from her and refused to pray in the family in her presence. Besides all these proceedings he would not become a freeman of the colony, and tried in his pulpit to persuade others to decline to take the oath of allegiance to the government.

It was simply a matter of self-protection, and not at all a theological question, which led the General Court to summon Mr. Williams before it for trial; and, when he persisted in maintaining his opinions, to order him to leave the colony within six weeks. This action was taken in October, 1635. But being given a respite till the next spring, he made so much mischief during the winter that a military guard was sent to Salem in January to bring him to Boston and put him on board a ship bound for England. Being seasonably warned, however, by Governor Winthrop, he escaped to Narra gansett Bay, and in the summer of 1636 began a settlement at Providence.

Meanwhile Mr. Hooker and his friends had been, almost from the time of his arrival, looking about for some region where they could plant a colony for themselves. In the summer of 1634 they sent a pioneer party of six persons to Connecticut; and the fall meeting of the General Court was largely occupied with the discussion concerning the request of the people of Newtown to remove to Connecticut. The court or dered a day of fasting and prayer to seek guidance of the Lord on the matter, and the Newtown people were finally persuaded to accept more land in the neighborhood of Watertown and what is now Newton; "and so the fear of their removal to Connecticut was removed."

Their departure, however, was only delayed. There

seem to be good reasons for believing that Mr. Hooker preferred more democratic ideas of government, both in the church and the state, than those which prevailed in the Massachusetts colony; and that many others agreed with him. In

ticut.

Those who

went endured great hardships the ensuing winter. But the tidings of their sufferings did not deter the Newtown church from following them. Early in 1636, a considerable company having arrived from England, Mr. Hooker's people were able to sell their houses to these newcomers. Another church in

BOSTON

MEETING-HOUSE OF FIRST CHURCH, HARTFORD,
CONN. ERECTED 1807.

Newtown was organized February 1, with Thomas Shepard as pastor; and by the last of May, the Newtown pilgrims, about one hundred in number, were on their journey. It was a toilsome way through a pathless wilderness, over mountains and across unbridged rivers, with only a compass for a guide. Mrs. Hooker,

being an invalid, was carried on a litter. They were about a fortnight on the way; but they all came safely at last to the place on the Connecticut River where they began their settlement, which they called Hartford, in remembrance of Mr. Stone's native town in England. The church which emigrated from Dorchester settled at Windsor, under the leadership of its minister, John Warham. This exodus from the three Massachusetts towns, which resulted in the planting of the three original river towns of ConnecticutHartford, Windsor and Wethersfield-took away from Massachusetts about one-quarter of her strength. Yet such was the value which these Puritans of Massachusetts Bay placed on education that in this year of trial the General Court appropriated four hundred pounds for the beginning of a college at Newtown, and the name of that place, in honor of the fact, was changed to Cambridge.

It is quite possible that the fellowship of the New England churches was saved too severe a test in this early period of their history by this exodus to Connecticut. But other exigencies were soon to arise which would call for more definite statements than the churches had yet given, both of their faith and their polity. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson had been a parishioner and an admirer of Mr. Cotton in England. She was a woman of ambition and influence, of attractive manners and not wanting in self-confidence. She regarded herself as peculiarly qualified to instruct others in religion. She believed that she was favored with special revelations from God. Soon after Mr. Cotton left for New England she said: "It was revealed to me that I must Her husband, Winthrop says, was

go thither also."

"a man of very mild temper and weak parts, wholly guided by his wife." In these facts are all the materials needed for a lively church disturbance. Mrs. Hutchinson, on her arrival in Boston, promptly sought admission into Mr. Cotton's church. Some question of her orthodoxy arose at her examination, but she was received November 2, 1634. She soon began to hold weekly meetings at her own house. These appear to have been a kind of Bible readings, but especially she made them occasions for repeating and explaining to her hearers the substance of Mr. Cotton's sermons.

Mrs. Hutchinson's meetings soon became popular, the most prominent people of the town attending them. The next autumn after her arrival young Sir Henry Vane came to Boston, and was welcomed as a great addition to its society. He became a disciple of Mrs. Hutchinson. Mr. Cotton was captivated by her. In May, 1636, Vane was chosen Governor. Mrs. Hutchinson's brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, supported her views, and therefore met with her approval. But Mr. Cotton's colleague, Mr. Wilson, Governor Winthrop, Hugh Peter, who had come to be pastor of the Salem church, and a number of others, were proof against her persuasive powers. These, and indeed all who did not accept her views, she declared to be under "a covenant of works," while she and her followers were under "a covenant of grace." She extolled Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wheelwright, but the other ministers she regarded as unfit to preach. She believed that those enlightened directly by the Spirit, as she was, could preach better than the "black coats" from the "ninniversity "-epithets which seem