The Prophet of Religious Freedom

Roger Williams, who gathered the First Baptist Church in America in 1638, was deeply religious but adamant that religious and civil life should be separate. Raised and ordained in the Church of England, he and his wife, Mary, fled with other Puritan reformers to New England in 1631. After settling in Massachusetts Bay Colony, his separatist views threatened colonial leadership, and he was banished. Williams then founded Providence, where he insisted that civil rather than religious law would govern and that all were free to walk as their conscience persuaded them. His legacy lives on in the Rhode Island Charter and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and although a devout Christian, he eventually denounced formal religion in favor of small, home-based meetings for preaching and religious fellowship.

Providence, Rhode Island · United States