lated. The principles of religious freedom inculcated by Wickliffe, and the seeds of political liberty planted during the latter years of the reign of Elizabeth and the early part of the reign of James, were then rapidly springing up in the form of new opinions and new institutions. The English Anabaptists, inheriting the germs of their free opinions from the Lollards, had declared, in a confession of faith published as early as the year 1611, that "the magistrate is not to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of religion; because Christ is the King or Lawgiver of the church and conscience." Many of the Puritans had already asserted, that "the ministers of the gospel ought to be maintained by the voluntary contributions of the people, and that the civil power had no right to make or impose ecclesiastical laws." From the moment that James crossed the Tweed, the Catholics, as well as the Puritans, ceased not to harass him with petitions for religious toleration. In Scotland, the clergy were discussing the authority of civil magistrates, inculcating principles of resistance to despotic sovereigns, and endeavouring to establish a republican form of church government. In the neighbouring kingdom of Holland, the Arminians were openly disputing the supremacy of the established faith of Calvin, and filling the public ear with new notions respecting grace and predestination, universal redemption and free will. And in the new world recently discovered across the ocean, there had just been established an asylum for the fugitives from religious and political persecution in Europe.

Growing up to manhood under influences like these, Williams was early prepared to maintain the peculiar principles which afterwards governed his life; and when the good ship Lion, with "Mr. Williams, a godly minister,” board, anchored at Nantasket, on the 5th of February, 1631, he was ready to assert, to its fullest extent, the inalienable freedom of conscience in his new home.

on

The settlements then forming the Colony of Massachusetts Bay had been made two or three years previously. The civil code established by the colonists was founded on the institutes of Moses; crime was punished according to the laws of Scripture, rather than the laws of England; and though a republic in form, the infant state was governed by the spirit of the Jewish theocracy. The state was second

ary to the church. Its principal use was considered to be that of securing the privilege of religious worship, and maintaining the purity of Christian faith. Every inhabitant was compelled to contribute, in proportion to his ability, to the support of religion; and very soon after the founding of the colony, it was "ordered and agreed, that, for time to come, no man should be admitted to the freedom of the body politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of the same." Thus church and state were closely united.

Such were the fundamental principles of the community of which Williams became a member on landing upon these shores. His own opinions on the subject of civil and ecclesiastical government were, in many particulars, directly at variance with them. Nor was it long before his peculiar views were boldly set forth. A few weeks after his arrival, when he was invited to become an assistant to the pastor of the church at Salem, the Colonial authorities remonstrated against the appointment, on the ground, that "Mr. Williams had refused to join with the congregation at Boston, because they would not make a public declaration of their repentance for having communion with the churches of England, while they lived there; and besides, had declared his opinion that the magistrate might not punish a breach of the Sabbath, nor any other offence, as it was a breach of the first table." What his views were on the first of these points is not exactly known. The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay had never formally renounced their connection with the church of England. Some of them, up to the period of their leaving that country, though opposed to the ritual, and grieved at the corruptions of the mother church, had not become open separatists; while others, even at the moment of their departure, had gratefully acknowledged themselves as her children. They had, in fact, all dissolved their connection with the church at home by coming to this country; but they had never publicly testified their repentance for the previous existence of such a connection. Nor does there appear any good reason why they should have done so. It seems to us, supposing the account we have of the matter to be correct, that Mr. Williams, being a new comer, may well be considered as having shown a disposition to meddle in matters without the limits of his responsibility,

when he insisted that this step should be taken by the Massachusetts churches. The second charge against him, of advocating the doctrine of the freedom of conscience, was certainly well founded; but it will not, at the present day, be imputed to him as a fault.

The remonstrance of the magistrates did not change the minds of the church at Salem; and Williams was settled as their minister on the 12th of April, 1631. In the month following, say both of his biographers, he took the usual oath of allegiance prescribed on the admission of freemen to the colony. But this statement, we think, must be a mistake. Williams regarded the taking of an oath as an act of worship, which a Christian might indeed perform of his own accord, but to which he could not be compelled by the civil magistrate; for, said he, "persons may as well be forced unto any part of the worship of God as unto this." Besides, it was at the meeting of the Court on the 19th of October, 1630, almost four months before his arrival in the country, that the name of Roger Williams appears on a list of one hundred and eight persons "desiring to be made freemen." Upon this list, all who were ministers had the title of "Mr." prefixed to their name, while that of Roger Williams was not so distinguished. We think there must have been another person of the same name, who came over in 1630, and was one of the fifteen persons, mentioned in the Colony Records, who composed the jury empanelled to inquire into the circumstances of the death of one Austin Brutcher.

