Th e Truth A b out th e P ilgrim Fath e rs

M I C HAEL & F MCCARTHY

BY

E are met thi s evening to refresh our memories on one

of the most remarkable events in the world s history
However you test it by comparison with cognate incidents
i n ancient or modern times the departure from this country of
t h e body of men who are kn own as the Pilgrim Fathers stands
o ut as a colossal E vent productive of co ns e quen ces unsurpas sed
i n the history73 f
Bodies of colonists have gone from mother coun tries in all
ages sometimes as the result of di i e g nc e s with t h e r uling power
at home as i n t h is case ; sometimes sen t forth with the b ene
diction and at the exp ense of the parent nation ; but no colony
ever achi eved a tithe of the success achi eved by this English band
of colonists whose obj ects and principles I have come here this
evening to give some account of
The Pi lgrim Fathers as you know were not men of D evon
I ndeed the contrast between them and the famous D evonians
of their time is marked and noteworthy The great men of D evon
such as Walter Raleigh Richard Grenville Francis D rake and
John Hawkins usually went forth for the express pu rpose of
adventure or conquest or di scovery or for the acquisition of
weal th The Pilgrim Fathers went forth for none of these obj ects
but as the great English poet M ilton says of them they were
faithful and free born Englishmen and good Ch ristians constrained
t o forsake their dearest homes their friends and ki ndred whom
nothing but the wide ocean and the savage deser ts of A meri c a
c ould hi de and shelter from the fury of the Bisho ps
To u s o f the present day who have happily such d iff erent
This l e ctu re was delivered at Plymouth at M idsummer mm

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xp erien ce o f the B ishops of the Church of England it may seem

incredible that any body of English citizens should have b een
driven to leave home and kindred in order to escape the wrath
and persecution of English Bishops S uch however is the fac t
Toleration in matters of
and we must not be afraid to face it
religious opinion has been a plant of very slow growth But the
marvellous working of the divine law of compensation is such
tha t the inj ustice and cruelty of men towards their fellows has
o ften been the ultimate means of bringing the greatest blessings
t o humanity The greatest example of this is to be found in the
treatment meted out to our D ivine Lord Himself while He was
in this world as a human being And assuredly the persecution
of t he Pilgrim F athers led also to wonderful benets for h umanity
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B IRTHPL A CE AND ORI GI N OF THE M O & EM EN T

case some of the younger members of our audience may

not be aware of it let me say that the Pilgrim Fathers were mainly
natives of w h at is even now a little known part of England
namely the tract of land on the south side o f the Humber estuary
near where it receives the waters of t hat splen di d English river t h e
Trent This section of England lies in thr ee counties Y orks hi re

r
o
tt
ngham
and
Linco
l
nshi
e
and the little towns or villages o f
i
N
B awtry Aust ereld and S crooby and the be tt er known town o f
Gainsborough were the chi ef centres of the Pilgrims activities before
th ey left their own country and went into exile in Holland
A fter the Reformed Church of England had been established
the Papal S ystem on the lamented
i n the reign of Edward VI
death of that youngest of English kings was re establi shed by
Qu een M ary and Cardinal Pole and remained the established
religion o f England for ve years 1 5 5 3 to I 5 5 8 A number of
E nglis h Protestants h ad then to y to the Continent and th os e
P r ot e st ant refugees w hile resident in H o lland S wi t zerland and
I

elsewhere imbibed ideas about spiritual independen c e far in advan ce

of their Pro testant fellow countrymen who had stayed at home
and survived under Queen M ary s r gi me S ome of th ose wh o
stayed in England had ou t wardly conformed to the Papal S ystem
while others managed to escape the persecution of the time by a
prudent reticence wi thout O penly deserting their Protestant views
Wh en Queen M ary died she was succeede d by Queen
E lizabeth who decided to break the connection with Rome and
Church of England which had been
re establish the Reformed
set up in the reign of her brother Edward VI Then the Protestant
ref ugees came home rej oicing and brought with them the advanced
ideas of spiritual liberty they had acquired in the republican lands
where they had been soj ourning To those men the old Roman
noti on of one hi ghly organised Church ruled entirely by clergy
with elaborate creeds dogmas ritual and gradations of priestly
rank a religious reproduction of the politico religious system of
the Roman Empirewas entirely um Ch ristian and um S criptural
,

