Anne Hutchinson Biography

The reason I picked this topic is because I admire Anne Hutchinson and the history of her

life and I strongly believe in the rights of the individual to freedom of thought, freedom of

speech, and the freedom to worship. She is a real hero because she faced adversity but she

refused to betray her ideals or ethics no matter what the cost was.

Anne Hutchinson, was born Anne Marbury, in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, in July,

1591, the daughter of Bridget Dryden and Francis Marbury, a deacon at Christ Church,

Cambridge. She was the second of 13 children. For years everyone in England had been

Catholic. Then, almost 100 years before Anne was born, King Henry VIII of England, the leader

at the time, left the Catholic Church. He wanted to divorce his wife, but the Catholic Church

would not let its members get divorced. Because he was determined to end his marriage, he

started a new church called the Church of England. He made himself head of this church and

from that time until today, the king or queen of England has also been the ruler of the Church of

England. The English people wanted a more relaxed and simple form of worship that would be

less formal than the Catholic Church. These people were known as the Puritans, because they

wanted a pure religion without the rules and ceremonies of Catholicism.

Several members of Anne's mother's family were Puritans, and her father, Reverend

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Marbury, was accused of being a Puritan. He did not approve of the way the church selected

ministers. Some men became preachers because their families knew political rulers or because

they were wealthy. Reverend Marbury, on the other hand, had spent years going to school and

earning his degree at Cambridge University. In fact, he spoke against untrained ministers so

much that he was even thrown in jail and not allowed to preach for several years.

Because her father had always expressed his opinions, Anne Marbury grew up feeling

free to speak her mind. She often heard him disagree with the rules of the Church of England.

During the time that Rev. Marbury was not allowed to preach, he spent time farming his fields,

writing and teaching Anne about the Bible. Because her father was an educated man, he was able

to give Anne a better education than most young English girls received. Anne developed an

interest in religion and theology at a very young age. She found there were as many new

questions about faith as there seemed to be answers. She had grown to admire her father's ideals

and assertiveness, and wasn't afraid of questioning the principles of faith and the authority of the

Church, as is usually the case with anyone who has had the benefit of a good education.

At the age of 21, Anne married Will Hutchinson, and settled down in Alford, where she

took on the role of housewife and mother, while retaining a vivid interest in theology and the

Church. She and her family followed the sermons of John Cotton, a young Protestant minister

whose teachings echoed those of her father's, but were now more commonly accepted under the

increasingly popular banner of Puritanism.

As much as Anne's father had been criticized and condemned for his views, many

Protestants had grown increasingly concerned with the level of corruption within the Catholic

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Church, and to a certain degree within the Protestant Church; a new reformist movement known

as Puritanism has evolved, thus named because it's main objective was to "purify" the National

Church of all Catholic influence.

One of the Church of England's ideas that most bothered Anne was called the Covenant

of Works. Under the Covenant of Works, church leaders made rules for people and believed that

the truly religious people were the ones who obeyed the rules. They believed that the only way

for people to get to heaven was to keep from sinning and to do many good deeds, this Covenant

also bothered John Cotton. He believed that all people were sinners and that a person could not

do enough good work to earn God's love. He believed that people were saved and sent to heaven

by complete faith in God, and not by holy actions. This later became known as the Covenant of

Grace. This was the Covenant that Anne strongly believed in, especially after the death of her

two daughters, this was the only thing that consoled her, she was convinced that God's love was

more important than good works. But the more she and others believed in it, the more the Church