"
A few women, they decided, might without serious wrong meet together
to pray and edify one another. But that a large number of sixty
or more should do so every week was agreed to be "disorderly and
without rule." And as Mrs. Hutchinson would not cease her preaching
and teaching, but obstinately continued in her gross errors, she
was excommunicated and exiled from the colony.
Like Williams, Mrs. Hutchinson went to Rhode Island. To the sorrow
of the godly, her husband went with her. And when they tried to
bring him back he refused. "For," he said, "I am more dearly tied
to my wife than to the Church. And I do think her a dear saint and
servant of God."
In Rhode Island Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends founded the towns
of Portsmouth and Newport. Others who had been driven out of one
colony or another followed them, and other towns were founded;
and for a time Rhode Island seems to have been a sort of Ishmael's
land, and the most unruly of all the New England colonies. At
length however all these little settlements joined together under
one Governor.
At first the colony had no charter, and occupied the land only
by right of agreement with the Indians. But after some time Roger
Williams got a charter from Charles II. In this charter it was
set down that no one should be persecuted "for any difference in
opinion on matters of religion.
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