Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomians.
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson arrived in Boston from England in the autumn of 1634. She was a woman of brilliant parts, but impetuous and indiscreet, and by instinct an agitator. Her religious views are described by Winthrop as containing "two dangerous errors,—first, that the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person; second, that no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification." This is cloudy to a modern layman. The theory is styled Antinomian by its enemies, and was substantially as follows: Any person in a "state of grace" or "justification" is at the same time "sanctified;" since he is both justified and sanctified, the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in his heart, and his acts cannot in the nature of things partake of sin: therefore he need have no great concern about the outward aspect of his works. This doctrine was contrary to that entertained by the Puritans, who believed that a person must be first justified by faith, and then sanctified by works. They thought the Antinomian dogma open to pernicious interpretation, and not conducive to the welfare of society. Its advocacy threw Boston into a great ferment.
Mrs. Hutchinson soon had a large following, among whom were Wheelwright, John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker, of the ministers; while among laymen who were well inclined towards her doctrine was the younger Henry Vane, then governor of the colony, who was in later years to become prominent as one of the leaders in the English Commonwealth. In the conditions then existing in Massachusetts Mrs. Hutchinson's teachings were considered dangerous to the State; they opposed the authority of the ecclesiastical rulers, and this tended to breed civil dissension. One of her supporters, Greensmith, was fined £40 by the General Court (March, 1637) for publicly declaring that all the preachers except Cotton, Wheelwright, and Thomas Hooker taught a covenant of works instead of a covenant of grace, the difference between which, the layman Winthrop said, "no man could tell, except some few who knew the bottom of the matter." At the same time Wheelwright was found guilty of sedition because in a sermon he had counselled his hearers to fight for their liberties, but with weapons spiritual, not carnal. When the Boston church supported their minister, the Court responded by voting to hold its next meeting at Newtown (Cambridge), where it might deliberate amid quieter surroundings than at Boston.
When the Court of Election met at Newtown (May, 1637), Vane and his friends were, in the course of a tumultuous session, dropped out of the government, Winthrop was again chosen governor, and the uncompromising heretic-hater Dudley deputy-governor. Vane departed for England in disgust, never to return. For a time it seemed as if peace had come under the politic Winthrop, and the Hutchinsonians gave evidences of a desire to compromise. In a few months, however, the Court re-opened the whole controversy by legislating against all new-comers who were tainted with heresy. The old warfare broke out again. The charges of sedition against Wheelwright were renewed, he was banished, and fled, with a few adherents, to the Piscataqua.
Mrs. Hutchinson banished.
Mrs. Hutchinson was placed on trial (November, 1637) and commanded to leave the colony, which she did in March following, and went to Rhode Island. Seventy-six of her followers were disarmed, some were disfranchised, others fined, and still others "desired and obtained license to remove themselves and their families out of the jurisdiction." Quiet once more prevailed. Wheelwright recanted after a time, and was permitted to resume his habitation in Boston; and many others of the disaffected were finally restored to citizenship.
The policy of repression successful.
The little commonwealth had been shaken to its foundations by a controversy which to-day—-when religion and politics are separated, to the advantage of both—would be considered of small moment even in one of our rural villages; but the State and the Church were one in the colony of Massachusetts, and ecclesiastical contumacy was political contumacy as well. Under such conditions there could safely be neither liberty of opinion nor of speech; the welfare of a government thus constituted lay in stern repression. The suppression and banishment of Roger Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson were eminently successful in restoring order and public security, in the train of which came increased immigration and greater prosperity.
55. Indian Wars (1635-1637).
The Dutch at Hartford.