The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr.…

This 1644 treatise contains the first use of the phrase "wall of separation" between church and state in English. Roger Williams, banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious dissident views, wrote this dialogue between Truth and Peace to argue that forcing conscience is tyranny. The book directly challenged the Puritans' theocratic vision, asserting that God Himself grants liberty of conscience and that civil magistrates have no authority over souls. Parliament burned the book. Williams was exiled. Yet his arguments planted seeds that would flower into the First Amendment. The Bloudy Tenent remains essential for understanding the philosophical foundations of American religious liberty and why the separation of church and state became a bedrock principle.