The
history of the
congregational movement is rooted in English Puritanism. The
Reformation, the 16th century movement to reform the Catholic church
which resulted in the establishment of Protestant churches, had come to
England as well.
With
Henry VIII, the
repudiation of papal authority began, and the first outlines of the
Anglican church were drawn.
Edward VI
| Under Edward
VI, the Book of
Common Prayer was developed and the Articles of Religion were
written to clarify the new church's faith. But without
a doubt, it was Henry's decision to install a Bible for public use
in every church, a Bible written in English, not Latin, that was
pivotal.For the first time Englishmen could examine the Bible for
themselves and come to their own conclusions about it without benefit of
clergy.Here was born the right to freedom of conscience, to
independence of judgment, which the Saints later so vehemently demanded.
Those in
power quickly sensed the danger and cautioned that the Bible was not to
be read at mass, "nor afterwards
for purposes of discussion."
|
Ulrich Zwingli
| The reign of Mary
brought this movement to an abrupt halt, with her restoration of the
Catholic faith as the only lawful religion in England. Mary took
the re-establishment of Catholicism seriously - indeed, hundreds of
Protestants were hanged or burned to death - men, women and children -
fifty-four in Kent alone. Even the dead were dug up, solemnly placed
on trial,convicted of heresy, and burned at the stake. The leaders of
the Protestant reform fled to the Continent, and there came under
thefurther influence of leaders of the Reformation like Zwingli and Calvin. But Mary's time on
the throne was brief - just five years(1553- 1558)-and she was
succeeded by Elizabeth
I. |
Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry III and Anne Boleyn,a
union declared illicit by the pope, so it was not surprising
that Elizabeth lent her support to the Protestant reform movement. But
she was a careful politician as well - one writer said she "adopted the
masterful policy of having no policy at all, favoring one side,
now the other, skillfully playing them against each other to keep
both within bounds. She never came to a decision if she could
possibly avoid it." She was not a pious woman, loved pomp
and show, had a taste for beer and "strong waters," swore like a trooper on
occasion, and delighted in telling bawdy stories.
| 
Elizabeth I
|
But
she was a pragmatist and a queen who understood the power wielded by the
religious establishment, and thus pressed Parliament to legislate both
the
Act of
Supremacy and the
Act of Uniformity as instruments for control of
it. Where Henry VIII had declared himself "
head of the church,"
Elizabeth fashioned her role as "
supreme governor."The
Book of Common Prayer was mandated as the sole form of worship to be
practiced throughout England. Penalties were prescribed for
any deviation by clergy and also for any failure by laity to attend
the church's required worship. These regulations were to be enforced
not just by ecclesiastical courts, but also by civil authorities.
Remember,in the 16th century, it was assumed that the civil ruler was
ruling bydivine authority, and thus had a royal responsibility to
govern the church, and "
defend the
faith."
However, there
were those who were not happy with these reforms - they felt the renewal
of the church had not gone far enough. These were voices that argued for
a further "
purification" of the church - and
they became known as first "
Brownists" after the firey preacher
Robert Browne who did
eventually recant his reform positions, then later "
Puritans." There
were many various viewpoints, some influenced by their years in exile in
Geneva, and a great deal of rapid change. Nevertheless, there were certain predominant characteristics of the
Puritan movement -
first,
a focus
upon the Bible as supreme authority that was much more rigid than that
asserted by the church of England. Within the Church of England, there
was an appreciation of the authority of church tradition, and the
natural powers of human reason. But the Puritans rejected such input,
and felt ultimate authority in all matters of theology, ethics, worship
and church government rested in the Bible alone.
Second, Puritanism
developed a theology of sin and salvation both more pessimistic and more
enthusiastic than that generally expressed in Anglicanism. Their
emphasis upon the transforming power of
the gospel earned them the nickname of "
evangelical Calvinists."The
authority of the Bible was joined with an emphasis upon the personal
experience of redemption, the new life through grace offered by Christ
alone.
