ABSTRACT
At the end of the 1630s, some argued that the proper way to deal with the problems in the colony was to limit authority. Often, this view was associated with those who were hostile to the leadership in Massachusetts Bay. After her exile, Anne Hutchinson, her family, and allies settled in Rhode Island to create their own, true theocracy. Their vision clearly rejected the polity established in Massachusetts Bay: in place of the assistants and deputies in that colony, the settlement in Rhode Island was headed by a single person, William Coddington, whose power was modeled on the judges of the Old Testament. As the interpretations of Hutchinson's case demonstrated, not all hostility to authority came from those who had been banished from the colony. In 1643, Richard Mather published An Apology of the Churches in New England for Church Covenant, which he wrote on behalf of the colony's ministers.
