decency and the decorum of the colony was threatened did
the stern laws of the church descend upon Mistress Hutchinson and her
followers. It was doubtless the riotous conduct of these radicals that
caused the resolution to be passed by the assembly in 1637, which
stated, according to Winthrop: "That though women might meet (some few
together) to pray and edify one another; yet such a set assembly, (as
was then in practice at Boston), where sixty or more did meet every
week, and one woman (in a prophetical way, by resolving questions of
doctrine, and expounding scripture) took upon her the whole exercise,
was agreed to be disorderly, and without rule."

Among the Quakers women's meetings were common; for equality of the
sexes was one of their teachings. In the _Journal_ of George Fox
(1672) we come across this statement: "We had a Mens-Meeting and a
Womens-Meeting.... On the First of these Days the Men and Women had
their Meetings for Business, wherein the Affairs of the Church of God
were taken care of." Moreover, what must have seemed an abomination to
the Puritan Fathers, these Quakers allowed their wives and mothers to
serve in official capacities in the church, and permitted them to take
part in the quarterly business sessions. Thus, John Woolman in his
_Diary_ says: "We attended the Quarterly meeting with Ann Gaunt and
Mercy Redman." "After the quarterly meeting of worship ended I felt
drawings to go to the Women's meeting of business which was very
full." What was especially shocking to their Puritan neighbors was the
fact that these Quakers allowed their women to go forth as missionary
speakers, and, as in the case of Mary Dyer, to invade the sacred
precincts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to proselyte to Quakerism.

_VII. Female Rebellion_

But those Puritan colonists had far greater troubles to harass them than
the few quiet Quaker women who were moved by Inner Light to speak in the
village streets. One of these troubles we have touched upon--the Rise of
the Antinomians, or the disturbance caused by Anne Hutchinson. The other
was the Salem Witchcraft proceedings. In both of these women were
directly concerned, and indeed were at the root of the disturbances. Let
us examine in some detail the influence of Puritan womanhood in these
social upheavals that shook the foundations of church rule in New
England.

While most of the women of the Puritan colonies seem to have been too
busy with their household duti