Simplicity's Defence Against Seven-Headed Policy. This item is unavailable.Simplicity's Defence Against Seven-Headed Policy

Simplicity's Defence Against Seven-Headed Policy by Samuel Gorton presents a late-16th/early-17th-century polemical tract that argues for liberty of conscience and limits on civil magistracy in religious matters in early New England. The work, issued in 1646 with explanatory notes and an appendix, combines Gorton's own narratives and arguments against the encroachment of church-government and state power in Providence Plantations and neighboring colonies such as Massachusetts. The text is accompanied by documents and letters—letters relating to Shawomet/Warwick, Native land purchases, and transatlantic communications—that illustrate the conflict between dissenting settlers and the established colonial authorities. It also includes prefaces explaining Gorton’s life, his dissenting religious views, and the broader question of how civil authority should relate to religious practice. The collection as a whole seeks to defend a radical form of religious liberty, critique the “seven-headed” church power of the time, and illuminate the political-religious dynamics of New England frontier society.