&U EEN ELI&A B ETH

B U T Queen Elizabeth herself whi le absolutely breaking with
the Papacy could not divest her mind of the old ideas on the
necessity for absolute uniformity of creed doctrine ritual and
all those gradations of priestly rank whi ch were and are the very
essence of the old system S h e was suprem e head of the Church
of England as an ecclesias tical corporation and she was resolved
to exercise her religious supremacy as fully as her political
supremacy
S h e honestly believed that as there was room only for one
political s oy e re i gn in the realm so there was room only for one
Church and one reli gious sovereign A s the daughter of an
autocratic king she had been trained to believe that she could do
no wrong in civil matters
The king can do no wrong is one
o f the axioms of Englis h law And it was an easy transition to
.

the collateral belief th at she as sovereign could do no

ong in
religi ous matters Sh e honestly believed that uniformity of
religion was nece ssary to good government and national prosperity
and she also believed that uniformity of religion should be enforced
as vigor ously as obedience to any other civil law that is by means
o f ne corporal punishment imprisonment or death
,

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WHITGIFT

AR CH B I SH O P

H E R E then you have the beginning of the trouble On one

side you have a powerful able queen revelling in h er emancipation
fr om Papal suzerain ty and backed up by an obedient and
ambitious Ar chbishop of Canterbury in the person of J ohn
Whi tgift On the other hand you have the little bands of
I ndependents in London in N orthamptonshi re and other places
but especially at S crooby Bawtry Aust er eld and elsewhere
in that Humber country of whi ch curious to say Whi tgift was
also a nati ve having been born in Great G ri msby
Another poi nt
to be noted is tha t Whitgift w as hi mself one of those Protesta n t s
who by hi s poli tical and religious reticence managed to live in
E ngland during Queen M ary s reign and escape persecution
That he was an able man is beyond all doubt but hi s abili ty
was altogether that of a man of the world eager to get on in hi s
profession whi ch was then the richest and greatest of all professions
shorn though it had been by the appropriation of such an enormous
amount of ecclesiastical property by the S tate in the reigns of
Henry VIII and Edward VI Whi t gi ft s rst great success was
as Lady M argaret Professor of D ivini ty in Cambridge where hi s
lectures won the approval of the Queen and he rapidly became
M aster of Trinity and Vice Chancellor of the U niversity
He
was the leader of the High Church Party in the disputes with the
Pu ritan Party in the U niversity and succeeded in getting Th omas
C art wright the leader of the Puritans di s mi ssed from his professor
shi p and fe llowship and driven into exile
.

In

Whi tgi ft be came Bishop of Worce ster in addi ti on

to whi ch he held the hi gh political post o f Vice President of Wales
Wh en Elizabeth made hi m Archbishop of Canterbury i n I 5 8 3
he used all hi s in uence with her to preve nt any further
appropriation of Church property by the State ; and for the l ast
twenty years of Elizabeth s reign carried out all her instructions
and ai ded her by his own professional advice i n suppressing
Puritanism with all the rigour of the cruel laws of th at time Th e
rst law against Puritans was entitled an A ct t o reduce disloyal
That was in 1 5 8 0 ; but i t was Whi tgift
s ubj ects to obedience
who got the A ct of 1 5 9 3 passed which for the rs t time made
Puritanism expressly an offence against statute law
Lord M acaulay calls Whi tgi ft a narrow mean tyran nica l
priest who gained power by servility and adulation
He w as
against the supremacy of the Pope but he had no obj ection t o
concentrating in hi mself as much of the papal power as hi s masterly
sovereign would pe rmit He was an extreme High Churchman
and we may j udge of hi s wealth hospitality and ostentation by
the fact that when paying hi s state visits to Canterbury and other
t owns he was often att ended by a retinue of 8 0 0 h orsemen 1
WHAT WAS P U RITANI S M &
L E T us now consider what Puritanism was and h ow the Puri ta n
P arty as a whole differed from the Independen t se c tion of the
p art y wi th whom we are concerned Pu ri tanism means pu ri ty
o f Chri stian worshi p and doctrine divested of the sacerdo tal
accretions whi ch h ad accumulated during the M iddle A ges S ome
of the Pu ritan leaders upheld whi le others obj ected to State c ontrol
of religi on Thomas Cartwri ght for instan c e inveighed openly
against Elizabeth s scheme of a S tate controlled Church b ut
wanted a Church controlled S tate in whi ch the presbyter was t o
be responsible to God alone The more practical Pu ritan sch ool
o f theologians were for e nforcing uniformity of pure worship in
England by the power of the S tate in other words they wan t ed
I

