![]() ![]() So the facts of his Hartford ministry are fragmentary, derived from letters and notes taken by those who heard him. Hooker, unlike Bradford and Winthrop, did not keep a journal. According to Cotton Mather, "The very spirit of his ministry lay in the points of the most practical religion, and the grand concern of a sinner's preparation for, and implantation in, and salvation by, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ."īy May 1637, the inhabitants of Connecticut were holding their own General Court. Hooker, for example, apparently felt that Winthrop's efforts in Massachusetts Bay had fallen short of the mark. Indeed, this was the consistent pattern behind the settlement of New England, with each colony attempting to create a more pristine Christian society, and each founder, usually a minister, trying to "out-Protestantize" everyone else. Again, though, Hooker's primary concern was not politics, but the establishment of assemblies of worship resembling the churches found in the Book of Acts. Thomas Hooker is considered by many to have played the role of John the Baptist for Thomas Jefferson in the sense that he laid the foundation for American republican democracy. The English Church, predictably, condemned as heretical Hooker's apologetics on behalf of "liberty of conscience. His hope was to persuade the Church of England to organize itself along congregational instead of episcopal lines, and also to explain to English Church officials what he was doing in New England, which in essence was to demonstrate how he believed a truly Christian society ought to operate. It was intended as a manifesto, explaining Hooker's views on a congregational polity. We have only fragments of his Survey, as the bulk of the manuscript was lost in a trip across the Atlantic on the way to England for publication. Hooker's views on the congregational polity were essentially democratic, and are explained in his great work, A Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline. ![]() Though he was not himself an avowed Separatist, he had many Separatist followers. Hooker, Pastor of the Church at Newtown, and most of his congregation, went to Connecticut."Īs Perry Miller points out, Hooker was more radical in his Protestant beliefs than Winthrop. In his May 1636 journal entry, Winthrop notes, without elaboration, that "Mr. Whether Hooker got permission from the Massachusetts General Court to leave is not clear. Hooker would not only draw many from us, but also divert many friends who would come to us." But Winthrop apparently lost the argument, at least as far as Hooker's people were concerned. Moreover, said Winthrop, it was unwise for Christians to so divide themselves, leaving themselves open to attack from the Indians and perhaps even the British Navy:"The departure of Mr. Winthrop argued that Hooker was breaking the covenant by leaving the colony. Hooker and Winthrop were good friends, which is why Winthrop was so bitterly disappointed when Hooker petitioned the General Court to allow his congregation to move to Connecticut. But even after his departure from England, Collins acknowledged that Hooker's "genius" still "haunts all the pulpits." He traveled first to Holland and then, following the example of the Mayflower Pilgrims, made the holy pilgrimage to Massachusetts Bay. gains more and far greater followers than all before him." Hooker was forced into exile. have seen the people idolizing many new ministers and lecturers but this man surpasses them all for learning. As Perry Miller recounts in his book, Errand Into the Wilderness, Samuel Collins, an agent of Archbishop Laud, warned in 1629 that Hooker had become too powerful, and threatened to undermine the established church: "I. He was a learned scholar, widely published, and his preaching had electrified the English countryside, winning converts by the thousands. Hooker was the most famous of all the English preachers to make the journey to New England. One of the most important migrations from the mother colony was led by the great Thomas Hooker to Hartford, Connecticut. But almost immediately upon arrival, the colonists began to disperse along the hills and rivers of New England. Winthrop envisioned for his "City on a Hill" a tightly knit, unified community centered around Boston. CHAPTER SEVEN Thomas Hooker Tries Democracy ![]()
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