count at face value, the persecutors of Hutchinson are revealed not as good people with a reasonable position and a well-honed argument to back up that position, but rather as gender bigots who fear and hate a strong woman, especially when that strong woman directly threatens their powerful hold on the community.
The argument which seems to sway the community against Hutchinson and for John Winthrop is one based not on reason or theology but on fear, specifically fear of being "cut off" by England once word reached the King that there was a major split in the community. Her persecutors also resorted to name-calling, terming her and her followers "Antinomians," inferring falsely that Anne and her fellow believers in grace saw themselves as exempt from the Ten Commandments. This calls to mind the charges pronounced against Jesus by Jewish leaders that Jesus saw himself as exempt from Jewish law. Anne might have fairly argued, along with Jesus, that her actions were a fulfillment of
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