Roger Williams was one of those remarkable people who are ready to give to others the freedom that they themselves have been denied. Like the other Puritans in the colony of Massachusetts he had been forced to leave Britain because he opposed the Church of England. But unlike them he refused to turn around and do the same to others. The Puritans of Massachussetts were quite prepared to force their own religious practices on everyone in their colony, including compelling them to attend church. Anyone who thought otherwise got thrown out.
The English Puritans brought this idea of a state church to their colony of Massachussetts. Although they rejected the monopoly of the Catholic Church, the Reformers simply tried to substitute a different state religion. They still accepted the traditional Church doctrine that "error has no rights". Not until the Enlightenment was this replaced by the notion that religious freedom was a human right.
Roger Williams' amazing accomplishment
Roger Williams fled England to avoid coming under the Anglican Church, but he soon separated himself from the Puritan church of his new home in the colonies, as well. He found himself at odds with the government of Massachusetts when he asserted that the Colony had no right to steal Indian lands, deny the vote to the unsaved, or to prosecute civil crimes under religious statutes. In fact, said Williams, "The civil magistrate's power extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward state of men..." Roger Williams was the first to speak of the "wall of separation" between church and state. [1]
In 1635 he was accused of holding "dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates" and formally banished from Massachusetts. Once more Williams was told: "My way or the highway", and he was determined never to do this to others. The next year he purchased land from the Narragansett tribe to found a haven for dissenters. His Colony of Rhode Island welcomed those who faced persecution elsewhere, such as Jews, Quakers and Deists.
Yet although he had created a haven in the American woods where church and state were separated and no one faced persecution, Roger Williams still tried to give secularism an otherworldy justification. The wall of separation, he maintained, would help to protect the true religion, whichever it might turn out to be.
Williams felt that government is the natural way provided by God to cope with the corrupt nature of man. But since government could not be trusted to know which religion is true, he considered the best hope for true religion the protection of the freedom of all religion, along with nonreligion, from the state. [2]
Like other Reformers of the 17th century, he felt that humans were owned by God and only had duties to their Creator. The concept of rights, which was needed to underpin his secularism, didn't yet exist. It wasn't until the Enlightenment in the next century that the idea of religious freedom was shifted from heaven to earth. Religious freedom came to be seen as a human right.
How did he do it?
Roger Williams had an unusual background which gave him special insight and led him to conclusions that were far ahead of his time. His life taught him three things and when he drew the consequences, a powerful new idea was born: that there should be a wall between church and state.
The English Puritans brought this idea of a state church to their colony of Massachussetts. Although they rejected the monopoly of the Catholic Church, the Reformers simply tried to substitute a different state religion. They still accepted the traditional Church doctrine that "error has no rights". Not until the Enlightenment was this replaced by the notion that religious freedom was a human right.
Roger Williams' amazing accomplishment
Roger Williams fled England to avoid coming under the Anglican Church, but he soon separated himself from the Puritan church of his new home in the colonies, as well. He found himself at odds with the government of Massachusetts when he asserted that the Colony had no right to steal Indian lands, deny the vote to the unsaved, or to prosecute civil crimes under religious statutes. In fact, said Williams, "The civil magistrate's power extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward state of men..." Roger Williams was the first to speak of the "wall of separation" between church and state. [1]
In 1635 he was accused of holding "dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates" and formally banished from Massachusetts. Once more Williams was told: "My way or the highway", and he was determined never to do this to others. The next year he purchased land from the Narragansett tribe to found a haven for dissenters. His Colony of Rhode Island welcomed those who faced persecution elsewhere, such as Jews, Quakers and Deists.
Yet although he had created a haven in the American woods where church and state were separated and no one faced persecution, Roger Williams still tried to give secularism an otherworldy justification. The wall of separation, he maintained, would help to protect the true religion, whichever it might turn out to be.
Williams felt that government is the natural way provided by God to cope with the corrupt nature of man. But since government could not be trusted to know which religion is true, he considered the best hope for true religion the protection of the freedom of all religion, along with nonreligion, from the state. [2]
Like other Reformers of the 17th century, he felt that humans were owned by God and only had duties to their Creator. The concept of rights, which was needed to underpin his secularism, didn't yet exist. It wasn't until the Enlightenment in the next century that the idea of religious freedom was shifted from heaven to earth. Religious freedom came to be seen as a human right.
How did he do it?
Roger Williams had an unusual background which gave him special insight and led him to conclusions that were far ahead of his time. His life taught him three things and when he drew the consequences, a powerful new idea was born: that there should be a wall between church and state.
