The builders of a nation, a history of the Pilgrim fathers

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Preface

The year 1920 marks the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The time is opportune, therefore, for telling anew the story of their deeds and emphasizing afresh the ideals and principles of these builders of the nation, for the American Republic is more deeply indebted to this little band of humble men who made the first permanent settlement in New England than to any other of the early settlers who came to our shores. They laid the foundations and other men have builded thereupon. As Baillie has well said: "These men did more for the world than Columbus. He, in seeking India, discovered America. They in pursuit of religious freedom, established civil liberty, and, meaning only to found a church, gave birth to a nation. In settling a town, they commenced an empire."

In re-telling the story of these founders of the Republic, the attempt has been made to trace carefully the antecedents and consequences of the Pilgrim movement that we may understand more clearly the principles which animated them and appreciate more fully the worth of the heritage which they have

6 Preface

left us. The writer has availed himself of the results of the researches made by Hunter, Waddington, the two Dexters, Dale, Arber, Powicke, Davis, Pierce, Cater, Crippen, Burrage, Burgess, and others, besides the light which has come from the discovery, both in England and Holland, of dociunents and writings hitherto unknown, which have added greatly to our fund of knowledge and without which no adequate account of the Pilgrims could now be written. Since this volume is intended for modem readers, no attempt has been made, in quoting from the early writers, to reproduce the antiquated spelling of the original documents.

Frank G. Beaedsley.

Contents

CHAPTBB

I. The English Reformation

II. The Puritans 35

Chapter I

To understand the Genesis of the Pilgrim movement together with the genius of Puritanism, the beginnings of the English Reformation must be traced. Unlike that on the continent the Reformation in England was not exclusively a religious movement. On the contrary it ran in two streams or currents, the political and religious, which sometimes ran parallel, sometimes intermingled, and sometimes flowed far apart.

Henry VIII is commonly regarded as the chief instrument in causing the break with Rome and yet he never could have defied the authority of the pope but for events which preceded. England had always taken a more or less independent attitude towards the aggressions and encroachments of the Roman see. Disputes between pope and king were frequent. One of the most serious was that which arose over the appointment of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury contrary to the wishes of King John who banished the monks of Canterbury and vowed vengeance upon Rome. Innocent III replied by placing the kingdom under an interdict. In 1209 the king was excommunicated, and two years later threatened with deposition. In the end John, who was an unpopular monarch and could not count upon the support of liis own people, was obliged to submit, acknowledging Langton as archbishop and surrendering his kingdom to Innocent and his successors as feudal superiors and receiving it back as a vassal.

Other kings proved less servile. Under Edward I, the Statute of Mortmain was enacted which forbade the alienation of lands and tenements to religious bodies in such a way as to cease to render due service to the king. During the reign of Edward III even more rigorous measures were adopted. In 1350 Parliament passed the Statute of Provisors. This act set forth the evUs which England had suffered by the papal bestowment of benefices upon unworthy men, foreigners, etc., who performed no service for the English people ; and it ordered that the free election of archbishops, bishops, and all other dignities and benefices elective in England should be in accordance with the original intention of the endowments. In case of the pope collating to any office, such appointment should be null and void, while those who procured provisions from the pope were to be imprisoned and fined. In 1352 the Statute of Praemunire was enacted making it treason for any English subject to be arraigned before a foreign tribunal, or to take any case falling within the jurisdiction of the king's court to such a tribunal. This was aimed at the appeals made before the Roman Curia, which had ignored the king's court and had set aside its decisions. Although these statutes were often ignored, they paved the way for the final break with the papacy under Henry VIII.

In addition to these political developments there was also a religious preparation for the revolt from Rome. John Wiclif has been called "the Morning Star of the Reformation." Born near the little town of Richmond in Yorkshire, at the age of sixteen or seventeen he entered Oxford University where the greater part of his life was spent as student or professor. In 1365 Pope Urban V demanded the annual tribute of 1000 marks which King John, 150 years before, had agreed should be paid by himself and his successors in acknowledgment that they held the crown under the pope as their feudal superior. The king laid this demand before Parliament which decided that John had no right to subject his country to such an impost and that any attempt on the part of the pope to enforce it should be resisted to the uttermost. In this controversy Wiclif took a prominent part on behalf of the English people and from that time to the day of his death he occupied a position of influence in the political and religious life of the country.

