When thinking about the Constitution of the United States, names like James Madison usually come to mind. But a friend of the great "architect of the Constitution," John Leland, a Baptist minister, had much to do with Madison's giant accomplishments. In fact, without Mr. Leland's influence the establishment clause in the First Amendment may not exist as we know it. In this series of articles we will explore the critical but little-known role played by the Baptists in helping to secure America’s cherished religious freedoms. In the second article we look at the important and lasting influence of Roger Williams, a 17th century religious thinker who argued for religious freedom.
Victor Gamma explains. You can read part 1 on the persecution suffered by Baptists in 17th century America here.
Return of Roger Williams from England with the First Charter, 1644. From a painting by C.R. Grant.
Last time we looked at some early examples of how Baptists resisted state control of religion and some of their motives and the reasons for conflict with the established church. In this next article we will examine the impact and career of one of the most famous early colonists: Roger Williams. Not only is he credited with establishing the first Baptist church in America, he was an early champion of quintessential American liberal ideals such as separation of church and state, fairness in dealings with Native Americans and the abolition of slavery. In holding these convictions, Williams was far in advance of most contemporaries. Naturally, such sentiments did not sit well with the austere Puritans, especially when expounded by someone like Williams, who was one of those people who insist on loudly proclaiming all the vagaries of their conscience regardless of the consequence.
Williams was not the first nonconformist to set foot in the New England wilderness. Massachusetts would be the scene of the first confrontation in the long Baptist contest for freedom of conscience. In 1620 the first dissenters from England arrived when 102 settlers came to Plymouth. Many were members of a separatist group under the leadership of John Robinson. Soon the settlement attracted a variety of those seeking religious freedom. However, in the Great Migration of the 1630s, large numbers of non-separating Puritans began settling in the colony. These Puritans believed that, for all its faults, the Church of England was still a true church.
The early clashes with the Puritan establishment represent the first phase of the Baptist quest for liberty: the right to simply exist and gather together as a body. This goal was achieved by the end of the seventeenth century. Leading this early effort was the brilliant, idealistic and combative visionary Roger Williams. In England the harsh treatment of dissenters by Archbishop Laud, led Williams, who had become a Puritan, to immigrate to Massachusetts in 1631. Soon after arriving, Williams broke with the Church of England entirely and, after offending the authorities at Boston with his nonconformist views, moved to Salem where he worked with a separatist congregation for a time before moving to Plymouth. It did not take long for the outspoken Williams to clash with the establishment again.
An Exile Founds a Colony
The Massachusetts government found it impossible to ignore this charismatic and persuasive man in their young colony who would not back down nor be silenced. He was also a threat due to his intelligence. A precocious youth, Sir Edward Coke had discovered him as a mere lad recording Star Chamber speeches and sermons in shorthand. For his part, Williams forced the issue by the bold and perhaps intemperate manner of his proclamation on the doctrine of tolerance and by sternly questioning the right of the king and the colonial government to appropriate lands from Native Americans without recompense. The state, Williams confidently asserted, has power only over “the Bodies and Goods, and outward state of men.” He argued that civil magistracy has no legitimate right to persecute citizens for their beliefs. He also refused to acknowledge the legality of a church-state alliance such as existed in Massachusetts. Massachusetts in turn condemned Williams, linking him with John Smyth, the founder of the Baptist Church. The official charges against Williams stated that he “hath broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates, as also writ letters of defamation both of the magistrates and churches here.” The ‘letters of defamation’ consisted of an appeal to the charter Williams had written and a letter he wrote to his congregation regarding the separation of church and state. The sentence of banishment read, “It is therefore ordered that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction within six weeks now next ensuing, which, if he neglect to perform, it shall be lawful for the governor and two of the magistrates to send him to some place out of this jurisdiction, not to return any more without license from the court.”
