Antinomian Controversy

The Antinomian Controversy, also known as the Free Grace Controversy, was a religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. The controversy pitted most of the colony's ministers and magistrates against some adherents of the free grace theology of Puritan minister John Cotton. The most notable free grace advocates, often called antinomians, were the charismatic Anne Hutchinson, her brother-in-law, the Reverend John Wheelwright, and the young governor of the colony, Henry Vane. While the controversy was a theological debate concerning the ""covenant of grace"" and ""covenant of works,"" conceptions of gender and political aims were also core elements.Anne Hutchinson, who has historically been placed at the center of the controversy, was a strong-minded woman, situated with the Puritan movement, who had grown up under the religious guidance of her father, the Reverend Francis Marbury, an Anglican clergyman and school teacher. In England she embraced the religious views of the dynamic Puritan minister John Cotton who became her mentor, and when Cotton was forced to leave England, Hutchinson followed him to New England. In Boston, Hutchinson was influential among the settlement's women and hosted them at her house for discussions on the weekly sermons. Eventually, men, such as Governor Vane, were included in these gatherings. During the meetings Hutchinson criticized the colony's ministers for preaching a covenant of works as opposed to the covenant of grace espoused by the Reverend Mr Cotton. The colony's orthodox ministers held meetings in the fall of 1636 with Cotton, Wheelwright and Hutchinson regarding the Boston parishioners. A consensus was not reached, and religious tensions mounted in the colony. To attempt to ease the situation, a day of fasting and repentance was called on 19 January 1637. However, when Cotton invited Wheelwright to speak at the Boston church during services that day, Wheelwright's sermon created a furor that deepened the growing divide. In March 1637 Wheelwright was accused of contempt and sedition by the court, but was not sentenced. His supporters, mostly from the Boston church, circulated a petition on his behalf.The religious controversy had immediate political ramifications. During the election of May 1637, the free grace advocates suffered two major setbacks when Vane was defeated by John Winthrop in the gubernatorial race and the Boston magistrates who supported Hutchinson and Wheelwright were voted out of office. Vane sailed to England in August 1637, never to return. At the November 1637 court, Wheelwright was sentenced to banishment, and Anne Hutchinson was brought to trial. Despite defending herself well against the prosecution, on the second and last day of her hearing, Hutchinson claimed divine inspiration was the source of her power and knowledge and prophesied ruin upon the colony. She was charged with contempt and sedition and sentenced to banishment from the colony. Winthrop and the court focused their blame for the controversy on her because of her bold prophesy. Her departure from the colony brought the controversy to a close. The events of 1636 to 1638 are regarded as crucial to an understanding of religion, society, and gender in the early colonial history of New England.The idea that Hutchinson played a central and singular role in the controversy went largely unchallenged until 2002 when Michael Winship's account of the controversy portrayed Cotton, Wheelwright, and Vane as equally complicit with her.