140 A Century of Science 



tion.&quot; John Cotton was a typical Independent, 

 and by no means a man of persecuting tempera 

 ment, but his view of the matter is extremely one 

 sided. He admits that it is wrong for error to 

 persecute truth, but he holds it to be the sacred 

 duty of truth to persecute error ! Williams, on 

 the other hand, sees that truth stands in no need 

 of violent or artificial support, and that error con 

 tains within itself the seeds of death. He feels, 

 too, that when I venture to persecute what I call 

 error in others, I virtually assume my own in 

 fallibility. Thus not until pure Individualism is 

 reached is the fundamental fallacy of Catholicism 

 escaped. In order to protect this sacred Individ 

 ualism, Williams would have a complete separa 

 tion between church and state. Under no pretext 

 whatever should the civil government interfere 

 with religious matters. There should be no more 

 statutes against heresy or heretics, no enforced 

 attendance upon public worship, no support of 

 churches by taxation. Roger Williams not only 

 proclaimed such doctrines, but he lived up to them. 

 He never took pains to conceal his dislike of 

 Quaker doctrines ; in his seventy-third year he 

 once rowed himself in a boat the whole length of 

 Narragansett Bay, in order to conduct a dispute 

 against three valiant Quaker champions; yet, in 



