Anne Hutchinson: Puritan Prophet is a novel that tells the story of a puritan who fought for religion. She fought for the belief of predestination and of free grace. Hall uses her life to tell the story of religion and how her inspiration got religion to where it is in modern day. He shows us how Hutchinson’s courage to speak her thoughts helped make free religion which was a new concept for the world. Anne Hutchinson fought hard for what she believed in. She faced the humiliation of being banished just so the world can have free grace.
Leader and midwife, Anne Hutchinson, was born in Alford,England. As a child, she learned from her father that questioning religious teachings from the Church of England is an acceptable task. Her father
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As her meetings grew, the magistrates decided that Anne was dangerous to the community. This caused the governor to charge her with sedition and heresy.
After she had been charged, Anne Hutchinson was forced to go on trial in November 1637. Winthrop personally interrogated her and claimed that she was defaming the ministers. Anne was accused of questioning Bible teachings. Hutchinson fought Winthrop to prove his claim. She would answer his questions with challenging questions of her own. In result to her defiance, Winthrop condemned her teaching men in public as “not fitting for her gender.” Anne attempted to defend herself with biblical terms and by quoting Titus. She wanted to make it clear that it was up to the older women to the younger ones. Unfortunately, her fate was decided. Because Hutchinson claimed her revelations came directly from God, it showed that there was a clear case of heresy. The magistrates immediately revealed that she was to be banished from the community.
After her banishment from the colony in 1638, Hutchinson and her husband joined what is now Portsmouth, Rhode Island. In 1632, William Hutchinson died causing his wife to move to Long Island Sound (which at the time was being held under Dutch jurisdiction) so she could avoid persecution from Massachusetts Bay. The local Native American tribe was angered that the new settlers had arrived. In result, they killed Hutchinson and most of her children and
Anne Hutchinson was a remarkable colonial woman who first came to Massachusetts in the fall of 1634. She is less remembered for her contributions in the new world as a wife, mother of fourteen, and midwife to many than for her eventual trial and banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I was interested in writing a paper on a colonial woman and chose Anne Hutchinson after a "Google" search turned up a very good review on a recent book about her life. I have been intrigued by the fact that the Puritans came to America to practice their religion freely, yet allowed no freedom to question their
It is my understanding that Anne's type of mischief was not too uncommon for that time period in Massachusetts. Meetings were held all over between Puritans discussing religious topics such as Biblical translations and weekly sermons
Anne Hutchinson’s boldness and friction to the traditional Puritan beliefs made her one of the most well-known women from the New England Colonies. Marilyn J. Westerkamp states that she has been portrayed in biographies “as a pioneer for civil and religious liberty, crusading against the strictures of Puritan society.” Though she posed a threat to the Puritans and their religion, Anne Hutchinson should not have been exiled from the colonies. She was wrongly exiled because America would later be built on the freedom of religion, because both men and women should be able to practice religion freely, and because there was no reasonable evidence supporting her charges and exile.
How was Anne Hutchinson's trial an ordeal for her and how was it an ordeal for
Anne Hutchinson was a puritan that believed that the Holy Spirit was within her and that had the Holy Spirit within were not subject to the laws of man. Many believed that the conflicts she had with the clergy could lead to the destruction of the puritans religious experiments. As a woman challenging the clergy and other higher ups this was not something that women did in her times telling her "you have step out of your place"(Conlin,48) and that theses thing were not "fitting of you sex"(Conlin,48). They convicted her because the consider her a danger to the spiritual welfare of the people and banished her to Rhode
Anne Hutchinson held meetings at her house on Sundays to recall what had been said during the church sermon as well as to add her own ideas and thoughts on the topics that were being discussed. At first this seemed very normal but when her teachings began influencing people to pull away from the other Puritans, Winthrop recognized this as a problem. Anne Hutchinson taught others of her numerous propositions, which opposed the purpose of this excursion to New England. Morgan states that, Mrs. Hutchinson’s beliefs, “…threatened the fundamental conviction on which the Puritans built their state, their churches, and their daily lives, namely that God’s will could be discovered only through the bible” (Morgan). Anne Hutchinson was in fact an Antinomian, she opposed the fixed meaning of God’s moral law that Winthrop had worked so hard to teach these people. As a result, Mrs. Hutchinson was causing a huge threat to the settlers. She was trying to manipulate others to share her religious beliefs. Winthrop would not tolerate such behavior, as she was behaving sinfully, she must be punished accordingly or else as Winthrop believed, they would all suffer from God’s wrath. Winthrop took Mrs. Hutchinson to a court hearing and after a long, battle it was decided by the court that Mrs. Hutchinson was to be banished from Massachusetts. Mrs. Hutchinson was set as an example for the others who may
