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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2019
This piece explores the origins of the anomalous 1655 New Haven statute against sodomy that broke with legal traditions and codes both in England and New England. A lengthy and extraordinarily specific piece of legislation, the New Haven law stands in stark contrast to the minimalist language favored by the English in the early seventeenth century. When viewed within the larger context of clerical animosities, particularly between Thomas Hooker and John Cotton, there is a strong circumstantial case to make for its implementation as an extension of John Cotton's rejected Massachusetts Bay legal code, Moses His Judicials, applied by his friend and admirer John Davenport in New Haven. A devout disciple of John Cotton, John Davenport's New Haven colony relied on Cotton's influence and stood as a rebuke to Thomas Hooker's Connecticut settlements, often criticized as too spiritually lax by those in Massachusetts Bay and New Haven. While seeking to demonstrate greater piety and rigidity, John Cotton and Thomas Hooker sought to exert dominance over the other, with Cotton employing Davenport's colony as an effective castigation of Hooker's perceived liberality. This piece is reflective of trends in studies of sexuality which suggest that ideas and identities related to sexuality do not operate in isolation, but often mirror anxieties not necessarily connected to the regulation of sexual activities. This article situates the 1655 Sodomy Statue within a broader context in order to understand its origins and animosities that potentially motivated its inclusion into the New Haven legal statutes.
The author wishes to extend sincere gratitude to Richard Godbeer, Monica D. Fitzgerald, Cara Delay, and Francis Bremer who read early drafts of the article. Also, many thanks to Bailey Poletti and John Manke, my copy editors at Church History, whose suggestions and edits improved the piece immeasurable.
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15 Reprinted in Bremer, Congregational Communion, 91.
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56 John Winthrop, “Short Story,” reprinted in The Antinomian Controversy, 286. Bozeman makes the argument that John Cotton was the critical figure in the crisis and that his previous teachings allowed for the extremes taken by Hutchinson and her followers. Bozeman, The Precisianist Strain, 241.
57 Archer, Fissures in the Rock, 31.
58 Bozeman, The Precisianist Strain, 211. Cotton initially worked to support Hutchinson, but he increasingly separated himself from her due to her disclosures as well as political pressures from within Boston. Thomas Shepard and Thomas Hooker suspected that Cotton influenced the trial to secretly support Hutchinson and provide her an opportunity for exoneration. See Winship, Making Heretics, 204.
59 Bozeman suggests that Davenport, Hooker, and Cotton all “jousted with antinomian doctrines” before emigrating from England. Bozeman, The Precisiant Strain, 184–210.
60 Ibid., 214.
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