Roger Williams: Founder of Rhode Island

[Music] oh [Music] n that is not so I desire not that Liberty for myself which I would not freely and impartially weigh out to all the consciences of the world besides governor haes governor Haynes if the magistrates please may I speak with Master Williams very well Master winter I thank you this man's a minous all obvious must he was known in England before coming here for an unsettle judgment and pride of opinion thus he came to be known to us this man Roger Williams for as a dangerous Intruder and an agent of mischief had we but known his seditious intention when first he sailed from England carrying over with him so much strife and trouble to The Godly colony of Massachusetts [Music] [Applause] together with his good wife Mary he had come to the town of Boston in December 1631 both were part of that Great Migration from England when it had pleased God to send so many of his children numbering into the thousands to Massachusetts following those few miserable pilgrims who in 1620 had settled at pouth Plantation all of us had come in great hope of doing God's work and Roger Williams in particular had much to hope for and here Master Haynes is the young Master Roger Williams and his Good Wife your worship Master Williams Master Haynes we in the Massachusetts Bay Colony have much to thank God for master Williams for The Marvelous safe page to so many thousands who have come hither for giving us such plenty of all manner of food in the wilderness for sweeping Away Great multitudes of savage Indians by the small Parx and last TR sending such learned and able young men as yourself to this land thank you but did I understand you were right you said for sweeping Away Great multitudes of savage Indians by the small pox shortly before we came here it was God's hand slaying the Hittites and the Canaanites and making room in this land for his chosen but more to the point Master Williams we have heard a lot of you of your piety and your great learning and of your reading of the scriptures in the original tongues and we had determined that upon your arrival here we should offer you the post of teacher in this church we do so now this church Boston will be the largest in the bay colony it will with God's blessing I cannot accept your offer you cannot accept the post you have Master William your reasons I have and it please God when Charles the came to the throne of England I was a student at pemr Hall in Cambridge in preparation for the ministry but when I left the college I found that there was no church in England to which I could go in all conscience Bishop Lord with the king's help had become all powerful and this meant to me nothing but that the Catholic church should be reestablished in England but the king and the Archbishop of canterbary in place of the pope of Rome I was not wrong papist ceremonies were instituted Free Speech disappeared the good Bishop's spies were everywhere listening to the talk in taverns at the church door after service to take orders in such a church would be to subscribe slav gave to the name Minister and this I could not do finally I was harried out of the land as we all were Master Williams and as the thousands of Puritans in New England were quite so Governor winrop but allow me to put a question to you please do the churches of the Bay Colony indeed they must be since I have observed this one are opposed to the mass and other such ceremonies why then are ye not separated from the the Church of England separated huh so that's it go to Plymouth Plantation Master Williams there shall you find your separatists I have heard much good of the people of Plymouth Master Williams may I ask your age I'm am 28 yes you would have us sever all connections with the church of England since you are no wise agree with its practices but do you not see we must be cautious cautious conscience knows not cautious conscience conscience let think the conscience is man's invention should I have refused I don't know and so from the first out of sheer pride of opinion he fell under their displeasure and soon thereafter he left Boston and took up habitation at Salem town but here he gathered about him other fermentors of trouble and contention but it is wrong Boston has no authority to interfere with the Salem Church they write that they Marvel we chose Master Williams as teacher without confering with them confering with them but we do not want to fall into differences with Boston that is true and I for one say this if Salem is to be dictated to by Boston I will take my family and go into the Wilderness n Thomas you cannot do that if any must leave Salem it is I where will you [Music] go that's the people of Salem wisely rid themselves of the man but Plymouth Plantation must was not so fortunate he next removed there with his wife and spake on the Lord's day and weekday and his teaching as the Elders of tth told us was well approved at first but they too soon suspected that he had fallen into strange unsound and unsavory opinions at all seasons of the year he left his Good Wife much alone and journeyed Into the Wilderness to trade with this Savage Indians and to bring them the word of God he spent much time in their disease ritten smoke holes for he soon mastered their language but what message he brought them we know from his rash Mings he told them falsely that God knows no difference between white man and Indian it would not have occurred to master Williams to inquire why the Lord God did site these filthy Savages with the small pox giving us all the land of Massachusetts as an inheritance Master Brewster you're welcome on such a cold night thank you for coming it is cold come over by the fire mistress Williams is well I turn thank you thank you very well Master Brewster let me come out with us at once my presence here in Plymouth Colony is causing some concern speak freely with me it is my friend concern not so much among ourselves but to put it bluntly we are afraid afraid of Massachusetts ah Plymouth Plantation is small and weak the bay grows stronger every day we scarcely maintain our numbers the control of the bay through the general court is more and more coming into the hand of the divines those men of God in Boston all of whom find opinions such as are held by you to be dangerous in the extreme my dangerous opinions yes you're preaching for example that the Grant from the King does not give the colonists the rights of this land but it does not what right does Christianity invest upon Kings to give away the land of other men we must compound with the Indians otherwise we have no just title to this land is there not my young friend a time to keep silence I go my night there are many in Salem who would welcome you back and teach yes there are I had not wanted our child born in such a place as Massachusetts and so it was that the man came once again to salemtown where this foolish people against all authority chose him once again as their teacher and despite the sound warnings of Master Brewster and others Roger Williams did not keep silence though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol though I have all Faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing what charity then have the members of The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony we have come hither all of us to this Wilderness where we have builded houses and churches and have heun out of the forest farms and Roads and towns we have come hither for diverse reasons some in the hope that we might Escape body bondage