Authors: Eve LaPlante
“I know not that,” she admitted.
“These are opinions that cannot be borne!” Davenport cried. “They shake the very foundation of our faith and tend to the overthrow of all religion. They are not slight matters [but are] of great weight and consequence.”
“We
much
fear her spirit,” the Reverend Eliot agreed.
Sensing that his moment had arrived, the Reverend Wilson said, “If the church be satisfied with the arguments that have been propounded—that they are convinced in their judgments that these are errors, let them express it by their usual sign of holding up their hands—and that they look at them as gross and damnable heresies.” Many members of the Boston congregation, except Anne’s sons and several women, raised their hands. As all were aware, Hutchinson’s
strongest supporters were gone to Rhode Island, and any additional support she might enjoy had been suppressed.
Wilson continued confidently, “And because it is very late and many things yet to go over, the church thinks it meet to refer further dealing with our sister till the next lecture day.”
Edward Hutchinson, Anne’s oldest son, rose from his bench to object to the church acting without unanimity. “I desire to know by what rule
I
am to express myself in my assent or dissent when yet my mother is not convinced. For I hope she will not shut her eyes against any light.”
“Brother,” Wilson cautioned him, “you may as well question whether God will confess you before his Father which is in heaven, when you
deny
to confess
his
truth before men though against your own mother.”
Davenport seconded this warning. “You are
not
to be led by natural affection, but to declare your opinion for the truth and against error, though held by your own mother. The question was not whether the arguments were weighty enough to convince your mother, but whether
you
have light enough to satisfy your conscience that they are errors.”
“Then I consent to them, as far as I know, that there
is
a resurrection,” Edward replied, not knowing how else to support his mother.
Thomas Shepard broke in. “If there be
any
of this congregation that do hold the same opinions [as she does], I advise them to take heed of it, for the hand of the Lord will find you out! And for Mistress Hutchinson, she hath often boasted of the guidance of God’s spirit and that her revelations are as true as the Scriptures. But she hath already confessed her mistake in the two first points by the light she hath received from Mr. Davenport. Now, then, her spirit hath led her into some errors. Therefore, I hope she will see the rest to be errors, and know it is not God’s spirit but her own spirit that hath guided her hitherto—a spirit of delusion and error!” Shepard was expressing powerful emotions that had possessed him for two years, fueling countless letters and sermons. “I know not wherein I might show more love to her soul than in bringing her to her own congregation to answer to these dangerous and fearful errors which she hath drunk in…. For she is of a most dangerous spirit, and likely with her fluent tongue and forwardness in expression to seduce and draw away many—especially simple women
of her
own sex.
” As he suggested, a “fluent tongue,” “forwardness in expression,” and many of Anne’s other virtues were permissible only in men.
The Reverend Wilson called for a vote on admonition. “If the church be satisfied with what hath been spoken, and that they conceive we ought to proceed to admonition, we will take their silence for consent. If any be otherwise minded, they may express themselves.”
The moral high point of the church trial occurred now, near the close of the first day, when Thomas Savage stood again for his mother-in-law. “For my part I am not yet satisfied,” the brave young man began. “Neither do I see any rule why the church should proceed to admonition, seeing that in the most churches there hath been some errors or mistakes held. Yea, and in this very Church of Corinth there were many unsound opinions, and in particular some amongst them that held this very opinion about the resurrection as appears by Paul’s arguments in the fifteenth chapter” of the apostle’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, some of whom believed that “there is no resurrection of the dead.” Savage continued, “Yet we do not read [in 1 Corinthians 15] that the church did admonish them for it. Indeed, in point of fact, as in the case of incest, the church proceeded to excommunication because it was gross and abominable, but not for opinion. Now, my mother not being accused for any heinous fact, but only for opinion—and that wherein she desires information and light, [rather] than peremptorily to hold—I cannot consent that the church should proceed yet to admonish her for this.”
