ABSTRACT
Even after banishment and his creation of Providence, Rhode Island, Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683) remained a thorn in the side of the Massachusetts authorities. After a Cambridge education and a chaplaincy in Puritan gentry circles, Williams arrived in Boston in 1630 and almost immediately emerged as a critic of the developing religious system. He looked to separation of religious affairs from the power of the magistrate and explicit renunciation of all attachment to the Church of England. In addition to the positions he adopted, Williams's ability to secure congregational support for them created anxiety in his opponents about the preservation of good order.
