Basic HTML Version
Seeking Freedom in a New World
167
darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge would break forth at
once.
The desire for liberty of conscience inspired the Pilgrims to cross
the sea, endure the hardships of the wilderness, and lay the founda-
tion of a mighty nation. Yet the Pilgrims did not yet comprehend
the principle of religious liberty. The freedom which they sacrificed
so much to secure for themselves, they were not ready to grant to
others. The doctrine that God has committed to the church the right
to control the conscience and to define and punish heresy is one of
the most deeply rooted of papal errors. The Reformers were not en-
tirely free from Rome’s spirit of intolerance. The dense darkness in
which popery had enveloped Christendom had not yet been wholly
dissipated.
A kind of state church was formed by the colonists, the magis-
trates being authorized to suppress heresy. Thus secular power was
in the hands of the church. These measures led to the inevitable
result—persecution.
Roger Williams
Like the early Pilgrims, Roger Williams came to the New World
to enjoy religious freedom. But, unlike them, he saw—what so few
had yet seen—that this freedom was the inalienable right of all. He
was an earnest seeker for truth. Williams “was the first person in
modern Christendom to establish civil government on the doctrine
of the liberty of conscience.
“The public or the magistrates may
decide,” he said, “what is due from man to man; but when they
attempt to prescribe a man’s duties to God, they are out of place,
and there can be no safety; for it is clear that if the magistrate
had the power, he may decree one set of opinions or beliefs today
and another tomorrow; as has been done in England by different
[184]
kings and queens, and by different popes and councils in the Roman
Church.
Attendance at the established church was required under penalty
of fine or imprisonment. “To compel men to unite with those of
4
Martyn, vol. 5, pp. 70, 71.
5
Bancroft, pt. 1, ch. 15, par. 16.
6
Martyn, vol. 5, p. 340.