Examine individual changes

'{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Other people|Roger Williams}} {{Infobox governor | image = Roger_Williams_statue_by_Franklin_Simmons.jpg | caption = Roger Williams statue by [[Franklin Simmons]] |order1 = 9th |office1 = President of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations |term_start1 = 1654 |term_end1 = 1657 |predecessor1 = [[Nicholas Easton]] |successor1 = [[Benedict Arnold (governor)|Benedict Arnold]] | birth_date = 21 December 1603 | birth_place = London, England | death_date = between 27 January and 15 March 1683 (aged 79) | death_place = [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]], [[Rhode Island]] | occupation = [[Reformed]] minister,Zxv203 john adams@)(&hd<ref>'''lmn''''''Bold text'''</ref> statesman, author, [[Reformed Baptist]] preacher | title= | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party =jff|||♣♦«₳₳₳₳₳₳₳₳₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢₢» | alma_mater = [[Pembrokecn College, Cambridge]] | spouse = Mary Barnard | children = 6 | relations =0 | website =google | footnotes =he wa~s gay | signature = Roger Williams signature.fst }} '''Roger Williams''' (c. 21 December 1603 – between 27 January and 15 March 1683)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Roger-Williams-American-religious-leader|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica|title=Roger Williams (American religious leader)|accessdate=5 February 2017}}</ref> was a [[Puritan]] minister, English [[Reformed]] theologian, and [[Reformed Baptist]] who founded the [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations]]. He was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, [[separation of church and state]], and fair dealings with [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]], and he was one of the first [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]].<ref name="history">{{cite web|title=Roger Williams|url=http://www.history.com/topics/roger-williams|website=History.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks|accessdate=26 January 2018|date=2009}}</ref><ref name = "smith"/> Williams was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] for spreading "new and dangerous ideas", and he began settling the [[Providence Plantations]] as a refuge offering what he called "liberty of conscience" in 1636. In 1638, he founded the [[First Baptist Church in America]], also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence.<ref>{{Cite web| url= http://www.abc-usa.org/what_we_believe/our-history/|title=Our History|website=American Baptist Churches USA|language=en-US|access-date=22 March 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://loc.gov/pictures/item/ri0188/|title=First Baptist Meetinghouse, 75 North Main Street, Providence, Providence County, RI|website=Library of Congress}}</ref> He was a student of [[Native American languages]], and he organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the [[British colonization of the Americas|British American colonies]].<ref name = "smith"/> ==Early life== Roger Williams was born in [[London]] around 1603, though the exact date is unknown because his birth records were destroyed in the [[Great Fire of London]] of 1666 when [[St Sepulchre-without-Newgate|St Sepulchre's Church]] was burned.<ref>William Gammell, ''Life of Roger Williams, the Founder of the State of Rhode Island'', Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 59 Washington Street. 1854</ref><ref>Romeo Elton, ''Life of Roger Williams, the earliest Legislator and true Champion for a Full and Absolute Liberty of Conscience'', London: Albert Cockshaw, 41, Ludgate Hill. New York: G.P. Putnam London: Miall and Cockhaw, Printers, Horse-Shoe Court, Ludgate Hill</ref><ref>James D. Knowles, ''Memoir of Roger Williams the Founder of the State of Rhode-Island'', Boston: Lincoln, Edmands and Co. 1834 Lewis & Penniman, Printers. Bromfield-street.</ref><ref>Rev. Z.A. Mudge, ''Foot-Prints of Roger Williams: A Biography, with sketches of important events in early New England History, with which he was connected'', New York: Carlton & Lanahan. San Francisco: E. Thomas. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Waldon. Sunday-School Department. (Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871)</ref> His father James Williams (1562–1620) was a merchant tailor in [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]], and his mother was Alice Pemberton (1564–1635). He had a spiritual conversion at an early age, of which his father disapproved. As a teen, Williams was apprenticed under Sir [[Edward Coke]] (1552–1634) the famous [[jurist]]. He was educated at [[Charterhouse School]] under Coke's patronage, and also at [[Pembroke College, Cambridge]] (Bachelor of Arts, 1627).<ref>{{acad|id=WLMS623R||name=Williams, Roger}}</ref> He seemed to have a gift for languages and early acquired familiarity with [[Latin]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], and French. Years later, he tutored [[John Milton]] in Dutch in exchange for refresher lessons in Hebrew.<ref>Pfeiffer, Robert H. (April 1955). "The Teaching of Hebrew in Colonial America". ''The Jewish Quarterly Review''. pp. 363–73. {{JSTOR|1452938}}.