He attacked the arrogance and covetousness of the Roman see together with its appropriation of the revenues of English benefices for the enrichment of foreign priests who rendered no service to the English people. He assailed the mendicant orders, and condemned the vices, the irreligion, and the ignorance of the clergy. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation and opposed auricular confession. He does not seem to have apprehended the doctrine of justification by faith, but in many other respects he anticipated the teachings of Luther and the later reformers. He sent out "poor priests" into the highways and hedges, to the public squares and the market places to preach the gospel in the language of the people. His most important work, however, was the translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue, which has been the basis of all subsequent translations and, with the writings of Chaucer and Langland, helped to create English literature, Wiclif translated the whole of the New Testament, and with the aid of Nicholas of Hereford, the Old Testament. Although this translation was never printed, from the number of manuscript copies which have been handed down, it must have been widely circulated. Protected by influential persons and the circumstances of his time Wiclif died a natural death, although he was obliged to retire from

Oxford and spent the latter years of his life in retirement as rector of the church in the quiet parish of Lutterworth. His doctrines were condemned by the Council of Constance in 1415 and his body ordered taken from the grave and burned.

The work of Wiclif was continued by the Lollards or babblers, who, clad in long russet robes, and with staves in hand, went barefoot from village to village preaching the word of God, wherever they could find listeners and distributing hand-copied "passages from Wiclif 's tracts and texts from the Bible among tradesmen and artisans, yeomen and ploughboys, to be pondered over and talked about and learned by heart." Henry Knighton, writing in the time of Richard II, declared that every second man you met was a Lollard. Such was the influence of LoUardry at the time that in 1395 they ventured to petition the House of Commons, maintaining that the possession of temporalities on the part of the clergy was contrary to the law of Christ; that the Roman priesthood was not the priesthood ordained of Christ; that the law of celibacy was the occasion of scandalous irregularities; that the doctrine of transubstantiation led to idolatry; that exorcisms and benedictions pronounced over bread, wine, oil, salt, water, etc., are practices of necromacy ; that prayers for the dead are a false foundation for alms and likely to be displeasing to God ; that prayers offered to images are akin to idolatry; that auricular confession exalts the pride of priests and is dangerous to virtue ; that priests have no power to absolve from sin.

To suppress Lollardry the Statute De heretico comburendo was enacted in 1401, the preamble of which states that "divers false and perverse people of a certain new sect, of the faith, of the sacraments of the Church, and the authority of the same, damnably thinking, and against the law of God and the Church, usurping the office of preaching, do perversely and maliciously, in divers places within the said realm, under the color of dissembled holiness, preach and teach these days, openly and privily, divers new doctrines, and wicked, heretical and erroneous opinions. And of such sect and wicked doctrine, they make unlawful conventicles and confederacies ; they hold and exercise schools ; they make and write books ; they do wickedly instruct and inform people; and, as much as they may, incite and stir to sedition and insurrection, and make great ^ strife and division among the people; and other enormities horrible to be heard, do perpetrate and commit."

The statute provides that no one shall preach in public or private without license; no one shall speak or write against the Catholic faith as determined by the church; no one shall favor or support such heretical teachers; those having in their possession heretical books were ordered to surrender the same within forty days from the publication of the statute. Offenders and those suspected of heresy were to be arrested and imprisoned until they cleared themselves or abjured their heretical beliefs. Those refusing to abjure or who relapsed, upon conviction before the ecclesiastical courts were to be turned over to the civil authorities and burned "before the people in a high place — that such punishment may strike fear in the minds of others, whereby no such wicked doctrine, and heretical and erroneous opinions, nor their authors and abettors in the said realm and dominions, against the Catholic faith, Christian law, and the determination of the Holy Church — which God prohibit — may be sustained, or in any wise suffered."

Large numbers of persons, both men and women, were arrested in various parts of the country. Some abjured their opinions, but others, laymen and priests, mechanics and serving men, tradesmen and farmers, were sent to the stake. Persecution continued for many years, until, says Fuller, "the civil wars diverted the prelates from troubling the Lollards, so that this very storm was a shelter to those poor souls." Upon the accession of Henry VII the persecution was renewed with vigor, but the Lollards were never wholly stamped out. As late as 1520 the Bishop of Lincoln complained that in his diocese Lollardism was very troublesome. In the course of a single episcopal visitation two hundred heretics'

were brought before him. There is sufficient warrant, therefore, for the observation of Fiske that when Henry VIII defied the papacy "England was half-Protestant already."

