[JFR]
Most works on church history in America will
include much about Roger Williams. Many think that
he pastored the first Baptist Church in America.
While he was a pastor of a Baptist Church, he was
not the pastor of the first Baptist Church. That honor
belongs to John Clarke. However, since Roger
Williams did play a large part in the freedom of
worship in America, we will deal with him first
before we consider John Clarke.
Again, I am utilizing A History of the Baptists of the
United States by Albert Henry Newman who was a
Professor of Church History in McMaster University
in Toronto, Canada.
Roger Williams
According to Dr. Newman, Roger Williams holds the
honor of being the first in America to introduce
Believer’s Baptism and to organize a church on
~ 359 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
Baptist principles. It seems that Dr. Newman is
leaning toward what was commonly believed about
the first Baptist Church in America. (To his credit,
he lists several sources to back up his belief
concerning Roger Williams.) We know that just the
opposite is the truth. John Clarke pastored the first
Baptist Church in America. We will address this a
bit later in this consideration.
[Newman]
Whether during or shortly after the completion of his
university course, he was led to adopt rigorous
separatist principles. The England of 1630 was no
place for nonconformists. In December of that year,
he set sail for New England, hoping there to be
permitted to enjoy a measure of soul liberty denied
him at home, and not without expectation of being
able to exert some wholesome influence on the
development of the New World. (pp. 81, 82)
[JFR]
Newman relates how that Williams was a much-
educated man, one that should have been offered
positions at most of the high universities of England.
Because of his beliefs, none of that ever happened.
Shortly after his arrival in New England, he was
offered the pastorate of a Boston church.
[Newman]
~ 360 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
Landing in New England in February 1631, an
attractive opening almost immediately presented
itself. The pastor of the Boston church was returning
to England and Williams was invited to supply his
place. Did he accept the invitation? Far from it. The
Boston church was "an unseparated church," and he
"durst not officiate to" it. He was prompted to give
utterance, while in Boston, to a conviction, formed
no doubt long before—familiar and commonplace
now, startling and revolutionary then and there that
the magistrate may not punish any sort of "breach of
the first table," such as idolatry, Sabbath-breaking,
false worship, blasphemy, etc. ; and he had thus
succeeded in convincing the leading men of the
colony that he was an impracticable and dangerous
man—all the more dangerous because of his splendid
gifts and his unswerving loyalty to conscience. It was
only what might have been expected, when the
Salem church a few months later invited him to be
their teacher, that six of the leading men of Boston
should have sent a joint letter of warning to Governor
Endicott of Salem. Thus, prevented from settling at
Salem, he betook himself to the older and more
thoroughly separatist Plymouth colony, where he
was cordially received, and soon became associated
as teacher with Ralph Smith, pastor of the church.
Here he remained about two years. According to
Governor Bradford, "his teaching was well
approved, for the benefit whereof I still bless God,
and am thankful to him even for his sharpest ad-
~ 361 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
monitions and reproofs, so far as they agreed with
truth." According to Brewster, elder of the church,
toward the close of the period Williams began to
"vent" "divers of his own singular opinions," and to
"seek to impose them upon others." "Not finding
such concurrence as he expected, he desired his
dismission to the church of Salem," which, with
considerable reluctance on the part of some, was
granted. It is certain that the influential people of
Boston were industriously fostering any spirit of
dissatisfaction that may have arisen. During his stay
at Plymouth, he spent much time with the Indians,
and succeeded in so far mastering their language as
to be able to converse freely with them and afterward
to write "The Key into the Language of America,"
which he hoped might prove an important aid in the
evangelization of the natives of the entire continent.
His friendship with the Indians was afterward of
incalculable advantage not only to himself but to his
fellow-colonists. (pp. 83, 84)
In August, 1634, he was invited to succeed Skelton
in the pastorate of the Salem church, having since his
arrival served as assistant pastor. The Boston
authorities remonstrated, and a struggle ensued that
resulted in Williams's banishment in the midst of
winter, January, 1636. Befriended by the Indians,
after much hardship he reached Narragansett Bay,
where he secured land from the Indians and
~ 362 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
established a colony on the principle of absolute
liberty of conscience. The controversy of Roger
Williams with the Massachusetts authorities that led
to his banishment, and the literary controversy that
was carried on between Williams and Cotton some
years after the former had established a colony of his
own, are matters of such importance in themselves,
and have been the occasion of so much partisan
writing on the part of Baptists and the defenders of
the standing order alike, that a clear statement of the
facts seems here desirable. It need scarcely be said
that the idea of liberty of conscience, though it had
been advocated, as we have seen, by the
antipedobaptists of the sixteenth century, and though
it had been set forth with the utmost distinctness and
emphasis by the General Baptists of England during
the twenty years just preceding Williams's
controversy with the New England authorities, had
not dawned upon the minds of the men of
Massachusetts Bay. If anybody felt impelled to teach
or practice anything at variance with the teachings
and practices of the standing order, the world was
wide and there was room enough outside of the