Mr. Williams's stay in Salem was short. Though respected and beloved by his congregation, he was constantly harassed by the magistrates and elders of the Colony on account of his obnoxious sentiments; and therefore, at the expiration of a few months, with the hope of finding elsewhere a more agreeable field of labor, he removed to the neighbouring colony of Plymouth. This settlement was much more liberal in its policy than that of the Bay; the Pilgrims had purified themselves, after their connection with the English church, by a residence in Holland; and Williams was therefore well received by them. However, he soon found himself, by reason of his peculiar opinions, ill at ease as an assistant to the Plymouth pastor; and receiving, in 1633, an invitation to return to his former charge

in Salem, he asked for his dismission. Though several persons were anxious not to be deprived of his acceptable ministrations, yet, as he was beginning to be suspected of "Anabaptism," his request to be dismissed was not de

nied.

The second residence of Williams in Salem was made more uneasy than the first. Reëstablished in the office of an assistant to the pastor of the church, he began with setting his face against a meeting of the ministers of the Colony, who were in the habit of assembling for mutual improvement, fearing, as it was said, "that it might grow, in time, to a presbytery, or superintendency, to the prejudice of the churches' liberties." The apprehension in this particular case was groundless; though it must be confessed that a person of Williams's strong democratic opinions might reasonably have looked with suspicion upon an association of ministers who had so much to do with politics, as had those of the Massachusetts Colony. Another matter, which involved Williams in difficulty with the Colonial government, was a treatise which he had written at Plymouth, and presented to the governor and council; wherein, says Governor Winthrop, "he disputed their right to the land they possessed, and concluded, that, claiming by the king's grant, they could have no title, nor otherwise, except they compounded with the natives." This treatise, written in another Colony and retained in the privacy of his own desk, Williams was required to submit to the governor of Massachusetts for his examination; and was afterwards summoned to appear in Court to receive censure for the same. Contrary to what might have been expected, he obeyed this order, and offered his manuscript to be burned, though he must have thought that the conduct of the authorities was in the highest degree inquisitorial and despotic. It was also objected to him, that he preached upon the duty of women's wearing veils in church; and that, by a discourse on the unlawfulness of all Popish symbols, he instigated Mr. Endicot, one of the Salem magistrates, to order the cross to be cut out of the king's colors. But the most serious charges brought against him were made after he had been raised to the office of teacher of the church, on the death of the elder pastor, Mr. Skelton. At that period, hardly a session of the Court took place, but that he was summoned before it to

give an account of his opinions, or to receive censure for them. At one time, it was for calling in question the validity of the king's patent; at another, for "usual terming the churches of England antichristian "; then, for publicly teaching, that "a magistrate ought not to tender an oath to an unregenerate man," and opposing the introduction of the unlawful"Freeman's Oath." While the Bay churches still maintained a connection with the mother church of England, we find him pronouncing its "bloody tenet of persecution most lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ." When the authorities enacted a law requiring every man to attend public worship, and to contribute towards its support, he asserted that the civil power "extended only to the bodies, and goods, and outward estates of men." The Court unjustly refusing to allow a claim of the people of Salem to a certain tract of land, Williams appealed from their decision to the people, and, in conjunction with his church, wrote "letters of admonition unto all the churches, whereof any of the magistrates were members, that they might admonish the magistrates of their injustice." In the issue of this matter, the town having been disfranchised for its independent course, Williams, more moved than became his office or himself, declared to his people, "that, if they would not separate as well from the churches of New England, as of Old, he would separate from them." And finally, when the Boston ministers sent a committee to Salem "to deal" with him, he disputed their ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and instead of retracting his principles, boldly told them that he was (6 ready to be bound, and banished, and even to die in New England."

The difficulties between Williams and the Colonial authorities were thus brought to a crisis. The people of Salem refused to follow him in his extremity of opposition to the government, and even his wife, disapproving of his course, assailed him with reproaches; his health, also, seemed about to fail. Summoned before the General Court, he was charged with maintaining, "First, That the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the first table, otherwise than in such cases as did disturb the civil peace; Secondly, That he ought not to tender an oath to an unregenerate man; Thirdly, That he ought not to pray with such, though wife, child, &c.; Fourthly, That a man ought not to give thanks after