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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2011
Thomas Underhill, a citizen of London during the Commonwealth, described that period of English history as “Hell Broke Loose.” Partly as a result of Anabaptist influence, and partly as a continuation of the indigenous Lollard movement, large numbers of persons in every part of England separated themselves from the Established Church and formed themselves into independent religious societies. Some of these groups were very eccentric in their beliefs and practices. Thomas Edwards, their bitter opponent, made a Catalogue of “the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies and Pernicious Practices … vented and acted in England” between the years 1642 and 1646, which he called, Gangraena. In it he distinguishes no less than two hundred and ten errors which were held by one or other of the sixteen groups into which he divides the sectaries. The sixteen were, “Independents, Brownists, Chiliasts or Millenaries, Antinomians, Anabaptists, Manifestarians or Arminians, Libertines, Familists, Enthusiasts, Seekers and Waiters, Perfectists, Socinians, Arians, Anti-Trinitarians, Anti-Scripturalists, Sceptics and Quietists.” The Parliamentary army especially abounded with men whose “great religion” was “liberty of conscience and liberty of preaching.” G. P. Gooch and others have shown how deeply the roots of modern democracy are embedded in the religious struggles of these seventeenth century sects. Most of them disappeared with the Commonwealth, or were absorbed in the rising Quaker movement, but certain fundamental principles for which they stood continued to exist and to mold public opinion.
1 Underhill, Thomas, Hell Broke Loose, or a History of the Quakers (London, 1660)Google Scholar
2 Edwards, Thomas, Gangraena, Third edition (London, 1646), Part I, 13 ff.; Part II, 116Google Scholar.
3 Ibid., Part I, 14.
4 Gooch, G. P., English Democratic Ideas in the XVII Century (Cambridge, 1927)Google Scholar; Barclay, Robert, The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, 2nd ed. (London, 1877)Google Scholar; Jones, R. M., Mysticism and Democracy in the English Commonwealth (Cambridge, 1932), esp. Ch. VCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Jones, op. cit., 127–129.
6 Quoted, Ibid., 83.
7 Quoted, Ibid., 89.
8 Daniel Featley, The Dippers Dipt. (Originally pub. London, 1645, seventh edition 1660), Preface.
9 Jones, Mysticism and Democracy, 147.
10 Ibid., 132 ff.
11 This is the real historical significance of the famous controversy according to Adams, C. F., Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay (Boston, 1894), xiv–xvGoogle Scholar.
12 Johnson, Edward, Wonder Working Providence of Sion's Saviour in New England (1654), Poole, W. F. ed. (Andover, 1867), 8Google Scholar.
13 Mather, Cotton, Magnalia Christi Americana, Robbins, T. ed. (Hartford, 1858), II, 505Google Scholar; Winthrop, John, Journal History of New England, 1630–1649, Hosmer, J. K., ed. (New York, 1908), II, 145 ffGoogle Scholar.
14 A complete account of the trial, containing all the relevant documents is to be found in Adams, Antinomianism. Hutchinson, Thomas, The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay, Mayo, L. S. ed. (Cambridge, 1936), II, 366–391Google Scholar, contains the record of the Examination of Mrs. Hutchinson by the General Court. Winthrop, Journal, I, 195 ff. contains much first hand information. For a brief, popular treatment see, Curtis, Edith, Anne Hutchinson, A Biography (Cambridge, 1930)Google Scholar.
15 A Short Story of the Rise, Reign and Ruine of the Antinomians, etc. (London, 1644)Google Scholar, usually ascribed to Thomas Wilde, but probably written by Winthrop, is printed in Adams, op. cit., 67–233. Another edition entitled, Antinomians and Familists Condemned by the Synod of Elders in New England, etc. (London, 1644), is among the rare books in Harvard College Library.
16 Bell, C. F., John Wheelwright, His Writings, etc. (Boston, 1876), 153 ffGoogle Scholar. In his famous Fast Day Sermon, 1636, Wheelwright actually warned his hearers to live pure and blameless lives, and “to give not occasion to others to say we are libertines or Antinomians.” Ibid., 175.
17 Winthrop, Journal, II, 39.
18 Cotton Mather, Magnalia, II, 498, says that Williams advised his followers, “to forgo all, to dislike everything, and wait for the coming of new apostles; whereupon they dissolved themselves, and became that sort of a sect which we term Seekers, keeping to that one principle, ‘that everyone should have the liberty to worship God according to the light of his own conscience,’ but owning of no true churches or ordinances now in the world.” In The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, etc. Caldwell, S. L. ed. (Pub. of Narragansett Club, Providence 1867)Google Scholar, First Series, III, 70. Roger Williams accused the Puritan churches of worshipping God, “in sleepy ignorance.”
19 Adams, Antinomianism, 93.
20 Mather, Magnalia, II, 520.
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22 Abbey, C. J., The English Church and Its Bishops, 1700–1300 (London, 1887), II, 79Google Scholar.