jurisdiction of the company; inside he could not
remain. The year after Williams's arrival (1632) it
was enacted that, " to the end that the body of the
com- mons may be preserved of honest and good
men, . . . for the time to come no man shall be
admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such
as are members of some of the churches- within the
~ 363 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
limits of the same." Exclusion from a church meant
loss of citizenship, and the General Court was ready
to execute ecclesiastical censures. We can scarcely
conceive of a more perfect equipment for the
exercise of tyranny and the violation of conscience
than existed in this small community thus
theocratically organized. That this theocratic
legislation was not a dead letter on the statute-book
we shall soon see. It must be admitted, on the other
hand, that men of convictions and conscience are not
always the most agreeable members of society. The
man who concentrates his attention upon one or two
matters that seem to the great body of his
contemporaries of minor moment, and advocates his
peculiar views in such a way as to cause division and
to bring the community into bad repute, can scarcely
expect to be cordially treated in any age or in any
land. The man who is travailing in spirit with a great
revolutionary idea is likely to do far less than justice
to other ideas and to existing institutions, and to act
without regard to immediate consequences. Roger
Williams was a man of profound convictions on a
particular class of subjects. To us the importance of
some of the matters upon which he fixed his attention
is manifest; but we are forced to admit that he was
often extreme and inconsiderate in the pressing of his
convictions. The vast importance of the absolute
separation of church and state, of complete
separation from an apostate church, and of absolute
liberty of conscience, had completely mastered his
~ 364 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
soul, and considerations of expediency were as dust
in the balance in comparison. We can do him full
honor for his consistent advocacy of these principles
in season and out of season, without being unduly
severe in our judgment of his opponents and
persecutors. (pp. 85-92)
"If we were forced to adopt a modern designation for
him," writes Professor Masson, referring to Roger
Williams, "we should call him the father of all that
has figured anywhere, in Great Britain or in the
United States or in the British colonies, under the
name of voluntaryism." Elsewhere he designates him
as an "arch-individualist." If by "father" is to be
understood "originator," the expression is far too
strong; for, as we have seen, the General Baptists of
England Were a score of years in advance of him in
their advocacy of these very principles, and
Williams's direct indebtedness to their pleas for
liberty of con- science is indisputable. But if the
expression be taken to mean that by his persistent and
zealous advocacy of these views, and by his
successful embodying of them in a civil constitution,
he first brought them prominently before the
English-speaking public, and was instrumental in
securing their wide acceptance, we do not demur. Yet
even in this matter we should not forget that the
honor must be divided with John Clarke.
~ 365 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
Roger Williams advocated the most complete
separation of church and state at a time when there
was no historical example of such separation; nay,
when to the mass of Christian men everywhere such
a separation was almost inconceivable. (pp. 92, 93)
[JFR]
And so it went; Roger Williams against the
established hierarchy concerning the separation of
church and state. Williams supposedly wrote over a
thousand pages concerning the evils of merging of
church and state. This merger made it to the point
that magistrates and officials had sway over the
church body also. For instance, if a member were to
start skipping church attendance, he, or she either
one, would be summoned to the magistrate for an
accounting as to why church attendance was being
ignored. The church didn’t not do anything about it,
the civil authorities did. So intertwined was this
church/state merger that if a member lost said church
membership, that member would also lose
citizenship in the state as well.
[Newman]
Williams and some twelve others who were so
likeminded were banished from Massachusetts.
Because of his friendship with the Indians, he was
able to purchase some land from them. This would
later be called Providence. Williams himself wrote:
~ 366 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
"Having made covenant of peaceable neighborhood
with all the sachems and natives round about us, and
having, in a sense of God's merciful providence unto
me in my distress, called the place Providence, I
desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed
for conscience; I then, considering the condition of
divers of my distressed countrymen, communicated
my said purchase to my loving friends." (p. 97)
Just obtaining the land was only the beginning of the
process to this independence. The first organization
was in 1638. There had to be a charter granted by the
English king for them to be an officially recognized
colony.
In 1640, another agreement was signed by thirty-nine
freemen. One of their statements was, "We agree, as
formerly hath been the liberties of this town, so still
to hold forth liberty of conscience." (p. 97) In other
words, they had the desire to retain the freedom of
worship as they pleased as they had been practicing
since 1638, but they were not yet legal. Thus, Roger
Williams went to England to obtain a charter for the
new colony.
Later in 1651, difficulties arose with them with a man
named William Coddington, supported by the
Massachusetts authorities. These difficulties caused
Roger Williams to go back to England, but this time
he was accompanied by none other than John Clarke.
~ 367 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
It seems that part of these difficulties could be laid at
the feet of Williams himself.