● He was born about 1603, the year that Queen Elizabeth I died, and grew up in London on the northwest fringes of the city. The Williams family lived beside the open area called Smithfield, near the sheep-pen section on its western edge. This large field was where markets were held (even two centuries later the picture shows the sheep pens) and also where fairs took place and other festivities as well, such as the burning of religious heretics.
Roger Williams was about eight years old when the last person ever burned in London for his religious opinions met his death at Smithfield. This man, Bartholomew Legate, was a preacher in a liberal religious group called the "Seekers". They sought for religious truth on their own and did not feel compelled to accept any dogma simply because any church said it was true.
This was a dangerous position to take. The Church of England court tried Bartholomew Legate on charges of heresy and then handed him over to the state to carry out the death sentence. (Churchmen, of course, never stained their hands with blood.) On the orders of the new king, James I, this Seeker was burned to death at Smithfield, right in front of the Williams home. This must have made a strong impression on the gifted little boy: church and state had colluded in order to deliver a brave man to a horrible death. As Roger Williams wrote later, from that time onwards, he too adopted the position of the Seekers who refused to bow to the state church and insisted on trying to find their own way. [3] His goal became "a Libertie of searching after Gods most holy mind and pleasure." [4]
● Another strand in the thought of Roger Williams was what was known as "Separatism". This was a logical extension of the Protestant Reformation. Like other Protestants, the Anglicans of the English Church had broken away from the Catholic Church which they felt had become corrupted and no longer represented the "pure" form of the early church. Soon the Puritans, in turn, broke away from the Church of England, to purify it, as well.
Soon the Massachusetts authorities encountered further problems with the young Puritan preacher. Not content to challenge the legitimacy of the English Church, he began to question the purity of the Puritan one, and finally decided he must separate from that, as well.
The impulse of separation was a natural extension of the perception of spiritual stain and impurity, and Puritans saw stain everywhere. Central to Puritan ecclesiology was the line of demarcation between the godly and ungodly, the holy and the profane. [6]
In the 17th century this drive to avoid spiritual impurity led to a series of further separations, as new churches separated from the churches which had themselves separated from Rome.
● However, without a third crucial experience, Williams could never have made the bold leap and founded a colony where everyone enjoyed complete religious freedom. In the 17th century it was assumed that a common religion was necessary to ensure social peace. This was the lesson that Europe had drawn from that century's devastating religious wars. Furthermore, to ensure the authority of the state, this common religion should be a state church, in other words, all subjects must follow the religion of their rulers. Otherwise, it was feared, they might try to topple the king and install one of their own faith. This had indeed been attempted when Roger Williams was a baby: the Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to bring back a Catholic king. This plot, though foiled, inspired religious oppression of Catholics and created a vicious circle of suspicion and disaffection that was only ended by the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829.
However, Roger Williams knew that this tragic cycle of exclusion was totally unnecessary.
Roger Williams had gone among the Indians to teach them Christianity but, true to his Seeker beliefs, he had remained open-minded. He let the Indians teach him a lesson that he could learn nowhere else: that church and state could be separated.
When Roger Williams was exiled from Massachusetts in 1636 he and a few companions founded a little settlement. There church and state were completely separate and they underlined their religious motives for doing this by naming it Providence. Overlooking the river they built their timber-framed cottages, the wattle-and-daub walls protected from the rain by the deep eaves of thatched roofs. Behind the cottages, in a field which rose to the foot of the bluffs, they planted their multicoloured Indian corn.
Life in the new settlement proved a struggle. In fact, the next year, when the Governor of Massachusetts paid a visit to the impetuous young preacher, he was so touched by their poverty that he pressed a gold piece into Mrs. Williams' hand. The hamlet was small, mosquito-infested, pig-ridden, dirt-laned, isolated, insecure and poor. Yet at that time it was perhaps the freest place on earth. [7]
1. Ronald Bruce Meyer, "Roger Williams Banished (1635): Separation of Church and State".
Roger Williams was about eight years old when the last person ever burned in London for his religious opinions met his death at Smithfield. This man, Bartholomew Legate, was a preacher in a liberal religious group called the "Seekers". They sought for religious truth on their own and did not feel compelled to accept any dogma simply because any church said it was true.
This was a dangerous position to take. The Church of England court tried Bartholomew Legate on charges of heresy and then handed him over to the state to carry out the death sentence. (Churchmen, of course, never stained their hands with blood.) On the orders of the new king, James I, this Seeker was burned to death at Smithfield, right in front of the Williams home. This must have made a strong impression on the gifted little boy: church and state had colluded in order to deliver a brave man to a horrible death. As Roger Williams wrote later, from that time onwards, he too adopted the position of the Seekers who refused to bow to the state church and insisted on trying to find their own way. [3] His goal became "a Libertie of searching after Gods most holy mind and pleasure." [4]
● Another strand in the thought of Roger Williams was what was known as "Separatism". This was a logical extension of the Protestant Reformation. Like other Protestants, the Anglicans of the English Church had broken away from the Catholic Church which they felt had become corrupted and no longer represented the "pure" form of the early church. Soon the Puritans, in turn, broke away from the Church of England, to purify it, as well.
