The Story of the Pilgrims

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Congregational Sunday-school and publishing society, 1894 - History - 353 pages

In the fourteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme in England. The first break from the Church occurred in the early 1500s when King Henry VII wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine. The King's break with the Roman Catholic Church created the Anglican Church (Church of England) which, though not entirely Protestant, nonetheless allowed a revival of Protestantism. Many of these Protestants were called Puritans "because of their wish to purify and reform the State Church." Religious persecution continued through the 1600s, however, for any group that varied too far from the teachings of the Church of England. The Pilgrims evolved from the Puritans.

The author endeavors "to make plain something of the exalted character of the men and women whom preeminently the world has agreed to call the Pilgrims...." who "maintained steadily their lofty intellectual, moral, and religious standards and soon exerted an enlightening influence upon the world out of all proportion to the smallness of their colony." This informative and readable history includes biographical sketches of Robert Browne, William Brewster, William Bradford, and John Robinson, as well as many notes on lesser known but nonetheless important early Pilgrims. The Pilgrim towns of Scrooby and Austerfield in England are described in detail, as is the now-famous Plymouth Colony of 1620 in Massachusetts. The author describes the colony in detail, devoting chapters to its early life, commercial history, and first year of existence.

This book was originally printed as a series of weekly articles in 1893 for members of the Scrooby Clubs, a nationwide collection of individuals associated with the Congregational Church.


(1894, 1990), 2022, 51/2x81/2, paper, index, 386 pp.

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Page 187 - Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia...
Page 187 - Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of...
Page 187 - ... covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
Page 190 - ... which wente before), they had now no friends to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure. It is recorded in scripture as a mercie to ye apostle & his shipwraked company, y...
Page 209 - But that which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time...
Page 155 - ... very budd as it were. But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorowes most heavie to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions, and the great licentiousness of youth in that countrie, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawne away by evill examples into extravagante and dangerous courses, getting the raines off their neks, and departing from their parents.
Page 210 - And of these, in the time of most distress, there was but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains night nor day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them.
Page 297 - Plymouth spoke to the question ; after him the elder ; then some two or three more of the congregation. Then the elder desired the Governor of Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was ended, the deacon, Mr, Fuller, put the congregation in mind of their duty of contribution ; whereupon the Governor and all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the box, and then returned.
Page 115 - ... trueth was, they had no homes to goe to, for they had either sould, or otherwise disposed of their houses & livings.
Page 161 - The next day, the wind being faire, they wente aborde, and their freinds with them, where truly dolfull was ye sight of that sade and mournfull parting; to see what sighs and sobbs and praires did sound amongst them, what tears did gush from every eye, & pithy speeches peirst each harte ; that sundry of ye Dutch strangers y' stood on ye key as spectators, could not refraine from tears.

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