</ref> Williams took [[holy orders]] in the [[Church of England]] in connection with his studies, but he became a [[Puritan]] at Cambridge and thus ruined his chance for preferment in the Anglican church. After graduating from Cambridge, he became the chaplain to [[Sir William Masham, 1st Baronet|Sir William Masham]]. He married Mary Barnard (1609–76) on 15 December 1629 at the Church of [[High Laver]], [[Essex, England]]. They ultimately had six children, all born in America: Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel, and Joseph. Williams knew that Puritan leaders planned to migrate to the New World. He did not join the first wave, but he decided before the year ended that he could not remain in England under Archbishop [[William Laud]]'s rigorous administration. He regarded the Church of England as corrupt and false, and he had arrived at the [[Separatist]] position by the time that he and his wife boarded the ''Lyon'' in early December, 1630.<ref>[http://www.mocavo.com/A-Brief-History-of-Jacob-Belfry-Sen-With-a-Sketch-of-His-Wife-and-Family-and-Their-Descendants-Containing-Also-an-Outline-of-Sherman-Genealogy-and-Biography/103056/48 "A Brief history of Jacob Belfry" Page 40, 1888]</ref> ==Life in America== The Boston church offered Williams a post in 1631 filling in for Rev. John Wilson<ref name="smith">{{cite news|last1=Barry|first1=John M.|title=God, Government and Roger Williams’ Big Idea|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280/|accessdate=27 January 2018|work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)| Smithsonian]]|date=January 2012}}</ref> while Wilson returned to England to fetch his wife. However, Williams declined the position on grounds that it was "an unseparated church". In addition, he asserted that civil magistrates must not punish any sort of "breach of the first table" of the [[Ten Commandments]] such as idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, false worship, and blasphemy, and that individuals should be free to follow their own convictions in religious matters. These three principles became central to his teachings and writings: separatism, liberty of conscience, and [[separation of church and state]]. ===Salem and Plymouth=== As a Separatist, Williams considered the [[Church of England]] irredeemably corrupt and believed that one must completely separate from it to establish a new church for the true and pure worship of God. The [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]] church was also inclined to Separatism, and they invited him to become their teacher. The leaders in Boston vigorously protested, and Salem withdrew its offer. As the summer of 1631 ended, Williams moved to [[Plymouth Colony]] where he was welcomed, and he informally assisted the minister there. He regularly preached and, according to [[William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor)|Governor William Bradford]], "his teachings were well approved". [[File:Roger Williams house in Salem MA USA.jpg|thumb|right|''Roger Williams House (or "[[The Witch House]]")'' in [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]] c. 1910]] After a time, Williams decided that the Plymouth church was not sufficiently separated from the Church of England. Furthermore, his contact with the [[Narragansett people|Narragansett Indians]] had caused him to question the validity of the colonial charters that did not include legitimate purchase of Indian land. Governor Bradford later wrote that Williams fell "into some strange opinions which caused some controversy between the church and him".<ref>Quoted in Edwin Gaustad,''Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America'' Judson Press, 1999, p. 28.</ref> In December 1632, Williams wrote a lengthy tract that openly condemned the King's charters and questioned the right of Plymouth to the land without first buying it from the Indians. He even charged that [[King James I of England|King James]] had uttered a "solemn lie" in claiming that he was the first Christian monarch to have discovered the land. Williams moved back to Salem by the fall of 1633 and was welcomed by Rev. [[Samuel Skelton]] as an unofficial assistant. ===Litigation and exile=== [[Image:Massasoit statue plymouth 2007.jpg|thumb|Statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, overlooking the site of [[Plymouth Rock]]]] The Massachusetts Bay authorities were not pleased at Williams' return. In December 1633, they summoned him to appear before the General Court in Boston to defend his tract attacking the King and the charter. The issue was smoothed out, and the tract disappeared forever, probably burned. In August 1634, Williams became acting pastor of the Salem church, the Rev. Skelton having died. In March 1635, he was again ordered to appear before the General Court, and he was summoned yet again for the Court's July term to answer for "erroneous" and "dangerous opinions". The Court finally ordered that he be removed from his church position. This latest controversy welled up as the town of Salem petitioned the General Court to annex some land on [[Marblehead, Massachusetts|Marblehead]] Neck. The Court refused to consider the request unless the church in Salem removed Williams. The church felt that this order violated their independence, and sent a letter of protest to the other churches. However, the letter was not read publicly in those churches, and the General Court refused to seat the delegates from Salem at the next session. Support for Williams began to wane under this pressure, and he withdrew from the church and began meeting with a few of his most devoted followers in his home. Finally, in October 1635, the General Court tried Williams and convicted him of sedition and heresy. They declared that he was spreading "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions" <ref>LaFantasie, Glenn W., ed. ''The Correspondence of Roger Williams,'' University Press of New England, 1988, Vol. 1, pp.12–23.