Lastly, Puritanism
emphasized the simplification of church practices, criticizing with
vigor the elaborate ceremonial worship forms and structures of the
Anglican church. It sought simplicity in church organization, stressed
the role of the laity, rejected the
hierarchical structure which ruled the Anglican church, and emphasized
the need to improve the quality and education of the clergy.
Elder William Brewster
| The
Puritan movement quickly split into what was called the conforming
Puritans - those who were engaged in passive resistance to the church
authorities and who tried to work within the existing structure - and
non-conforming Puritans, who actively rejected the Anglican church.
Universities like Cambridge became hotbeds of dissension, as students
and fellows dug into the scriptures, and found no justification there
for the hierarchy of the Anglican church - rectors, vicars, rural deans,
chaplains, chancellors, archdeacons,prebendaries, bishops, or
archbishops. And one of the students at Cambridge during these years was
a young man by the name of William
Brewster.
Elizabeth had
come to the throne in 1558-by the 1560's there were efforts being made
in Parliament to protest the practices in worship and clerical dress of
the Anglican church. The Archbishop of Canterbury responded by publishing
the Advertisements of
1566, which explicitly mandated a set
of |
instructions
for liturgical conduct and clerical dress- how to do communion, how to do
baptism, what vestments to wear, exactly how the clergy were to live.
Protests quickly followed, and dissenting clergy were first suspended
and then removed. In 1567 a small group began
meeting secretly as the "
Plumbers' Hall
Society"-
becoming the first of what would become many protest
congregations. These congregations often came under intense persecution
when discovered, and their members either fled to Holland or
the Continent. Members of the clergy were arrested,
imprisoned, publicly flogged, or hung.
The first Plumbers' Hall congregation was dispersed by English
authorities, but almost immediately reorganized - this time with greater
clarity of purpose and organization. The members entered into a covenant
with
each other for the worship of God in accord with their
Puritan understanding, and they took responsibility as a congregation
for the election of their minister and the discipline of the members.
These
are foundational ideas that resonate within the Congregational
movement even today. But they were threatening ideas for their time -
and
Pastor Richard Fitz
and several members of the congregation were arrested and
put to death.
Congregational ideas would
not die - no matter how repressed. A renewed
Separatism began
to be heard from in 1579, when Robert Browne gave up trying to work
within the system, and began writing about the necessity of
reform from below, from those who are of sound faith and who unite to
practice that faith in local congregations separated from the corrupt
life ofthe larger church and the world. Browne joined with another
friend,
Robert Harrison,and developed
a more complete conception of church polity - once again including the
use of a covenant for church membership and a system of church
government in which the congregation as a whole played a major part. In
1581, they formed a Separatist congregation - which almost
immediately came to the attention of the
Bishop of Norwich,who
had Browne arrested. Shortly after his release, he, Harrison, and the
congregation fled to Holland. Browne spent two years
writing prolifically - and two of his works anticipated in remarkable
manner much of what would become Congregational thinking in New England
in
the following century.
Years of religious ferment in
northern England resulted in several of the parishes in Lincolnshire
and Nottinghamshire being served by Puritan - minded pastors - and in
the early 1600's there emerged from this unrest a new Separatist
group. Gathering first in the village of
Gainsborough under the leadership of its elected
pastor,
John Smyth,
it grew quickly to the point of splitting into a second congregation.
This group gathered in the home of one of its elders,
William Brewster, postmaster
in the neighboring village of
Scrooby. The Scrooby congregation drew to its
membership a preacher of Puritan sentiments,
John Robinson - the man who
ultimately became the most prominent and influential leader of English
Separatism.
A Painting of the Pilgrims from St. Wilfrid's Church in
Scrooby, England
Robinson, like
William Brewster, began his studies at Cambridge, and was apparently
first exposed to Puritan concerns there. But he was
ordained in the Anglican church and began his ministry serving as curate
in St.Andrew's church, Norwich. He was suspended from that post in
1605, for some failure to conform to the new
Constitutions and Canons passed
the previous year by church and king. So in 1606, he came to
the Scrooby congregation, and led them in an act of covenant-taking.
The congregation continued to meet in secret each Sabbath, and
Robinson continued to preach without authorization in neighboring
parish churches - and the congregation at Scrooby gained many members as
a result. That brought it to the attention of the Archbishop
of York-and the members paid the price.
