Unknown

England

June 1, 1660

Boston, Massachusetts

Quaker martyr

Portrait: Mary Dyer. Reproduced by permission of The Granger Collection Ltd.

"In obedience to the will of the Lord God I came, and in His will I abide faithful to the death."

Mary Dyer.

Mary Dyer was an English Puritan (one who practices or preaches a strict moral and spiritual code) who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1634 or 1635. She became influenced by Anne Hutchinson (see entry), who was preaching "Antimonian" ideas. (Antinomianism is the belief that faith alone is sufficient for salvation from sin. The view was considered heresy because it was contrary to the Puritan teaching that salvation can be gained only by doing good works.) When Hutchinson was excommunicated (excluded from the rights of the church) and banished from Massachusetts in 1638, Dyer also left the colony. After traveling to England with her husband...