At present, the writing of early American legal history tends to be dominated by cultural and social approaches. This chapter is an exegesis in intellectual legal history. Part I chronicles how central religious freedom always was in the organic laws—the town compacts, the patent of 1643/4, the charter of 1663—of colonial Rhode Island. Part II describes whether the laws enacted pursuant to those organic laws were consistent with that animating principle. Part III assesses the tensions identified in Parts I and II.