Roger Williams (3) (1603–1683)

I really enjoyed reading this book. It took me two months and I quickly came to the realization that in order to be able to finish it I had to stop reading the Native American words because some of them are just so long and eye-crossing to an English speaker such as myself (Nummachinammin is "I doe not like", Maunetash nquenowhick is "I want many things", both with accent marks). I would occasionally read one or two to get the rhythm of the language.

In addition to gaining a small understanding of what words were important to Native Americans and Roger Williams in his decision to include them in his Key, his observations and "More particulars" were wonderful.

I could vividly see Native American life through his observations, some long, some short, some of particular events, some of generalized descriptions of common activities, behaviors, and rituals. Here is an observation he put in after the Native American and English words for "Their pounding Mortar":

"Obs. Their women constantly beat all their corne with hand: they plant it, dresse it, gather it, barne it, beat it, and take as much paines as any people in the world, which labour is questionlesse one cause of their extraordinary ease of childbirth."

The "More particular"s are spiritual observations and are in the form of poetry, for example, this one relating to money:

The Indians prize not English gold,
Nor English Indians shell:
Each in his place will passe for ought,
What ere men buy or sell.

English and Indians all passe hence,
To an eternall place,
Where shells nor finest gold's worth out,
Where nought's worth ought but Grace.

This Coyne the Indians know not of,
Who knows how soone they may?
The English knowing, prize it not,
But fling't like drosse away.

I found the book erudite, charming, sad, and full of what now, of course, seem like the most terrible prejudices and judgments. In some ways I think Roger Williams respected the Native Americans and tried very hard to keep his prejudices at bay in his observations. He wasn't always successful, but I respect the complexity of what he accomplished and the level of detail and sharing of his personal experiences.… (meer)

This is a 2005 reprint by the Baptist Standard Bearer of volume 2 of the 1963 edition (Russell & Russell) of The Complete Writings of Roger Williams. It includes the following works: John Cotton's Reply to Mr. Williams, his Examination (originally published in 1647 with John Cotton's Bloudy Tenent, Washed) and Williams's Queries of Highest Consideration (originally published in 1644). The Queries of Highest Consideration commenced Williams's long engagement with the church-state issues of the English Civil War and Interregnum during his two return visits (1643-44 and 1651-54) to England.

The works in this edition denote the pagination of the originals in brackets within the texts. Although not facsimiles of the originals, they reproduce the orthography and other features of the originals. Accordingly, the 1963 edition (or a reprint of same) is frequently cited in the scholarly literature. The originals of these publications are now also available on Early English Books Online (EEBO).

I give this edition five stars in view of the accuracy of the reprints of the originals as well as the power and cogency of Roger Williams's Queries of Highest Consideration. This rating does not apply to the March 1867 editorial commentary of the Reverend J. Lewis Diman on Cotton's Reply, which is sorely deficient. However, Reuben Albridge Guild's March 1867 introduction to Queries of Highest Consideration does provide some helpful historical background to that work. My forthcoming book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience will discuss the meaning and significance of the Queries in some depth.… (meer)

This is a 2005 reprint by the Baptist Standard Bearer of volume 7 of the 1963 edition (Russell & Russell) of The Complete Writings of Roger Williams. It includes the following works authored by Williams: "Christenings make not Christians, or A Briefe Discourse concerning that name Heathen, commonly given to the Indians . . . " (originally published in 1645 or 1646); "Experiments of Spiritual Life & Health, And their Preservatives . . . " (originally published in 1652); "The Fourth Paper, Presented by Major Butler . . . " (originally published in 1652); "The Hireling Ministry None of Christs . . . " (originally published in 1652); and "The Examiner defended . . . " (originally published in 1652). The Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health originated in a letter from Williams to his wife, written in about 1650; this tract addresses purely religious matters and does not reach political questions. The other writings in this volume address the church-state issues that obsessed both England and New England during the time they were originally published. My forthcoming book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience will discuss these writings in their historical context as well as their continuing relevance to today's arguments about separation of church and state.

Volume 7 of the 1963 edition was new and was not a reprint of any earlier edition. The writings in this volume were unavailable when the Narragansett Club first published the ancestor of volumes 1-6 of the 1963 edition in the nineteenth century. Unlike volumes 1-6, this volume modernizes orthography and does not contain any references to the pagination of the original seventeenth-century editions. This modernization makes it somewhat easier for the general reader to peruse the contents, but the scholar may wish to consult the original seventeenth-century publications on Early English Books Online (EEBO).

The renowned twentieth-century historian Perry Miller prefaced this volume with an essay entitled "Roger Williams: An Essay in Interpretation." Although I have the greatest respect for Perry Miller on most colonial New England historical matters, I disagree with his approach to Roger Williams. Specifically, I believe that his approach is unduly reductive and does not capture the depth and breadth of Roger Williams's vision. My forthcoming book will elaborate on some of these issues. See also W. Clark Gilpin, The Millenarian Piety of Roger Williams (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 191n36 ("Miller's hypothesis that the use of typology was distinctive to Williams, and is therefore a key to his thought, is completely erroneous," citing additional scholarly authorities).

