The Rogerenes. John R. Bolles
of James Rogers and his sons, for profanation of the Sabbath,[4] commenced. For this and for neglect of the established worship, they and some of their followers were usually arraigned at every session of the court, for a long course of years. The fine was at first five shillings, then ten shillings, then fifteen shillings. At the June court,1677, the following persons were arraigned and each fined £5:--James Rogers, senior, for high-handed, presumptuous profanation of the Sabbath, by attending to his work; Elizabeth Rogers, his wife, and James and Jonathan, for the same. John Rogers, on examination, said he had been hard at work making shoes on the first day of the week, and he would have done the same had the shop stood under the window of Mr. Wetherell’s house; yea, under the window of the meeting house. Bathsheba Smith, for fixing a scandalous paper on the meeting house. Mary, wife of James Rogers, junior, for absence from public worship.
Again, in September, 1677, the court ordered that John Rogers should be called to account once a month and fined £5 each time; others of the family were amerced to the same amount, for blasphemy against the Sabbath, calling it an idol, and for stigmatizing the reverend ministers as hirelings. After this, sitting in the stocks and whipping were added.
This correspondent says, “The Rogerenes despised the authority of law.” But only that which infringed upon their natural rights and honest convictions of duty. To all other laws they were obedient. Says Miss Caulkins:—
John Rogers maintained obedience to the civil government, except in matters of conscience and religion. A town or county rate the Rogerenes always considered themselves bound to pay; but the minister’s rate they abhorred, denouncing as unscriptural all interference of the civil power in the worship of God.
The Rogerenes were the first in this State to denounce the doctrine of taxation without representation, the injustice of which is now universally acknowledged. All their offences may be traced to a determination to withstand and oppose ecclesiastical tyranny. Pioneers in every great enterprise are sufferers, and pioneers in thought are no exception to this rule. Other men have labored, and we have entered into their labors. That principle for which these heroes and heroines so valiantly and faithfully contended, in the grim face of suffering and hate, the total divorcement of Church and State, is now established. Has it not become the boast and glory of the nation, the torch of liberty held aloft in the face of the world? And does it not show the march of civilization that the right of all to equal religious freedom, then so obnoxious, is now fully confessed and sweet to the ear as chime of silver bells?
The venerable James Rogers, senior, with his wife, three sons and two daughters, were, as we have seen, arraigned and fined £5 each at one session of the court, within two years from the time of their alliance with the Seventh Day Baptist Church of Newport. Other arraignments followed, and in the case of John Rogers, the court ordered that he should be called to account every month and fined £5 each time. Draco’s laws were said to have been written in blood; Caligula set his on poles so high they could not be read; but it was reserved for a New England court, in the perilous times of which we are speaking, to pass sentence before the offense was committed or trial had!
Nor have we but just entered into the vestibule of that temple of ignorance, tyranny, and crime, which, even in the New London plantation, reared its front and trailed its long shadow down a century. But on the ashes of oppression thrives the tree of liberty. Religious freedom was then emerging from the incrustation of ages, as the bird picks its way through the shell to light and beauty. Whippings and sittings in the stocks afterwards took place, yet we hear of but a single attempt on the part of the Rogerenes to interrupt the public worship of their enemies, until nearly eight years of persecution had elapsed, and it should be remembered that such interruption was not uncommon in those days; Quakers doing the same in Boston, under like treatment.
We quote from the records of the court, 1685:—
John Rogers, James Rogers, Jr., Samuel Beebe, Jr., and Joanna Way are complained of for profaning God’s holy day with servile work, and are grown to that height of impiety as to come at several times into the town to rebaptise several persons; and, when God’s people were met together on the Lord’s Day to worship God, several of them came and made great disturbance, behaving themselves in such a frantic manner as if possessed with a diabolical spirit, so affrighting and amazing that several women swooned and fainted away.[5] John Rogers to be whipped fifteen lashes and for unlawfully re-baptising, to pay £5. The others to be whipped.
The Quakers at Boston had been charged with having a similar spirit, and, almost simultaneously with this complaint, witches, so-called, were hung at Salem. Mr. Burroughs, a preacher, being a small man, was charged with holding out a long-barrelled gun straight with one hand. He defended himself by saying that an Indian did the same thing. “Ah! that’s the black man!” said the judge, meaning the devil helped him do the deed. Burroughs was hung! It was said of Jesus of Nazareth, “He hath a devil.”
There was no printing-press at that time in New London, and had there been it would have served the will of the dominant power, not that of the persecuted few. Bathsheba Smith had been previously fined £5 for attaching a paper to the side of the meeting-house, setting forth their grievances. If John Rogers had undertaken to harangue an audience in the street, it might have been regarded as a still greater offense. It may be said to be an unlawful act to present their case and assert their rights in this manner; but an unlawful act is sometimes justified by circumstances. It would be an unlawful act to go to your neighbor’s house in the night, knock loudly at his door, disturb the inmates and call out to them while quietly sleeping in their beds; but, if the house were on fire, it would be a right and merciful act. Great exigencies justify extraordinary conduct. What would be wrong under certain conditions would be right under others.
It may be said that this course would not be tolerated at the present day. Neither, we add, would the acts that led to it. The prophet was at one time commanded to speak unto the people, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. With our imperfect knowledge of the circumstances of the case, it may be impossible, at this date, to judge rightly of its merits. Elizabeth Rogers was charged with stigmatizing the reverend clergy as hirelings, and with calling the Sabbath an idol. She was fined five pounds. There was not much freedom of speech in those days. As to calling the Sabbath an idol, that was no more than saying it was unduly reverenced. It was so among the Jews, at the time our Saviour endeavored to disabuse them of the fallacy and to teach them that “the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” The brazen serpent ordained of God for the healing of the people, when it became an object of idolatrous worship, was ordered to be taken to pieces.
Miss Caulkins says:—
One of the most notorious instances of contempt exhibited by Rogers against the religious worship of his fellow-townsmen was the sending of a wig to a contribution made in aid of the ministry.
This was in derision of the full-bottomed wigs then worn by the Congregational clergy.
We sympathize with him in his contempt of the ornament, if such it may be called, of which the portraits of the Rev. Mr. Saltonstall present a rich specimen. An ancient bishop refused to administer the rite of baptism to one thus garnitured, saying, “Take that thing away; I will not bless the head of a dead man.” John Rogers made an apologetic confession of this offense, which may be seen upon the town records to-day, viz.:—
Whereas I, John Rogers of New London, did rashly and unadvisedly send a periwigg to the contribution of New London, which did reflect dishonor upon that which my neighbors, ye inhabitants of New London, account the ways and ordinances of God and ministry of the Word, to the greate offense of them, I doe herebye declare that I am sorry for the sayde action and doe desire all those whom I have offended to accept this my publique acknowledgment as full satisfaction.
John Rogers.
A young man, sensible that his life had not been what it ought to have been, and resolving upon amendment, sought his father and made frank acknowledgment of his faults. Having done so, he said, “Now, father, don’t you think you ought to confess a little to me?” We think some confessions were also due from the other side.
The nest in which