This week in Christian history: Roger Williams’ book burned, CEF founder dies

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 04, 2024

Roger Williams’ book on religious liberty burned – Aug. 9, 1644

Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, returns from England in 1644 with a charter for Providence colony. | Wikimedia Commons/C.R. Grant

This week marks the anniversary of when the English Parliament ordered the burning of all copies of notable Puritan dissenter Roger Williams’ book that argued for the cause of religious liberty.

Titled The Bloudy Tenent, of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, discussed, in A Conference betweene Truth and Peace, it had been published anonymously earlier that year in London.

Williams had had the book published while in England, after being banished from Puritan-controlled Massachusetts for his support of the separation of church and state.

“Williams believed that sincere religious devotion was poisoned by political policy and any governmental influence on religion could only be detrimental,” wrote Joshua J. Mark of World History Encyclopedia in 2021.

“The work informed the philosophy of the colony of Providence and, eventually, proved influential in the formation of the government of the United States of America, notably in the Bill of Rights concerning the separation of church and state.”