WILLIAMS. 479 and that the patent which was granted by Ring Charlet was invalid, and an instrument of injustice, being injurious to the natives, the king of England having no power to dispose of their lands to his own subjects.". In the month of October following he appeared again before the court, and received the sentence of banishment for his dangerous opinions, as they are called ; the ministers, as well as the magistrates, approving of the sentence. The sentence of the court was as follows : " Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church of Salem, bath " broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions " against the authority of magistrates ; has also written " letters of defamation, both of the magistrates and churches " here, and that before any conviction, and yet maintaineth " the same without retraction. It is therefore ordered, that " the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction, " within six weeks now next ensuing, which if he neglect to " perform, it shall be lawful for the governor and two of the "magistrates to send ,him to some place out of this juris- " diction, not to return any more without license from the " eourt."+ Having received the barbarous sentence, he left his house, his wife, and his children at Salem, in the depth of a most severe winter, and was driven among the wild Indians, where, for fourteen weeks, as he himself observes, " he knew not what bread or bed did mean." But he found more favour among those blind pagans than among the Protestants of New England. They allowed him to settle among them, and ever after treated him with kindness and respect. He there laid the foundation of the colony of PROVIDENCE and RTIODE-ISLAND, and is supposed to have been the founder of the first free government the world ever knew, at least since the rise of antichrist; effectually securing to all subjects FREE AND FULL LIBERTY OF 'CONSCIENCE. The principle of his government was adopted by fourteen out of the seventeen United States, at the time of the American revolution. The grand principle of this govern. meet was, "That no man, or company of men, ought to be molested by the ruling powers, on account of their religion, or for any opinion received or practised in any matter of that nature ; accounting it no small part of their happiness that they may therein be left to their own liberty. Whether Mr, Williams, indeed, espoused all those sentiments with Backus's Hist. vol. i. p. 68.-Morse and Parish's Hist. of New Bog. P. 86. 1. Ibid. p. 156. 111.1111.111111.111- `1411MISPOriallrilatAllIILI11,7111E1MIEf
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=