Banishment of Anne Hutchinson

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1. The Society. To understand how the Puritan society is formed it is important to know their reasons for leaving England. They wanted to settle their own society free of the interference of Anglican Church, which they considered too much like Catholic. And the main difference between Anglican and Puritan Church was the idea of personal human-God relationships; Puritans didn’t accept the fact that in Anglican and Catholic Churches there was a pope that dictates how to believe and how to read the Bible. But since everyone can read the Bible for themselves, how do you hold the society together? John Winthrop created a strict system of how things should be, so that “the city upon the hills” will prosper. It was based on the idea that needs of the community always come first, and every member of this community should serve its needs. In other words the goal of each individual should help the society prosper. In fact, in his “Modell of Christian Charity” Winthrop compared the society to a human body, where each individual is a “ligament” that helps the body function. That’s why it was common for puritans to think that if just one member will commit a sin, the whole society will suffer. So everybody was supposed to know their place and every aspect of each persons life was overlooked by other members of the community. It is also very important to understand the role of man and women in the society, their relationships and hierarchy. Women were supposed to be led by men, thought by men. Women had no vote, nor they could speak on public meetings that men attended. As for Anne Hutchinson, she was very educated, which for a woman was very rare at the time. And it is interesting that some Puritans thought that women that could read and write could not bare children. So women education was not encouraged. She also was trusted to by other women, since she was a

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