William Brewster a reverend man, who afterwards was chosen an elder of the church and lived with them till old age. But after these things they could not bug continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted and persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as fleabitings in comparison of these which now came upon them.
For some were taken and clapped up in prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their hands; and the most were fain to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood.
Yet these and many other sharper things which afterward befell them, were no other than they looked for, and therefore were the better prepared to bear them by the assistance of God's grace and Spirit. Yet seeing themselves thus molested, and that there was no hope of their continuance there, by a joint consent they resolved to go into the Low Countries, where they heard was freedom of religion for all men; as also how sundry from London and other parts of the land had been exiled and persecuted for the same cause, and were gone thither, and lived at Amsterdam and in other places of the land.
So after they had continued together about a year, and kept their meetings every Sabbath in one place or other, exercising the worship of God amongst themselves, notwithstanding all the diligence and malice of their adversaries, they seeing they could no longer continue in that condition, they resolved to get over into Holland as they could.
Which was in the year and ; of which more at large in the next chapter. Bradford uses the word Saint in the Biblical sense, as one of God's chosen people, or a church member. Professor , as used by Bradford and by Puritans generally, had no educational connotation; it merely meant one who professed Christianity.
Socrates Scholasticus, Greek historian of the 5th century A. Bradford's quotation is from lib. The row was between the Marian exiles who wished to abolish "service books" altogether which Bradford and the entire left wing of English Protestantism believed should have been done , and those who adopted the typically English compromise of a Book of Common Prayer.
The Marian exiles, or some of them, wished to reorganize the church on congregational principles which they believed alone to be sanctioned by the New Testament. Bradford means the Congregational discipline. His account of church history during Elizabeth's reign is of course a partisan one, unfair to the acts and the motives of everyone not in the left wing of Protestantism. On the blank page [4 V. Bradford in added what he called A late observation. William "Painful" Perkins, a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, whose works were much esteemed by all branches of Puritans.
Bradford's reference, to which he adds this remark: "The reformed churches shapen much near[er] the primitive pattern than England, for they cashiered the Bishops with all their courts, canons, and ceremonies, at the first; and left them amongst the popish tr[ash] to which they per[tained].
A paraphrase of the words of thc covenant that people made when they formed a separatist later called Congregational church.
An alumnus of Christ's College, Cambridge, who seceded from the Church of England in and preached to the separatist church at Gainsborough. This congregation emigrated in to Amsterdam, where Smith embraced a number of strange opinions and his church broke up. Richard Clyfton and John Robinson also were Cambridge alumni in holy orders who separated.
Clyfton and William Brewster organized thc separatist congregation at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, which Bradford pined as a young man. The sentence on Brewster is written in a different ink from the rest of the chapter, having been inserted after thc Elder's death in Being thus constrained to leave their native soil and country, their lands and livings, and all their friends and familiar acquaintance, it was much; and thought marvellous by many. But to go into a country they knew not but by hearsay, where they must learn a new language and get their livings they knew not how, it being a dear place and subject to the miseries of war, it was by many thought an adventure almost desperate; a case intolerable and a misery worse than death.
Especially seeing they were not acquainted with trades nor traffic by which that country cloth subsist but had only been used to a plain country life and the innocent trade of husbandry.
But these things did not dismay them, though they did sometimes trouble them; for their desires were set on the ways of God and to enjoy His ordinances; but they rested on His providence, and knew Whom they had believed. Yet this was not all, for though they could not stay, yet were they not suffered to go; but the ports and havens were shut against them, so as they were fain to seek secret means of conveyance, and to bribe and fee the mariners, and give extraordinary rates for their passages.
There was a large company of them purposed to get passage at Boston in Lincolnshire, and for that end had hired a ship wholly to themselves and made agreement with the master to be ready at a certain day, and take them and their goods in at a convenient place, where they accordingly would all attend in readiness.
So after long waiting and large expenses, though he kept not day with them, yet he came at length and took them in, in the night. But when he had them and their goods abroad, he betrayed them, having before hand complotted with the searchers and other officers to do; who took them, and put them into open boats, and there rifled and ransacked them, searching to their shirts for money, yea even the women further than became modesty; and then carried them back into the town and made them a spectacle and wonder to the multitude which came flocking on all sides to behold them.
Being thus first, by these catchpoll officers rifled and stripped of their money; books and much other goods, they were presented to the magistrates, and messengers sent to inform the Lords of the Council of them; and so they were committed to ward. Indeed the magistrates used them courteously and showed them what favour they could; but could not deliver them till order came from the Council table.
But the issue was that after a month's imprisonment the greatest part were dismissed and sent to the places from whence they came; but seven of the principal were still kept in prison and bound over to the assizes. The next spring 2 after, there was another attempt made by some of these and others to get over at another place. And it so fell out that they light of 3 a Dutchman at Hull, having a ship of his own belonging to Zealand.
They made agreement with him, and acquainted him with their condition, hoping to find more faithfulness in him than in the former of their own nation; he bade them not fear, for he would do well enough.
He was by appointment to take them in between Grimsby and Hull, where was a large common a good way distant from any town. Now against the prefixed time, the women and children with the goods were sent to the place in a small bark which they had hired for that end; and the men were to meet them by land. But it so fell out that they were there a day before the ship came, and the sea being rough and the women very sick, prevailed with the seamen to put into a creek hard by where they lay on ground at low water.