</ref> and ordered that he be banished. The execution of the order was delayed because Williams was ill and winter was approaching, so he was allowed to stay temporarily, provided that he ceased publicly teaching his opinions. He failed to do so, and the sheriff came in January 1636, only to discover that he had slipped away three days earlier during a blizzard. He traveled 55 miles through the deep snow, from Salem to [[Raynham, Massachusetts]] where the local [[Wampanoag people|Wampanoags]] offered him shelter at their winter camp. Their [[Sachem]] [[Massasoit]] hosted Williams for the three months until spring. ==Settlement at Providence== {{History of the United States|left}} [[File:Roger Williams and Narragansetts.jpg|thumb|Narragansett Indians receiving Roger Williams]] In the spring of 1636, Williams and a number of others from Salem began a new settlement on land which he had bought from Massasoit in [[Rumford, Rhode Island]]. However, Plymouth authorities asserted that he was within their land grant and were concerned that his presence there might anger the leaders of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Williams and his friends had already planted their crops, but they decided to move across the [[Seekonk River]] just the same, as that territory lay beyond any charter. The outcasts rowed across and encountered [[Narragansett (tribe)|Narragansett]] Indians who greeted them with the phrase, "What cheer, Neetop" (hello, friend). Williams acquired land from [[Canonicus]] and [[Miantonomoh|Miantonomi]], chief sachems of the Narragansetts. He and 12 "loving friends" then established a new settlement which Williams called "[[Providence Plantations|Providence]]" because he felt that God's Providence had brought them there.<ref>''An Album of Rhode Island History'' by Patrick T. Conley</ref> Williams named his third child Providence, the first to be born in the new settlement. Williams wanted his settlement to be a haven for those "distressed of conscience", and it soon attracted a collection of dissenters and otherwise-minded individuals. From the beginning, a [[majority rule|majority vote]] of the heads of households governed the new settlement, but only in civil things. Newcomers could also be admitted to full citizenship by a majority vote. In August 1637, a new town agreement again restricted the government to civil things. In 1640, 39 freemen (men who had full citizenship and voting rights) signed another agreement which declared their determination "still to hold forth liberty of conscience". Thus, Williams founded the first place in modern history where citizenship and religion were separate, providing [[religious liberty]] and [[separation of church and state]]. This was combined with the principle of [[majoritarian democracy]]. In November 1637, the General Court of Massachusetts disarmed, disenfranchised, and forced into exile some of the [[Antinomians]], including the followers of [[Anne Hutchinson]]. [[John Clarke (Baptist minister)|John Clarke]] was among them, and he learned from Williams that [[Aquidneck Island|Rhode Island]] might be purchased from the Narragansetts; Williams helped him to make the purchase, along with [[William Coddington]] and others, and they established the settlement of [[Portsmouth, Rhode Island|Portsmouth]]. In spring 1638, some of those settlers split away and founded the nearby settlement of [[Newport, Rhode Island|Newport]], also situated on Rhode Island (which is today called Aquidneck Island). ===Pequot War and relations with Indians=== {{Refimprove section|date=September 2016}} In the meantime, the [[Pequot War]] had broken out. Massachusetts Bay asked for Williams' help, which he gave despite his exile, and he became the Bay colony's eyes and ears, and also dissuaded the Narragansetts from joining with the Pequots. Instead, the Narragansetts allied themselves with the Colonists and helped to crush the Pequots in 1637–38. The Narragansetts thus became the most powerful Indian tribe in southern New England. Williams formed firm friendships and developed deep trust among the Indian tribes, especially the Narragansetts. He was able to keep the peace between the Indians and the [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations]] for nearly 40 years by his constant mediation and negotiation. He twice surrendered himself as a hostage to the Indians to guarantee the safe return of a great [[sachem]] from a summons to a court: Pessicus in 1645 and [[Metacom]] ("King Philip") in 1671. Williams was trusted by the Indians more than any other Colonist, and he proved trustworthy. However, the other New England colonies began to fear and mistrust the Narragansetts, and soon came to regard the Rhode Island colony as a common enemy. In the next three decades, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth exerted pressure to destroy both Rhode Island and the Narragansetts. In 1643, the neighboring colonies formed a military alliance called the United Colonies which pointedly excluded the towns around Narragansett Bay. The object was to put an end to the heretic settlements, which they considered an infection. In response, Williams traveled to England to secure a charter for the colony. ===Return to England and charter matters=== Williams arrived in London in the midst of the [[English Civil War]]. Puritans held power in London, and he was able to obtain a charter through the offices of [[Sir Henry Vane the Younger]] despite strenuous opposition from Massachusetts' agents. His first published book ''[[A Key into the Language of America]]'' (1643) proved crucial to the success of his charter, albeit indirectly.