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WILLIAMS 639 foreign Bible society, raised 4,000 for a mis- sionary ship, the Camden, published a " Nar- rative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, with Remarks upon the Natural History of the Islands, Origin, Languages, Traditions, and Usages of the Inhabitants" (London and New York, 1887), and prepared plans for a theological school at Earatonga and a high school at Tahiti. After his return in 1838, he sailed with one companion for the New Hebrides, to plant a mission, but both were killed by the natives. Of several me- moirs of Mr. Williams, the most complete is that by the Rev. Ebenezer Prout (1843). WILLIAMS, Monier, an English orientalist, born in Bombay, where his father was surveyor general, in 1819. He graduated at Oxford in 1844, and became professor of Sanskrit at Haileybury college, after the abolition of which in 1858 he superintended oriental studies at Cheltenham for two years. In December, 1860, he was elected Boden Sanskrit profes- sor at Oxford. He has published a "Practical Grammar of the Sanskrit Language, arranged with reference to the Classical Languages of Europe" (1846; 2d ed., Oxford, 1857); an English-Sanskrit dictionary (1851) ; transla- tions of three Sanskrit dramas (1849-'55) ; " Original Papers illustrating the History of the Application of the Roman Alphabet to the Languages of India" (1859); "Story of Nala," a Sanskrit poem, with vocabulary and- Dean Milman's translation (Oxford, 1860) ; "Indian Epic Poetry" (1863); "A Sanskrit and English Dictionary" (4to, 1872) ; "Indian Wisdom " (1875) ; and several works on the Hindostanee language. WILLIAMS, Roger, the founder of the colony of Rhode Island, born in Wales in 1599 (and not in 1606, as supposed by Dr. Elton), died in Rhode Island in 1683. At an early age he went to London, and attracted by his short- hand notes of sermons, and of speeches in the star chamber, the attention of Sir Edward Coke, who sent him to Sutton's hospital, now the Charterhouse, of which he was elected a scholar, July 25, 1621, and obtained an exhibi- tion July 9, 1624. According to Arnold, the historian of Rhode Island, he was admitted to Pembroke college, Cambridge, Jan. 29, 1623, and matriculated pensioner July 7, 1625. He took the degree of B. A. in January, 1627. There is a tradition that he studied law ; but if so, it could have been for a short time only, for it is certain that he had been a clergyman of the church of England when at the close of 1630 he embarked for America. He became a Puritan of the extreme wing, and of that sec- tion of the wing whose tendencies toward the views of the Baptists were the immediate oc- casion of the rapid rise of that denomination in England. Arriving at Boston, Feb. 5, 1631, accompanied by his wife Mary, he soon in- curred the hostility of the authorities, chiefly by denying that the magistrates had a right to punish for any but civil offences, and shortly 837 VOL. xvi. 41 went to Salem to become the assistant of Pas- tor Skelton. The general court remonstrated against his settlement there, and complained that he had refused " to join with the congrega- tion at Boston, because they would not make a public declaration of their repentance for hav- ing communion with the churches of England while they lived there ;" and besides this, " had declared his opinion that the magistrate might not punish a breach of the sabbath, nor any other offence as it was a breach of the first table." The objections of Williams to the church of England were, first, that it was com- posed of pious and worldly men indiscrimi- nately, and second, that it assumed authority over the conscience, and was persecuting. The first of these objections the Puritans of Boston shared theoretically with Williams. But while Williams was practically a consistent and rigid separatist from the beginning, his Puritan brethren were, in his view, chargeable with inconsistency and unseemly concession. The second objection assailed the theocracy which his brethren themselves were rearing on the shores of New England. His ministry at Salem was brief ; before the close of summer perse- cution obliged him to retire to Plymouth, where for two years he was the assistant of the pastor, Ralph Smith. Here too he formed acquaintance with leading chiefs of the In- dians, and gained a knowledge of their lan- guage. He was invited to return to Salem, and became the assistant and then the suc- cessor of Skelton ; and his enemies affirm that "in one year's time he filled that place with principles of rigid separation, tending to Ana- baptistry." In the autumn of 1685 the general court banished him from the colony, ordering him to depart within six weeks, because he had called in question the authority of magis- trates in respect to two things, one relating to the right of the king to appropriate and grant the lands of the Indians without purchase, and the other to the right of the civil power to impose faith and worship. On the first of these points Williams at one time made expla- nations that were deemed satisfactory ; on the other the divergence was hopeless, the minis- ters who gave their advice at the request of the court declaring that opinions which would not allow the magistrate to intermeddle, even to restrain a church from heresy or apostasy, were not to be endured, and he, on the other hand, maintaining with inflexible rigor the absolute and eternal distinction between the spheres of the civil government and the Chris- tian church. In reply to the charges and in defence of his views Williams published a pam- phlet entitled " Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered." The period allowed him to prepare for his departure had been extended to the coming spring. But his doctrines were spreading, and his purpose of founding a colo- ny, close at hand and embodying his princi- ples had become known. It was therefore de- termined to send him to England at once, and