The male members of the Boston church had a habit of taking notes of the sermon on Sunday, and then holding week-day meetings for the recapitulation and discussion of the doctrines advanced[980]—a very commendable practice. Mrs. Hutchinson, thinking perhaps that woman’s influence and intellect were not sufficiently recognized in the church, inaugurated a similar series of week-day conventicles for the ladies of Boston.[981] Mrs. Hutchinson’s lectures—for she was ever the chief speaker—attracted crowds, and they were countenanced by Sir Harry Vane, who then occupied the gubernatorial chair, and by his host, John Cotton;[982] below whom stood a crowd of warm adherents, flanked by John Wheelwright the clerical brother-in-law of the lady speaker, and by the hearty influence of John Coddington one of the wealthiest of the colonists.[983] “Thus the women,” says Cotton Mather, “like their first mother, hooked in the husbands also.”[984] Soon the vigorous and daring mind of Anne Hutchinson struck off new watchwords. Much was said of a “Covenant of Works” and a “Covenant of Grace,” and between these many fine distinctions were made. “Under these heads she and her friends classified the preachers of the Bay. Those who were understood to rely upon a methodical and rigid observance of their religious duties as evidence of acceptance with God were said to be ‘under a covenant of works.’ Those who held to certain spiritual tenets were ranged ‘under the covenant of grace.’ These phrases began to be banded to and fro. ‘Justification’ and ‘sanctification’ were in all mouths; even children jeered each other; and there was no stemming the heady current of discussion as it swept on.”[985] Winthrop and his coadjutors looked upon the debate with equal horror and alarm. Two words, which were then common, expressed to them a vague but frightful danger; _Antinomianism_ was one, and _Familism_ was the other. The _Antinomians_ were a sect of German extraction, and their name meant _against the Law_; for they held that “the gospel of Christ had superseded the law of Moses.”[986] But the word had been made the shelter of sad excesses and many base acts, so that it was in bad odor among the Pilgrims, who esteemed Antinomianism to be a cloak to cover the naked form of license.[987] _Familism_ had been nursed into vicious life in Holland; where, in 1555, Henry Nicholas formed a “Family of Love,” who, in their opinions, “grieved the Comforter, charging all their sins on God’s Spirit, for not effectually assisting them against themselves.”[988] The Familists had long been numerous, factious, and dangerous, in England, and their practice was even worse than their doctrine; for their laxity of morals made them the sappers of social order.[989]