Anne Hutchinson: Jezebel Of New Jerusalem

12 Pages 3027 Words

ed that her coming was a mistake.
She quickly realized that the rigid union of Church and State were more stifling than liberating, and there was any real “religious freedom” to speak of in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially for an educated English woman such as herself. (6) Puritanism spared no time in losing its original purpose, which was to purify and make holy the church of England. I became another oppressive structured form of Christianity that kept


4. Barker-Benfield, G.J. and Catherine Clinton. Portraits of American Women.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. p. 35

5. Crawford, Deborah. Four Women in a Violen Time.
New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1970. p. 43
6. The Biography of Anne Hutchinson
http//: www.annehutchinson.com

its followers from drawing conclusions. John Cotton graphically illustrates this oppression in his evaluation of the situation: “Here members of the church have suffered whippings for having a whim of their own.”
Brilliant, articulate, and learned in the Bible and theology, Anne ...