JOHN WINTHROP
The sermon was actually given in England just before their embarkation for America. The “city upon a hill” image was later used by Presidents Kennedy and Regan {624222}.
In 1643 the Massachusetts Bay Colony wanted to dominate the region. Miantonomi, the Narragansett Indian Chief had a large well organized tribe who while friendly with the English were very independent. The Mohegan Indians, close allies of the colonists captured Miantonomi and turned him over to the Colony. Governor Winthrop’s actions have always been a disgrace to the justice of the Colony. Winthrop then turned him over to his traditional enemy, Chief Uncas, of the Mohawk to remove him from the boundaries of the Puritan Colony and then tomahawk Miantonomi to death. Winthrop actually sent several Puritan Englishmen to “see the execution for our more full satisfaction.” Among Miantonomi’s “evil” deeds was the fact that he gave Roger Williams, a religious and political dissenter from Winthrop’s Colony and religious “heretic”, a large tract of land (Providence) for his colony.
Anne Hutchinson was tried by the Puritan religious and civil court for heresy. She started with Bible Study classes in her home and drew a substantial following. The clergy at the time were threatened and outraged. It was one thing for a woman to teach Bible Study to other women, but to also have men with the women was too much. The decision of the court was that she was banished from the colony. See {584753}.
It is you who have called us unto this office; but being thus called we have our authority from God;
Then the Deputy Governor, Winthrop had been attacked as being too authoritarian. The conceptual struggle with democracy, divine right, and religion had begun in America long before the American Revolution. There is an interesting parallel with the current debate over Islamic attacks on democracy by an Islamic party being elected, but then responsible to God and not only the people who elected them.
She had been accused of having religious meetings and “instructing” men and women.
John Winthrop was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of colonists from England in 1630 and served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan "city upon a hill" dominated New England colonial development, influencing the governments and religions of neighboring colonies.
