Roger Williams is Banished
Roger Williams, as a spiritual guide, was a passionate young man but his ideas and sermons often deviated away from the traditional Puritan beliefs. The elders of the church, fearing a split amongst their members, brought the forces of the law against this man they had already decreed was an "outspoken heretic." Considering that to bring the law of the times and of this particular place against someone was the same as bringing the force of the Puritan church against them, Williams was tried by an "ecclesiastical court." Of course he was found guilty of erring against the church and was ordered to leave the commonwealth.
Puritans Deny Religious Freedom
The Puritan church of Salem was correct in believing that if Roger Williams remained in Salem there would surely be a split in the church. Perhaps this was one of the first painful stirrings of the idea of religious freedom. It was not the first, however. The Puritans, themselves, had fled England for just that very reason, an action they were now attempting to deny others.
Williams Establishes Providence Plantation
Williams was not without his own followers. When he fled to Narragansett Bay his followers joined him. There, in 1636, he began a town called Providence Plantation.
So distensions and disagreements, especially with the church, were also numbered amongst the labor pains of berthing new towns in early English America. It would repeat its self many times and soon did two years later. This time the dissenter was not the usual male leader but, horror of all Puritan horrors, a woman.
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