Roger Williams

However, a minority of Puritan separatists known as Brownists from as early as the 1580s rejected the notion of a state church altogether and argued for congregations to remain independent from civil power.

with another separatist Roger Williams in 1636 setting up Providence plantations with a formal separation of church and state during the interregnum led by the independent Oliver Cromwell.

Starting in 1649, the parish system was retained and ministers were financed via tithes, but oversight was exercised by state-appointed commissions such as the Triers and Ejectors.

allowing a range of Protestant congregations to receive support while excluding Catholics and radical sects.

thus rhode island at the beginning was formed of four separate and independent communities each an embryo a petty state no one of which possessed at first other than an indian title for its lands and a self-made plantation covenant as the warrant for its government to settle disputes over land titles and to dispose of town lands providence established in sixteen forty a court of arbitration consisting of five disposers who seem also to have served as a sort of executive board for the town in all outward relations she remained isolated from her neighbors pursuing a course of strictly local independence portsmouth and newport for the sake of greater strength united in march sixteen forty and a year later agreed on a form of government which they called a democratic or popular government in which none was to be accounted a delinquent for doctrine they set up a governor deputy governor and four assistants regularly elected and provided that all laws should be made by the freemen or the major part of them orderly assembled in the system thus established we can see the influence of the older colonies and the beginning of a stronger government but at best the experiment was half-hearted for each town reserved to itself complete control over its own affairs in sixteen forty seven portsmouth withdrew to be as free in their transactions as any other town in the colony and the spirit of separatism was still dominant but it soon became necessary for the four towns of what is now rhode island to have something more legal upon which to base their right to exist than a title derived from their plantation covenants and indian bargains massachusetts was extending her claim southward Edward Winslow was in England ready to show that the Rhode Island settlements were within the bounds of the Plymouth Patent.

and certain individuals traders and land seekers were locating in the narragansett country and taking possession of the soil to combat these claims roger williams who had so vehemently denied the validity of a royal patent a few years before but influenced now it may be by gorton's insistence that a legal title could be obtained only from england sailed overseas and secured from the parliamentary commissioners in march a charter uniting providence sportsmouth and newport under the name of providence plantations in the narragansett bay and granting them powers of government for the moment even this document had no certain value for in spite of the fact that the parliamentarians were at war with the king charles i was still sovereign of england and should he win in the civil war the title would be worthless however the patent was not put in force until sixteen forty seven after the victory of cromwell at naseby had given control into the hands of parliament and then a general meeting was held at portsmouth consisting of the freemen of warwick portsmouth and newport and ten representatives from providence the patent did not state how affairs were to be managed and the colonials meeting in subsequent assemblies worked out the problem in their own way they refused to have a governor and creating only a presiding officer with four assistants constituted a court of trials for the hearing of important criminal and civil causes no general court was created by law but a legislative body soon came into existence consisting of six deputies from each town before this portsmouth meeting of sixteen forty seven adjourned it adopted a code of laws in which witchcraft trials and imprisonment for debt were forbidden capital punishment was largely abolished and divorce was granted for adultery only in sixteen fifty two the assembly passed a noteworthy law against the holding of negroes in slavery but the new patent did not bring peace to the colony in sixteen forty nine roger williams wrote to governor winthrop our poor colony is in civil dissension their last meeting of the assembly at which i have not been have fallen into factions mr coddington and captain partridge etc are the heads of one and captain clark mr easton etc the heads of the other what had happened was this coddington representing the conservative and theocratic wing of the assembly and opposing those who were more liberally minded had evidently applied to massachusetts and plymouth for support in the effort to obtain an independent government for a quidneck this plan would have destroyed what unity the colony had obtained under the patent but coddington wished to be governor of a colony of his own Both Massachusetts and Plymouth were favorable to this plan, as they hoped to further their own claims to the territory of islands and mainland.

Twice Coddington made application to the newly formed Confederation of New England for admission, but was refused unless he would bring in a quidneck as part of Massachusetts or Plymouth, the latter of which laid claim to it.

coddington himself was willing to do this but found the opposition to the plan so vehement that he gave up the attempt and went to england to secure a patent of his own after long negotiations he was successful in his quest and returned with a document which appointed him governor for life with almost viceregal powers but he had reckoned without the people whom he was to govern learning of the outcome of coddington's mission and hearing that he had had secret dealings also with the dutch at new amsterdam the inhabitants of the islands rose in revolt hanged captain partridge and compelled coddington to seek safety in flight williams again went to england in sixteen fifty one and procured the recall of coddington's commission and a confirmation of his own patent and coddington in sixteen fifty six gave in his submission and was forgiven the early history of rhode island thus furnishes a remarkable exhibition of intense individualism in things religious and a warring of disruptive forces in matters of civil organization connecticut was settled during the year sixteen thirty four to sixteen thirty six by people from massachusetts knowledge of the fertile connecticut valley had come early to the dutch who had planted a blockhouse the house of good hope at the southeast corner of the land upon which hartford now stands plymouth too in searching for advantageous trade openings had sent out one william holmes who sailed past the dutch fort and took possession of the site of windsor in the autumn of sixteen thirty four a certain john oldham trader and rover and frequent disturber of the puritan peace came with a few companions and began to occupy and cultivate lands within the bounds of modern Wethersfield.

Others thought that they were a washed-up remnant of the Great Flood.

Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, wrote, From Adam and Noah that they spring, it is granted on all hands.

Even more fantastic views were advanced.

As late as 1828, a London clergyman wrote a book which he called A View of the American Indians, which was intended to show them to be the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel.

Maybe when they founded they were because obviously the Pilgrims were- Yeah ...

the Puritans were, William Penn was, Roger Williams.

You can go through a list of these early influential colonial leaders.

But when you get to the Founding Fathers, like they weren't really Christian.

Hurwitz was thrown into Newgate prison and was dead within four years.

Roger Williams carried the same conviction to Rhode Island and John Leland pressed it on the American founders, which is a large part of why religious liberty ended up written into that constitution.

Then come the modern tests and the church both failed and shone.

In 1934, as the German church was being absorbed into the Nazi state, a group of pastors and theologians met at Barmen and declared that Jesus Christ is the one Word of God whom we have to hear and obey, and rejected the idea that the church could hand itself over to any Lord.