it only needs to be said that he continued in general the same policy of oppression. He declared that the Puritans were "insufferable in any well-governed commonwealth" and that he would "make them conform" or "harry them out of the land or else worse.'

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This historical outline indicates how intolerable the condition of the English Puritans was during the larger portion of the two centuries before the Pilgrims abandoned their native land. Christians

who conscientiously disagreed with the doctrines or practices of the State Church were compelled to acquiesce in a generally prevalent condition of grave moral evil and also to submit to religious intolerance and civil persecution of the most unjust and often the most cruel sort, or else fly the country. It requires no vivid fancy to conceive of their sufferings in detail, and the most active imagination hardly can overdraw the picture. It is not to be asserted that none of the Puritans them

selves were indiscreet, needlessly regardless of law, or otherwise open to just criticism. Some of them were at this period; and later, when Puritanism had won control of England for a time, it exhibited too much of the same intolerance from which it formerly had suffered. But, for the most part, this was not until long after the Pilgrims had emigrated.

Up to the time of their departure the Puritans, to speak with restraint, were as intelligent, orderly, devout, patriotic, and useful citizens as could be found in the whole land. It was the divine purpose that, when the time for the transplanting of Protestantism to the New World should come, representatives of the best ability and purest Christianity in England should be prepared to undertake the task.

CHAPTER II.

PURITANISM AND CONGREGATIONALISM.

HE Pilgrims were Puritans, but they

THE

were more than merely Puritans. They were also Congregationalists. Modern Christians who bear this name are their direct ecclesiastical descendants and the glory of their heroism is our legitimate inheritance. It is important, therefore, to examine the process by which Congregationalism grew out of Puritanism.

The outcome of the tyranny with which the Puritans were treated was what might have been expected. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." History abounds in illustrations of this truth, and scarcely any other is more striking than that afforded by the Pilgrims. Oppression always confirms many of its

objects in their beliefs and provokes them to a more or less open resistance. Partly for this general reason and partly because similar religious persecutions on the continent, as well as the demands of English trade, had led many Protestant French, Germans, and Dutch to settle in England, especially in the eastern counties, Puritan opinions spread steadily in certain portions of the kingdom during the latter half of the sixteenth century. It seems to be the fact that these foreign immigrants, many of whom had been not only permitted but even invited to establish themselves in England because of their skill in manufacturing, were treated much less rigorously than the native Protestants and, in some instances at least, were allowed to maintain their own churches,2 and their example and influence cannot have failed to promote the growth of Puritanism among the English themselves.

Thus there came to be three distinct religious parties in the realm. One was

A

the Anglican, or Established Church, composed of the conforming Protestants.. This often was more Romish than Prótestant in practice, although no longer acknowledging the Pope as its head. second was composed of the actual Roman Catholics. They were always active, and, although persecuted sharply now and then when any of their frequent and treasonable plots had come to light, they ordinarily were permitted a wellunderstood although legally prohibited existence. The third party was composed of the Puritans, or non-conforming Protestants, many of whom also were called Separatists.

The first regular, Puritan congregations on record seem to have met in and around London about 1553.3 Certainly one numbering two hundred then was formed in that city, meeting wherever it could avoid discovery. But, apparently in 1557, it was detected at Islington, and its minister, Mr. Rough, and a deacon,