However, tampering with a state church was a highly political thing to attempt. It was safer to conduct this religious experiment overseas, and a group of Puritans managed to get a charter from King Charles I to found the Colony of Massachusetts a good safe distance away. This allowed them to separate from the English Church in all but name. In the New World they were under no bishop and each congregation ran its own affairs. They had to be quiet about it, of course, since the Church of England was increasingly hostile to Puritanism and what King Charles had given, he could also take away. [5] The last thing the Colony of Massachusetts needed was an open separatist like Roger Williams who advocated a break with the Church of England in public.
Soon the Massachusetts authorities encountered further problems with the young Puritan preacher. Not content to challenge the legitimacy of the English Church, he began to question the purity of the Puritan one, and finally decided he must separate from that, as well.
The impulse of separation was a natural extension of the perception of spiritual stain and impurity, and Puritans saw stain everywhere. Central to Puritan ecclesiology was the line of demarcation between the godly and ungodly, the holy and the profane. [6]
In the 17th century this drive to avoid spiritual impurity led to a series of further separations, as new churches separated from the churches which had themselves separated from Rome.
However, one of the remarkable things about Roger Williams is that unlike others, he did not set himself up as the leader of some new and purer church — even though his status as the founder of a new colony might have let him easily assume that role. Instead, he remained true to his Seeker beliefs, unwilling to impose some new orthodoxy on others, even in the name of spiritual purity. Thus he didn't separate in order to found a new church, but in order to keep any church from impeding the earnest search to learn God's will.
● However, without a third crucial experience, Williams could never have made the bold leap and founded a colony where everyone enjoyed complete religious freedom. In the 17th century it was assumed that a common religion was necessary to ensure social peace. This was the lesson that Europe had drawn from that century's devastating religious wars. Furthermore, to ensure the authority of the state, this common religion should be a state church, in other words, all subjects must follow the religion of their rulers. Otherwise, it was feared, they might try to topple the king and install one of their own faith. This had indeed been attempted when Roger Williams was a baby: the Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to bring back a Catholic king. This plot, though foiled, inspired religious oppression of Catholics and created a vicious circle of suspicion and disaffection that was only ended by the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829.
However, Roger Williams knew that this tragic cycle of exclusion was totally unnecessary.People didn't need a common church — or even any church at all — to live in harmony with their neighbours. He had experienced something that his contemporaries believed to be impossible, for he had lived among the Indians of Rhode Island, the Narrangasett, and even written a book about their language. He knew firsthand that people could tell the truth without swearing on the Bible, could help their fellows without any religious duty to do so and could keep the peace without oaths of allegiance to a divinely-appointed ruler.
Roger Williams had gone among the Indians to teach them Christianity but, true to his Seeker beliefs, he had remained open-minded. He let the Indians teach him a lesson that he could learn nowhere else: that church and state could be separated.
When Roger Williams was exiled from Massachusetts in 1636 he and a few companions founded a little settlement. There church and state were completely separate and they underlined their religious motives for doing this by naming it Providence. Overlooking the river they built their timber-framed cottages, the wattle-and-daub walls protected from the rain by the deep eaves of thatched roofs. Behind the cottages, in a field which rose to the foot of the bluffs, they planted their multicoloured Indian corn.
Life in the new settlement proved a struggle. In fact, the next year, when the Governor of Massachusetts paid a visit to the impetuous young preacher, he was so touched by their poverty that he pressed a gold piece into Mrs. Williams' hand. The hamlet was small, mosquito-infested, pig-ridden, dirt-laned, isolated, insecure and poor. Yet at that time it was perhaps the freest place on earth. [7]
Notes
For a selection of Roger Williams' writing online see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Williams
For a selection of Roger Williams' writing online see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Williams
1. Ronald Bruce Meyer, "Roger Williams Banished (1635): Separation of Church and State".
2. Cyclone Covey, The Gentle Radical: Roger Williams. New York: The MaCmillian Co., 1966, cover leaf. Cited at: http://users.erols.com/igoddard/roger.htm
3. Ibid., p. 3.
4. Ibid., p. xi.
5. Timothy L. Hall, Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and religious liberty, (University of Illinois Press, 1997), p. 24.
6. Ibid., p. 23.
7. Covey, p. 134.
4. Ibid., p. xi.
5. Timothy L. Hall, Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and religious liberty, (University of Illinois Press, 1997), p. 24.
6. Ibid., p. 23.
7. Covey, p. 134.
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