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24 Cf., Randall, J. H., The Making of the Modern Mind (New York, 1926), Ch. XIGoogle Scholar.
25 Locke, John, The Reasonableness of Christianity (London, 1695)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
26 Quoted in Pattison, Mark, “Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1688–1750,” Essays (Oxford, 1889), II, 49Google Scholar.
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29 “Up to 1776 deism was still an aristocratic cult confined to a few intellectuals residing in relatively large towns.” Morais, H. M., Deism in America (New York, 1934), 17Google Scholar.
30 Walker, Williston, The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (New York, 1893), 423Google Scholar.
31 Walker, op. cit., 427 ff.
32 Cf., Miller, P. G. E., “Declension in a Bible Commonwealth.” (Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, 1942)Google Scholar; Walker, G. L., Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England (Boston, 1897)Google Scholar, esp. ch. II, “The Puritan Decline.”
33 Love, W. D., The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England (Boston, 1895), 519, 520Google Scholar.
34 G. L. Walker, op. cit., 74.
35 W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, 435–436.
36 “A personall and publick confession and declaring of God's manner of working upon the soul, is both lawful, expedient and useful.” The Cambridge Platform, XII, 5, Ibid., 223.
37 For a full discussion of the Half-Way Covenant, together with the full text of the Results of the Synod of 1662, see W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, 239–339. Miller, P. G. E., “The Half-Way Covenant,” New England Quarterly (1933), VI, 676—715CrossRefGoogle Scholar, contains an analysis of the religious situation.
38 Miller, P. G. E., “Solomon Stoddard, 1643–1729,” Harvard Theological Review (Oct., 1941), XXXIV, 297Google Scholar, is an excellent short review of the breakdown of the Half-Way Covenant.
39 Result of Synod, 1679, W. Walker, op. cit., 436.
40 Records of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England, Sharpies, S. P. ed. (Boston, 1906), 80Google Scholar.
41 Mather, Magnalia, II, 333.
41 Ibid., II, 332.
43 There were revivals at East Windsor, Conn., in 1694; at Taunton, Mass., in 1704; at Northampton, Mass., in 1712, and 1718; and at Windham, Conn., in 1721, G. L. Walker, Some Aspects, 83–84; Mitchell, M. H., “The Great Awakening in Connecticut,” Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut, Committee of Historical Publications (New Haven, 1934), 17Google Scholar.
44 Quoted in G. L. Walker, op. cit., 73.
45 Hutchinson, History, II, 150.
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47 Clark, J. S., A Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, 1620–1858 (Boston, 1858), 94–199Google Scholar.
48 Quoted in G. L. Walker, op. cit., 73.
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51 Davis, A. M., Colonial Currency Reprints (Prince Society, Boston 1910), I, 34Google Scholar.
52 Some accounts state that 20,000 men were preparing to march on Boston and to throw the merchants' stock of corn into the Bay. For the whole subject of the Land Bank see Davis, A. M., Currency and Banking in Massachusetts Bay (New York, 1900), II, 158 ffGoogle Scholar. Valuable lists of names are included in these papers.
53 For brief discussion see, Miller, J. C., “Religion, Finance and Democracy in Massachusetts,” New England Quarterly (1933), VI, 29–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
54 George Whitefield (1714–1770), friend of the Wesleys, visited America six times, preaching with remarkable results from Georgia to Maine. For biography see, Tyerman, L., The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield (London, 1876)Google Scholar.
55 Cf., Maxson, C. H., The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies (Chicago, 1920), 41 ffGoogle Scholar.
56 Whitefield, George, A Continuation of … Journal (London, 1741), 26–41Google Scholar. This is the so-called Seventh Journal which caused such offence in New England that the author later revised it. It contains some very sharp criticisms of New England religion and of Harvard College.
57 Ibid., 29.
58 Ibid., 84.
59 Clark, Historical Sketch, 166.
60 Cf. Tracy, The Great Awakening, 120–213.
61 The Christian History, Containing Accounts of the Revival and Propagation of Religion in Great Britain, America, etc., 2w. (Boston, 1743–44).
62 Whitefield, Seventh Journal, 38.
63 Maxson, op. cit., 21ff.
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65 Mode, P. G., Source Book and Bibliographical Guide for American Church History (Menasha, Wis., 1921), 219Google Scholar.
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67 The State of Religion in New England Since the Rev. Mr.Whitefield's, GeorgeArrival There, in a Letter from a Gentleman in New England to his Friend in Glasgow, etc. (signed A. M.), (Glasgow, 1742), 3Google Scholar.
68 Ibid., 10.
69 “Sometimes many more would scream and cry out, or send forth the most lamentable Groans, … clapping their Hands, uttering exstatick Expressions, … some would swoon away … others labored under convulsive Twitches of Body.” — A Letter to Mr. George Wishart, 16.
