Instead of accepting the authority of the Puritan fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Williams clashed with them. To contemporaries as well as to later observers, Williams appeared as a man out of place. The Boston magistrates objected when the Salem church sought to recruit Williams as its minister once more however, in 1633, in defiance of the Massachusetts general court, Salem accepted Williams, and the newly appointed minister continued to speak his mind. He served as an assistant pastor in Plymouth while studying Native American languages. Williams left Salem for Plymouth Colony after his religious views came to be at variance with those of the leaders of the Salem church of the time. Roger Williams clashed with Puritan fathers on interlocking of church and state He emigrated to Boston in February 1631, and a few months later he became a teacher in the church at Salem.

After studying theology, he worked briefly as a chaplain before embracing Puritanism.Īs a separatist, Williams believed that the Church of England was beyond redemption, and he refused advancement within it. Roger Williams (1604?–1683) was born in London, England, and earned a degree from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1627. (Image of the Naragansett Native Americans receiving Roger Williams via New York Public Library, public domain) Williams's arguments for religious liberty no doubt influenced the writers of the First Amendment. Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, advocated for separation of church and state to preserve the purity of the church.

Roger williams