The ministers increasingly oppose Hutchinson’s meetings, initially…
August 1637 CE
The ministers increasingly oppose Hutchinson’s meetings, initially on the ostensible grounds that such “unauthorized” religious gatherings might confuse the faithful, but gradually the opposition is expressed in openly misogynistic terms.
Hutchinson pays no attention to her critics.
When they cite the biblical texts on the need for women to keep silent in church, she rejoins with a verse from Titus permitting that “the elder women should instruct the younger".
To the chagrin of clergy and colony officials, Hutchinson interprets the doctrine of the Perseverance of the saints according to the Free Grace model, which teaches that the saved could sin freely without endangering their salvation, instead of the Lordship salvation model prevalent then and now, which notes that those who are truly saved will demonstrate by seeking to follow the ways of their Savior.
She also claims that she can identify "the elect" among the colonists.
These positions cause John Cotton, John Winthrop, and other former friends to view her as an antinomian heretic.
She is brought to civil trial in 1637 by the General Court of Massachusetts, presided over by Winthrop, on the charge of “traducing the ministers".
The Court includes both government officials and Puritan clergy.
Although she is forty-six and advanced in her fifteenth pregnancy, she is forced to stand for several days before a board of male interrogators as they try desperately to get her to admit her secret blasphemies.
They accuse her of violating the fifth commandment—to “honor the father and mother”—accusing her of encouraging dissent against the fathers of the commonwealth.
It is charged that by attending her gatherings women are being tempted to neglect the care of their own families.
Hutchinson skillfully defends herself until it is clear that there was no escape from the court’s predetermined judgment.
Cornered, she addressed the court with her own judgment: “...you have no power over my body, neither can you do me any harme, for I am in the hands of the eternall Jehovah my Saviour, I am at his appointment, the bounds of my habitation are cast in heaven, no further doe I esteeme of any mortal man than creatures in his hand, I feare none but the great Jehovah, which hath foretold me of these things, and I doe verily beleeve that he will deliver me out of our hands, therefore take heed how you proceed against me; for I know that for this you goe about to doe to me, God will ruine you and your posterity, and this whole state.” This outburst brings forth angry jeers.
She is called a heretic and an instrument of the devil.
In the words of one minister, “You have stepped out of your place, you have rather been a husband than a wife, a preacher than a hearer, and a magistrate than a subject".
She is condemned in August 1637 by the Court that includes John Eliot, famous missionary to Massachusetts Bay Colony natives, and translator of the first complete Bible printed in America.
They vote to banish her from the colony "as being a woman not fit for our society."
She is put under house arrest to await her religious trial.
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