Providence's Guarantees to Massachusetts Bay: Two Key Restrictions

The 1644 Providence Patent (or Warwick Patent) granted Roger Williams' settlement legitimacy and included two critical prohibitions on the Massachusetts Bay Colony:

1. Not to establish itself as a territorial entity independent from England — Massachusetts Bay could not declare sovereignty or separate from the Crown.
2. Not to discriminate in favor of any religious group — It could not establish a state church or privilege one denomination (effectively protecting dissenters like Williams).

These guarantees reflected Williams' vision of soul liberty and separation of civil and ecclesiastical authority—radical for the 1640s. Massachusetts Bay largely ignored them, continuing its Congregationalist establishment and asserting autonomy until the 1684 charter revocation.