The inunediate forerunners of the Reformation in England were Colet, Erasmus, and More, the Oxford reformers. John Colet, the son of a lord mayor of London, was bom in 1466. In Italy he studied the writings of Pico, Ficino, Plato and the Bible, and was influenced by the work of Savonarola at Florence. On returning to England he took up his residence at Oxford where he attracted attention by his devotion to the new learning. He lectured on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, directing the attention of his hearers to the scriptures themselves rather than the fanciful and allegorical interpretations of the Schoolmen. He urged the necessity for reform and criticized the laxity of the clergy, saying, "if the clergy lived in the love of God and their neighbors, how soon would their true piety, religion, charity, goodness towards men, simplicity, patience, tolerance of evil, conquer evil with good ! How would it stir up the minds of men everywhere to think well of the Church of Christ." The only salvation of the church was the reform of the clergy from the pope down to the lowest cleric. "Oh, Jesus Christ, wash for us not our feet only, but also our hands and our Ji^ad! Otherwise our disordered Church cannot be far from death." Associated with Colet were his pupil Thomas More, and Desiderius Erasmus. Imbued with his teacher's enthusiasm for learning and his zeal for reform More wrote his "Utopia," drawing a contrast between the kingdoms of his time and an ideal commonwealth.

Of the influence of Erasmus in preparing the way for the reformation, it was said that Luther hatched the egg which Erasmus had laid. He was accused of inconstancy and inconsistency because, like Luther, he attacked the abuses of the church but unlike the Wittenberg reformer he did not sever his relations with Rome. Lacking the enthusiasm and the moral earnestness of Luther he thought that it was better to purify the church than to create a schism within it. He did a work, nevertheless, of the greatest importance. In his Encheiridion Militis Christicmi or "Manual of a Christian Soldier," which, says Seebohn, re-echoed the keynote of Colet's faith, he con-\ demned the adoration of saints and the practice of pilgrimages together with the idea that a godly life consisted in the observance of outward forms and ceremonies. In his Morice Enconiwm, or "Praise of Folly," written in More's house, which was directed against the sins of "unholy men in holy orders," he satirized the follies, abuses, and corruptions of the church. His greatest work, however, was an edition of the New Testament containing, in parallel columns, the original Greek with a new Latin translation of his own. In the preface to this volume he expressed the wish "that even the weakest woman should read the Gospels — should read the Epistles of Paul; and I wish that they were translated into all languages, so that they might be read and understood not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and Saracens. I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of the shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their stories the tedium of his journey."

Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 when he was barely eighteen years of age. For several years he was an ardent papist, and in 1521 he wrote a book entitled "Assertion of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther," for which he was rewarded by the pope with the title Fidei Defensor, "Defender of the Faith," which subsequent English sovereigns have borne from that day to this. No change in the king's attitude took place until he sought a divorce from his wife, Katherine of Aragon.

Katherine, the youngest child of Ferdinand and Isabella, was the widow of Henry's elder brother. A few months after their marriage the prince died. Henry VII, wishing to retain her dowry and an alliance with Spain, caused his son Henry, although he was six years her junior, to be espoused to Katherine. To overcome ecclesiastical objections Pope Julius II issued a bull licensing the marriage and the betrothal took place June 25, 1504. Soon after his father's death the marriage of Henry VIII and

Katherine was solemnized. For several years they seem to have lived happily together. Two sons were bom, both of whom soon died. Their third child was the Princess Mary who afterwards became Queen of England. After the death of the infant princes and the seeming inability of the queen to give him a male heir, Henry recalled the Mosaic statute which pronounced sterility upon such a marriage as his and he began to entertain doubts as to the lawfulness of the marriage with his brother's widow. He seems, however, to have had no compunctions of conscience until after he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, a young waiting maid of the queen. At all events he now sought to put Katherine away and negotiations were entered into with Rome to secure a divorce.

At first the pope seemed to be favorably disposed, but not willing to give offense to the emperor Charles V, the nephew of Katherine, matters were delayed for one reason and another. Finally the patience of the king became exhausted by the dilatory tactics of Clement VH and he decided to take matters into his own hands. By the advice of Thomas Cranmer the universities of Europe and numerous scholars versed in the canon law were appealed to as to the validity of the marriage between Katherine and Henry. Twelve of the universities, including Paris, Orleans, Padua, Bologna, Oxford and Cambridge, decided against it. In January, 1533, the king was privately wedded to Anne Boleyn and later that same year Cranmer, who had been appointed archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced the previous marriage invalid and a few days later ratified the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn, who was now crowned Queen. In March of the following year the pope excommunicated Henry and absolved his subjects from their allegiance. But before this action was reported, the Convocations of Canterbury and York declared that the Bishop of Rome had no more authority in England than any other foreign bishop. By an act of Parliament it was ordered that the king "shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England, and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the Imperial Crown of this realm, as well the title and state thereof as all the honors, jurisdictions, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity belonging; and that our said sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power to visit, repress, redress, reform and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction might or may lawfully be reformed." Three years earlier the Convocations of Canterbury and York had been compelled to acknowledge Henry VIII as "the Protector and Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England," to which a qualifying clause was added, "in so far as is permitted by the law of Christ."