Two and a half centuries later, the historian Charles Francis Adams would remark, “Thomas Savage, who had recently married Faith [Hutchinson], did himself infinite credit by rising and courageously protesting against the admonition about to be bestowed; and, as a result of so doing, he had the honor of being himself admonished together with her he so manfully fought to protect.”
In the meetinghouse, John Cotton addressed Thomas Savage. “Your mother, though she be not accused of anything in point of fact or practice—” and he interrupted himself to add, “Neither, for my own part, do I know there is any cause. Yet,” he continued, “she
may
hold errors. Therefore, I see not but the church may proceed to admonition.” He admitted that he had no choice but to proceed, even without cause.
At this point in the trial, according to David Hall, there was noth
ing that the ministers, magistrates, or even Hutchinson herself could say or do to change the course of events. She was out of place and had to be removed.
Lowering his voice for emphasis, Cotton told Savage, “You do a
very
evil office—out of your natural, not religious, affection—to hinder the church in her proceeding, and to be a means to harden your mother’s heart in these dangerous opinions, and so keep her from repentance.”
Seeing nothing else to say or do to help his mother-in-law, Savage took his seat.
Another daring soul took his place. Lieutenant Edward Gibbons was a merchant who had arrived in Boston in 1630 and strongly supported Hutchinson, Cotton, and Vane. Known as “a man of resolute spirit, bold as a lion, very generous and forward to promote all military matters,” Gibbons would become commander of the Suffolk regiment of the militia in 1644, then a major general, and, finally, captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. “Admonition,” he said, “is one of the greatest censures that the church can pronounce against any offender, and one of the last, next to excommunication, to be used against impenitent offenders. Seeing that God hath turned her heart about already to see her error, or mistake as she calls it, in some of the points, had not the church wait a little longer to see if God will not help her to see the rest? Then the church may have no occasion to come to this censure.”
Faced with this compassion for Hutchinson, the Reverend Symmes took aim. “I am
much
grieved to hear that so many in this congregation should stand up and declare themselves unwilling that Mistress Hutchinson should be proceeded against for such dangerous errors.” He scanned the room, considering how to raise the community’s dread of losing its foothold on the continent. “I fear that if by any means
this
should be carried over into England—that in New England and in such a congregation there was so much spoken, and so many questions made about so plain an article of our faith as the resurrection is—it will be one of the greatest dishonors to Jesus Christ, and of reproach to these churches, that hath been done since we came hither.”
Thomas Oliver, the church elder, asked whether unanimity was necessary to censure Hutchinson, given that her sons, at least, appeared unlikely to consent. “I desire to be satisfied in one thing: how the church can, or whether it may, proceed to any censure when all the
members do not consent thereto—or whether the church hath not power to lay a censure upon them that do hinder the church’s proceedings.” Recalling “the pattern of the primitive churches of Jesus Christ,” he said, “All things in the church should be done with one heart and one soul and one consent: any and every act done by the church may be as the act of one man.”
The Reverend Cotton replied, “If the church do take pains and do bring arguments such as satisfies the whole congregation to be sufficient, if yet some brethren will persist in their dissent—upon no ground or out of natural affection—then the church is not to stay her proceeding for that.”
“The church is satisfied,” Davenport said. “I perceive none doth oppose the church—some, only two or three which are tied to her by natural relation—for these others that have spoken, they did propound it but as scruples, and they have received satisfaction. Therefore, I see nothing that may hinder.”
Now, according to the trial transcript, “the whole church by their silence consented to the motion, and so they proceeded to admonition.” This consent was not only silent but also not the “whole church,” according to Thomas Leverett. Although Cotton later recalled that “the whole body of the church (except her own son) consented with one accord,” Leverett said that many other men objected to her censure. Their voices were not recorded, and also not recorded were the voices of the many women present and the men who had already been disfranchised, disarmed, and banished from the colony.