In
the fall of 1607, the members of the Scrooby church hired a ship to
transport them to Holland, but the captain betrayed them to the
authorities, and they thus lost what money they had scraped together
through selling their possessions. Some were imprisoned for a time. They
tried again in the spring of 1608, this time with a Dutch captain - but
this time, the longboat carrying the women and children became grounded,
and the captain panicked, sailing off with only the men aboard. That
ship was caught in a storm that drove it nearly to Norway - it was many
weeks before the men learned of the fate of their families. After this
point,the people escaped in small groups, as opportunities arose.
John Robinson stayed with the congregation in Scrooby until the last
could leave.
Settling
first in Amsterdam, the
congregation eventually decided that they needed to make their own way -
they found trying to live in the same city with the existing Amsterdam
group of Separatists, called the "
Ancient
Brethren," too contentious. So the Scrooby group settled
in
Leyden for
the next dozen years. Leyden was a very different environment -
the effect of oppression in England had been to make Puritans
more Puritanical and Separatists more Separatist. But Holland was a
country that offered freedom of worship for all creeds. Freedom
to worship as one wished, also meant freedom not to worship at all -
and the Sabbath was not kept holy. When petitioned about this, the
Leyden authorities responded that "
the
Sabbath had been made for man and not man for the
Sabbath." The Separatist group drew quite different
conclusions from this text!
Dutch society was very different from English - and good
jobs hard to find.The guilds and crafts were open only to those of
Dutch citizenship, so the immigrants were limited to low paying jobs and
honest poverty.
They had been farmers, but now had to make do with jobs in an urban
setting. And, while they tried to keep their little community of
believers sheltered from the broader Dutch society, it was not long
before they could see that their children were becoming more and more
acculturated.The children became bi-lingual, but the parents did not -
and they worried about what their children were saying that they
couldn't understand. The older children were not being educated either -
their fathers had no leisure time in which to teach them, and most
were pressed into working to support the families. To add to the strain,
the ten-year truce between Spain and the Netherlands was due to end
in1620, and the Dutch were already beginning to gear up to defend
their country in case the war resumed.
The
Separatists began to consider taking the immense step of seeking another
settlement. They couldn't return to England, so they looked to the New
World. They considered Guiana, before hearing that the tropics were "
unwholesome to English
bodies."They
considered the Dutch settlements along the Hudson River - were even
offered free land, transportation and generous supplies of cattle and
provision - but they refused to become a Dutch settlement. They thought
about the Virginia colony, but learned that the Anglican
church was well-established, and the latest royal governor had made
failure to attend divine service a capital offense. The Leyden group
wanted to be able to worship in the way they felt was right - or what was
the purpose? They might as well return to England.
They also were desperately poor-they had no
resources to pay for their transportation even. Then
Tomas Weston of
London came to Leyden to make them an offer - his company's stockholders
would transport and supply the settlers provided they engaged themselves
in working seven years for the profit of the company. They would be
settled in northern Virginia, well away fromJamestown, and free to
worship as they wished.
The group was excited - that is, all were except for John
Robinson. He was distressed by the proposal that the colony be bound for
seven years:
"
Consider also how much unfit that you and your likes must serve a new prenticeship of seven years and not a day's freedom from
tasks." But
there seemed to be no alternative - the contract was signed, the departure
arranged. The congregation, now numbering nearly 300, would go in
smaller contingents. Pastor Robinson would remain in Leyden to shepherd
the part of the congregation whom age or infirmity made unfit for the
more rugged early years of settlement. When the way was prepared in
northern Virginia these people would follow as ships
became available.
So it was done - some of the
congregation came in later ships, but never this "
rear guard" and
thus never John Robinson. Robinson had
continued writing and debating theological issues at the
University of Leyden, but over these years his strict Calvinism had
undergone a softening - and, when the Saints set forth for the New
World, he remained behind,sending them off with these famous words: "
the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out
of His holy Word." His
congregation would never become one of those that hung witches
nor Quakers, because he filled them with the knowledge of God's love
rather than God's wrath, and they were less obsessed than most with doom
and hellfire.