in the hope that we might in New England escape the slavery of our life's meager hours to the owners of the land in Old England some of us many of us have come in the hope that we might Escape Soul bondage that we might in all conscience worship God in Freedom what say then the general court of the Bay Colony they say firstly None Shall be freemen None Shall own land or have any vote in the civil government unless they be church members and they say further None Shall be church members but those admitted by us the elect the chosen of God thus of the churches of the Bay Colony how many are members not half not so much as three out of four of God's children are admitted is this escape from body or Soul bondage they say moreover that it is the part near the duty of the civil magistrate to punish those who break the first four Commandments but I say these are matters between a man's conscience and God and the Civil Authorities cannot must not compel Church attendance ye shall these Godly Christian magistrate say you shall worship thus and so no way of worshiping can be tolerated within the great colony of Massachusetts but that which we ordain and lay down and these Godly Christian magistrates say all this in a security no hand can reach for they are themselves the Civil Authority and can enforce One Church one worship One Faith with the whip with imprisonment with the Piller with banishment the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Romans 13: 1 2 and 5 Roger Williams you have been summoned to appear before this court to answer divers charges brought against you for opinions tending to heresy and Sedition and for your great contempt of authority to which I would only ad admonish you with the words of St Paul Mark them which Calla divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Governor Haynes may I ask in all humility who are to be my judges may I ask then who are to be the jury m Williams these proceedings are not a matter of judge and jury we have requested your presence here today that we might dispute and discuss with you in the hope that having done so you might depart in peace the Reverend Thomas Hooker a godly man and a zealous will speak to the question the Reverend Thomas Hooker a most godly man he spake and disputed all that long day and the next the Lord he spake with the tongues of men and of angels so that we had great hope that Roger Williams might indeed be drawn away from his erroneous and most dangerous opinions to the greater glory of God but this was not to be let me State as plainly as possible what I believe I believe that the Sovereign original and Foundation of civil power lies in the people this being so a people may establish what form of government seems to them most meat for their civil condition but since this government is natural humane civil and not religious Christian Jewish or papist it follows that it cannot and must not interfere in spiritual matters nor redress reform or establish any National Church sedition this is sedition Governor Haynes Roger Williams must be allowed to speak and so he shall be proceed M Williams I believe further that Liberty of conscience freedom to worship or Freedom not to worship must be permitted English kings after years of bloody persecution at last permitted the Bible to be translated from the original tongues so that the simplest man or woman might search the scriptures shall we now Force anyone against his Soul's persuasion from what he finds there in having bought truth dear are we to sell it cheap Master Williams speaks of his tender cut and yet he sins against his conscience in refusing out of wicked Pride to see his erors is plain however that he has fallen into into heresy apostasy tyranny this Freedom this Liberty he seeks for himself he would surely withhold from others n that is not so I desire not that Liberty for myself which I would not freely and impartially weigh out to all the consciences of the world besides Governor Hayes Governor Haynes if the magistrates please may I speak with Master Williams very well Master win I thank Roger is there nothing I can say is there nothing Governor Haynes can say to reduce me from my errors but these things can be settled in disputation in sweet reasonable there can be no disputation here there it my judges Gods upon the Earth whose word cannot be disputed by any sweet reasonableness Roger I do not say as many do that your opinions are merely willful and gidy fances or exorbitant Novelties yet I do say they are dangerous and I appeal to you as one who loves you as do many of these very same men to to reconsider to recant master winrop I have suffered much in Old England as well as new for freedom of conscience am I to turn back now I have but one thing more to say with the Magistrate's permission Liberty of searching out truth is hardly got and as hardly kept for that precious Jewel New England has already run Mighty hazards but if New England forget the nature of Liberty if it make it a crime for a man to worship or not to worship as his conscience tells him if it make it a crime humbly and ibly to question laws and statutes or whatever else is publicly taught and delivered then New England will find itself enslaved and in Chains a captive of ignorance and dark Superstition it is plain then that nothing can turn you from your vicious intent thus there is but one course for the magistrates of this court to take whereas Master Roger Williams have broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against the authorities of magistrates and maintain it the same without retraction it is therefore ordered that the said Master Williams shall depart and be banished forever out of the colony of Massachusetts talk water I'm F and I have been almost from the first after C it will be hard to sell my farm and house and go into the Wilderness again but I will do it Thomas I left England to escape the power of the Lord Bishop I can leave Massachusetts to escape the power of the Lord Breen his what can that be Master windro Roger Mr Williams may I speak yes they're friends what is it Master winth Roger you must leave Salem at once see why the court gave me 6 weeks they have reversed that decision do not ask why I do not know they are sending Captain Underhill with 14 soldiers to arrest you and send you back to England to England there is a vessel waiting now off n Tas you must leave Salem but it is winter and his been he must leave now can't you do something Master winrop plead with the magistrate they would not listen to me I have just been censured for too much lenience to disaffected souls who will be next I will go to the Indians of Rhode Island they've shed me before and we'll do so now Roger Mary once again I bring suffering into your life no do not say so I would not have lived any other our life is still before us in a better place than this you will follow you must hurry my friend I will come with you Roger n Thomas make your plans well and follow with the others in the spring bring Mary and the child you have a child yes a girl born shortly after my tri we have named a Freeborn and so Roger Williams left Massachusetts and journeyed far off to RH is and here he and his people drew up a compact founding a colony based on the mean and vicious ideas of democracy we shall build a place where no man or woman Jew or Infidel or Catholic need fear the whip the prison or banishment for conscience sake a place of freedom and liberty for surely God ha provided and cut out this part of his world as a refuge for mankind [Music]