Seeking simple worship and personal intimacy with God, Puritan ministers were compelled-upon pain of imprisonment-to wear the surplice and use the Book of Common Prayer, and their congregants were compelled to participate in what they regarded as rote worship. These Puritans were disgusted with what they regarded as corruption in the Church of England and the tyranny of the crown. The American part of the story began when John Winthrop led 1,000 men, women and children to plant the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Its repercussions would be immense and reach into the present. It was also thick with history, for it concerned both the relationship between church and state and defining the very nature of state power.
So the conflict between Williams and his accusers nearly 400 years ago was inevitable. The error, he believed, was not his, and when convinced he was right he backed away from no one. With someone like him, they could not compromise.įor his part, Williams was not about to compromise, either, despite his benevolent intelligence and Christian charity. They did not regard such traits as assets, however, for those traits only made the preacher more dangerous in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Even the most bitter opponents of Roger Williams recognized in him that combination of charm, confidence and intensity a later age would call charisma.
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