I've been reading Vernon Parrington's 1927 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Colonial Mind and today read his treatment of Roger Williams, which was a delight to read, as Parrington clearly is enamored of Williams.  Here are some descriptions he gives:

"Democrat and Christian, the generation to which he belongs is not yet born, and all his life he remained a stranger amongst men."

"An intellectual barometer, fluctuating with every change in the rising storm of revolution, he came transporting hither the new and disturbant doctrines of the Leveler, loosing wild foxes with fire-brands to ravage the snug fields of the Presbyterian Utopia."

"He was a rebel against all the stupidities that interposed a barrier betwixt men and the fellowship of their dreams."

"He was an adventurous pioneer, surveying the new fields of thought laid open by the Reformation."

"He was the incarnation of Protestant individualism."

"One of the most notable democratic thinkers that the English race has produced."

"The truest Christian amongst many who sincerely desired to be Christian."