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(1765) England resolved to tax the colonists without their consent, President Witherspoon, of Princeton College, headed the movement of revolt which culminated in the War for Independence.

IV. MASSACHUSETTS (PLYMOUTH COLONY, 1620).

78. Religious revolution in England; the Puritans and the Separatists. When, under Henry VII., John Cabot (1497) claimed the continent of North America for England (§ 11), that kingdom, like all Europe, maintained the Catholic religion as the only true faith. Had Henry planted colonies in America he would have established Catholicism here and would have forbidden any other form of worship.

Under Henry VIII. a revolution took place. He repudiated the authority of the Pope in England and established a new and independent national Church, which was compelled to acknowledge the King as its supreme head. Under Elizabeth this new national Church became definitively Protestant, although a considerable part of the population continued to keep up the Catholic form of worship in private.

When James I. came to the throne he found England divided between the Catholics, the Anglicans (or regular members of the established Episcopal Church), the Puritans, and the Separatists (or Independents). The Puritans were members of the established Church, who regarded the Protestant revolution in England as incomplete. They urged that the English worship should be "purified" (as they said) from what Calvin called "Popish dregs." They desired the Episcopal clergy to give up wearing the surplice, making the sign of the cross in baptism, and using the ring in the marriage service.

The Separatists were a branch of the Puritans who had gone a step farther. "Seeing," as they said, that "they could not have the word freely preached and the sacraments administered

without idolatrous gear, they concluded to break off from public churches, and separate in private houses." 112

James refused to permit any deviation from the forms of public worship established by law. He believed that dissent would lead to disloyalty, and that if divisions were tolerated in religion the Crown itself would be endangered.

He formulated this conviction of the indispensable unity of

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Church and State in his favorite saying, "No Bishop, no King." His harsh laws drove both loyal Catholics and loyal Puritans to despair. He said of the latter class, "I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the land." 113 If this was to be the King's policy toward the Puritans who still remained in the Church, what could the Separatists who had seceded from it expect?

79. A congregation of Separatists escape to Holland; why they wished to emigrate to America. A small congregation of Separatists were in the habit of privately meeting at

the house of William Brewster, the postmaster of the village of Scrooby, in the northeastern corner of Nottinghamshire. Finding that they could not safely remain in England, they resolved to go to Holland "where they had heard was freedom of religion for all men." 114 After much suffering they succeeded (1608) in escaping from England and finally settled in Leyden. There these plain English farmers learned different trades and managed, by dint of severe toil, to support themselves and their families. After ten years of this life some of the exiles began to think of embarking for America. William Bradford, one of their most prominent men, gives the following reasons for their desire to emigrate:

1. The hardships of their life were so great that many who had come to join them went back, preferring, as they said, "prisons in England rather than liberty in Holland.”

2. Some of them felt age creeping upon them, and saw with sorrow that exhausting labor was rendering their children "decrepit in their early youth.”

3. Furthermore, it was a sore grief to parents to see that oftentimes their children, when they grew up, were led astray by the "manifold temptations of the place," while others, leaving their homes, went to sea or entered the army.

4. Finally, the Separatists saw that if they should continue to remain in Holland their descendants would in time forget not only their native customs, but even their native language,

in fact, would practically cease to be Englishmen at all.

By going to America they hoped to build up a strong, prosperous English colony, enjoying entire liberty of worship, and "advancing the gospel in those remote parts of the world." Lastly, they hoped, as they said, to serve as "stepping-stones unto others for performing so good a work." 115

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80. The Separatists and the "merchant adventurers"; the patent; the joint-stock company. As the Separatists were too poor to undertake such an expedition at their own expense, they bargained with a body of "merchant adventurers,"

or speculators, in London to provide vessels for them to cross the Atlantic. A patent granted by the Virginia Company gave them the right to settle "about Hudson's River.” 116

They agreed to take the Oaths of Supremacy and of Allegiance. They thus bound themselves to recognize the King as the lawful head of the Church of England and as their rightful sovereign. James promised not to interfere with the undertaking, and when told that the emigrants expected to get their living by fishing, replied, with a spice of humor: "Tis an honest trade; 't was the Apostles' own calling."

A joint-stock company was organized, consisting of "merchant adventurers" and the outgoing settlers. The conditions were as follows:

All the emigrants who could not pay £10 into the general fund were to devote the results of seven years' labor to the common stock." 118 Out of that stock they were to receive "meat, drink and apparel.” "At the end of seven years . . . the houses [and] lands [were] to be equally divided" among the stockholders; each person sixteen years old or upward, at the time of sailing, to receive one share of the profits.'

119

These were hard terms, for they required the colonists to pledge their whole time and strength for a long period and for a very uncertain result. Some of them indignantly declared that such conditions were "fitter for thieves and bond-slaves than [for] honest men"; but they could get no better.

In 1620 they left Leyden for England, there to embark on their voyage across the Atlantic. It was a perilous undertaking and the prospect of success was small; but, as Bradford said, "They knew that they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits." 120 In his farewell sermon their faithful pastor, John Robinson, spoke words of cheer, bidding them go forward in the belief that "the Lord had more truth and light yet to break out of his holy word."

121

All told, the actual number of Pilgrims who set sail in the "Mayflower was less than a hundred. Among those who went with them was Myles Standish, an English soldier who had fought in the wars in Holland. He was not a member of the Pilgrim congregation, but simply a true, brave-hearted man, who was glad to cast his lot with those who were as brave and true-hearted as himself. Of the Pilgrims proper the most prominent were Bradford, Brewster, Winslow and Carver.

On reaching Cape Cod the emigrants decided to settle on the New England coast, although their patent was "for Virginia" only. Knowing this fact, some of the hired men threatened to use their liberty as they pleased. It seemed best, therefore, to form a plan of union for maintaining order. 12 To this end the Pilgrim Fathers drew up a compact (November 21, 1620) in the cabin of the "Mayflower." By that compact, which received forty-one signatures, they formed themselves into "a civil body politic" and bound themselves as Christians and as loyal subjects of King James to enact "such just and equal laws. . . as shall be thought most meet . . . for the general good of the

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colony." 123 They then chose John Carver governor. After Carver's death William Bradford was chosen, and he filled the office for thirty-one years.

After carefully exploring the coast, the Pilgrims found a satisfactory harbor and landed, December 21, 1620, on that bowlder which has ever since been known as Plymouth Rock. During the ensuing winter death visited them

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daily. When the Mayflower sailed for England in the spring (1621) nearly half of the settlers were in their graves. But not one of the little band of survivors thought of returning in

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