Roger Williams, separation of church and state

February 5, 1631: Roger Williams arrives in Boston. Roger was born in 1603 and by age 11 he left the Church of England and joined the Puritans. Sir Edward Coke sponsored Roger's education at Charterhouse, a boys' boarding school of great repute, and the University of Cambridge, Pembroke College. Roger was a polyglot speaking Greek, Latin, Dutch, and French. John Milton taught him Hebrew in exchange for lessons in Dutch. Roger became a chaplain to a wealthy family. By 1630, Archbishop William Laud's administration forced Roger to dissent and seek asylum in New England.

Roger and his wife, Mary, sailed for Boston on board the Lyon. He was offered a pastor position in "an unseparated church" and so declined. He sought the liberty of conscience he was denied in Britain and looked for a separationist church. It was Roger's belief that civil magistrates should not be empowered to punish for "breach of the first table" of the Ten Commandments. He felt idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, false worship, and blasphemy were the purview of the ecclesiastical authorities, not the magistrates. In other words, separation of church and state.

He was invited to preach and teach at a church in Plymouth where he stayed for about two years. He left over ideological issues and went to Salem. A year later, he was exiled for espousing "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions" adversely affecting the Church of England. In defying the Church, he was also defying the King of England who was head of the faithful. Williams established a colony at Providence and settled the area with 12 "loving friends and neighbors." The colony was based on principles of equality and by 1640, 39 freemen signed a covenant establishing the new colony and her goals.

In 1647, the colony of Rhode Island joined Providence under one government. In 1652, they passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal. Williams advocated for religious toleration. He was adamant concerning fair treatment of Native Americans. He formed a relationship with Baptists and built a Baptist Church in Rhode Island. He wrote several books and his most famous treatise is written about liberty of conscience and is in the form of a dialog between Truth and Peace. He died in 1683 at the age of 79.

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"God is too large to be housed under one roof." – Roger Williams

"The English...justified their grabbing of Indian land by claiming that these simple folk did not really believe in property rights. On the contrary, Williams observed, 'the Natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their Lands, belonging to this or that Prince or People,' even bargaining among themselves for a small piece of ground." - Edwin Gaustad

"From his first few weeks in America he openly raised the banner of 'rigid Separatism.' In one year in Salem he converted the town into a stronghold of radical Separatism and threw the entire Bay Colony into an uproar. Banished for his views, after being declared guilty of 'a frontal assault on the foundations of the Bay system,' he escaped just as he was to be deported to England." – Cyclone Covey

"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…" - Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony