and requested him and some others to select a suitable place. They accordingly proceeded to New-Hampshire, in the autumn or winter of 1637, the preceding summer having been so warm as to induce them to seek a more northerly position. But the severity of the winter in New-Hampshire turned their thoughts towards a more genial clime. Mr. Clarke and his associates accordingly proceeded southward, with a design to settle on Long-Island, or on Delaware Bay. But at Providence, they were kindly received by Mr. Williams, who advised them to form a settlement at Sowams (now called Barrington, a few miles from Providence) or at Aquetneck,[[178]] (now called Rhode-Island.) But as they had resolved to remove beyond the limits both of Plymouth and of Massachusetts, Mr. Williams, Mr. Clarke, and two others went to Plymouth, to ascertain whether they claimed either of these places. They were treated with respect at Plymouth, and were informed, that Sowams was claimed by that colony, but that Aquetneck was out of their jurisdiction.

They returned to Providence, and on the 7th of March, 1637–8, the following instrument was drawn up, and signed by nineteen individuals, all but two of whom were named in the act to disarm certain citizens of Massachusetts:

“We, whose names are underwritten, do swear, solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, to incorporate ourselves into a body politic, and as he shall help us, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to all those most perfect and absolute laws of his, given us in his holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby.

Thomas Savage,

William Dyer,

William Freeborne,

Philip Sherman,