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You can read Essay #1 at
Roger Williams Lifetime Goal
was to Create a New Christianity
Essay #2:
Was Roger Williams a Celebrity in England? And did he get help from gentry and royals?
By Marc Kohler The Roger Williams Educational Foundation Web Site: rwefoundation.org marcwkohler.com marcwkohler@aol.com 401-286-2221
There are many occasions when historians have claimed that he received no support from people in England. They suggest that Roger did everything on his own, and that Edward Coke and Francis Bacon did not help Roger or provide him any prestige. The truth is that Roger acquired great prestige from many, many of these people: Coke, Bacon, James I, Charles II, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Vane the Younger, John Pym, Joan Barrington, Francis Barrington, John Milton, and many more.
Let me show you how Roger became so prestigious.
1603: Roger was born to a family that have two businesses. His father, James, was a fabric importer or other fabric related business. He was a member of the Company of Taylors, an eleemosynary organization. Alice Williams ran a tavern called The Harrow. Alice ran the inn after James’ death in 1620. Roger worked in their businesses.
I615 When Roger was around twelve years old, he met Sir Edward Coke (Pronounced “Cook”). We do not know how or where this meeting took place. So, here is a bit to introduce you to Sir Coke.
Who was Sir Edward Coke? Wikipedia “….During the 1580s Coke was employed by the Howards to counter lawyers employed by the Crown, who argued that the Howards’ lands were forfeit owing to the treason of the 4th Duke. As well as defeating these direct attacks Coke travelled to Cardiff to answer a challenge by Francis Dacre, son of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre and uncle-in-law to the 4th Duke’s three sons, Philip Howard and his two half-brothers, Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk and Lord William Howard – he proved that Dacre’s evidence was false and had the case dismissed…in the now classic Shelley’s Case in 1581, which created a rule in real property that is still used in some common law jurisdictions today; the case also established Coke’s reputation as an attorney and case reporter…”
1592, He was selected to serve in a government position in the Law Officers of the Crown and he became Solicitor General on 16 June 1592. He then kept that position and was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in February, He was in that position for barely a year. Elizabeth made made him Attorney General for England and Wales on April 10, 1594. . He was only 42 years old, and he served as Attorney General for ten years. Over time, Coke hired Puritan ministers for his properties.
COKE’S PRESTIGE FOLLOWED ROGER EVERYWHERE HE WENT THROUGH HIS LIFE.
His decisions were tremendous, and he advocated that the common law was superior to the king’s laws. He also started to decide in the favor of the Parliament, and he finished his term in 1606. He was 54.
“…On 20 June 1606, Coke was made a Serjeant-at-Law, a requirement for his elevation to Chief Justice of the Common Pleas which occurred on 30 June Coke was transferred from the Common Pleas, where he was succeeded by Hobart, to the Court of King’s Bench on 25 October 1613, on the advice of Bacon, presumably because Bacon and the King felt that if he was moved from a court dedicated to protecting the rights of the people to one dedicated to the rights of the King, “his capacity for harm would be diminished…”
He was appointed Solicitor General by Queen Elizabeth in 1592. She named him speaker of the House of Commons the following year, and in 1594 chose him over Francis Bacon to be attorney general. By 1594, he had become Attorney-General. Coke was knighted for his services in 1604. In 1606, Sir Edward became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and in 1613, he was appointed to be the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench….which was a demotion, for at that time Coke was advocating the superiority of Common Law over the King…..”
Roger Williams started to work for Coke sometime in 1615. Roger’s father and Coke worked out an arrangement so Roger could live in Coke’s residences. In his position, he wrote stenography his notes to English. Coke wrote his Reports in English and Latin. I think that Roger learned Latin working for Coke, and not at college. Now, who did Roger meet in those years? He met King James, Francis Bacon, Charles II( as a child), and hundreds and hundreds of lawyers, litigants, ministers, and many, many, and many more. Oh, .during this time, Coke hired Puritan ministers for his properties.
I have been reading Coke’s writings (Law Reports, and the four-volume Institutes of the Lawes of England), and I was amazed. These are fantastic and extremely modern. The writings of Coke are mentioned in discussions about his work, but until you read them, you will think that they are archaic and of no use for us today. This is a distortion of Coke’s work. Coke’s writings establish the evolution of Common Law. All of his writings are very modern. Reading his work is not terribly different from reading modern legal texts today. Coke was making up, inventing, and innovating the whole nature of Common Law.
In 1616, Roger must have been working for Coke when Bacon convinced James to fire Coke and demote him.
Here is one historians view of how much Coke and Bacon provided Roger with prestige,
“….In other ways, however, this narrative is too simplistic. Barry draws too many straight lines in a world of overlapping, intersecting, and zigzagging ones. Barry devotes considerable attention to Roger Williams’ English context, highlighting the influence that Edward Coke and Francis Bacon had on Williams (the law and scientific method/approach to evidence, respectively). But these connections are more asserted than proved…” Linford Fisher Journal of Church and State | Oxford Academic https://usreligions.blogspot.com/2012/07/roger-williams-first-american-some.html
It is a bit sad that the work that Bacon did for Queen Elizabeth and James is not included in his biographies. In 1616, Roger must have been working when Bacon convinced James to fire Coke and demote him.
