The Exodus of the Pilgrims
More important than the promptings of land-hunger and the desire
for wealth and adventure was the call made by a social and religious
movement which was but a phase of the general restlessness and
popular discontent. The Reformation, in which this movement had its
origin, was more than a revolt from the organization and doctrines
of the medieval church; it voiced the yearning of the middle classes
for a position commensurate with their growing prominence in the
national life. Though the feudal tenantry, given over to agriculture
and bound by the conventions of feudal law, were still perpetuating
many of the old customs, the towns were emancipating themselves
from, feudal control, and by means of their wealth and industrial
activities were winning recognition as independent and largely
self-sufficing units. The gild, a closely compacted brotherhood,
existing partly for religious and educational purposes and partly
for the control of handicrafts and the exchange of goods, became the
center of middle-class energy, and in thousands of instances hedged
in the lives of the humbler artisans. Thus it was largely from those
who knew no wider world than the fields which they cultivated and
the gilds which governed their standards and output that the early
settlers of New England were recruited.
Equally important with the social changes were those which concerned
men's faith and religious organization. The Peace of Augsburg, which
in 1555 had closed for the moment the warfare resulting from the
Reformation, not only recognized the right of Protestantism to
exist, but also handed over to each state, whether kingdom, duchy,
or principality, full power to control the creed within its borders.
Whoever ruled the state could determine the religion of his
subjects, a dictum which denied the right of individuals or groups
of individuals to depart from the established faith. Hence arose a
second revolt, not against the mediæval church and empire but
against the authority of the state and its creed, whether Roman
Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, or Calvinist, a revolt in which
Huguenot in France battled for his right to believe as he wished,
and Puritan in England refused to conform to a manner of worship
which retained much of the mediaeval liturgy and ceremonial. Just as
all great revolutionary movements in church or state give rise to
men who repudiate tradition and all accretions due to human
experience, and base their political and religious ideals upon the
law of nature, the rights of man, the inner light, or the Word of
God; so, too, in England under Elizabeth and James I, leaders
appeared who demanded radical changes in faith and practice, and
advocated complete separation from the Anglican Church and isolation
from the religious world about them. Of such were the Separatists,
who rejected the Anglican and other creeds, severed all bonds with a
national church system, cast aside form, ceremony, liturgy, and a
hierarchy of church orders, and sought for the true faith and form
of worship in the Word of God. For these men the Bible was the only
test of religious truth.
The Separatists organized themselves into small religious groups, as
independent communities or companies of Christians, covenanted with
God and keeping the Divine Law in a Holy Communion. They consisted
in the main of men and women in the humbler walks of life —
artisans, tenant farmers, with some middle-class gentry. Sufficient
to themselves and knit together in the fashion of a gild or
brotherhood, they believed in a church system of the simplest form
and followed the Bible, Old and New Testaments alike, as the guide
of their lives. Desiring to withdraw from the world as it was that
they might commune together in direct relations with God, they
accepted persecution as the test of their faith and welcomed
hardship, banishment, and even death as proofs of righteousness and
truth. Convinced of the scriptural soundness of what they believed
and what they practised, and confident of salvation through
unyielding submission to God's will as they interpreted it, they
became conspicuous because of their radical thought and peculiar
forms of worship, and inevitably drew upon themselves the attention
of the authorities, both secular and ecclesiastical.
The leading centers of Separatism were in London and Norfolk, but
the seat of the little congregation that eventually led the way
across the sea to New England was in Scrooby in Nottinghamshire.
There — in Scrooby manor-house, where William Brewster, the father,
was receiver and bailiff, and his son, the future elder of the
Plymouth colony, was acting postmaster; where Richard Clayton
preached and John Robinson prayed; and where the youthful William
Bradford was one of its members — there was gathered a small
Separatist congregation composed of humble folk of Nottinghamshire
and adjoining counties. They were soon discovered worshiping in the
manor-house chapel, by the ecclesiastical authorities of Yorkshire,
and for more than a year were subjected to persecution, some being
"taken and clapt up in prison," others having "their houses besett
and watcht night and day and hardly escaped their hands." At length
they determined to leave England for Holland. During 1607 and 1608
they escaped secretly, some at one time, some at another, all with
great loss and difficulty, until by the August of the latter year
there were gathered at Amsterdam more than a hundred men, women, and
children, "armed with faith and patience."
