The Antinomian Controversy — also known as the Free Grace Controversy — was a religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. It pitted most of the colony's ministers and magistrates against some adherents of the free grace theology of Puritan minister John Cotton. The most notable free grace advocates, often called antinomians, were the charismatic Anne Hutchinson, her brother-in-law, the Reverend John Wheelwright, and the young governor of the colony, Henry Vane. While the controversy was a theological debate concerning the "covenant of grace" and "covenant of works," conceptions of gender and political aims were also core elements.