<ref>Gaustad, Edwin S.,''Liberty of Conscience'' (Judson Press, 1999), p. 62</ref><ref>Ernst, ''Roger Williams: New England Firebrand'' (Macmillan, 1932), p. 227-228</ref> It combined a phrase-book with observations about life and culture as an aid to communicate with the Indians of [[New England]], covering everything from salutations to death and burial. Williams also sought to correct English attitudes of superiority toward the American Indians: <blockquote> Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood;<br />Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good.<br />Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All,<br />As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal. </blockquote> ''Key'' was the first dictionary of any Indian language, and it fed the great curiosity of English people about the American Indians. It was printed by John Milton's publisher [[Gregory Dexter]] who had become a resident of [[Providence Plantations]], and it quickly became a bestseller and provided Williams with a large and favorable reputation. [[File:Return of Roger Williams.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Return of Roger Williams from England with the First Charter from Parliament for [[Providence Plantations]] in July 1644]] Williams secured his charter from Parliament for Providence Plantations in July 1644, after which he published his most famous book ''[[The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience]]''. This produced great uproar, and Parliament responded in August by ordering the public hangman to burn all copies—but Williams himself was already on his way back to New England. It took Williams several years to get the four towns around Narragansett Bay to unite under a single government because of William Coddington's opposition on Aquidneck Island (which they called Rhode Island at the time), but the four settlements finally united in 1647 into the [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations]]. Freedom of conscience was again proclaimed, and the colony became a safe haven for people who were persecuted for their beliefs, including Baptists, Quakers, and Jews. Still, the divisions between the towns and powerful personalities did not bode well for the colony. Coddington never liked Williams, nor did he like being subordinated to the new charter government. He sailed to England and returned to Rhode Island in 1651 with [[William Coddington#Coddington commission|his own patent]] making him "Governor for Life" over Aquidneck Island and Conanicut Island. As a result, Providence, Warwick, and Coddington's opponents on Aquidneck dispatched Roger Williams and John Clarke to England to get Coddington's commission canceled. Williams sold his trading post at Cocumscussec (near [[Wickford, Rhode Island]]) to pay for his journey even though it was his main source of income. Williams and Clarke succeeded in getting Coddington's patent rescinded, and Clarke remained in England for the next decade to protect the colonists' interests and secure a new charter. Williams returned to America in 1654 and was immediately elected the colony's President. He subsequently served in many offices in town and colonial governments. In 1641, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first laws to make slavery legal in the colonies, and these laws were applied in Plymouth and Connecticut with the creation of the United Colonies in 1643. Roger Williams and Samuel Gorton both opposed slavery, and Providence Plantations (Providence and Warwick) passed a law on 18 May 1652 intended to prevent slavery in the colony during the time when Coddington's followers had separated from Providence. However, when the four towns of the colony were reunited, the Aquidneck towns refused to accept this law, making it a dead letter.<ref>McLoughlin, William G. ''Rhode Island: A History'' (W.W. Norton, 1978), p. 26.</ref> For the next century, [[Newport, Rhode Island|Newport]] was the economic and political center of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and that town disregarded the anti-slavery law. Instead, Newport entered the [[African slave trade]] in 1700, after Williams' death, and became the leading port for American ships carrying slaves in the colonial American [[triangular trade]] until the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>Coughtry, Jay, ''The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700–1807'' (Temple University Press, 1981).</ref> ==Relations with the Baptists== [[File:First Baptist Church in America in RI.jpg|thumb|150px|left|[[First Baptist Church in America]]. Williams co-founded the congregation in 1638.]] By 1638, Williams had come to accept the idea of believer's baptism, or [[credobaptist|credobaptism]]. He had been holding services in his home for some time for his neighbors, many of whom had followed him from Salem. To that point, they had been like the Separatists of Plymouth, still believing in infant baptism. Williams came to accept the ideas of English antipedobaptists, that a valid baptism required knowing consent. [[John Smyth (1570-1612)|John Smyth]], [[Thomas Helwys]], and [[John Murton]] were co-founders of the [[General Baptist]] movement in England and had written extensively about liberty of conscience. Williams had commented on them in his ''Bloudy Tenent''. Smyth, Helwys, and Murton were General Baptists, but a [[Calvinism|Calvinistic]] Baptist variety grew out of some Separatists after 1640. Williams became a Calvinist or [[Reformed Baptist|Particular Baptist]]. However, Williams had not adopted antipedobaptist views before his banishment from Massachusetts, for that had not been a charge against him in those legal proceedings. Gov. Winthrop instead attributed Williams's "[[Anabaptist]]" views to the influence of Katherine Scott, a sister of [[Anne Hutchinson]]. It is possible that she impressed upon Williams the importance of believers' baptism, though it seems that Williams likely arrived there from his own studies.