RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Williams
was the ablest statement and defense of the principle of absolute liberty of conscience that had appeared in any language. It is in the form of a dialogue between Truth and Peace, and well illustrates the vigor of his style. During the same year appeared in London an anonymous pamphlet which has been commonly ascribed to Williams, entitled: Queries of Highest Consideration Proposed to Mr. Tho. Goodwin, Mr. Phillip Nye, Mr. Wil. Bridges, Mr. Jer. Burroughs, Mr. Sidr. Simpson, all Independents, etc. These Independents were members of the Westminster Assembly and their Apologetical Narration, in which they plead for toleration, fell very far short of Williams’ doctrine of liberty of conscience. In 1652, during his second visit to England, Williams published The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody: by Mr. Cotton’s Endeavor to wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb; of whose precious Blood, spilt in the Blood of his Servants; and of the Blood of Millions spilt in former and later Wars for Conscience sake, that most Bloody Tenent of Persecution for cause of Conscience, upon a second Tryal is found more apparently and more notoriously guilty, etc. (London, 1652). This work traverses anew much of the ground covered by the Bloudy Tenent; but it has the advantage of being written in answer to Cotton’s elaborate defense of New England persecution, A Reply to Mr. Williams his Examination (Publications of the Narragansett Club, vol. ii.). Other works by Williams are The Hireling Ministry None of Christ’s (London, 1652); Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives (London, 1652; reprinted, Providence, 1863), and George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes (Boston, 1676). A volume of his letters is included in the Narragansett Club edition of Williams’ Works (7 vols., Providence, 1866-74), and a volume was edited by J. R. Bartlett (1882). A. H. NEwMaAN. BrsiioGRapHy: Besides the Narragansett ed. of the Works noted above (which contains also John Cotton’s writings against liberty of conscience), The Bloudy Tenent was reprinted, with introduction by E. B. Underhill, by the Hanserd Knollys Society, London, 1848; A Key into the Language, etc., is in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vols. iv.—v., and in Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol. i.; Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives was reprinted in facsimile, Providence, 1863; and his Christenings Make not Christians was published at the same place, no. 14 of Rhode Island Historical Tracts, 1881.
On his life and work consult: O. 8S. Straus, Roger Willjams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty, New York, 1894; J. D. Knowles, Memoir of Roger Williams, Boston, 1834; W. Gammell, Life of Roger Williams, Boston, 1845; J. Durfee, Works, ed. by his son, pp. 1-178, Providence, 1849; R. Elton, Life of Roger Williams, Providence, 1853; S. G. Armold, Hist. of the State of Rhode Island, vol. i., New York, 1859; D. C. Eddy, Roger Williams and the Baptists, Boston, 1861; W. E. H. Lecky, Hist. of the Rise of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, ii. 70-84, London, 1865; R. A. Guild, Biographical Introduction to the Writings of Roger Williams, Providence, 1866; C. Deane, Roger Williams and the Massachusetts Charter, Cambridge, Mass., 1873; H. M. Dexter, As to Roger Williams and his “ Banishment” from the Massachusetts Plantation, Boston, 1876; T. M. Merriman, The Pilgrims, Puritans, and Roger Williams Vindicated, Boston, 1892; A. H. Newman, American Church History Series, ii. passim, New York, 1894; W. H. Whitsitt, A Question in Baptist History, Louisville, 1896; H. M. King, The Baptism of Roger Williams, Providence, 1897; E. J. Carpenter, A Study of Roger Williams, New York, 1909; DNB, 1xi. 445-450; and works on the history of New England, especially of Rhode Island.
WILLIAMS, ROWLAND: English Broad-church theologian; b. at Halkyn (12 m. e.s.e. of St. Asaph), Wales, Aug. 16, 1817; d. at Broad Chalke (7 m. w.s.w. of Salisbury), Wiltshire, Jan. 18, 1870. He studied at Eton and at King’s College, Cambridge (B.A., 1841; M.A., 1844; B.D., 1851; D.D., 1857), where he was fellow 1839-59, and classical tutor 1842-50. During 1848-46 he was instrumental in averting the proposed amalgamation of the sees of St. Asaph and Bangor, publishing in the press a number of remonstrances against the measure. In 1848 he won the Muir prize for a preliminary essay on the comparative merits of Christianity and Hinduism. From 1850 until 1862 he was vice-principal and professor of Hebrew at the theological college of St. David’s, Lampeter, Wales. Despite the most uncompromising opposition on account of his liberal views regarding the interpretation of Scripture, his administration of the college was aggressive and successful. In Dec., 1854, he was appointed select preacher at Cambridge, though his sermons there were quickly interrupted by his father’s death. In 1858 he accepted the living of Broad Chalke, whither he removed in 1862. In 1860 he contributed Bunsen’s Biblical Researches to the famous Essays and Reviews, which resulted in his trial for heterodoxy before the Court of Arches (see Essays AND REvirws). His principal works were, Rational Godliness (London, 1855), sermons preached at Cambridge and at St. David’s College; Christianity and Hinduism Compared (1856), his greatest work; The Hebrew Prophets Translated . . . with Introduction and Notes (2 parts, 1866-71); Broad Chalke Sermon- Essays (1867); Owen Glendower: a Dramatic Biography ... and Other Poems (1870); and Psalms and Litanies (1872).
BrstiogRapuy: His Life and Letters was published by his widow, 2 vols., London, 1874. Consult: John Owen, in Contemporary Review, Apr., 1870; C. K. Paul, Biographtcal Sketches, London, 1883; DNB, \xi. 450-453; literature under Essays AND Revirws. The Judgment of S. Lushington in the Court of Arches was published, London, 1862. WILLIAMS, SAMUEL WELLS: Congregational
layman and sinologue; b. at Utica, N. Y., Sept. 22,
1812; d. at New Haven, Conn., Feb. 16, 1884. In
1831 he entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
at Troy, N. Y.; went to Canton, China, in 1833 as
a printer for the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions; there he was editor, con-
tributor to, and printer of The Chinese Repository,
1838-51; removed to Macao, 1835, to complete the
printing of Medhurst’s Hokkeén Dictionary, 1835;
visited Japan, 1837, and translated into Japanese
Genesis and Matthew; began to print Bridgman’s
Chinese Christomathy, to which he contributed one-
half, 1837-88; he was away from China, 1844-48,
spending three years in America, where he was in-
strumental in raising funds for a full font of Chinese type; was interpreter to Commodore Perry’s Japan expeditions, 1853-54; became secretary and interpreter of the U. S. Legation, Peking, 1855; assisted
Minister Reed in negotiating the treaty with China,
1858. He made two more visits to America, and in
1877 he returned to become professor of the Chinese
language and literature at Yale University. He had
been chargé d’affaires nine times during his term as secretary and interpreter in China, His great work
Williams Willibrord