70 The State of Religion, 8. Cf., also Chauncy, op. cit., 240.
71 The State of Religion, 7. See also the remarkable account of a vision seen by two children, 11 and 13 years old, who disturbed the whole town of Lebanon, Conn., by claiming to have seen the Book of Life, and the names of their friends and neighbors written therein, related in Rev. Williams, Solomon, The More Excellent Way (New London, 1742)Google Scholar, Prefatory Letter.
72 Chauncy, Seasonable Thoughts, 98.
73 Mode, Source Book, 222.
74 Tracy, The Great Awakening, 295. See also, The Testimony of a Number of New England Ministers Met at Boston, Sept. 25, 1745, etc. (Boston, 1745), signed by twenty-four ministers, in an attempt to bring about peace between the two parties.
75 Charles Chauncy, The Wonderful Narrative: Or a Faithful Account of the French Prophets, Their Agitations, Extasies, and Inspirations to which are added Several Other Remarkable Instances of Persons under the Influence of the like Spirit, in various Parts of the World, particularly in New England: In a Letter to a Friend (Glasgow, 1742), 89.
76 Edwards, Jonathan, Works (Reprint of Worcester edition, New York, 1844), IIIGoogle ScholarPubMed.
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78 Colonial Records of Connecticut, Hoadly, C. J. and Trumbull, J. eds. (Hartford, 1850–90), VIII, 454 ffGoogle Scholar.
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80 W. Walker, op. cit., 507; Conn. Col. Rec., V, 87.
81 Trumbull, Benjamin, A Complete History of Connecticut to the Year 1764 (New Haven, 1818), II, 166Google Scholar.
82 Ibid., 165.
83 Tracy, op. cit., 240.
84 The Separates are treated briefly in Tracy, op. cit. Ch. XVII; G. L. Walker, op. cit., 112–121; Learned, R. C., “Separate Churches in Connecticut,” in Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut (New Haven, 1861), 253–259Google Scholar; Blake, S. L., The Separates (Boston, 1902)Google Scholar, is the most thorough treatment of the subject.
86 Larned, E. D., History of Windham County (Worcester, 1874), I, 412Google Scholar. This history gives an excellent picture of the Separates in the county where they were most numerous.
87 Ibid., I, 433.
87 Conn. Col. Rec., VIII, 522.
88 Blake, op. cit., 34.
89 E. D. Larned, Windham County, I, 400.
90 Blake, op. cit., 139–196, lists some 27 churches; R. C. Learned, op. cit., 253 ff., lists thirty-two.
91 Larned, Windham County, I, 474, passim; G. L. Walker, op. cit., 113.
92 Larned, op. cit., I, 474.
93 Cf., S. Williams, More Excellent Way, Preface.
94 Larned, op. cit., I, 474–475.
95 Ibid., I, 475.
96 Conn. Col. Records, VIII, 501; Greene, op. cit., 255. The college, known as “the Shepherd's Tent,” was in New London.
97 Larned, op. cit., I, 458–459.
98 Quoted in Larned, Windham County, I, 479.
99 Trumbull, History of Connecticut, II, 193.
100 Ibid., II, 169.
101 Blake, The Separates, 106.
102 Chauncy, Seasonable Thoughts, 221 ff. This remarkable piece of fanaticism occurred in New London in March 1743 under the leadership of James Davenport. The clothes and jewelry were not burned. See also Blake, op. cit., 101.
103 Larned, Windham County, I, 469.
104 Ibid., I, 469; Blake, op. cit., 205–206. For a contemporary account of the Separates see, A Letter from the Associated Ministers of the County of Windham, etc. (Boston, 1745)Google Scholar.
105 Larned, Windham County, I, 470.
106 Ibid., I, 470. The church was at Canterbury, Conn.
107 Ibid., I, 436; Tracy, The Great Awakening, 323; Blake, op. cit., 86.
108 Larned, op. cit., I, 476.
109 Isaac Backus, Church History of New England, from 1620–1804, etc. (Philadelphia, 1844), 177–178. The author was one of the Separate ministers who became a Baptist. He states that, “Though the communing of all real saints together appeared to be of great importance, yet many found by degrees that it could not be done in that way; for they saw that if they came to the Lord's supper with any who were only sprinkled in their infancy, it practically said they were baptised, when they believed in their consciences that they were not. And practical lying is a great sin.”
110 Meyer, J. C., Church and State in Massachusetts (Cleveland, 1930), 36Google Scholar.
111 Cf., Blake, op. cit., 197; Greene, op. cit., 270, Backus, op. cit., 178. Walker, Williston, A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States, The American Church History Series, III (New York, 1894), 263Google Scholar.
112 Larned, op. cit., I, 483; Blake, op. cit., 123 ff.
113 M. H. Mitchell, op. cit., 17.
114 Quoted in G. L. Walker, Some Aspects, 112.
115 Meyer, op. cit., 32; Blake, op. cit., 56; G. L. Walker, op. cit., 112; W. Walker. Congregational Churches, 264–265.
116 Clark, E. T., The Small Sects of America (Nashville, 1937)Google Scholar.