{{Citation needed|date=February 2016}} Ezekiel Holliman baptised Williams in late 1638.<ref>One frequently sees the founding date as March 1639. This reflects an entry in Governor [[John Winthrop]]'s journal about the new church in Providence, although the actual baptism had taken place sometime earlier.</ref> Thus began a church that still survives as the [[First Baptist Church in America]]. A few years later, [[Dr. John Clarke|John Clarke]], Williams' compatriot in the cause of religious freedom in the New World, established the [[First Baptist Church in Newport, Rhode Island]], which suddenly claimed to be the first Baptist church in America in 1847. If nothing else, Roger Williams had gathered and resigned from the Providence church before the town of Newport was even founded. Still, both Roger Williams and John Clarke are variously credited as being the founder of the Baptist faith in America.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/notables/clarke.htm | title = Newport Notables | publisher = Redwood Library. | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927062252/http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/notables/clarke.htm | archivedate = 27 September 2007 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> <!---the following paragraph is hidden because the citation is incomplete and the source is highly questionable: Williams remained a Baptist only briefly. After only a few months, he became convinced that the ordinances could not validly be restored, having been lost in the Apostasy (when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire), without a special divine commission. He declared: "There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."<ref>Quoted in ''Picturesque America'' p. 502.---> Williams never again affiliated himself with any church, but remained deeply religious and active in preaching and praying. He looked forward to the time when Christ would send a new apostle to restore the church but, in the meantime, he remained a "witness" to Christianity. Williams remained interested in the Baptists, agreeing with their rejection of [[infant baptism]] and most other matters. Both enemies and admirers sometimes called him a "[[Seekers|Seeker]]", first as a smear in England by associating Williams with a heretical movement that accepted [[Socinianism]] and [[Universal Reconciliation|universal salvation]]. Williams rejected both of these ideas.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960): ''History of Religion in the United States''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., p. 106</ref> ==King Philip's War and death== [[File:ProvidenceProspectParkMonumentStatehouse.jpg|right|thumb|230px|Williams' final resting place in [[Prospect Terrace Park]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]]]] [[File:Roger Williams Root.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The "Roger Williams Root" in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society]] [[King Philip's War]] (1675–1676) pitted the colonists against Indians with whom Williams had good relations in the past. Williams, although in his 70s, was elected captain of Providence's militia. That war proved to be one of the bitterest events in his life, as his efforts ended with the burning of Providence in March 1676, including his own house. Williams died in 1683 sometime between January and March and was buried on his own property. Fifty years later, his house collapsed into the cellar and the location of his grave was forgotten. According to the [[National Park Service]], in 1860, Providence residents determined to raise a monument in his honor "dug up the spot where they believed the remains to be, they found only nails, teeth, and bone fragments. They also found an apple tree root" which they thought followed the shape of a human body; the root followed the shape of a spine, split at the hips, bent at the knees, and turned up at the feet.<ref name="nps">{{cite news|last1=Bryant|first1=Sparkle|title=The Tree Root That Ate Roger Williams|url=https://www.nps.gov/rowi/learn/news/the-tree-root-that-ate-roger-williams.htm|accessdate=27 January 2018|work=NPS News Releases|publisher=National Park Service|date=19 October 2015}}</ref> The [[Rhode Island Historical Society]] has cared for this tree root since 1860 as representative of Rhode Island's founder, and has had it on display in the [[John Brown (Rhode Island)|John Brown]] House since 2007.<ref>Rhode Island Historical Society, "Body, Body, Who's Got the Body? Where in the World IS Roger Williams", ''New and Notes,'' (Spring/Winter, 2008), p. 4.</ref> ==Separation of church and state== Williams was a staunch advocate of [[separation of church and state]]. He was convinced that there was no scriptural basis for a state church, and historian Timothy Hall suggests that Williams had arrived at this conclusion before landing in Boston in 1631.