On November 7, 1637, Anne Hutchinson, a member of the Puritan community of Massachusetts Bay, faced a tribunal led by Massachusetts governor John Winthrop. Hutchinson, who was deeply religious, thought that the religious leaders of her community had lost their way and argued that the strict religious decrees that governed Massachusetts conflicted with the doctrine of predestination. In essence, she argued that members of the public could ignore the dictates of the colony’s leaders and seek salvation on their own. The Puritan ministers were deeply threatened by Hutchinson and had her brought before the colony’s General Court. Hutchinson’s response to Winthrop has become a landmark statement on freedom of worship and freedom of conscience. Historians also see Hutchinson herself as a woman who challenged the male patriarchy of both colony and church.