I rate this volume five stars in view of its reprint of important and outstanding essays by Roger Williams.
… (meer)

This is a reprint of volume 5 of the 1963 edition of The Complete Writings of Roger Williams, which, in turn, was a reprint of volume 5 of the nineteenth-century Narragansett Edition. The entire volume is devoted to Roger Williams's last major work: George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrowes ("GFDB"). The present edition appears to reproduce exactly the 1676 edition of GFDB except for the addition (in printed footnotes) of marginal handwritten corrections made by Roger Williams to a published copy of the work. If there was an edition of this book published prior to 1676, it apparently is no longer extant, as English Early Books Online (EEBO) also reproduces the 1676 edition with the same printed footnotes that are included in the present edition.

GFDB is an account of four days of live debate in August of 1672 between Williams and representatives of the Quakers (Friends) on theological issues. The first three days occurred in Newport (Rhode Island); the last day took place in Providence (Rhode Island). Williams had hoped to hire a stenographer to take down the exact words of the debates. Since he was unable to obtain a stenographer, he relied on his memory, augmented by extensive additional reflections, in writing this book. The Quakers, who did retain a stenographer to record the debates, responded to GFDB with their own account of the debates and an extended response to Williams's book. Although Williams began to prepare a reply to the Quakers' response, he was dissuaded from completing this project by an unknown friend who "advised to let it sleep, and for beare publicke Contests with Protestants since it is the Designe of Hell and Rome [the Roman Catholic Church] etc. to cut the throats of all the protesters [Protestants] in the world." Letter of Williams to Governor Simon Bradstreet, May 6, 1682, in The Correspondence of Roger Williams, ed. Glenn W. LaFantasie (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England / Brown University Press, 1988), 2:777-78.

Most of Williams's earlier works, to the extent they have survived, involved the issues of freedom of conscience and separation of church and state. Williams opposed the governmentally established Church of England as well as the legal establishment of the Roman Catholic Church throughout much of continental Europe. But his publications on religious liberty were written during periods when his relevant governmental authorities were neither Anglican nor Catholic. Williams was banished from the colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1635-36 after he opposed its Calvinist Puritan theocracy; he then founded the settlement of Providence, which later evolved into what we know as Rhode Island. Williams's new colony was based on the principles of separation of church and state and complete liberty of conscience. John Cotton was the most important clerical representative of the Massachusetts Bay theocracy, and Williams and Cotton engaged in an extended written disputation on the proper relationship between church and state. Williams also made return trips to England during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum. During those visits, the Church of England had been disestablished, and the Presbyterians were attempting to create their own theocracy, while the Independents, under Oliver Cromwell, were developing a modified theocratic system based on governmentally required religious tithes and a limited toleration of some but not all Protestant sects (Quakers were not included in the toleration). Accordingly, Williams's publications during this period were directed not only against John Cotton and Massachusetts Bay but also against the Presbyterian and Independent efforts to replace the Church of England with some sort of Calvinist theocracy.

Cotton, the Presbyterians, and the Independents all shared with Williams the basics of Calvinist theology. Accordingly, in his writings opposing their theocratic efforts, Williams always treated his coreligionists with a certain amount of respect. Not so, the Quakers. The Friends proceeded from entirely different theological foundations, and Williams identified those principles with Satan and the Roman Catholic Church (which virtually all Protestants at the time regarded as the "Antichrist"). Williams's theological debates with the Quakers were full of emotional invective on both sides. Space does not permit a discussion of those theological disputes here. They will be treated in greater depth in my forthcoming book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience.

Although I disagree with the theology of Roger Williams expressed in GFDB, I give this edition five stars for its accuracy in reproducing the 1676 publication and for the clarity with which Roger Williams presented his theological dispute with the Friends. Williams's earlier works did not fully explicate his theological principles. Many secondary accounts have accordingly largely ignored his decidedly unmodern theology. His conservative theology did not, however, prevent Williams from articulating a very strong commitment to liberty of conscience and separation of church and state. With the possible exception of one ambiguous statement (discussed in my forthcoming book), Williams did not depart from these principles in GFDB. Indeed, Williams accused the Quakers of religious principles that would, if they ever obtained control of government, lead to their own establishment of religion and persecution of religious dissenters. Today, we find Williams's view of the Friends virtually incomprehensible. However, the pacific Quakers of recent times were different from the militant Quakers of the seventeenth century. The earlier Quakers tested, by public acts as well as doctrine, the limits of freedom and the very definition of civility. Roger Williams's attempts to reconcile, intellectually and emotionally, the tension between his conservative theology and his commitment to religious freedom make this work one of enduring interest.
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