Anne Hutchinson and the Puritan Attitude toward Women Author(s ...

"the more grievous, in that she being a Woman of
singular Prudence for the Management of Affairs,
had taken off from her husband all Secular Cares
so that he wholly devoted himself to his Study, and
to Sacred Imployments." The Reverend Samuel Whiting's
wife similarly "by her discretion freed her husband
from all secular vocations." The people who, as a
result, were burdened with Secular Cares and, con-
versely, denied Sacred Imployment toward sanctifica-
tion and justification, were the ministers' wives.
Winthrop said of Anne Hutchinson that if she "had
attended her household affairs, and such things as
belong to women, and not gone out of her way and
calling to meddle in such things as are proper for
men, she had kept her wits, and might have improved
them usefully and honorably in the place that God
had set her." Those "proper things" evidently could
be seen placing the ministers nearer to God, which
was precisely the position Hutchinson denied them.
William Hutchinson was perverse in his devotion to
Secular Cares and consequent freeing of his wife,
Anne, for Sacred Imployments. He has been character-
ized as "lacking in...dynamic and positive qualities,"
the historians assuming the same sexual values as
Winthrop. William Hutchinson was open and "strong"
enough to accept his wife's intellectual qualities.
Anne and William Hutchinson arrived in Boston in
1634, and soon their home became a center for religious
debate, the participants deadly serious in seeking a
direct relationship with God. Included among them
was Sir Henry Vane, whose short governorship (1636-
1637) interrupted Winthrop's. Anne Hutchinson and
her followers accused all of the Massachusetts Bay
ministers, except for John Cotton and John Wheelright,
of preaching a "covenant of works," works being ways
whereby men could themselves earn salvation. Hutch-
inson substituted a "covenant of grace," the simple
--and arbitrary--bestowal of election by God without
the recipient's effort, and beyond the imprimatur
of the ministers. She drew large support in Boston,
where Winthrop's smaller party was isolated. But
Winthrop skillfully orchestrated his actions with
those of the more conservative forces outside Boston.
In early 1637 Wheelwright was convicted of contempt
and sedition; then Winthrop was re-elected Governor
over Vane, who left for England; and John Cotton
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