The ruling caused such an uproar in Salem, that the Magistrates began to reconsider their decision and extended the time of his required leaving into the spring. Williams regarded this as a sign of leniency and began to proclaim his radical views all the more loudly, to which he now added that he was an Anabaptist, denying the validity of infant baptism. This outburst ended any sympathy Williams had preserved among the majority of settlers and led Governor Haynes to resolve to remove this thorn in the side of the colony and deposit him back to England immediately. Having learned that Williams’ refused a summons to appear at court in Boston, a vessel was dispatched to Salem for his arrest. Warned by former Governor Winthrop, Williams and some followers, in the midst of a New England winter, escaped and made their way with the help of local tribes to Narraganset Bay in what is now Rhode Island.
Of his new colony Williams wrote, “I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed of conscience...” and he worked hard to make that statement a reality. In 1640 the Providence township articles of government announced: “We agree, as formerly been the liberties of the Town, so still to hold forth Liberty of Conscience.” After some years of hosting church meetings in his home, Williams established the first Baptist Church in America in 1638. Settlers and refugees of a similar mind, including Anne Hutchinson and her family, soon formed communities nearby. These settlements maintained a loose association until threats against their independence led them in 1643 to seek to become an English Colony. Accordingly Roger Williams set out for England in 1644 to secure a charter.
The tolerant reputation of Rhode Island quickly spread and soon non-conformists such as Quakers were making Rhode Island their home. True to his word, Williams, although opposed to the Society of Friends, allowed them to live in the colony, freely holding their meetings and discussing their beliefs. Soon Rhode Island became an example to other colonies. Rhode Island’s religious pluralism also drew criticism. It led Cotton Mather to write, “There never was held such a variety of religious together on so small a spot of ground . . . Antinomians, Familists, Anabaptists, Antisabbatarians, Arminians, Socinians, Quakers, Ranters—everything in the world but Roman Catholics and real Christians.”
A "Bloudy" Controversy
Restless as ever, Williams did not remain with the Baptists for long, but nonetheless, his example and writings had a powerful influence on the future of the Baptist Church as well as the cause of religious liberty. Many of Williams’ most influential writings appeared in a series of treatises written as part of a long-standing debate with Cotton Mather, who defended the Standing Order. Mather issued statements and correspondence which argued for state support of religious uniformity. Williams first took aim at the Puritan Divine in 1644 with The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed. In this treatise, Williams attacked religious and political intolerance. Cotton Mather returned fire with The Bloudy Tenant, Washed, and Made White in the Bloud of the Lamb, in 1647. After returning from England in 1652, Williams' answered with The Bloudy Tenent, yet more Bloudy: by Mr. Cotton’s Endeavor to Wash it White in the Bloud of the Lambe. In these works, Williams laid out his beliefs on religious liberty, namely; that God alone can judge the conscience, the use of force by the civil authority in matters of religion is entirely ineffective and in fact an evil against God’s design and contrary to Christ’s methods, and non-Christians could be good citizens. Williams limited the role of government to non-religious matters such as maintaining order and justice. The Bloudy Tenantmade full use of the Williams skills at argumentation and was written in the form of a dialogue between Truth and Peace. Williams has both Peace and Truth plead movingly against religious persecution:
Peace: Dear Truth I have two sad complaints. First, the most sober of your witnesses that dare to plead your cause, how are they charged to be mine enemies—contentions, turbulent, seditious! Secondly, your enemies, though they speak and rail against you, though they outrageously pursue, imprison, banish, kill your faithful witnesses, yet how is all need over for justice against the heretics!
The words and deeds of Roger Williams gave a powerful impulse to the cause of religious freedom. Williams’ impact went well beyond a controversy with the Massachusetts religious establishment, his writings would be cited as philosophical support for John Locke, The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the writings of Thomas Jefferson on religious liberty.
In part 3 (here), How the Baptists Ensured Religious Freedom, you can read about another heroic defender of religious liberty (there seems to be no end of them!), the early Rhode Island colony and the early Baptists in Massachusetts.
What do you think of the article? Let us know below.