But Amsterdam proved a disappointing refuge. And in 1609 they moved
to Leyden, "a fair and bewtifull citie," where for eleven years they
remained, pursuing such trades as they could, chiefly weaving and
the manufacture of cloth, "injoying much sweete and delightful
societie and spiritual comfort togeather in the ways of God, under
the able ministrie and prudente governmente of Mr. John Robinson and
Mr. William Brewster." But at last new and imperative reasons arose,
demanding a third removal, not to another city in Holland, but this
time to the New World called America. They were breaking under the
great labor and hard fare; they feared to lose their language and
saw no opportunity to educate their children; they disapproved of
the lax Dutch observance of Sunday and saw in the temptations of the
place a menace to the habits and morals of the younger members of
the flock, and, in the influences of the world around them, a danger
to the purity of their creed and their practice. They determined to
go to a new country " devoyd of all civill inhabitants," where they
might keep their names, their faith, and their nationality.
After many misgivings, the fateful decision was reached by the
"major parte," and preparations for departure were made. But where
to go became a troublesome problem. The merits of Guiana and other
"wild coasts" were debated, but finally Virginia met with general
approval, because there they might live as a private association, a
distinct body by themselves, similar to other private companies
already established there. To this end they sent two of their number
to England to secure a patent from the Virginia Company of London.
Under this patent and in bond of allegiance to King James, yet
acting as a "body in the most strict and sacred bond and covenant of
the Lord," an independent and absolute church, they became a civil
community also, with governors chosen for the work from among
themselves. But the dissensions in the London Company caused them to
lose faith in that association, and, hearing of the reorganization
of the Virginia Company of Plymouth,' which about this time obtained
a new charter as the New England Council, they turned from southern
to northern Virginia — that is, to New England — and resolved to
make their settlement where according to reports fishing might
become a means of livelihood.
But their plans could not be executed without assistance; and,
coming into touch with a London (In 1606 King James had granted a
charter incorporating two companies, one of which, made up of
gentlemen and merchants in and about London, was known as the
Virginia Company of London, the Other as the Virginia Company of
Plymouth. The former was authorized to plant colonies between
thirty-four and forty-one degrees north latitude, and the latter
between thirty-eight and forty-five, but neither was to plant a
colony within one hundred miles of each other. Jamestown, the first
colony of the London Company, was now thirteen years old. The
Plymouth Company had made no permanent settlement in its domain.)
merchant, Thomas Weston, who promised to aid them, they entered into
what proved to be a long and wearisome negotiation with a group of
adventurers — gentlemen, merchants, and others, seventy in number —
for an advance of money to finance the expedition. The Pilgrims
entered into a partnership with the merchants to form a voluntary
joint-stock company. It was understood that the merchants, who
purchased shares, were to remain in England; that the colonists, who
contributed their personal service at a fixed rating, were to go to
America, there to labor at trade, trucking, and fishing for seven
years; and that during this time all profits were to remain in a
common stock and all lands to be left undivided. The conditions were
hard and discouraging, but there was no alternative; and at last,
embarking at Delfthaven in the Speedwell, a small ship bought and
fitted in Holland, they came to Southampton, where another and
larger vessel, the Mayflower, was in waiting. In August, 1620, the
two vessels set sail, but the Speedwell, proving unseaworthy, put
back after two attempts, and the Mayflower went on alone, bearing
one hundred and two passengers, two-thirds of the whole, picked out
as worthy and willing to undertake the voyage.
The Mayflower reached the waters of New England on the 11th of
November after a tedious course of sixty-five days from Plymouth to
Cape Cod; but they did not decide on their place of landing until
the 21st of December. Four days later they erected on the site of
the town of Plymouth their first building.
Back to: Plymouth and New England Colonies
