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Neglected Aspects of Roger Williams' Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2011

Mauro Calamandrei
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Extract

The object of this article is to suggest an interpretation of Roger Williams' thought different from that which is found in most of the literature on the founder of Providence, and to point out some neglected and important aspects of his system of ideas. To summarize it briefly, this interpretation holds that far from being a humanist Roger Williams believed in the radical depravity of man and the necessity of Grace; that far from being a rationalist Williams was a Biblicist; that far from being an optimist in history, Williams was a Millenarian; and rather than being a democratic Baptist Williams believed in the prophetic ministry free from any congregational limitations—in short, that rather than being a man of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment Roger Williams was a Puritan. The orthodox attitude to Roger Williams is misleading because it either distorts, or overlooks, or denies a primary religious concern in his thought and life, as a review of the historiography will readily show.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , September 1952 , pp. 239 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1952

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References

1 Knowles, James D.: Memoir of Soger Williams, p. ix, Boston, 1834.Google Scholar

2 Parkes, H. B.: “J. Cotton and Boger Williams Debate Toleration” in the New England Quarterly, Vol. IV (1931), p. 736.Google Scholar

3 Ernst, J. E.: The Political Thought of Boger Williams, Seattle, 1929.Google Scholar

4 Ernst, J. E., op. cit., p. 5.Google Scholar

5 Ernst, J. E., Roger Williams, New England Firebrand, 1932, pp. 491–92.Google Scholar

6 See also Ernst, J. E., The Political Thought of Roger Williams pp. 81–82.Google Scholar

7 Miller, P. M. and Johnson, T. H., The Puritans, 1938, p. 186.Google Scholar

8 Tracts of Liberty in the Puritan Revolution, edited with a commentary by William Haller, Vol. I, pp. 58, 60.

9 Jordan, W. E., The Development of Religious Toleration in England, Vol. III (1640–1660), pp. 475–77.Google Scholar

10 Arthur Barker's study of Williams', Roger thought in his Milton and the Puritan Dilemma, 1640–60, (1942)Google Scholar, is merely a detailed application of Wood-house's interpretative ideas and hypotheses.

11 “As to matters in difference between yourselves and me I have willingly omitted them as knowing that many able and honest seamen in their observations of the Sun (our picture of Christ Jesus) differ sometimes in their reckonings, though uprightly aiming at and bound for one port and harbor. I humbly beg of you (1) that you will more and more earnestly, candidly and Christianly study the things that differ without reflecting upon credit, maintenance, liberty, and life itself, remembering who it was that said, he that love his life shall lose it, (2) more and more study the prophesies and the signs of the times.” From the Introductory Address to B. Baxter and J. Owen in George Fox digg'd out of his Burrowes, quoted in Backus, , op. cit., I, p. 355.Google Scholar

12 Cotton, J., Master J. Cotton answer to Master R. Williams, N. C. P., Vol. II, p. 11.Google Scholar The Narragansett Club republished in six volumes the major writings of Boger Williams (Providence, R. I., 1866–1874.). The contents of this collection are as follows:

(1) A key into the language of America; Letter of Mr. John Cotton; Mr. Cotton's letter … examined and answered.

(2) John Cotton answer to B. Williams; queries of highest consideration.

(3) The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for cause of conscience.

(4) The Bloudy Tenent yet more bloudy.

(5) George Pox digg'd out of his Burrowes.

(6) Letters.

In the essay this collection is always noted “N.C.P. Vol.—.”

13 Richman, I. B., Rhode Island, its making and meaning, 1902–1911, p. 111.Google Scholar

14 Brokunier, S. H., The Irrepressible democrat, R. Williams, 1940, p. 123.Google Scholar

15 Parkes, H. B., in New England Quarterly (1931), Vol. IV, p. 751.Google Scholar

16 Miller, P. M. and Johnson, T. H.; The Puritans, 1938, p. 215.Google Scholar

17 Ernst, J. E., Roger Williams, New England Firebrand, 1932, p. 492.Google Scholar

18 J. E. Ernst, ibid., p. 227.

19 Ernst, J. E., Roger Williams, New England Firebrand, 1932, p. 491.Google Scholar

20 Masson, D., The Life of John Milton, Vol. III, p. 153.Google Scholar

21 N.C.P., Vol. V, pp. 103–5.

22 N.C.P., Vol. V. p. 101–2. See also pp. 177, 100.

23 Boger Williams, The Hireling Ministry none of Christ's, published as an appendix to A review of the “Correspondence” of Messrs. Fuller and Wayland on the subject of American Slavery, Utica, N. Y., 1847, p. 162.