I have been reading Coke’s writings (Law Reports, and the four-volume Institutes of the Lawes of England),and I have been amazed. These are fantastic and extremely modern. In many ways, the writings of Coke are mentioned in discussions about his work, but until you read them, you will think they are archaic and of no use for us today. This is a distortion of Coke’s work. Coke’s writings establish the language and evolution of Common Law. All of his writings are very modern. Reading his work is not terribly different from reading modern legal texts. Coke was making up, inventing, innovating our whole nature of the law.
FOR THE NEXT FIFTEEN YEARS COKE AND WILLIAMS WOULD REMAIN FRIENDS! ONE OF ROGER’S REGRETS WAS THAT HE DID NOT SAY FAREWELL TO COKE WHEN HE SAILED TO AMERICA.
COKE’S PRESTIGE FOLLOWED ROGER EVERYWHERE HE WENT THROUGH HIS LIFE.
THIS MEANS THAT THE WHOLE LEGAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND PURITAN SETS GAVE HIM PRESTIGE.
Francis Bacon
Dr. Fisher discounts Barry’s claim that Francis Bacon influenced Roger. This is not true. Bacon was a star of for Elizabeth and James. His political career is not mentioned a lot in scholarship about him, because his writings were and still are spectacular. You need to see Bacon’s biography to capture his power and positions in the courts. I do not have time here to cover that, but I encourage you to read them.
Here are comments that Bacon wrote about: the separation of the church and state. This is long, but it shows that Bacon favored a separation between church and state.
III.—OF UNITY IN RELIGION
“….Concerning the means of procuring unity, men must beware that, in the procuring or muniting of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity and of human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and temporal, and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of religion; but we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet’s sword, like unto it; that is, to propagate religion by wars, or, by sanguinary persecutions, to force consciences; except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the state; much less to nourish seditions, to authorize conspiracies and rebellions, to put the sword into the people’s hands, and the like, tending to the subversion of all government, which is the ordinance of God; for this is but to dash the first table against the second, and so to consider men as Christians, as we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed;—
“Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.” “To such heights of evil has religion been able to drive men.”
What would he have said, if he had known of the massacre in France,( St. Bartholomew Massacre 1572) or the powder treason of England? He would have been seven times more epicure and atheist than he was; for as the temporal sword is to be drawn with great circumspection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous to put it into the hands of the common people; let that be left unto the Anabaptists, and other furies. It was great blasphemy when the devil said, “I will ascend and be like the Highest but it is greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, “I will descend, and be like the prince of darkness;” and what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery of people, and subversion of states and governments? Surely, this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set out of the bark of a Christian church a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins; therefore, it is most necessary that the church by doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both Christian and moral, as by their Mercury rod do damn and send to hell forever those facts and opinions tending to the support of the same, as hath been already in good part done. Surely, in counsels concerning religion, that counsel of the apostle would be prefixed: “Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei;” “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”—James I. and it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingenuously confessed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends….”
.WHEN ROGER WENT SCHOOL 1621-1628
I planned to talk about Coke, Bacon, Puritans, and gentry who helped and supported Roger. I cannot leave out what Roger did for himself.
Coke supported Roger to go to the prestigious Charterhouse School which had forty students. Coke supported him to go to Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. When the students were registered, each registrant had a short description written by someone/ For, Roger, the only thing written was his last name.
END OF DRAFT
Men who visited Oates and who led the English Civil War.
Here is a partial list of the men who visited Otes:
Ministers: Thomas Hooker, John Eliot, Hugh Peter, John Preston, James Harrison, Nicholas Barnard, and more.
Members of Parliament and other politically active individuals: John Hampden, who made country wide news in 1635 when he refused to pay the Ship Money tax, and his trial made lots of news, John Bourchier(Regicide). Gilbert Gerard, Williams Meux, Francis Harris, Richard Everard, Oliver Cromwell (R), Oliver St. John, who marries Elizabeth Masham’s daughter from her first marriage, and John Pym often comes and stays at Otes. He goes on to fight with the Parliament army and dies in 1643 in battle. John Pym was one of the Five Members of Parliament who are going to be arrested by Charles I, Henry Ireton (R), Robert Barrington (MP), Edward Whalley was the son of Frances Cromwell, an aunt of Oliver Cromwell. His sister was Jane Whalley who was the lady that Roger wanted to marry. She marries Rev. William Hooke.
I could list many more who served and led the Civil War. Henry Vane the Younger was a great friend of Roger’s, and he served as Oliver Cromwell’s top advisor. It was Vane who negotiated with the Scottish Covenanters to join the war against Charles I.
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