Apologists for the New England theocracy have
attempted to show that even in Roger Williams's
colony the rights of conscience were not strictly
guarded, and that penalties were inflicted for
substantially the same classes of offenses as those for
which Williams was banished. Among the cases
adduced is that of Samuel Gorton, an antinomian and
anarchist, and withal one of the most violent agitators
and licentious defamers of the time. That Williams
should have used his influence in favor of with-
holding from such a man the rights of citizenship is
thought to be a virtual justification of his own
banishment for agitating against the charter and the
freeman's oath and for his revolutionary procedures
at Salem. This occurred in 1640. Still earlier (1638),
Verins, a "boisterous and desperate " young man,
was disfranchised at Providence for maltreating his
wife and refusing to allow her to attend church
services, thus interfering with her liberty of
conscience. Williams's severe polemics against the
Quakers, and his denunciation of the book of one
William Harris as teaching high treason, are also
cited as instances of inconsistency with his
Massachusetts record, and as completely destroying
his right to complain of the treatment he received in
Massachusetts. A careful examination of the cases
cited will show, it is believed, that the distinction
~ 368 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
between civil and religious offenses was ever
carefully guarded by Roger Williams. At the same
time, it must be admitted that, when the
responsibility rested upon him of dealing practically
with disturbers of the peace who sought to make their
religious convictions a pretext for ignoring civil
regulations thought to be essential to the well-being
of the community, he felt the necessity of guarding
against unwarranted and licentious applications of
the doctrine of liberty of conscience. (pp. 98, 99)
Roger Williams and the First Baptist Church in
America(?)
It remains to consider Roger Williams's relation to
the Baptists. The great principle of absolute liberty
of con- science, which Baptists had been almost
alone in advocating since the early years of the
Protestant Revolution, he adopted, wrought out in all
its consequences, and embodied in the constitution of
the colony which he founded. The principle of
separatism from the corrupt state churches seemed to
him logically to involve the Baptist position.
He firmly believed that the prelatical [episcopal]
Church of England was an apostate church, and that
true believers should have no fellowship whatever
with such a church. He repudiated with the utmost
~ 369 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
decision ordinances administered by an apostate
church, as well as its worship and teachings.
He insisted with vehemence on" regenerate church-
membership. His repudiation of Church of England
ordinances involved, from his point of view, the
repudiation of the baptism that he and others had
received in this communion. His insistence on
regenerate membership involved the rejection of
infant baptism. Having become convinced that these
consequences were involved in his position, he was
too faithful to his convictions not to go where logic
led. Accordingly, about March, 1639, two years after
his banishment, he repudiated the baptism he had
received in infancy, and was immersed by Ezekiel
Holliman, who before he left Massachusetts had
shown a strong inclination toward Baptist principles.
Williams then proceeded to baptize Holliman and
eleven others. Thus, was founded the first Baptist
church in the New World. It may be of interest to
note that the organization of this first Baptist church
in America was only about five years later than that
of the first Particular Baptist church in England under
the leadership of John Spilsbury, and that the
introduction of immersion by Williams was three
years in advance of its introduction among the
Baptists of England.
Precisely what personal influence was brought to
bear upon Roger Williams to lead him to take this
step
is
uncertain.
Winthrop
attributes
his
~ 370 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
antipedobaptist views to the influence of Mrs. Scott,
a sister of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, the famous
antinomian agitator. It can scarcely be doubted that
he was already familiar with Baptist principles as
held by English Baptists, and his familiarity with the
Dutch language would make it unreasonable to
suppose that he was wholly ignorant of the
Mennonites and their principles.
[JFR]
Haven’t we seen this happen before? A precedent
was set for this type of thing back in England. Just
because Holliman had leanings toward Baptist
doctrine doesn’t mean that he had scriptural baptism.
We seem to be back to man taking the authority to
begin a Baptist church without Church Authority.
This means that this church at Providence did not
have a scriptural beginning. To my way of thinking,
it makes no difference if the church at Providence
was the first (however, I don’t believe it was)
because it was not a scriptural assembly at the start.
[Newman]
Williams had drawn a conclusion that the ordinances
(especially baptism by immersion) had been lost and
should be resumed. He failed to consider the fact that
there were literally hundreds of churches that never
“lost” the ordinance of baptism by immersion. His
view was that state churches had lost the true
~ 371 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
ordinance of baptism by their sprinkling and pouring,
and their retaining infant baptism, pedobaptism.
Had Roger Williams been acquainted with the results
of the latest research in medieval history he would
probably not have been so absolutely sure that the
ordinances had been lost, even on the supposition
that apostolic succession is a condition of their valid
continuance. But he was manifestly in error in
making the validity of Christian ordinances to
depend
upon
any
ceremonial
or
personal
qualification of the administrator—the error of the
Donatists in the early centuries, and of high-
churchmen, Episcopal and Baptist, in modern times.
As in the case of many great and good men before
and since Roger Williams's time, his church life was
wrecked and his Christian usefulness greatly
impaired by his efforts to interpret the prophetical
and apocalyptic Scriptures with reference to the
events and movements of his own time—a procedure
fraught with danger, invariably resulting in error, and
oftentimes ending in disaster. The history of the First
Baptist Church of Providence after the withdrawal of
Roger Williams is for some years involved in
considerable obscurity. The original records have
been lost, and some have sought to make it appear
that for a time it ceased entirely to exist, and that the
surviving organization is independent of the first.
The chief interest involved in this contention has
been a desire to give precedence to the First Baptist
~ 372 ~
Church History Through the Trail of Blood
Church of Newport, founded in 1644 or earlier. (pp.
104-106)
Conclusion to Chapter Two
[JFR]
In Chapter Three, we will consider John Clarke and
the First Baptist Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
~ 373 ~