Click2GreatWomen - Mary Dyer - Chapter 4

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>MARY DYER</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 4 - THE TRIAL OF ANNE HUTCHINSON</b></font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Puritan society put great emphasis on appearances. "Good works" were paramount in Puritan theology. Anne Hutchinson believed people were saved by faith (the covenant of God's grace) not by deeds (the covenant of works). She was <a href="http://www.suffragist.com/images/ex1.jpg" target="_blank"><b>vocal</b></a> about her beliefs, which were contrary to what Puritan ministers preached. She was charged with "transducing the ministers" because she publicly criticized the content of their theology.</p> <p align="justify">At her trial, Governor <a target="_blank" href="http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/winthrop.htm"><b>John Winthrop</b></a> was her chief accuser. The <a target="_blank" href="http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/hutchinson.html"><b>trial transcript</b></a> is replete with condescending remarks directed to Anne Hutchinson. A few examples make clear that the verdict against her was a foregone conclusion.</p> <center><b><i><font face="times new roman">We do not mean to discourse with those of your sex...</font></i></b></center> <p>summarizes the tone of <a href="http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mclark/goodpic/winthrop.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Winthrop's</b></a> entire cross examination.</p> <center><b><i><font face="times new roman">Your conscience you must keep, or it must be kept for you</font></i></b></center> <p>alerts Hutchinson that if she did not conform to Puritan teachings, her conscience was not working.</p> <blockquote><b><i><font face="times new roman">We find such a course as this to be greatly prejudicial to the state...We must therefore put it away from you or restrain you from maintaining this course</font></i></b></blockquote> <p>warns Hutchinson that her understanding of the Bible is of no account, and she must stop "seducing many honest persons."</p> <blockquote><b><i><font face="times new roman">We are your judges, and not you ours, and we must compel you to it</font></i></b></blockquote> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" size=3>silences Anne's attempts to make Winthrop produce "a rule for it [his orders] from God's word."</b> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" size-3>At the end of the trial, <a href="http://dylee.keel.econ.ship.edu/ubf/winthrop.htm" target="_blank"><b>Winthrop</b></a> read the verdict:</p> <blockquote><b><i><font face="times new roman">Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away.</font></i></b></blockquote> <p>When Hutchinson asked, "I desire to know wherefore I am banished?" the reply was short and as curt as his cross examination:</p> <center><b><i><font face="times new roman">Say no more. The court knows wherefore and is satisfied.</font></i></b></center> <p align="justify">Today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts honors <a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/ah.html" target="_blank"><b>Anne Hutchinson</b></a> with a <a target="_blank" href="http://bps.boston.k12.ma.us/bwht/Hutchsn.jpg"><b>statute</b></a> in front of the State House. In 1638, she and her entire family were dishonored and banished. They went to <a href="http://www.nuwc.navy.mil/hq/history/0004.html" target="_blank"><b>Roger Williams' settlement</b></a> near Providence. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="mary_dyer_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="mary_dyer_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="mary_dyer_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>