Roger Williams and his Attack on Puritanism Essay -- American America

Roger Williams and his Attack on PuritanismDuring the seventeenth century a group of Christians split off from the Anglican Church of England and form their own theological system know as Puritanism. The Puritans were made up of the middle-class teachers, lawyers, merchants, clergy, and parliament members. Joshua Miller explains how the Puritans, equated the church with the body of Christ and further states that, to admit everyone, even open and impenitent sinners, to the church was to pollute Christs body (Miller 59). The Church of England corruption of this body was the main reason for the great Puritan Migration during the seventeenth centry, along with the fact that the King refused to call together parliament at the time causing an uprising against the Throne of England. 1 The Puritans were cast out by King Charles of England and sent to the Americas to start a new colony of their own. The Puritans came to the Americas with a set idea of union between church and state. In the patent prone to the Puritans by the King a selct few men were given the power to make laws without consent of the commonwealth and allowed to confiscate lands from the natives. Roger Williams a man who openly opposed these kinds of injustices committed by Puritan leaders like can Cotton and John Winthrop. A Puritan that had turned Separatist, Roger Williams wanted no part of the tainted Church of England. Separatists completely severed ties with the Anglican Church and formed their own denomination with their own theology and system of beliefs. Williams separatist views did not sit well with the Puritans and as a result he paid the outlay for his open rebellion against the Puritan acts in New England. The Puritan church and government banis... ... his radical religious beliefs and his liberal political views which now live on in present day society. Works Cited1.Covey, Cyclone. The Gentle Radical A Biography of Roger Williams. New York MacMillan Company, 1966. 2. Gr eene, Theodore P. Roger Williams and the Massachusetts Magistrates. capital of Massachusetts 1876. -Dexter, Henry M. As to Roger Williams and His Banishment from the Massachusetts Plantation. Boston 1976. - Knowles, James D. Memoir of Roger Williams. - Williams, Roger. Mr. Cottons letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered. Narragansett Club. Providence 1866. - Winthrop, John. Winthrops ledger. Original Narratives of Early American History. New York 1908 Vol. 13. Miller, Joshua. Direct Democracy and the Puritan Theory of Membership. Journal of Politics. Vol. 53 Issue1 Feb. 1991 pp. 59. Jstor June 3, 2000.