The anne hutchinson trial

She had a keen mind, and historians generally agree that she bettered her accusers on the first two charges with Winthrop appealing to his authority as a man rather than to the superiority of his arguments , but she effectively affirmed the latter charge by claiming that she had received direct revelations from God.

Such revelations called the authority and necessity of the church into question, and Hutchinson and about sixty followers were exiled to Rhode Island.

In time, she and a number of family members moved to New York, where they were killed by Native Americans. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the First Amendment.

This article was originally published in The Bible was often the only book in a home. Scripture was read and studied on a daily basis.

Church services were long and frequent. Events that today would be explained by science, luck, or coincidence were explained in Biblical terms.

Services were held in spare meetinghouses without altars or statuary. There was no singing or formal liturgy. No Christmas or wedding celebrations, no carnivals or sacred places. It was all rather severe. It was all that was left them. Women could not be ministers, could not vote on church matters, and could not even talk in church. They entered the church meetinghouse through a separate door and sat together on a separate side of the building.

Her meetings grew in popularity. She added a second weekly session to accommodate all the women who wanted to hear her wisdom. Hutchinson began to raise eyebrows in the colony when word leaked that in her study groups she had questioned the Biblical interpretations of local ministers in their sermons. In particular, Anne took issue with ministers who suggested that people need to display their faith, perform good deeds, and act as a decent Puritan should in order to show that they have been saved.

The Puritan ministers undoubtedly saw a problem with the suggestion that people could sit idly by and expect salvation—it was all too easy and might discourage rule-following and even, God forbid, skipping church services.

The crisis deepened in when Hutchinson, upset with a sermon being delivered by John Wilson, a minister hand-picked by Governor Winthrop to replace a minister favored by Anne, stood up and walked out of the meetinghouse. A number of other women followed her out. For Hutchinson, things turned toward the better. Her political supporter, Henry Vane, was elected governor, replacing John Winthrop. And she soon found a new minister who shared her theological views. John Wheelwright arrived from England in May , and began preaching in Boston the next month.

Anne Hutchinson was called to a meeting in December She faced a panel of seven ministers who demanded to know her views on the Scripture and on their own preaching.

Two and a half months later, ministers meeting in Cambridge for a Synod identified 82 errors held by Hutchinson that had been recorded in their meeting with her. Winthrop succeeded in dispatching Reverend Wheelwright to Mount Wollaston, where he could cause less harm. May 17, was a turning point in the history of Massachusetts Bay. Magistrates and freemen assembled in Cambridge Common to decide who would control the colony.

Supporters of John Winthrop and his orthodox theology carried the day. Winthrop was elected Governor for a second time, replacing Henry Vane, who had been strongly backed by the Hutchinson. Cotton immediately went into hiding and fled to Boston in Believing Massachusetts was in opposition to the king, British authorities closed borders and stopped emigrants from leaving under threat of prosecution, and also made threats to Massachusetts.

William Hutchinson rose to prominence in Boston, becoming a magistrate, while Anne joined with a group of women who worked as healers, treating illness and assisting in childbirth. Cotton immediately worked to cement his power in the new world and engineered the congregational structure of church worship, with Anne in his inner circle. It was during her involvement with the healing group that Anne developed the religious philosophy that became the focus of her American preaching.

She believed that heaven was attainable to anyone who worshipped god directly, through a personal connection. Anne also preached that behavior, and therefore sin, did not affect whether someone went to heaven. These beliefs were in direct violation of Puritan doctrine. Anne expanded on her ideas in sermons and people flocked to listen to her, including men.

By , Anne was holding two meetings a week with as many as 80 people at each meeting, including Henry Vane, the governor of Massachusetts. Those who rose up in opposition to her were the re-elected Governor John Winthrop and John Cotton, who feared Anne was becoming a church separatist. Both sent female spies to her sermons. Cotton gathered with other colony clergy to pass resolutions designed to end religious dissidence.

In , Anne—several months into a pregnancy—was called to appear before the General Court, with Winthrop presiding and Cotton testifying against her. A debate over the next two days saw Anne performing well before the group of men when challenged on Biblical prowess, but her final argument sealed her fate.

It was a lengthy statement of her philosophy and history, an account of speaking directly with God that concluded with a prophecy of the ruin of the court and the colony in retribution for their persecution of Anne. The men saw this as a challenge to their authority. Anne was proclaimed a heretic. She and her family were banished from the colony and any supporters in positions of authority were removed. All supporters were forced to surrender arms. The church leaders read the charges against Hutchinson and tried to get her to admit they were errors but she remained defiant, according to court records:.

Leverit: Sister Hutchinson, here is diverse opinions laid to your charge by Mr. Shephard and Mrs. Frost, and I must request you in the name of the church to declare whether you hold them or renounce them as they be read to you.

That the souls of all men by nature are mortal. That our bodies shall not rise with Christ Jesus, not the same bodies at the last day. That the Resurrection mentioned is not of our resurrection at the last day, but of our union to Jesus Christ.

That there be no created graces in the human nature of Christ nor in believers after their union. That you had no scripture to warrant Christ being now in heaven in his human nature. That there is no Kingdom of Heaven but Christ Jesus. That the first thing we receive for our assurance is our election. These are alleged from Mr. The next are from Roxbury. That sanctification can be no evidence of a good estate in no wise.

That her revelations about future events are to be believed as well as scripture because the same Holy Ghost did indite both. That a hypocrite may have the righteousness of Adam and perish. That we are not bound to the law, not as a rule of life.

That not being bound to the law, no transgression of the law is sinful. That you see no warrant in scripture to prove that the image of God in Adam was righteousness and true holiness. These are alleged against you by Mr. Wells and Mr. It is desired by the church, Sister Hutchinson, that you express this be your opinion or not.

Anne: If this be error then it is mine and I ought to lay it down. But I desire of the Church to demand one question. By what rule of the word when these elders shall come to me in private to desire satisfaction in some points and do profess in the sight of God that they did not come to entrap nor ensnare me, and now without speaking to me and expressing any dissatisfaction would come to bring it publicly into the Church before they had privately dealt with me?

For them to come and inquire for light and afterwards to bear witness against it. I think it is a breach of Church Rule, to bring a thing in public before they have dealt with me in private. Although it appeared at times during the trial that Hutchinson did admit to errors and mistakes, she still refused to recant her beliefs and was found guilty and excommunicated.

Her husband, most of her children and many of her friends had already left the colony months before in order to prepare a place for the group to live.

The group slept in wigwams they either found along the way or made themselves.