casts of one
generation are those, who are reverenced as the wisest and best of men by
the next. The securest fame is that which comes after a man's death. But
let us return to our story. When Roger Williams was banished, he appears
to have given the chair to Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. At all events it was in
her possession in 1637. She was a very sharp-witted and well-instructed
lady, and was so conscious of her own wisdom and abilities, that she
thought it a pity that the world should not have the benefit of them. She
therefore used to hold lectures in Boston, once or twice a week, at which
most of the women attended. Mrs. Hutchinson presided at these meetings,
sitting, with great state and dignity, in Grandfather's chair."

"Grandfather, was it positively this very chair?" demanded Clara, laying
her hand upon its carved elbow.

"Why not, my dear Clara?" said Grandfather. "Well; Mrs. Hutchinson's
lectures soon caused a great disturbance; for the ministers of Boston did
not think it safe and proper, that a woman should publicly instruct the
people in religious doctrines. Moreover, she made the matter worse, by
declaring that the Rev. Mr. Cotton was the only sincerely pious and holy
clergyman in New England. Now the clergy of those days had quite as much
share in the government of the country, though indirectly, as the
magistrates themselves; so you may imagine what a host of powerful enemies
were raised up against Mrs. Hutchinson. A synod was convened; that is to
say, an assemblage of all the ministers in Massachusetts. They declared
that there were eighty-two erroneous opinions on religious subjects,
diffused among the people, and that Mrs. Hutchinson's opinions were of the
number."

"If they had eighty-two wrong opinions," observed Charley, "I don't see
how they could have any right ones."

"Mrs. Hutchinson had many zealous friends and converts," continued
Grandfather. "She was favored by young Henry Vane, who had come over from
England a year or two before, and had since been chosen governor of the
colony, at the age of twenty-four. But Winthrop, and most of the other
leading men, as well as the ministers, felt an abhorrence of her
doctrines. Thus two opposite parties were formed; and so fierce were the
dissensions, that it was feared the consequence would be civil war and
bloodshed. But Winthrop and the ministers being the most powerful, they
disarmed and imprisoned Mrs. Hutchinson's adherents. She, like Roger
Willi