Anne Hutchinson: Jezebel Of New Jerusalem

12 Pages 3027 Words

a required hour of catechism instruction. The same parishioners who complained of the Vicar’s sermon sat spellbound during sermon given by Cotton. People traveled for miles to hear the extravagant preaching of John Cotton.(3)
The summer that Cotton’s career began in Boston was the summer that Anne and Will were married in London. They did not know of Cotton then, but often went on Sunday pilgrimages to surrounding parishes to hear different ministers preach. This passage from American Jezebel gives a summary of the introductions between the Hutchinsons and Cotton:
“One fine Sunday, Anne and Will traveled to Boston to stand among the hundreds of worshipers standing among the nave of the Church of St. Botolph’s as John Cotton lectured for hours. From that day on Anne and Will made the Sunday trip to Boston as often as the weather, her frequent pregnancies, and their many duties allowed. The twenty-four mile trip took roughly six hours.” (3)

3. LaPlante, Eve. American Jezebel.
New York: HarperCollins. 2004. p. 55,84-87
In 1634, the Hutchinsons followed John Cotton to the New World and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (4)
On a sea of optimism and hope, Anne Hutchinson, her husband, and her ten living children, set sail aboard the Griffin along with their fellow Puritans. On the voyage to Massachusets Bay, Anne began expressing her religious views and told others on board that she had a personal relationship with God, also saying, “I feel that nothing important ever happens that is not revealed to me beforehand.” (5)
Eve LaPlante writes, “In early Boston Anne had a reputation as a prophetess. Her reputatation for prophecy arose, apparently, from a prediction she made aboard the Griffin. God had revealed to her the date the ship would arrive in America.” (3) Amazingly, the ship arrived on the exact date Anne predicted, September eighteenth. (5)
Upon arrival to the new colonies, Mrs. Hutchinson realiz...