How was Puritan orthodoxy challenged in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and how did Puritan leaders deal with the challenges?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. Roger Williams created controversy by preaching separatism, questioned the validity of the
colony’s charter, and insisted that the civil rulers of Massachusetts had no business punishing
settlers for their religious beliefs.
2. Massachusetts Bay magistrates were not prepared to tolerate Williams’s heresy nor accede to his demands and banished him from the colony.
3. Roger Williams founded the village of Providence in what would become Rhode Island.
4. Anne Hutchinson followed a religious belief called antinomianism, which rejected traditional
moral law as unnecessary for Christians who possess saving grace and affirming that a person
could experience divine revelation and salvation without the assistance of formally trained clergy.
5. Hutchinson scandalized orthodox Puritan leaders who believed her teachings invited civil and religious anarchy.
6. The General Court intervened in the dispute, cross-examined Hutchinson for two days, and
eventually exiled her to Rhode Island when she confessed in open court to her belief that the
spirit can live without moral law.