24 Hireling Ministry, p. 163.

25 Hireling Ministry, p. 164.

26 Ibid., p. 164.

27 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 293. See all Chap. CIII.

28 Hireling Ministry, p. 166.

29 Mr. Cotton's letter examined and answered, N.C.P. Vol. I, p. 51.

30 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 56.

31 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 64.

32 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 177.

33 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 414.

34 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 138.

35 N.C.P., Vol. III, pp. 286ff.

36 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 258.

37 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 206; Queries of highest consideration, N.C.P., Vol. II, p. 33.

38 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 72.

39 Christenings make not Christians as a briefe discourse concerning that name Heathen.

40 Christenings make not Christians, Bhode Island Historical Tracts, No. XIV, Providence, R. I., 1881, p. 18.

41 Christenings make not Christians, p. 20.

42 Ibid., p. 8.

43 Christenings make not Christians, p. 20; cf The Hireling Ministry, p. 174.

44 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 143.

45 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 51; cf p. 336.

46 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 387.

47 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 84.

48 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 144.

49 Incidentally, I would like to remark here again that on this point as well as on several others touching the fundamental issue at stake, Williams gives the reader the feeling that he is not speaking for himself alone, but for all the Puritans, for all the Protestants. This is not equally perceptible in the other works of Williams.

50 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 136.

51 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 137.

52 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 147.

53 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 403.

54 N.C.P., Vol. V, pp. 388, 390.

55 Hireling Ministry, pp. 171–2.

56 Ibid., pp. 171–5.

57 On this point Williams' views were quite similar to the ideas of several “left-wing” Puritans. For a detailed discussion of this problem, see Robertson, D. B., The Beligious Foundations of Leveller Democracy, New York, 1951Google Scholar, Chap. II; particularly the section on Scripturalisnx and anti-intellectualism.

58 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 445.

59 N.C.P., Vol. V, pp. 290–1. For those who think that there is a difference between the works Williams wrote for publication and his personal letters (and in the latter he does undoubtedly look like a “modern” man, “the prophet of tomorrow”) I would like to quote from a letter addressed to one of his correspondents about the comet of 1680: “Black clouds (some years) have hung over Old and New England heads. God hath been wonderfully patient and long suffering to us but who sees not changes and calamities hanging over us? … All men fear that this blazing herald from heaven denouneeth from the Most High, wars, pestilence, famine, is it not then our wisdom to make and keep peace with God and man?” To Daniel Abbot, Jan. 15, 1680, quoted in Backus, , op. cit., I, pp. 413–4.Google Scholar

60 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 290.

61 N.C.P., Vol. V. p. 1127.

62 N.C.P., Vol. V, pp. 360–61.

63 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 361.

64 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 363.

65 N.C.P., Vol. III, pp. 354–5.

66 Hireling Ministry, p. 179.

67 See Hudson, W. S., “Economic and social thought of Gerrard Winstanley,” in Journal of Modem History, Vol. XVIII (1943), esp. pp. 5–10.Google Scholar

68 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 134.

69 Williams, R., Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, Rider, S. S. ed., Providence, R. I., 1863, p. 37.Google Scholar

70 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 398.

71 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 358.

72 Ernst, J. E., The political thought of Boger Williams, p. 137.Google Scholar

73 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 366. Cf p. 343.

74 N.C.P., Vol III, pp. 249–50.

75 N.C.P., Vol. III, p. 249.

76 Woodhouse, A. S. P., Puritanism and Liberty, p. 39.Google Scholar

77 N.C.P., Vol. V, p. 414.