But
how did the group intended
to land inVirginia end up in Massachusetts? In late July, 1620, those
who had been selected to be the first group of settlers headed for
Delfthaven,to set sail in the Speedwell. Knowing the risks the group
faced, there were tears aplenty, and fervent prayers for their safety as
they set sail for Southampton. There, some of the group was moved to
the Mayflower before the two ships set off for the Atlantic crossing.
They set sail on August 5th - but according to the Julian calendar - we
now use the Gregorian calendar - and by that, they didn't leave until
late August. It was late in the year to try the crossing, and what
was worse, the ships had to turn back not once, but twice. The
Speedwell had sprung a leak - at least that was the story given by the
crew. It became obvious to the leaders of the group that the sailors
were not enthusiastic about being assigned to stay a year in the New
World and serve as a fishing vessel for the sponsoring Weston Company.
They
could not trust the sailors, so only the Mayflower would make the
voyage.
Without the profit from the fishing, it would be hard to
live up to their contract with Weston and Company. So much time had been
lost, that it was now late September. And the Mayflower could not take
them all, so by the time it was all settled, only seventeen men from the
Leyden congregation actually set sail for the New World.
After all of the difficulty of beginning,
the voyage was unusually successful - only one passenger died,
William Butten,
Samuel Fuller's servant,
and one sailor - whose death was regarded as God's judgement upon him
for mocking and cursing the seasick passengers. It was remarkable that,
in a day and age when sickness and infection could be rampant in ocean
crossings, that none became ill.
Mrs. Stephen Hopkins even
gave birth to a son,
Oceanus, in the midst of the journey. Of course,
there were challenges - there were late season storms, one of which
washed
John
Howland overboard,
but who was successfully rescued; and the main beam cracked after they
were more than halfway through their voyage - and the beam was repaired
by using some of the supplies and equipment the Saints
had brought with them.
The group made
landfall in Cape Cod.They knew they still had to sail to the south,
into the Virginia colony, but when they attempted this, they were met
with "
dangerous shoals and roaring
breakers," They
turned back into Cape Cod harbor the next morning-sixty-six days out of
Plymouth, ninety - either out of Southampton, almost four months out of
Delfthaven - and dropped anchor in Provincetown harbor.
George Willison's research offers a fascinating story for what happened next - the
creationof the Mayflower Compact. All aboard the ship were eager to
get onto dry land - but there were already murmurings from some of the passengers and crew that "
when
theyc ame ashore, they would use their own libertie, for none had power
to command them, the patente they had being for Virginia and
not New-england, which belonged to another Government, with which
ye Virginia Company had nothing to doe."
Some
ten years earlier, in 1609, another emigrant company had left England,
with Virginia also as its destination, embarking with nine ships. They
ran into a hurricane, and the flagship was wrecked off Bermuda. Those
onboard were commanded to start building small boats to transport
the remaining company - but rebellion arose, led by a clerk in the
Governor's own household. He presented arguments that "
it was
no breach of honesty, conscience nor religion to decline from
the obedience of the Governor or to refuse to go further, ...since
the authority ceased when the wreck was committed, and with it they
were all then freed from the government of any man..." The
young man was arrested along with three or four other leaders of the
rebellion.But he alone was finally pardoned from execution - his name?
Stephen Hopkins.
And it
was one Stephen Hopkins who was on board the Mayflower, and
the Mayflower Compact repeats the essence, and even some of the exact
same phrases, of the Bermuda mutineers.
William Bradford's history
of the Plimouth Colony makes it clear that only Hopkins had ever been in
the New World before - it was he who became one of those offering Miles
Standish "
counsel and advise." He
was also the only one of the Strangers allowed to so advise the Leyden
group in charge of the settlement, for it was apparent that
some new agreement had to be quickly achieved. Drafting a covenant in
the same manner as they had done within their congregation, the leaders
ofthe Saints came together to write what we now call the
Mayflower
Compact:
In
ye name of
God,Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyall subject of
ourdread soveraigne Lord, King James...doe by these presents solemnly
and mutualy in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves togeather into a civill body politick...and by vertue
hearofto enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall
lawes,ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to
time,
as shall be thought most meete & convenient for ye generall good
of ye Colonie unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience."
