ANNE HUTCHINSON

BACKGROUND

• 1591-1643
• received an education in theology and conscientious dissent
• married the merchant William Hutchinson in 1612
• Mother of 15
• followed Puritan leader John Cotton to the Massachusetts Bay Colony

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JOHN COTTON

• 1584-1652
• leading Puritan clergyman in New England
• Migrated to Massachusetts Bay Colonly
• distanced himself from Anne Hutchinson during controversy
• Avoided charges of heresy

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ANTINOMIAN CONTROVERSY

• Puritans fled to America in search of religious liberty
• Wanted to create a religious and civil society based on their beliefs
• "antinomian" means "one who is against the law"
• revolved around the question of sanctification
• Puritans believed in predestination

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MEETINGS

• held devotional meetings to discuss Cotton’s sermons at her home
• Drew as many as 60 people at times
• her supporters composed a significant faction in the colony
• redemption is God’s gift to his elect and could not be earned by human effort

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TRIALS

• Hutchinson and her brother-in-law took their spirituality to an extreme
• Hutchinson and her supporters were banished
• November 1637
• March 1638
• result of her trial by the Church of Boston was excommunication

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POST-TRIALS

• Hutchinsons went to Aquidneck in Narragansett Bay
• 1642 William Hutchinson died
• Hutchinson the six youngest children moved to New York
• all but one daughter were killed in an Indian raid in 1643

SIGNIFICANCE

• Her leadership is key to understanding the role of premodern women in religious life
• her claim to immediate revelation was threatening to the advocates of law
• Hutchinson’s prophetic stress on the indwelling Holy Spirit