oted in C. Holliday, p. 44.) Fiske, an American historian, justified the Puritans' harsh treatment of Anne Hutchinson and her followers as a necessary move to protect the unity of the colony:When the Pequots threatened Massachusetts colony a few men in Boston refused to serve. These were the Antinomians, followers of Anne Hutchinson, who suspected their chaplain of being under a " Covenant of works," whereas their doctrine was one should live under a "Covenant of grace." This is one of the great reasons why they were banished. It was the very life of the colony that they should have conformity... Therefore this religious doctrine was working rebellion and sedition, and endangering the very existence of the state. (As quoted in C. Holliday, pps. 44-45.)Alone, Anne was not a threat to the Puritan establishment in Massachusetts Bay. However, as a woman leading a growing number of men as well as women, she was a threat to their authority and had to be stopped. Fiske's assertion that the Antinomians who protested killing the Indians would affect the outcome of the war is probably exaggerated since all of her followers numbered less than two hundred out of about three thousand. (E. Battis, Saints and Sectaries, p. 293.)Eventually, Anne was brought to trial for her continued actions by the Puritans. Samuel Eliot Morrison sums up the series of events that followed in this way:It was on a small scale a state trial of the sort then common in England, where no legal safeguards were observed...the result was foregone conclusion. Yet the clever and witty woman conducted her case admirably... Anne's unruly member gave her away. She declared, even boasted, of her personal revelations from the Almighty; and that was to confess the worst. For in this the Puritan agreed with historical Christianity, that divine revelation closed with the book of Revelation. Convicted out of her own mouth, Anne Hutchinson was sentenced to banishment from Massachusetts Bay...
