11 of 81

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 5

regardless of their faith, accepted all good people, and soon after Williams even befriended the local pagan tribes of Native Americans. Williams believed in religious freedom for not only the sect of Puritans that had come to populate Massachusetts, but for all people in general, and he spoke of it during his sermons.

Although Williams soon found that those who desired religious freedom from the Church of England were no more accepting of the notion of religious freedom than that which they fled, for after only two short years he was forced from the church and back to Salem. There he lived as the assistant to the pastor in their church, before taking over his predecessor's position after the pastor died just a year after. Salem, however, did not take kindly to Williams' sermons, in which he preached the acceptance of people with opposing beliefs, and was soon after brought up on charges of spreading "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions". Both the lawmakers and his own Puritanical people thought it would be best if he were excommunicated to England, and so Williams went into exile.

A year later, in 1636, Williams along with some of his followers settled in a section of land southwest of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and called it Providence. Soon after, Williams saw the area flourishing with those who had escaped persecution in the new colonies, and founded the Colony of Rhode Island. It was the first colony that made civil issues a matter of majority rule, but gave acceptance and equality to all religious and non-religious people, and by 1639 Baptists, Quakers, Puritans, Huguenots, and even Jews had established congregations in Providence and its neighboring territories. Scattered amongst them were Atheists who had no gods guiding their morals, but Williams saw that they were ethical people with their own opinions on religious matters, and was happy to treat them as equals. In 1640 Williams wrote in his The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution', "No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will."

In his fervent battle for the freedom of religion' Williams wrote many treatises on why the cities and towns of the New World needed to be open to what he referred to as varying "opinions" of spirituality. He recognized the morality of individuals who held opposing views on religion, and later in his life would write, "God requirth not an uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later)

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about The case for the separation of church and state?
We want to hear your view. Write now!