<ref>{{cite book | author =Timothy Hall|title=Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wdsec97mwNwC&pg=PA72|year=1998|publisher=University of Illinois Press|page=72}}</ref> He declared that the state should concern itself only with matters of civil order, not with religious belief, and he rejected any attempt to enforce the "first Table" of the [[Ten Commandments]], those commandments that dealt with the relationship between God and individuals. Instead, Williams believed that the state must confine itself to the commandments dealing with the relations between people: murder, theft, adultery, lying, and honoring parents.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hall|title=Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wdsec97mwNwC&pg=PA77|year=1998|page=77}}</ref> He employed the metaphor of a "wall of separation" between church and state, which was later used by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in his ''[[Baptists in the history of separation of church and state#American Baptists|Letter to Danbury Baptists]]'' (1801).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280/ |title=God, Government and Roger Williams' Big Idea |last=Barry |first=John M. |date=January 2012 |website=Smithsonian |language=en |access-date=2017-12-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2009/05/14/shifting-boundaries4/ |title=''Everson'' and the Wall of Separation |date=14 May 2009 |work=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |publisher= Pew Research Center|language=en-US |access-date=13 December 2017}}</ref> Williams considered it "forced worship" if the state attempted to promote any particular religious idea or practice, and he declared, "Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.providenceri.com/archives/roger-williams-champion-of-religious | author = Lemons, Stanley | title = Roger Williams Champion of Religious Liberty | publisher = Providence, RI City Archives.}}</ref> He considered [[Constantine the Great]] to be a worse enemy to Christianity than [[Nero]] because the subsequent state support corrupted Christianity and led to the death of the Christian church. He described the attempt to compel belief as "rape of the soul" and spoke of the "oceans of blood" shed as a result of trying to command conformity.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chana B. Cox|title=Liberty: God's Gift to Humanity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2r2UBGf1nT4C&pg=PA26|year=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|page=26}}</ref> The moral principles in the Scriptures ought to inform the civil magistrates, he believed, but he observed that well-ordered, just, and civil governments existed even where Christianity was not present. Thus, all governments had to maintain civil order and justice, but Williams decided that none had a warrant to promote or repress any religion. Most of his contemporaries criticized his ideas as a prescription for chaos and anarchy, and the vast majority believed that each nation must have its national church and could require that dissenters conform. ==Writings== Williams's career as an author began with ''[[A Key into the Language of America]]'' (London, 1643), written during his first voyage to England. His next publication was ''Mr. Cotton's Letter lately Printed, Examined and Answered'' (London, 1644; reprinted in ''Publications of the Narragansett Club'', vol. ii, along with Cotton's letter which it answered). His most famous work is ''[[The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience]]'' (published in 1644), considered by some to be one of the best defenses of liberty of conscience.<ref>James Emanuel Ernst, Roger Williams, New England Firebrand (Macmillan Co., Rhode Island, 1932), pg. 246 [https://books.google.com/books?id=IsgMAAAAYAAJ&q=bloudy+tenent+of+persecution+vigor+style+roger+williams&dq=bloudy+tenent+of+persecution+vigor+style+roger+williams&pgis=1]</ref> An anonymous pamphlet was published in London in 1644 entitled ''Queries of Highest Consideration Proposed to Mr. Tho. Goodwin, Mr. Phillip Nye, Mr. Wil. Bridges, Mr. Jer. Burroughs, Mr. Sidr. Simpson, all Independents, etc.'' which is now ascribed to Williams. These "Independents" were members of the [[Westminster Assembly]]; their ''Apologetical Narration'' sought a way between extreme Separatism and Presbyterianism, and their prescription was to accept the state church model of Massachusetts Bay. Williams published ''The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody: by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb; of whose precious Blood, spilt in the Bloud of his Servants; and of the Blood of Millions spilt in former and later Wars for Conscience sake, that most Bloody Tenent of Persecution for cause of Conscience, upon, a second Tryal is found more apparently and more notoriously guilty, etc.'' (London, 1652) during his second visit to England. This work reiterated and amplified the arguments in ''Bloody Tenent'', but it has the advantage of being written in answer to Cotton's ''A Reply to Mr. Williams his Examination'' (''Publications of the Narragansett Club'', vol. ii.). Other works by Williams include: * ''The Hireling Ministry None of Christ's'' (London, 1652) * ''Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives'' (London, 1652; reprinted Providence, 1863) * ''[[George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes]] '' (Boston, 1676). A volume of his letters is included in the Narragansett Club edition of Williams' ''Works '' (7 vols., Providence, 1866–74), and a volume was edited by [[John Russell Bartlett|J. R. Bartlett]] (1882). * ''The Correspondence of Roger Williams,'' 2 vols., Rhode Island Historical Society, 1988, edited by Glenn W. LaFantasie. [[Brown University]]'s [[John Carter Brown Library]] has long housed a 234-page volume referred to as the "Roger Williams Mystery Book".