This was first signed by
those who had the title of "
Master" - of which there were twelve -
Brewster,
Bradford,
Standish and
Hopkins were among these
signers. Then came the signatures of the "
goodmen"-of
whom 27 signed, and finally four of the servants also signed. Enormous
challenges lay ahead - but we will talk about them next
week.
What I
want to do now is to tell you something of how this history
almost didn't come down to us. George Willison states that the entire
Pilgrim saga was the creation of the nineteenth century, for the
Pilgrims were singularly unconcerned about their significance. The group
had for itself no specific name - simply identifying the group who
sailed onthe Mayflower as "
saints" and "
strangers."For
generations, their descendants simply referred to them as
the Forefathers - a tradition finally acknowledged when the state
of Massachusetts declared a "
Forefathers Day" holiday
in 1895. The original settlers were largely simple and humblefolk, who
read no earth-shaking import into what they were doing. They erected no
monuments to themselves and their achievements, left few memorials of
any kind either on paper or in stone. Many were illiterate, few had any
formal schooling, and simply focused upon the challenges of staying
alive and doing the best they could to build their community. They did
not even bother to keep town records until1632, twelve years after the
landing.
There were two brief accounts of their initial trials and
adventures - one written in1622, and one in 1624. Both were more like
promotional flyers written to attract more settlers. It was left
to Governor Bradford
tow rite the chronicle of the voyage and settlement-he wrote
sporadically from 1630 to 1650, finally completing 270 folio pages of
his "Of Plimoth Plantation." But since he had not written this for
publication,his manuscript was handed down from father to son for
several generations, with little or no appreciation of its unique
worth.
Rev. Thomas Prince
Pastor of Boston's Old South
Church
| A few passages were copied into the church records, and it
was also consulted by Nathaniel
Morton, who wrote something called "New England's Memorial" in
1669. Bradford's writings eventually were acquired by Rev. Thomas Prince, who
added it to his library at the Old South Church in Boston
after publishing a few excepts. During the Revolutionary War, the Old
South was turned into a stable and a riding academy by the British - and
when the British left, an inventory of the church found many of
the documents had vanished.
|
It
was not until 1855 that a student of Massachusetts history
identified several anonymous quotes in a book published in England in
1845 as coming from Bradford's manuscript. It was eventually found in
the library of
Fulham
Palace,
a favored summer residence of the bishops of London. A transcript
was made, and published in the United States the next year-1856.
Of course, during the intervening years, many myths had grown
up about
the Pilgrims - and many false ideas. They didn't land at Plymouth
Rock, they weren't pietists or Victorians - they were very much people
of their time - the Elizabethan period. They were marked by
restlessness, impatience with old ways, passionate enthusiasm, eager
curiosity, daring speculation, bold action and a refusal to accept
defeat, nomatter what the odds against them. Far from being humble
and soft-spoken, they were quick in their own defense, fond of
controversy, sharp of tongue, given to speaking their minds plainly in
the often rafter-shaking rhetoric of Marlowe and Shakespeare, with not
the slightest regard for the proprieties and polite circumlocutions of
a latter day.
They
practiced no tortures of
self-denial,they appreciated the pleasures of the table and the
bottle, never complaining more loudly of their hardships than when
necessity reduced them to drinking water, which they always regarded
with suspicion as a prolific source of human ills. They raised large
families, marrying early and often and late, sometimes within a few
weeks of losing a mate. Only on the Sabbath did they wear flacks and
grays - ordinarily they wore the russet browns and Lincoln green of the
Englishcountryside. They never passed a law against "
gay apparel" - Brewster
himself had a large and varied wardrobe which included "
a red cap, a white cap, a quilted cap, a
lace cap, a violet coat and 1 pair of green drawers."
They understood
that the great contention of their age over the freedom of religion had
enormous political implications as well. The issues of their day should
sound familiar to us in
ours:
