puritans in colonial america...church of england...help!?

Question

How did they (the puritans) reconcile their own religious dissent from the Church of England with their persecution of dissenters like Hutchinson and Williams? Does their outlook make them hypocrites?

Answer 1

Not at all. The Puritans (or Separatists) believed that they were right. They dissented from the (Anglican) Church of England because they believed that the established church was wrong.

In America, the Puritans had a "monopoly" on righteousness, and anyone who disagreed with them was wrong. Therefore Hutchinson & Williams were wrong.

This line of reasoning is quite tenable. The Puritans were certainly not hypocrites.

In fact, there's another tack on this. A hypocrite is one who says one thing and does another. I think you're suggesting that in England, the Puritans sought from the Church of England, but later refused to tolerate Hutchinson & Williams.

Well, you have a point there, but remember, the Puritans originally sought to purify the Church of England. So they sought tolerance for themselves in England (and didn't get it), but at no time did they "tolerate" the Church of England.

The Puritans were, if nothing else, consistent. Since they were certain that they were in the right, they had no reason to tolerate any opposing viewpoints.