<ref>{{cite web|last=Mason-Brown|first=Lucas|title=Cracking the Code: Infant Baptism and Roger Williams|url=http://blogs.brown.edu/jcbbooks/2012/07/11/cracking-the-code/|work=JCB Books Speak|accessdate=16 September 2012}}</ref> The margins of this book are filled with notations in handwritten code, believed to be the work of Roger Williams. In 2012, Brown University undergraduate Lucas Mason-Brown cracked the code and uncovered conclusive historical evidence attributing its authorship to Williams.<ref>{{cite web|last=Fischer|first=Suzanne|title=Personal Tech for the 17th Century|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/personal-tech-for-the-17th-century/255609/|work=The Atlantic|accessdate=16 September 2012}}</ref> Translations are revealing transcriptions of a geographical text, a medical text, and 20 pages of original notes addressing the issue of [[infant baptism]].<ref>{{cite news|last=McKinney|first=Michael|title=Reading Outside the Lines|url=https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/images/Reading%20outside%20the%20lines.pdf|accessdate=16 September 2012|newspaper=The Providence Journal|date=March 2012}}</ref> Mason-Brown has since discovered more writings by Williams employing a separate code in the margins of a rare edition of ''[[Eliot's Indian Bible]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Mason-Brown|first=Lucas|title=Cracking the Code: Infant Baptism and Roger Williams|url=http://blogs.brown.edu/jcbbooks/2012/07/11/cracking-the-code/|work=JCB Books Speak|publisher=Brown University|accessdate=16 September 2012}}</ref> ==Legacy== [[File:RWU Roger Williams Statue.jpg|thumb|The statue of Roger Williams at [[Roger Williams University]]]] Williams' legacy has grown over time with changing values. His defense of Native Americans, accusations that Puritans had reproduced the "evils" of the [[Anglican Church]], and denial that the king had authority to grant charters for colonies put him at the center of nearly every political debate during his life. By the time of [[United States Declaration of Independence|American independence]], however, he was considered a defender of [[religious freedom]] and has continued to be praised by generations of historians who have often altered their interpretation of his period as a whole. Tributes to Williams include: * [[Roger Williams National Memorial]], established in 1965, is a park in downtown Providence. * [[Roger Williams Park]], [[Providence, Rhode Island]], and the [[Roger Williams Park Zoo]] within it are named in his honor. * [[Roger Williams University]] in [[Bristol, Rhode Island|Bristol]], Rhode Island is named in his honor. * Roger Williams Dining Hall at the [[University of Rhode Island]] * Roger Williams Inn, the main dining hall at the [[American Baptist Churches USA|American Baptists]]' Green Lake Conference Center, founded in 1943 in [[Green Lake (town), Wisconsin|Green Lake, Wisconsin]] * Williams was selected in 1872 to represent Rhode Island in the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]] in the [[United States Capitol]]. * Williams is depicted on the [[Reformation Wall|International Monument to the Reformation]] in [[Geneva|Geneva, Switzerland]], along with other prominent reformers. * Williams is honored with [[Anne Hutchinson]] with a [[feast day]] on the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)|liturgical of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America]] on 5 February. * {{Find a Grave|4032}} * [[National Baptist Memorial Church]] in Washington, D.C. was originally conceived of as a memorial to Roger Williams and religious freedom, though the church that was eventually built does not include the proposed statue of Williams. ==See also== {{Portal|United States|North America|Rhode Island|Christianity|Biography|British Empire}} *[[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations]] *[[Rhode Island]] *[[List of early settlers of Rhode Island]] *[[John Cotton (puritan)]] *[[John Winthrop]] *[[Roger Williams National Memorial]] *[[Roger Williams Park]] ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} ==Further reading== * Barry, John, ''Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul'' (New York: Viking Press, 2012). * [[Teresa Bejan|Bejan, Teresa]], ''Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017). Addresses Roger Williams' ideas in dialogue with Hobbes and Locke, and suggests lessons from Williams for how to disagree well in the modern public sphere. *Brockunier, Samuel. ''The Irrepressible Democrat, Roger Williams'', (1940), popular biography *Burrage, Henry S. "Why Was Roger Williams Banished?" ''[[American Journal of Theology]]'' 5 (January 1901): 1–17. * Byrd, James P., Jr. ''The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible'' (2002). 286 pp. * Davis. Jack L. "Roger Williams among the Narragansett Indians", ''[[New England Quarterly]]'', Vol. 43, No. 4 (Dec. 1970), pp.