God requireth not an uniformity of Religion to be inacted and inforced in any civill state…true civility and Christianity may both flourish in a state or Kingdome, notwithstanding the permission of divers and contrary consciences, either of Jew or Gentile.

Roger Williams,
The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, 1644.

Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Section I. Part 2,
From the Exhibition
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic

Roger Williams, defender of religious liberty and founder of Rhode Island, arrived in Boston on February 5, 1631. Born in England just after the turn of the seventeenth century, Williams was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and ordained to the ministry in the Church of England.

His first parish duty brought him in contact with eminent Puritans such as John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and Oliver Cromwell, who influenced him in his conversion to the theology of Calvin. In 1629, he received a call to the ministry from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Chafing at the lack of religious freedom under King Charles I, Williams and his wife crossed the ocean to join the American Experiment.

Statue of Roger Williams,
Roger Williams Park,
Providence, Rhode Island,
ca. 1900-1910.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

Although at first he had advocated reform within the Church of England, Williams became a Separatist, seeking a complete break from the Church of England. He was soon disappointed to find that the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were not favorable to the complete severance of ties with the Church of England.

Williams was accepted as minister at Salem, but it was soon perceived that his ideas went even beyond Separatism. He went so far as to insist that civil authorities were not empowered to enforce religious injunctions.

In disfavor with the Massachusetts Colony, Williams sought refuge in the Separatist Plymouth Colony, but again found himself in the center of controversy, this time because of his insistence that only the purchase of land from the Indians gave colonists a fair title to the land. This radical stance proved unpalatable to the Plymouth Colony, and Williams returned to Salem, where he was again accepted as minister, in spite of his uncomfortable views.

New and Dangerous Opinions Against the Authority of Magistrates

In 1635, Williams was tried by the Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and found guilty of holding four opinions at variance with those officially sanctioned. His sentence was banishment from the colony:

Whereas, Mr Roger Williams, one of the elders of the Church of Salem, hath broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates and…yet maintaineth the same without retraction, it is therefore ordered, that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction within six weeks now ensuing…

Mr. Williams holds forth these four particulars;
1st. That we have not our land by patent from the King, but that the natives are the true owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such a receiving of it by patent.
2nd. That it is not lawful to call a wicked person to swear, to pray, as being actions of God's worship.
3rd. That it is not lawful to hear any of the ministers of the parish assemblies in England.
4th. That the civil magistrate's power extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward state of men…

Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as quoted in a sermon, "The Value of Baptist Principles to the American Government," read before the National Baptist Convention, Atlanta, Ga., 1895 and the Baptist Ministers' Conference, Washington, D.C., 1897.
Sermons and Addresses, Delivered by W. Bishop Johnson.
African American Perspectives, 1818-1907

Williams fled the colony before his prosecutors could send him back to England, and, purchasing land from the Narragansetts, established the settlement of Providence on Narragansett Bay in June 1636. An intense campaign on the part of the Massachusetts colony to acquire a patent for the land of Rhode Island led Williams to visit England in 1643, where he was able to obtain a royal charter for the colony. While in England, Williams published the first of a series of pamphlets setting forth his views on religious liberty, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for cause of Conscience, discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace....

Map of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1880.
Map Collections (1500-Present)

The colony of Rhode Island, founded on complete religious toleration, separation of church and state, and political democracy, became a refuge for people persecuted for their religious beliefs. Rhode Island colonists participated in a simple form of democratic government, with each family represented in political meetings by the vote of the head of the family. Anabaptists and Quakers fled the persecutions of the Puritans to settle in Rhode Island. In 1658, a Jewish community arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, seeking religious freedom.

For a brief time, Williams was an Anabaptist and founded the Baptist Church of Christ in Providence in 1638. This church had the distinction of being the first Baptist church in America, and the first of any denomination in Rhode Island. In 1639, increasingly sceptical of the claims of the established churches, Williams became a Seeker.

Williams maintained close ties to the Narragansett Indians and continued to protect them from the land greed of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His respect for the Indians, his fair treatment of them, and his knowledge of their language enabled him to carry on peace negotiations between the native peoples and European settlers. Although Williams preached to the Indians, he gave up the attempt to convert them, extending his principle of religious freedom to include all forms of worship.

        
The Lake, Roger Williams Park,
Providence, Rhode Island, ca. 1900-1910.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

The Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence, Rhode Island, maintained by the National Park Service, commemorates this original thinker whose influence on the American form of government has been profound.

• To read texts related to Williams' influence on American religious freedom, search on Roger Williams in African American Perspectives, 1818-1907, selecting a full text search. Use the "BEST MATCH" link at the top of each item retrieved to find the reference to Williams.
• See the Today in History feature on William Penn and the August 17 page on religious tolerance to learn more about freedom of worship in America.
• View the exhibition Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. Part 2 of Section I of the exhibition, Persecution in America includes discussion of the persecution of Roger Williams, the Quakers, Anabaptists, Jews, and Roman Catholics.