That Henry did not consider this a denial of papal authority is evident from the fact that negotiations with Rome were still continued, but by the Act of Supremacy the break with Rome was consummated.

Up to this stage there had been no move towards Protestantism. A change in the headship of the church was all that was contemplated. Other changes were inevitable. In 1535, Cromwell as the king's vicar-general instituted a visitation of the monasteries. Scandal had long been busy about the corrupt morals of the monks. The commissioners reported to Parliament that conditions were even worse than had been whispered and that two-thirds of the monks were leading vicious lives. As a resui t. the dissolution of the monasteries was ordered, the smaller ones immediately and the larger ones a few years later. The vast estates of the monasteries were now confiscated by the crown. The suppression of these houses led to wide-spread dissatisfaction in some sections of England and a rebellion ensued which was promptly suppressed, its leaders being put to death.

In 1536, when Convocation met, Cromwell declared that it was the king's pleasure that the rites and ceremonies of the church should be reformed according to the Scriptures and that nothing should be maintained which did not rest upon their authority. "Ten Articles of Religion" were adopted. They declared that the Christian faith is contained in the

Bible, and the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. Only three sacraments were mentioned — baptism, penance, and the Lord's Supper. Baptism was necessary to eternal life, securing the remission of sin and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Penance, consisting of contrition, confession, and the fruits of penance, prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, and good works, was so necessary for man's salvation that no man falling into sin, after baptism, can without penance obtain everlasting life. Confession was to be made to a priest, if possible; his words in absolving from sin to be taken as the very words and voice of God Himself. Of the sacrament of the altar it was affirmed that "under the figure and form of bread and wine, is verily, substantially, and really contained and comprehended, the very selfsame body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered upon the cross for our redemption." The grounds of justification were the merits of the passion of Christ, and it was to be obtained through contrition, faith, and charity. Images were to remain in the churches, but should not be worshipped. Saints were to be honored and prayed to but not as unto God. The doctrine of purgatory was allowed in so far as praying for the dead was concerned, but the people should not believe that the pope had power to deliver souls from purgatory by pardons or masses.

At a meeting of the bishops early in 1537 a comraittee was appointed to prepare a manual of religious instruction. This book, entitled the "Institution of a Christian Man," contained an exposition of the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the "Seven Sacraments" and Justification and Purgatory. The book also contained the "Ten Articles," and the three sacraments there described are declared to be of greater dignity and necessity than the others.

In 1539 a revision of John Rogers' translation of the Bible, known as the "Great Bible" and licensed by the king, was printed in England. This version was rendered immediately useful by the king's command that a large copy of the Bible should be set up in every church that the people might have access to the same. The clergy were ordered "to expressly provoke, stir, and exhort every person to read the same as that which is the very lively word of God, that every Christian man is bound to embrace, believe, and follow, if he look to be saved."

Notwithstanding the progress which had thus been made towards Protestantism, Henry VIII, at heart, was no Protestant and in 1639 the reactionary Statute of the Six Articles was enacted, embracing the following: 1. That in the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration, there remained no substance of bread and wine, but, under these forms, the natural body and blood of Christ were present. 2. That communion in both kinds was not necessary to salvation to all persons by the law of God; but that both the flesh and blood of Christ were together in" each of the kinds. 3. That priests after the order of priesthood might not marry by the law of God. 4. That the vows of chastity ought to be observed by the law of God. 5. That the use of private masses ought to be continued; which as it was agreeable to God's law, so men received great benefit by them. 6. That auricular confession was expedient and necessary, and ought to be retained in the church. It was decreed that all who spoke, preached or wrote against the first article were to be adjudged heretics and burnt without any abjuration. Those who preached or disputed against the other articles were to be imprisoned and their goods forfeited for the first offence, and for the second to be punished by death as felons. Marriages of priests and all who had taken vows of chastity were to be dissolved. If they remarried they were to be hanged.

In 1543 an act was passed forbidding the use of Tyndale's version and any reading of the Scriptures in assemblies without the king's license. Noblemen and gentlemen might have the Bible read to them. It might be read by householding merchants, but women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, ser\angmen, husbandmen, or laborers were not permitted to do so. Instead they might read the "Institution of a Christian Man'* and other works published by royal authority.

Notwithstanding these restrictions Protestantism gained ground steadily until the king's death in 1547. Henry VIII could hardly be classed either as a Protestant or a Catholic, for during his reign both were persecuted. A stranger in England at the time remarked "those who were against the pope were burned, and those who were for him were hanged." At heart Henry no doubt was a Catholic, but by the circumstances in which he was placed he was forced into an attitude of opposition to the papacy, and on that account was compelled to countenance and sanction certain changes in the English church.