&nbsp;593–604 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/363134 in JSTOR] * Field, Jonathan Beecher. "A Key for the Gate: Roger Williams, Parliament, and Providence", ''New England Quarterly'' 2007 80(3): 353–382 * Goodman, Nan. "Banishment, Jurisdiction, and Identity in Seventeenth-Century New England: The Case of Roger Williams", ''Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal'' Spring 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 1, pp 109–39. *Gaustad, Edwin, S. ''Roger Williams'' (Oxford University Press, 2005). 140 pp. short scholarly biography stressing religion *Gaustad, Edwin, S., ''Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America''. (Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1999). * Hall, Timothy L. ''Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty'' (1998). 206 pp. * Johnson, Alan E. ''The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience'' (Pittsburgh, PA: Philosophia Publications, 2015). In-depth discussion of Roger Williams's life and work and his influence on the US Founders and later American history. * Miller, Perry, ''Roger Williams, A Contribution to the American Tradition'', (1953). much debated study; Miller argues that Williams thought was primarily religious, not political as so many of the historians of the 1930s and 1940s had argued. * Morgan, Edmund S. '' Roger Williams: the church and the state'' (1967) 170 pages; short biography by leading scholar * Neff, Jimmy D. "Roger Williams: Pious Puritan and Strict Separationist", ''[[Journal of Church and State]]'' 1996 38(3): 529–546 in [[EBSCO]] * Phillips, Stephen. "Roger Williams and the Two Tables of the Law", ''Journal of Church and State'' 1996 38(3): 547–568 in [[EBSCO]] * Skaggs, Donald. ''Roger Williams' Dream for America'' (1993). 240 pp. * Stanley, Alison. "'To Speak With Other Tongues': Linguistics, Colonialism and Identity in 17th Century New England", ''Comparative American Studies'' March 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p1, 17p *Winslow, Ola Elizabeth, ''Master Roger Williams, A Biography''. (1957) standard biography * Wood, Timothy L. "Kingdom Expectations: The Native American in the Puritan Missiology of John Winthrop and Roger Williams", ''[[Fides et Historia]]'' 2000 32(1): 39–49 ===Historiography=== * Carlino, Anthony O. "Roger Williams and his Place in History: The Background and the Last Quarter Century", ''Rhode Island History'' 2000 58(2): 34–71, historiography * Irwin, Raymond D. "A Man for all Eras: The Changing Historical Image of Roger Williams, 1630–1993", ''Fides Et Historia'' 1994 26(3): 6–23, historiography * Morgan, Edmund S. " Miller's Williams", ''New England Quarterly'', Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec. 1965), pp.&nbsp;513–523 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/363219 in JSTOR] * Moore, Leroy, Jr. "Roger Williams and the Historians", ''Church History'' 1963 32(4): 432–451 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3163291 in JSTOR] *Peace, Nancy E. "Roger Williams: A Historiographical Essay", ''Rhode Island History'' 1976 35(4): 103–113, ===Primary sources=== * William, Roger. ''The Complete Writings of Roger Williams'' (7 vol; 1963) * William, Roger. ''The Correspondence of Roger Williams. Vol. 1: 1629–1653. Vol. 2: 1654–1682'' ed. by Glenn W. LaFantasie. (1988) 867 pp. ===Fiction=== *Settle, Mary Lee, ''I, Roger Williams: A Novel'', W. W. Norton & Company, Reprint edition (2002). *George, James W., ''The Prophet and the Witch: A Novel of Puritan New England'', Amazon Digital Services (2017). ==External links== {{Wikisource1911Enc|Williams, Roger}} * {{DNB-Portal|118807471}} * {{BBKL|w/williams_r}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Roger Williams |birth=1604 |death=1683 |sopt=t}} <!-- birth=1604 on IA --> * [http://rogerwilliamsfellowship.squarespace.com Side of the US-American Roger Williams circle of friends] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur8gTAsGETI Documentary about Roger Williams life: Roger Williams – Freedom's Forgotten Hero (Part 1 to 7)] * [http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=11996 Lecture by Martha Nussbaum: Equal '''Liberty of Conscience''': Roger Williams and the Roots of a Constitutional Tradition] *[http://www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=40 Chronological list of Rhode Island leaders] {{Colonial Governors of Rhode Island}} {{Rhode Island settlers}} {{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}} {{Authority control}}<!--LC gives birth year as 1604? [the question mark is part of the heading]--> {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Roger}} [[Category:1603 births]] [[Category:1683 deaths]] [[Category:People educated at Charterhouse School]] [[Category:17th-century English writers]] [[Category:17th-century American writers]] [[Category:17th-century Baptist ministers]] [[Category:17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]] [[Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge]] [[Category:American Calvinist and Reformed theologians]] [[Category:Kingdom of England emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies]] [[Category:American sermon writers]] [[Category:Colonial governors of Rhode Island]] [[Category:Immigrants to Plymouth Colony]] [[Category:Massachusetts colonial-era clergy]] [[Category:17th-century New England Puritan ministers]] [[Category:People from London]] [[Category:Politicians from Providence, Rhode Island]] [[Category:People of colonial Rhode Island]] [[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]] [[Category:Linguists of Algic languages]]'