Rather than return to England, however, Williams fled into the wilderness in the depth of winter, taking refuge among the Narragansett Indians with whom he had become acquainted while at Plymouth. For fourteen weeks he wandered through the snow covered forests," not knowing what bread or bed did mean," but when he reached the Indian wigwams he was received and sheltered with the greatest of care and kindness.*

In the spring he left his Indian retreat to search for some spot where he could found an asylum for those, who, like himself, were persecuted for their religious opinions. He first attempted to found a settlement at Seekonk, but later, upon the suggestion of Winthrop, governor of Plymouth, moved to Narragansett Bay where the Indians granted him a large tract of land, and where in June, 1636, he fixed upon the site of a town which he named Providence. There he was joined by a large number of friends from Salem, among whom he freely distributed the land. Such was the beginning of the State of Rhode Island.† A sequel to his banishment was his dispute with

*Winthrop, p. 175; Bancroft, vol. i., p. 253.

Samuel G. Arnold, History of Rhode Island, vol. i. (ed. of 1878); I. B. Richman, Rhode Island: A Study in Separatism, pp. 16-18 (1905); Oscar S. Strauss, Roger Williams, The Pioneer of Religious Liberty; J. D. Knowles, Memoir of Roger Williams; William Gammell, Roger Williams (1845); Dexter, As to Roger Williams; Romeo Elton, Life of Roger Williams; Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., p. 180 et seq.

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John Cotton. The latter had written a letter justifying the banishment of Williams and engaged in a long literary duel with Cotton which not only did not settle the dispute, but also did not tend to calm the waters of ecclesiastical strife which at that time were particularly turbulent.*

Not long after Williams left the colony, fresh troubles sprung up which were in a great measure due to the claim of certain parties to the right of private judgment in all matters pertaining to religion and religious worship. Some time prior to this, Henry Vane, a man of superior ability and acquirements, and Hugh Peters, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, had joined the Massachusetts colony.† The arrival of Vane created a considerable stir among the settlers because of his distinction and family connec

* Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., p. 124 et seq. Both sides of the controversy are given in the publications of the Narragansett Historical Society. See also Osgood, American Colonies, vol. i., pp. 224–235, which gives a good review of the controversy between the colony and Williams. On the founding of Providence and subsequent events see Osgood, p. 332 et seq.; Staples, Annals of Providence; Stephen Hopkins, The Planting and Growth of Providence, reprinted in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2d series, vol. ix., pp. 166-203, and in the Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol. viii., pp. 13–65. The various documents concerning the land grants and discussions of them are given in Sidney S. Rider, Rhode Island Tracts, series ii., no. 4; Hopkins, The Home Lots of Providence; Dorr, Proprietors of Providence and the Freeholders, Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol. ix., Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. i.

See the characterization of Vane and Peters by C. F. Adams in Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, vol. i., p. 372 et seq.

tions, and at that time it was proposed by those who wished to form an aristocracy in the New England colony to establish an order of hereditary magistracy, but the proposition was never carried into effect.*

Shortly after his arrival in 1636, Vane was elected governor of the colony, and when a new religious fermentation arose he became one of the most prominent actors in it. Dr. Robertson says:

"It was the custom at that time in New England, among the chief men in every congregation, to meet once a week, in order to repeat the sermons which they had heard, and to hold religious conference with respect to the doctrines contained in them.

Mrs. Anne Hutchinson,† whose husband was among the most respectable members of the colony, regretting that persons were excluded from the benefit of those meetings, assembled statedly in her house a number of women, who employed themselves in pious exercises similar to those of At first she satisfied herself with repeating what she could recollect of the discourses delivered by their teachers. She began afterward to add illustrations, and at length proceeded to censure some of the clergy as unsound, and to vent opinions and fancies of her own.

the men.

These were all founded on the system which is denominated Antinomian by divines, and tinged with the deepest enthusiasm. She taught that sanctity of life is no evidence of justification, or of a state of favor with God; and that such as inculcated the necessity of manifesting the reality of our faith by obedience, preached only a covenant of works; she contended that the Spirit of God dwelt personally in good men, and by inward revelations and impressions they received the fullest discoveries of the Divine will. The fluency and confidence with which she delivered these notions gained her many admirers and proselytes, not only among the vulgar but among the principal inhabitants. The whole colony was interested and agitated. Vane, whose sagacity and acuteness seemed to forsake him whenever they were turned toward religion, espoused and defended her wildest tenets.

Many conferences were held, days of fasting and humiliation were appointed, a general synod was called; and, after dissensions which threatened the dissolution of the colony, Mrs. Hutchinson's opinions were condemned as erroneous, and she herself banished. Several of her disciples*

*Among whom were John Wheelwright, John Underhill, Stephen Greensmith, William Aspinwall and John Coggshall. John Cotton was also an adherent but to save himself from the fate of the others recanted. Greensmith was fined and Aspinwall and Coggshall were removed from their seats in the council. Wheelwright was

withdrew from the province of their own accord. Vane quitted America in disgust, unlamented even by those who had lately admired him; some of whom now regarded him as a mere visionary, and others, as one of those dark, turbulent spirits doomed to embroil every society into which they enter."'*

Mrs. Hutchinson suffered a very unhappy fate. After she had retired to Aquiday, or the Isle of Rhodes, she underwent all the trials and privations attendant upon forming a new settlement, but she, nevertheless, con

banished and later founded Exeter, N. H., and Underhill was removed from office and disfranchised.

*

Robertson, History of America, book ix., p. 232. See also C. F. Adams, Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in Pubs. of the Prince Society; J. K. Hosmer, Life of Young Sir Henry Vane (1888); Sikes, Life of Sir Henry Vane (1662); Upham's Life (in Sparks' American Biography, 1st ser., vol. iv., 1835); Winthrop, History of New England, vol. i., p. 200 et seq.; Fiske, Beginnings of New England, p. 116 et seq.; Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts (ed. 1765); Palfrey, History of New England, vol. i., pp. 194-210; Henry M. King, Sir Henry Vane, Jr., Governor of Massachusetts and Friend of Roger Williams and Rhode Island (1909); Charles H. Bell, John Wheelwright and his Writings, Pubs. of the Prince Society (1876); Hildreth, vol. i., p. 242 et seq.; Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, vol. i., pp. 363-532; Osgood, American Colonies, vol. i.. pp. 236-255; Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation, pp. 327-342; Brooks Adams, The Emancipation of Massachusetts, chap. ii. A hostile view of Mrs. Hutchinson's case is given in Thomas Welde's A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines that infected the Churches of New England (London, 1644). This was answered by an anonymous pamphlet entitled Mercurius Americanus, republished, with a prefatory notice by C. H. Bell, for the Prince Society, Boston (1876).

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tinued to promulgate her doctrines with the greatest ardor. Her sons, openly arraigning the justice of her banishment, were seized and thrown into prison. The family, in order to escape persecution, emigrated into the Dutch territory at the time when Kieft, the governor, had by acts of rashness and cruelty aroused the Indians to retaliation. Shortly after her arrival in the Dutch territory, Mrs. Hutchinson's house was set afire and she either perished with her children except a little daughter (or granddaughter)- or was murdered by the savages. This event occurred in October, 1643, or according to some authorities in August, 1642.*