The next morning the ship came but they were fast and could not stir until about noon. In the meantime, the shipmaster, perceiving how the matter was, sent his boat to be getting the men aboard whom he saw ready, walking about the shore. But after the first boatful was got aboard and she was ready to go for more, the master espied a great company, both horse and foot, with bills and guns and other weapons, for the country was raised to take them.
The Dutchman, seeing that, swore his country's oath sacremente, and having the wind fair, weighed his anchor, hoised sails, and away. But the poor men which were got aboard were in great distress for their wives and children which they saw thus to be taken, and were left destitute of their helps; and themselves also, not having a cloth to shift them with, more than they had on their backs, and some scarce a penny about them, all they had being aboard the bark.
It drew tears from their eyes, and anything they had they would have given to have been ashore again; but all in vain, there was no remedy, they must thus sadly part. And afterward endured a fearful storm at sea, being fourteen days or more before they arrived at their port; in seven whereof they neither saw sun, moon nor stars, and were driven near the coast of Norway; the mariners themselves often despairing of life, and once with shrieks and cries gave over all, as if the ship had been foundered in the sea and they sinking without recovery.
But when man's hope and help wholly failed, the Lord's power and mercy appeared in their recovery; for the ship rose again and gave the mariners courage again to manage her.
And if modesty would suffer me, I might declare with what fervent prayers they cried unto the Lord in this great distress especially some of them even without any great distraction. When the water ran into their mouths and ears and the mariners cried out, "We sink, we sink! Yet Lord Thou canst save! Upon which the ship did not only recover, but shortly after the violence of the storm began to abate, and the Lord filled their afflicted minds with such comforts as everyone cannot understand, and in the end brought them to their desired haven, where the people came flocking, admiring their deliverance; the storm having been so long and sore, in which much hurt had been done, as the master's friends related unto him in their congratulations.
Save to. Save to:. Save Create a List. Create a list. Save Back. Grades 6—8. Questions for Religious Beliefs What did the Reformers believe in? What do the Pilgrims Reformers see as the problem with the Church of England?
How did the Pilgrims react to hearing about Plymouth? Meeting Squanto, the Native American Who Spoke English All this while the Indians came skulking about them, and would sometimes show themselves aloof off, but when any approached near them, they would run away; and once they stole away their tools where they had been at work and were gone to dinner. With whom, after friendly entertainment and some gifts given him, they made a peace with him which hath now continued this 24 years in these terms: 1.
Why did the Pilgrims owe Squanto gratitude? Questions for The Winter of Why did so many people die during this winter? Which line from this excerpt signifies this? What was the result of the harvest and the Thanksgiving feast? View not found. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The political and religious leader Roger Williams c. He is also the founder of the first Baptist church in America.
His views on religious freedom Some people, many of them seeking religious freedom in the New World, set sail from England on the Mayflower in September That November, the ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts. A scouting party was sent out, and in late December the In September , during the reign of King James I, a group of around English men and women—many of them members of the English Separatist Church later known to history as the Pilgrims—set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower.
Two months later, the three-masted The Mayflower Compact was a set of rules for self-governance established by the English settlers who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower. When Pilgrims and other settlers set out on the ship for America in , they intended to lay anchor in northern Virginia.
But after That story is incomplete—by the time Englishmen had begun to establish colonies in earnest, there were plenty of French, Spanish, Dutch and even On May 14, , a group of roughly members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years English soldier and explorer Captain John Smith played a key role in the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in In September , a merchant ship called the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, a port on the southern coast of England.
The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of , after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. In , Massachusetts Senator George Frisbie Hoar, a member of the American Antiquarian Society, visited England to deliver an address in Plymouth on the th anniversary of the landing of the pilgrims.
During the trip he met the American ambassador to Great Britain, Francis Bayard, and told him about his struggle to get the manuscript returned, after which Bayard promised to do everything in his power to help. Hoar was later able to schedule a visit with the bishop, during which he viewed the manuscript and requested that it be returned, according to a speech he later made in that was republished in the New England Magazine:.
I think this book ought to go back to Massachusetts. Nobody knows how it got over here. Some people think it was carried off by Governor Hutchinson, the Tory governor; other people think it was carried off by British soldiers when Boston was evacuated; but in either case the property would not have changed.
Or, if you treat it as booty, in which last case, I suppose, by the law of nations ordinary property does change, no civilized nation in modern times applies that principle to the property of libraries and institutions of learning.
But the Americans who have been here — many of them have been commercial people — did not seem to care much about it except as a curiosity. I suppose I ought not to give it up on my own authority. It belongs to me in my official capacity, and not as private or personal property.
I think I ought to consult the Archbishop of Canterbury. Before leaving England, Hoar informed Ambassador Bayard of his conversation with the bishop and Bayard once again vowed to do what he could to help. After Hoar returned to Massachusetts, he contacted various historical societies and institutions as well as politicians to ask them to sign a formal letter requesting the return of the manuscript, which they did.
The letter was signed by: George F. Evarts, William T. Beaman, Joseph H. Coate, J. In the meantime, the Bishop of London, Dr.