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Who was Mary Dyer? Very little has been known for sure,
except that Mary was a 17
th-century educated Englishwoman who
married at St. Martin-in-the-Fields parish in Westminster; she gave birth eight
times, including to an anencephalic fetus that was called a monster; she
emigrated to New England’s wilderness and cofounded America’s first democracy, and
she eventually was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1660 for her intentional
civil disobedience to Boston’s theocratic government.
 |
From 1607, the appearance of Halley's Comet
(before Halley's name was associated with it).
Note the total and partial eclipses, the comet,
soldiers, and death (probably plague). |
While we don’t find much direct evidence of Mary’s life and
thoughts, we can look at the culture, politics, religions, natural history,
sociology, genealogical records of her associates, and journals and letters, of
the friends and family—and enemies—surrounding her. All those pieces, when
placed in parallel timelines and looked at with logic, create a painting of the
woman only glimpsed in the journals of others or in court records of the day.
My two-part novel of the Dyers is not written for the
religious or inspirational genre. It’s historical/biographical fiction based in
fact. But because of the highly-charged atmosphere of the 17th century,
the reader will understand that religious beliefs were paramount to every
Western culture at that time. Such a thing as separation of church and state had been thought of, but not realized. Of the governments of that era, the Dutch showed the most tolerance for minority beliefs and practices, but their Reformed church (somewhat similar to Puritanism and Presbyterianism) was still state-sponsored.
·
The Separatists who became the Pilgrims fled the
Anglican repression under King James I, first to the Netherlands
and then to America.
·
The Great Migration of the 1630s from England to
Massachusetts and Virginia was years in the making, but its crux was King
Charles I’s re-publication of The Book of
Sports which forced the Puritans to break with Anglicans, resulting in
21,000 people moving to Massachusetts and thousands more to Virginia Colony.
·
The English Civil Wars of the 1640s and ’50s
were begun over Anglican (royalist)-versus-Puritan (Parliamentary) issues.
·
The Thirty Years War, between Catholics and
Protestants, raged across Europe carrying
plague and famine with it.
·
The Jews of the Iberian peninsula, even if they
converted to Catholicism, were still burned as heretics if they couldn’t escape
Spain and Portugal.
·
The Dutch West Indies Company which colonized
the Caribbean, Brazil, and
parts of New England provided their settlers and
military forts with Dutch Reformed ministers.
In every comet, eclipse, earthquake, or plague, the priests,
ministers, and rabbis in Europe and America saw the hand of God and
they preached it to their congregations. There was no secular or sacred demarcation:
all was one fabric, and that was sacred fabric. They believed that the short
years they were on earth were a preparatory time for eternity. Religious issues
and morals weren’t lifestyle choices, fairy tales, or myths, but eternal
matters. Strict adherence to biblical law and punishment of heretics concerned
the entire community. Religious dogma was worth killing for, and religious
liberty was worth dying for.
While researching my Dyer novels, I found references to
·
Great
earthquakes (approximately 7.0-magnitude quake in New
England on June 1, 1638, and another great quake with tsunami in
April 1658)
·
The
largest hurricane ever to strike New England made landfall between Plymouth and Boston
in August 1635
·
Hurricanes
which caused tsunami-like tidal surges in southern New
England
·
Comet (May
29-30, 1630 visible over Europe in daylight at time of Charles II’s
birth)
·
Annular
and total solar eclipses (April 1652 “Bugbear” eclipse in British Isles put
the rich in fast coaches out of London and stopped the laborers at their work; also
annular eclipse in November 1659 in Massachusetts)
·
A
blood-red lunar eclipse in June 1638 was reported by my book’s characters
(very satisfying to this researcher!)
·
Clouds of
pigeons that darkened the sky ate
both seed and sprouts of Massachusetts
corn planting
·
A plague
of black caterpillars seemed to fall from the clear sky, and destroyed crops and orchards in Massachusetts and Connecticut
·
The
Little Ice Age was at its coldest in the 1640s and 1650s, freezing harbors
in Boston, Iceland,
and London’s
River Thames, and ruining crops in summer
·
The
Leonid meteor shower of November 1636 was an every-33-year spectacular
fireworks show that was considered a sign of Christ’s imminent return
·
Unexplained
booming noises that were probably meteorites
The people of the 17th century, of every social
or economic stratus, believed that these signs and wonders were directly from
the hand of God and that they were precursors to further disaster. A New
Testament verse says that all these terrifying things were the beginning of birth pangs, leading to the
end of the world. Yes, more to come! Even the Narragansett tribe of Rhode Island believed
that earthquakes would be inevitably followed by hurricanes, blizzards, epidemics,
failed crops, and other disasters. Art from Germany shows comets in the sky,
with war and bubonic plague victims dying below.
 |
From 1517: Comets, cities broken by war, bubonic plague
victims, a two-headed monster, and blood raining
from sky. |
Most of those events, because of their importance to our
ancestors who experienced them, were resurrected in my novels. I didn’t even
have to make them up!
What do we think today of natural events? Storm chasers
follow tornados and stand outside with microphones in hurricanes. We take lawn
chairs out in the middle of the night to see meteor showers or the faint glow
of a comet (did you know there’s a comet predicted for November
2013?), and we don protective lenses and we photograph crescents for a solar
eclipse. We moan and groan at the “snowpocalypse” or rain deluge. People of
faith celebrate the Creator. Others celebrate nature. But only suicidal
cultists think that we’re riding off the planet on a comet’s tail.
Whether you practice a religion or denominational
affiliation, or you believe that there is a universal spirituality, or you
believe there is no god, you can thank Mary Barrett Dyer for giving her life to
win religious liberty for all—the right to exercise your beliefs, and (perhaps surprisingly) the right not
to practice religion or to have it forced upon you. You can thank her husband,
William Dyer, the first attorney general in America, for codifying that right.
These liberties are still under attack today, all over the world. When
organizations seek to blend religion with politics or government, repression
will inevitably be the result. That has been the case in every society, for
thousands of years. It’s up to you to continue the struggle to allow but not
require religious expression.
Next time you see a special event in nature (I’m partial to
desert lightning shows), just enjoy it. No need to flee the city, start a holy
war, or form a new nation. Neither Jehovah nor Zeus is hurling disaster after
you!
This article appeared first on Andrea Zuvich's blog, 17th Century Woman, on Sept. 26, 2013.
*****
Christy K Robinson is author of
these books (click the colored title):
And of these sites:
Discovering
Love (inspiration and service)
Rooting
for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
William and Mary Barrett Dyer
(17th century culture and history of England and New England)