Henry was succeeded by his son Edward VI, who was but nine years of age. In his will the king had provided that a Council composed of sixteen members should manage affairs during the minority of his son. The Earl of Hertford, Edward's uncle, was made Duke of Somerset, Protector of the Realm and Governor of the king's person. Somerset and Archbishop Cranmer, primate of England, were favorable to Protestantism and opposed to Rome. England accordingly became thoroughly Protestant during Edward's brief reign, at least in so far as it was possible by legal enactments. The obnoxious Six Articles were abolished and the laws against heresy repealed. Communion in both kinds was enjoined. Images were ordered removed from the churches and pictures of the saints were coated with whitewash. The clergy were permitted to marry. An English Liturgy was adopted and Protestant Articles of Faith were promulgated.

The Book of Prayer was compiled by Cranmer, who, by correspondence and otherwise, consulted many of the leading Protestant divines in Europe, including Lutherans, Calvanists, and Zwinglians. The tendency toward compromise, however, still prevailed. The clergyman was called a "priest." The communion table was styled an "altar." The name of the Virgin was used, especially in the praise offered for the saints. The sign of the cross was enjoined in the marriage ceremony, confirmation, anointing the sick, consecrating the water of baptism, and twice each in the baptismal and communion services. The old forms of trine immersion, exorcism, and anointing were retained in baptism. Prayers for the dead were countenanced.

This liturgy was prescribed by law and it was enacted that the clergy should make use of this and no other; and "if any parson, vicar, or spiritual person, shall speak in derogation of it, he shall for the first offence, forfeit a yearns profit of one of his preferments, with six months' imprisonment; for the second, lose all his preferments, with twelve months' imprisonment; and for the third, be imprisoned for life; and if any one ridicule the same form of worship, menace the minister for using it, or prevail on him to use any other, he shall, on the first conviction.

pay a fine of ten pounds ; on the second, of twenty ; and on the third, forfeit all his goods and chattels, and be imprisoned for life."

This liturgy never satisfied the thorough-going Protestants, the king himself wishing further changes. So under Cranmer a committee of divines undertook its revision, which was adopted by Parliament in April, 1552. In the new Prayer Book the name of the Virgin and the sign of the cross were omitted. Trine immersion, exorcism, and anointing were eliminated from the baptismal service. Prayers for the dead were discontinued. The greatest change was in the observance of the Lord's Supper. In the first Prayer Book the form prescribed was : "When he (the priest) doth deliver the Sacrament of the body of Christ, he shall say to every one these words following: The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body unto everlasting life. And the Priest delivering the Sacrament of the blood, and giving every one to drink once and no more, shall say: The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy soul unto everlasting life." In this form there was nothing inconsistent with a belief in the corporeal presence of Christ in the bread and wine, but in the revised Liturgy, in place of "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc., it read: "Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving. And the minister that delivereth the cup shall say : Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful."

The "Forty-two Articles" setting forth the faith of the Church of England were prepared chiefly by Cranmer, the same year. These "Articles" were thoroughly Protestant in tone and may be described as moderately Calvinistic rather than Lutheran. During the reign of Elizabeth the "Forty-two Articles" were reduced to Thirty-nine and as such they constitute the basis of the faith of the Church of England to this day.

The new Liturgy and the "Forty-two Articles" barely had time to come into general use when Edward VI, never robust in health, died July 6, 1553, in the seventh year of his reign and the sixteenth of his life.

Under the reactionary policy of his successor Mary Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII, "bloody Mary" as she is sometimes called, Protestantism was overthrown. The mass was restored and the clergy reduced to celibacy. Those who had married were obliged to separate from their wives. Over eight hundred fled to the continent, including five bishops, five deans, five archdeacons, and more than fifty doctors of divinity. Large numbers of noblemen, merchants, tradesmen, mechanics, and others left the country. In 1554 with but two negative votes in the House of Commons, Parliament voted to return to obedience to the pope, after which the members of both Houses fell upon their knees before the papal legate, who, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, absolved them "and the whole nation, and the dominions thereof, from all heresy and schism, and all judgments, censures, and penalties for that cause incurred; and restored them to the communion of Holy Church." Practically all of the anti-papal enactments of the two preceding reigns were repealed except the restoration of the confiscated church lands which were now in the hands of the lords and commons. Queen Mary, however, rebuilt many of the ruined monasteries and abbeys, and restored a large part of the church property which still remained in the hands of the crown.