During Anne Hutchinson's four month house arrest incarceration after being convicted in Massachusetts Bay Colony's General Court of heresy and sedition, a list of her "errors" were drawn up, and she was declared a "very dayngerous [sic] Woman." The list was given to the Boston elders who decided to proceed with her church trial. ²

The first day of Anne's church trial was held in her home Boston church. It began on Thursday March 15, 1638 and the meetinghouse was packed. She arrived after Reverend John Cotton's Thursday morning sermon, her lateness explained by an Elder as being from weakness from her months of incarceration and continuing pregnancy. ³ William, her husband, and many of her ardent supporters were away, negogtiating land for their new home in Narragansett Bay (Aquidneck Island). ⁴

Ruling Elder Thomas Leverett managed her examination. He read the list of theological errors that she was charged with. After nine hours, only the first four had been addressed. A copy of the text of the trial proceedings is reproduced in The Antinomian Controversy 1636-1638 A Documentary History by David D. Hall, Editor. ⁵

The ministers agreed that Hutchinson's unsound beliefs outweighed the good she had done, and endangered the spiritual welfare of the community. ⁶ John Cotton then delivered an admonition to Anne Hutchinson:

"Therefor, I doe Admonish you, and alsoe charge you in the name of Ch[rist] Je[sus], in whose place I stand... that you would sadly consider the just hand of God agaynst you, the great hurt you have done to the Churches, the great Dishonour you have brought to Je[sus] Ch[rist], and the Evell that you have done to many a poore soule." ⁷

In the midst of the admonition, Anne interrupted:

"All that I would say is this, that I did not hould any of thease Thinges before my Imprisonment."

Reverend Thomas Shepard vociferiously protested that this was an "Untruth and falsehood". ⁸

It was now late, and Anne was ordered to present herself again on the next lecture day, which was one week later. She was permitted to stay at the house of John Cotton, at his request. Reverend John Davenport was also staying at that time with Cotton. It was his hope that they could persuade her to recant her heretical views, show submissiveness and ask for forgiveness. Her banishment from the church was almost certain now, but if she recanted, in time she might be accepted into the church again. ⁹

Indeed, they appeared to have success, and at the second day of her church trial she read a recantation of her unsound opinions to the congregation. ¹⁰ Had the trial ended at that point, Hutchinson would not have been excommunicated. Reverend John Wilson pointed out that Hutchinson had not answered Thomas Shepard's accusation that she had held the errors prior to her incarceration. ¹¹

For reasons unknown to anyone other than Hutchinson, she held fast to that position. It did not match observations. It was a lie, and a step too far for even friendly John Cotton to accept, and he finally washed his hands of her. He had tried to offer her a path to rehabilitation, at great risk to his own reputation, and she would not take it. Shepard called her a "Notorious Imposter". ¹²

The clergy focused on the lie and a vote was successful for excommunicating Anne Hutchinson. Reverend John Wilson delivered the sentence of excommunication: ¹³

"Forasmuch as you, Mistress Hutchinson, have highly transgressed and offended, and forasmuch as you have soe many ways troubled the Church with your Errors and have drawen away many a poor soule, and have upheld your Revelations: and forasmuch as you have made a Lye, etc. Therefor, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the name of the Church, I doe not only pronounce you worthy to be cast out, but I doe cast you out and in the name of Christ, I doe deliver you up to Sathan that you may learne no more to blaspheme to seduce and to lye! And I doe account you from this time forth to be a Hethen and a Publican and soe to be held of all the Bretheren and Sisters of this Congregation, and of others. Therefor I command you in the name of Christ Jesus and of this Church as a Leper to withdraw your selfe out of the Congregation; that as formerly you have dispised and contemned the Holy Ordinances of God and turned your Backe one them, soe you may now have no part in them nor benefit by them." ¹⁴ [Spellings and italics in the sourced text are retained].

Anne Hutchinson ¹⁵ was now convicted of heresy and sedition by the General Court, and ordered to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the end of March, and now she was excommunicated from what had been her Church for her strongly held "erroneous" beliefs. As she left the Church after the sentence was given, Mary Dyer, a close friend of hers, rose and acompanied her out. Twenty two years later, Mary Dyer would be hanged in Boston for her Quaker beliefs and her defiance of authorities in promoting them. ¹⁶

Next up, Anne leaves Massachusetts Bay Colony. ¹⁷