The true revolutionist in America often has been the solid citizen
with firm a conservative background, and surely Roger Williams, educated
at Cambridge University, fell within that definition. Williams, a
Puritan ordained minister in his mid-twenties, because of his concept of
the religious tolerance and liberty in his sermons forced him to flee
an England that stubbornly and sternly insisted upon conformity to the
established church.
In
1631, Roger William's arrived in Salem with this same spirit of liberty
and a passion for democracy, bolding speaking out against those in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony that had conformed to the ways of the Old
World. He criticized the Massachusetts Bay Company for not paying the
Indians for their lands. He spoke out against the Puritan Church for
demanding that everyone worship God in the same way, which was their
way, the very reason the Puritans fled England. This led to Roger
Williams' banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
What made
Roger Williams the great revolutionary patriot of his day? It was his
highly positive religious and intellectual individualism. In that age,
religious conformity was the general rule. Williams was not willing to
conform to the things that went against his core beliefs, such as the
Puritans requiring men to be a member of the of church, and church and
state being one, but rather pushed for the separation of church and
state, giving the government of the day no authority over man's freedom
to worship God in the way he chose. Williams even stopped trying to
convert the Indians to his religion and rules of worship, believing that
any man can worship in the way he chooses.
Williams criticized
the Puritan church for trying to use the government to in force the Ten
Commandments as a part of colony law. He also criticized the law,
requiring men to attend church regularly and taking an oath of loyalty.
Williams said plainly, Religion is none of the government's business.
Roger
Williams believed and taught to his church congregation the ideals and
practices of democracy. He believed that every man had certain rights by
natural law; that government created by the people is always their
servant, responsible to them, and can be changed whenever they wish.
This
was strong doctrine for those days. Many men dare not be so bold. The
founders and leaders of Massachusetts could not tolerate such a man, so
they banished him from their colony.