Church elders Leverett and Oliver asked Cotton to give the admonition “as one whose words by the blessing of God may be of more respect and sink deeper, and so was likely to do more good upon the party offending than any of these. And it was also left to him to do as God should incline his heart, whether to lay any admonition [also] upon her two sons.”
Before he began, the Reverend Cotton took a breath deep enough to carry multiple clauses. “I do in the first place bless the Lord, and thank in my own name, and in the name of our church, these our brethren, the elders of other churches, for their care and faithfulness in watching over our churches, and for bringing to light what ourselves have not been so ready to see….”
“I confess,” he went on, blithely assuming responsibility for the church’s predicament, “I have not been ready to believe reports, and have been slow of proceeding against any of our members…. But now, they have proceeded in a way of God, and do bring such testimony as doth evince the truth of what is affirmed, [so] it would be our sin if we should not join in the same.”
Turning to Edward Hutchinson and Thomas Savage, who sat at the front of the men’s side of the meetinghouse, Cotton said, “In the first place, I shall direct my speech and admonition to you that are her sons. Let me tell you
from the Lord,
though natural affection may lead you to speak in the defense of your mother and to seek to keep up her credit and respect—yet in the cause of God you are neither to know father nor mother, sister nor brother. Yea, you must cast down your mother’s name and credit, though it be the chiefest crown that either yourselves or your mother hath, at the feet of Jesus Christ and let that be
trampled
upon, so His crown may be exalted!”
Raising his voice ever so slightly, he said, “I do
admonish
you both, in the name of Christ Jesus, and of his church, to consider how ill an office you have performed to your mother—to harden her heart, and nourish her in her unsound opinions, by your pleading for her, and hindering the proceedings of the church against her, which God hath
directed us
to take to heal her soul, and which God might have blessed and made
more
effectual to her had not
you
intercepted the course.
“Instead of loving and natural children,” he told Hutchinson’s son and son-in-law, “you have proved
vipers to eat through the very bowels of your mother
—to her ruin, if God do not graciously prevent. Take heed how by your flattery or mourning over her, or your applauding of her when you come home, do hinder the work of repentance in her. But look up to Christ Jesus, and address yourselves to her with all faithful and gracious counsels, that you may bring her to a sight of these evils in her, and to reduce her from them.
Then
shall you perform the parts of faithful children indeed, and the Lord will bless you,” he prophesied. “If you do otherwise, the Lord will bring you to an account for it.”
Done with the sons, he turned to the women’s side of the meetinghouse, where some women of Boston, including Mary Dyer, sat on benches alongside the wives of the assembled ministers and magistrates. Some of these women silently condemned the proceedings.
Others would follow Anne Hutchinson to Rhode Island. “To the sisters of our own congregation,” Cotton said, “many of whom have been seduced and led aside by her, I admonish you in the Lord to take heed that you receive
nothing
for truth which hath not the stamp of the word of God. Let me say this to you all, let
not
the good you have received from her in your spiritual estates make you to receive
all
for good that comes from her. For, you see, she is
but
a woman.”
This was, indeed, a problem. Historians argue over the degree to which gender affected this case—the literary scholar Lad Tobin called Anne’s gender her trial’s “root cause”—but all agree that, had Hutchinson been a man, she would have had a public forum for her intellectual gifts, either in government or, more likely, the ministry. As it was, she had to preach and lead in private and against the law. The reason, according to Cotton, was that a woman “is more subject to error than a man.” In
Singing of Psalms a Gospel-Ordinance,
he wrote, “It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the church by way of propounding questions though under pretence of desire to learn for her own satisfaction; but rather it is required she should ask her husband at home.” Recalling what seemed to him Hutchinson’s deception, Cotton added, “For under pretence of questioning for learning sake, she might so propound her question as to teach her teachers; or if not so, yet to open a door to some of her own weak and erroneous apprehensions, or at least soon exceed the bounds of womanly modesty.”