Anne Hutchinson wanted the freedom to express her opinions. In a time when Puritans had the final say on every topic in life not simply religion, Anne Hutchinson was accused of defying the principles of Puritan religion merely because she organized meetings to discuss subjects that had been preached about in church meetings. There was a tremendous backlash because of these studies and she was accused of
In the trial against Anne Hutchinson, she was charged, in a vague manner, to be a danger to the colony because of the spreading of her Antinomian opinions at her meetings. Throughout the entire trial Anne was slowly being backed into a corner in which ideally she would have then broken down and admitted to doing all the wrongs in which Governor Winthrop believed she was guilty of, but she never really did. The evidence against her was so weak in nature, that it seemed that Winthrop, along with all the other elders and deputies, really needed a confession to completely justify her banishment. Though unsuccessful in their efforts, even when it was brought up by the Deputy Governor that Anne went to a meeting of ministers and told them all that they preached the “covenant of works” to their very faces, Anne stayed with the Fifth Amendment technique and denied nothing,
Only three years after her arrival in 1634, Anne Hutchinson was put on trial for antinomianism and sedition. This trial became the contact zone for Hutchinson’s religious ideals and Winthrop’s hardened
Anne Hutchinson was a strong willed and intelligent woman that lived in 1637 in the Massachusetts Bay colony. She opposed both John Winthrop, governor of the colony, as well as the Puritan church leaders who had a different set of beliefs from her, and made up the court of elected officials that assisted the governor. She was banished from the colony in 1638 on charges of blasphemy, because she claimed to have direct and divine inspiration from the Holy Spirit, in a Puritan community it was thought that only preachers and other church leaders could see God, this idea was known as the covenant of works. Anne Hutchinson was a believer in the covenant of grace where God could show himself to anyone at
Puritans believed that justification could not be reached alone. Sanctification was necessary in order to be saved. On the other hand, Hutchinson claimed herself to be a prophet. She testified that God proclaimed to her that she was saved. She held meetings in her home with other women to discuss her views. Winthrop was outraged by Hutchinson’s claim of self-sanctification. This led him to believe that she was a witch. So, she was taken to trial.
And because they exist within a self governing system, the accusation of guilt quickly rendered the judgement and decision of guilt before any trial took place or any evidence was shared. The Word of God does say in Hebrews 4:12, “"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, andis a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." In the heart of Anne Hutchinson I believe we see a godly woman uncompromising to her call. Yet the reflection her boldness found in the system of these self governing men, was a blinding assult and the very heresy they
She was self taught and learned also by reading the books within her father’s library. Her family was middle class and members of the church. Her father was a reverend. She married William Hutchinson a magistrate in the colony. Hutchinson like many other women played a role in child bearing as a midwife. She held the same roles within the household as other women. It was her actions outside of the household that Hutchinson was held accountable for. Hutchinson began following the sermons of John Cotton, an outspoken advocate of self-determination of congregational government. Following this ideology Hutchinson started hosting meetings that presented theological interpretations of sermons and scriptures; ideas that contradicted with the Puritan religion. The church found her a threat to the commonwealth. The meetings were not only appealing to men but to women as well. Many listened to what she had to say and the church feared that people who begin to follow her as well. Hutchinson had stepped beyond a gender role that during the early 17th century was were considered inappropriate for women. As a woman she was allowed to express religious experiences but was not supposed to go around teaching their own interpretation of God’s word. When placed on trial Hutchinson spoke open mindedly, but within context of male hierarchy. She was challenging the ministers therefore, challenging government due to the large ties between the
Anne had an excellent education thanks to her father’s high position, she soon moved out of England to the new world in Massachusetts where she learned about puritanism. She did have a hard time adjusting though, “As a New England colonist, Bradstreet
Hutchinson began following the sermons of John Cotton, an outspoken advocate of self-determination of congregational government. Following this ideology Hutchinson started hosting meetings that presented theological interpretations of sermons and scriptures; ideas that contradicted with the Puritan religion. The church found her a threat to the commonwealth because the attendance was equal to, if not more than the Sabbath congregations. Many listened to what she had to say and the church feared that people who begin to follow her as well. As a woman she was allowed to express religious experiences but was not supposed to go around teaching their own interpretation of God’s word. In the opening of her trial Winthrop expressed that she had participated in “a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God not fitting for your sex” . Hutchinson had stepped beyond a gender role that during the early 17th century was were considered inappropriate for women.