Doing God Service: The Excommunication of Anne Hutchinson In the summer of 1591, a threat to the Puritan faith would be born in the small town of Alford, Lincolnshire to nonconforming puritans, Francis Marbury and Bridget Dryden. Anne Marbury, raised during the persecution by Queen Elizabeth and James I of the Catholics and separatists, was no stranger to religion. Anne’s childhood would be filled with daily prayers, Bible reading, and the education of maternal duties taught to her by her mother. Anne would live an ordinary Puritan existence; she would be enriched in Puritan faith, marry a fellow Puritan also from Alford, give birth every 1-2 years and diligently attend her local congregation, until the summer of 1634 when she sailed the
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A haven for Puritans escaping the insufficient and inadequate reformation of the church of England, the colony was founded on the pretense the colony was a shining example of, according to the then future governor John Winthrop in his 1630 sermon, Christian charity to all of the New World.(model of christian charity) However, a colony established on their own rebellion against the church of England would go on to be quite ironic in terms of the excommunication of Hutchinson and what was considered a rebellion in her heart by colony …show more content…
Hutchinson was seen as a heretic and a threat to Puritan faith and society, basis on her belief of salvation by grace which contradicted the Puritan thought of salvation by works. Hutchinson wholeheartedly believed sinners were not redeemed through good works or outward appearances, but by God’s redeeming grace which completed an inward work in a sinner’s life. This theology contradicted the Puritan’s covenant of works, which stressed the importance of outward deeds and works that earned salvation. A trivial difference of opinion in today’s terms but the grounds for damnation in the days of the Antinomian Controversy. However, the New Testament gives proof to her claim in Ephesians when the Apostle Paul writes: “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast”(kjv) Apostle Paul stresses in Ephesians the idea that works cause men to relish and bloviate in their own good works, leading a person to center their salvation on pride instead of accepting God’s free gift. Regardless of whether or not this is proof of Hutchinson’s beliefs, Winthrop did not appreciate Hutchinson proclaiming her beliefs and her whispering ‘restless’ tongue in the ears of the women of the colony. Ultimately, Hutchinson’s belief that one’s
A haven for Puritans escaping the insufficient and inadequate reformation of the church of England, the colony was founded on the pretense the colony was a shining example of, according to the then future governor John Winthrop in his 1630 sermon, Christian charity to all of the New World.(model of christian charity) However, a colony established on their own rebellion against the church of England would go on to be quite ironic in terms of the excommunication of Hutchinson and what was considered a rebellion in her heart by colony …show more content…
Hutchinson was seen as a heretic and a threat to Puritan faith and society, basis on her belief of salvation by grace which contradicted the Puritan thought of salvation by works. Hutchinson wholeheartedly believed sinners were not redeemed through good works or outward appearances, but by God’s redeeming grace which completed an inward work in a sinner’s life. This theology contradicted the Puritan’s covenant of works, which stressed the importance of outward deeds and works that earned salvation. A trivial difference of opinion in today’s terms but the grounds for damnation in the days of the Antinomian Controversy. However, the New Testament gives proof to her claim in Ephesians when the Apostle Paul writes: “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast”(kjv) Apostle Paul stresses in Ephesians the idea that works cause men to relish and bloviate in their own good works, leading a person to center their salvation on pride instead of accepting God’s free gift. Regardless of whether or not this is proof of Hutchinson’s beliefs, Winthrop did not appreciate Hutchinson proclaiming her beliefs and her whispering ‘restless’ tongue in the ears of the women of the colony. Ultimately, Hutchinson’s belief that one’s