erstood the female heart far better
than did John Cotton or any other male pastor of the settlements.
Moreover, the theory of "inner light" or the "covenant of grace"
undoubtedly appealed as something novel and refreshing after the
prolonged soul fast under the harshness and intolerance of the
Calvinistic creed. The women told their women friends of the new
theories, and wives and mothers talked of the matter to husbands and
fathers until gradually a great number of men became interested. The
churches of Massachusetts Bay Colony were in imminent danger of losing
their grasp upon the people and the government. It is evident that in
the home at least the Puritan woman was not entirely the silent, meek
creature she was supposed to be; her opinions were not only heard by
husband and father but heeded with considerable respect.

And what became of this first woman leader in America? Whether the fate
of this woman was typical of what was in store for all female speakers
and women outside their place is not stated by the elders; but they were
firm in their belief that her death was an appropriate punishment. She
removed to Rhode Island and later to New York, where she and all her
family, with the exception of one person, were killed by the Indians. As
Thomas Welde says in the preface of _A Short Story of the Rise, Wane
and Ruin of the Antinomians_ (1644): "I never heard that the Indians in
these parts did ever before commit the like outrage upon any one family,
or families; and therefore God's hand is the more apparently seen
herein, to pick out this woful woman, to make her and those belonging to
her an unheard of heavy example of their cruelty above others."

_VIII. Woman and Witchcraft_

It was at staid Boston that Anne Hutchinson marshalled her forces; it
was at peace-loving Salem that the Devil marshalled his witches in a
last despairing onslaught against the saints. To many readers there may
seem to be little or no connection between witchcraft and religion; but
an examination of the facts leading to the execution of the various
martyrs to superstition at Salem will convince the skeptical that there
was a most intimate relationship between the Puritan creed and the
theory of witchcraft.

Looking back after the passing of more than two hundred years, we cannot
but deem it strange that such an enlightened, educated and thoroughly
intelligent folk as the Puritans could have believed in the possession
of this malignant