WILLIAMS
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WILLIAMS
he did not aim to be its ruler. His purpose was to found a commonwealth in the I'orm of a imre democracy, wlierc the will of the majority should govern, but only in civil affairs, leaving matters of conscience to be settled be- tween the individual and his God. The original con- stitution, which all were required to sign, was in these words : " We whose names are hereunder, desirous to in- habit the town of Providence, do promise to subject our- selves, in active or passive obedience, to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for the public good of the body, in an orderly way, by the major consent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated to- gether in a town of fellowship, and others whom they shall admit into the same, only in civil things." With this foundation for a civil government, Williams went on to organize the Church in accordance with his own views. Having adopted the belief in baptism of adults by innniTsiou only, he was baiitized by Ezekiel HoUiman, a lavnian, in JMarch, 1G39 ; and then he baptized HoUi- man and about ten others. He soon entertained doubts as to the validity of the proceeding, and early with- drew from the Church thus organized. The colony remained for some years a pure democracy, transacting its business in town-meetings; but the time was com- ing for a more systematic organization. Accordingly, in 1643, Williams was sent to England to procure a charter. He was treated with marked respect by the Parliament, and a charter incorporating the settlers on Narraganset Bay, with "full power and authority to govern themselves," was granted. Williams returned the following year, and was received in triumph by the inhabitants of Khode Island. On his voyage to Eng- land he had prepared a Key to the Lungxiagex of Amer- ica, including also observations on the manners, habits, laws, and religion of the Indian tribes. This work he published in London; and about the same time The lilomhj Tenent of Persecution fur Otnse of Conscience Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace (Lond. 1G44; new ed. Providence, 18G7). On his re- turn to Rhode Island, he refused the office of president of the colony; but when the rights granted by the charter were about to be infringed, he was sent to Eng- land again in 1651 to secure a confirmation of the rights of the colony, and was entirely successful. While in England the second time he published The Bloudy Tenent yet More Bloudy, by Cotton's Endeavor to Wash it White in the Blood of the Lamhe, etc. (165"2) : — The llireliny Ministry None of Christ's ; or, A Discourse Touchiny the Propayatiny the Gospel of Jesus Christ, etc. (eod.): — and Ei-pei-iments of /Spiritual Life and Health and their Preservatives (eod.). He also en- gaged in teaching languages bj' the conversational metliod, and thus became acquainted with John Mil- ton, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Henry Yane. and other per- sons of eminence. In 1654 he returned to Khode Island, and was elected president of the colony, which post he held two years and a half. He refused to persecute the Quakers, but met some of their ablest preachers in pub- lic debate; and in 1672 published a work in opposition to the sect entitled Georye Fox Diyyed out of his Bur- rows, or an Offer of Disputation on Fourteen Proposalls, made this Last Summer, 1672 (so called), unto G. Fox, then Present in Rhode L<ilund in Xew Enyland, etc. Ky his constant friendship with the Indians he was of great service to the other colonies ; but they refused to remove their ban, or to admit Rhode Island into their league. He died in 1683, and was buried in his family burying-ground, near the spot where he landed. Memoirs of the life of Koger Williams have l)een writ- ten by James D. Knowles ( Boston, 1833 ), William (iramraell (ibid. 1846), and Komeo Elton (Lond. 1852). His works have been reprinted by the Narra- gansett Club in 6 vols, folio (Providence, 1866-75). Among the works not already named is Letters from Royer Williams to John Winthmp, and John Winthrop, Jr., Governor of Connecticut (Boston, 1863). A tract by Koger Williaiaas, recently discovered, is in the John
Carter Brown Library at Providence. See also Dex- ter, .4.S to Royer Williams and his Banishment from the Massachusetts Plantation, icith a Few Further Words concerniny the Baptists, Quakers, and Reliyious Liberty ( ibid. 1876 ) ; and Arnold, History of Rhode Island (vol. i, 18(;0).
Williams, Rovrland, D.D., an English clergy- man, was born at Ilalkin, Flintshire, Wales, Aug. 16, 1817. He was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1841; was chosen fellow, and in 1842 elected tutor of his college; took or- ders, and became identilied with the reform movement at Cambridge and with the Broad V'liurch movement, which was headed by Arnold and iNlaurice; became vice-principal and professor of Hebrew in the Welsh Theological College of St. David's at Lampeter, and chaplain to the bishop of Llandaff, in 1850 ; was ap- pointed select preacher to the University of Cambridge in 1854; became vicar of Broad Chalk, Wiltshire, in IS.'iO ; was one of the authors of the famous volume of Essays and Reviews (1860), for which act he was prose- cuted in the Court of Arches, and condemned in Decem- ber, 1862, but obtained a reversal of the judgment in February, 1864; resigned his professorship in 1862, and thereafter resided at his vicarage in Broad Chalk, near Salisbury, where he died Jan. 18, 1870. His principal published works are. Lays from the Cimbric Lyre: — Ac- count of St. David's Colleye, Lampeter: — Rational God- liness (1855): — Christianity and Hinduism (1856): — Christian Freedom in the Council of Jerusalem (1857) : — The Hebrew Prophets Translated Afresh (1868-71, 2 vols.): — Bi'oad Chalk Sermoti-Essays on Nature, Me- diation, Atonement, and Absolution (1867): — Owen Glen- dower, a Dramatic Bioyraphy, and Other Poeins (1870) : — and Psalms and Litanies (1872), edited by his widow, who also published his Life and Letters (1874).