5 77

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to captu re the S overeign t o a tt ain their high ideal ; and thu

we got the Part y of Puritan Low Churchmen who were as mu c h
in favour of Church ref orm by political force and as devoted t o
S tate establishment and endow men t s as the High Churchmen
themselves Besides Cartw right one may ci t e such well known
s

names as Travers Perkins and R ainolds

The I ndependent Part y to which the Pilgri m Fa thers belonge d
were as much against State Puritani sm or Low Churchmanship as
against State High C h urchm anslnp Th eir c ontention was that
each indi vidual c ongregation is a church di rectly under t h e
authority of Christ and responsible t o God alone ; that there
s h ould be no clerical or priestly caste that all members of each
church were equal and th at th ere should be no corporate organisa
tion o f the indi vidual churches They als o held that the j udgment
o f each indi vidual should be absolutely free in matters of di vin e
worshi p inasmuch as religion is a matter of conscience between
G od and the individual They acknowledged only t w o grea t
enti ties in t he spiritual sphere G od and t h e indi vidual soul
B esides God and the individual there remained the S tate or
po liti cal p ower to be reckoned with ; and the Independents held
th at religion was not to be dictated or forced on any in dividuai
by the politica l power To us in our enj oyment o f the freedom
of the twentieth century all thi s se ems to b e a ma tt er of c ourse
B ut i t was in fact the newe s t
and n o new discovery whatever
I t ha d bee n
and m o st s tart ling discovery ever made in Europe
proclaimed in J u dea sixteen hundred years before and had b ee n
put into practice in those early Chr isti an churches round the coasts
o f the M editerranean S e a but it had been l ost to the world f or
thi rtee n hundred yea rs Its re discovery now revolu tionised t h e
world and led to all those subsequ e nt di scoveries which ha ve made
our planet appe ar so small that it s e ems as if the next ste p woul d
b e t o take t h e solar system and not this mere earth as our u nit
for tra ve l and expl oration
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PRIES T-KI N GS
I
all preceding histo ri cal times
the p rie tly power and th e
i
n
o
i
t
i
c
al
power
went
hand
h
and
To
separate
t
h
em
seemed
l
p
impossible I n E gypt A ssyria M edia and Persia the ki ngs wer
the priests ; in China the Emperor was the ch ie f priest and S on
i n republican Greece and Rome the Arch o ns and
o f Heaven ;
C o nsuls were as muc h reli gi o us oi i al as poli tical and th e oracl
THE

priest s and priestesses were t h e domestic and p oli ti cal advisers

of the world ; under the R o man Empi re the Emperor was th e
Chief P ont i or M aster of the Rites And the belief in t his system
as the best means of governing humanity prevailed not o nly through
o ut the world i n general but ourished in England in p articular a t
the time the Independents proclaimed their epoch making discovery
tha t it was not right or j ustied by S cripture
Indeed the belief lasted long after t he Independents and
down to our own times in many land s We saw
c o ntinued
N apoleon for instance re establis hi ng the Papal S ys t em in France
w ith the Roman P ont i as a mere pawn or puppe t in hi s hands
We saw the late Kaisers o f Germany Au stria and Russia arrogating
to themselves divine or priestly powers i n the conviction that a
vice regency of God vested in their persons was the most perfe ct
s ystem of governing the general mass of h u manity in those countries I
We must remember that the world is very young and mus t not
feel rebelli ous or impatient at n ding s o many of our truest ideals
God s
s till struggling for realisation against interested opposition
ways are not our ways and with Him a thousand years are b ut
as a day
FIR S T I ND EPE ND E N T S
I r must be r e membered tha t the greatest reformers were
p riests or clergymen The thr ee spiri tual gi ants of the grea t
ReformationLuther Cal vin and Knoxwere pries ts So now
in the se c ond Reformati on within th e grea t Re forma tion the
.

best and m os t perse c u t ed Puri tans were men in holy orders Th e

weakness o f every human b e gi nning is well exemplied in t h e
charac ter of Robert Browne the rst English I ndependent mi ni ster
whos e wri tings breat h e su c h a spiri t of pure Christian idealism
Th e kingd o m of God h e wr ote is no t t o be b egu n by whol e
p arishes bu t rather by the worthi est be t hey ever so few What
c ould be more admi rable than hi s deni tion of a church as a c om
p any of Christians 0 r believers who by a willing c ovenant made
with G od are under th e governmen t of God and Chris t and keep
His laws in one h oly communion
The sovereign or governmen t
or magistrates have no right to meddle he said with the membe rs
of any c hur ch except in ci vil matters they must n ot act as
pr ophets or p ri ests or spiri tual kings Browne s condu c t
however destroyed his spiritual in uence On being exc om
muni ca te d by the Bishop of Peterborough h e recan t ed and ac ce pted
a living in the Church of England He died in prison at eighty
years of age hi s off en c e be ing that h e had struck a rate colle ct or
who ca me t o hi s h ou se t o c olle ct a debt & He was disown e d by
th e Independen ts who resen t ed th e name of Brownis ts by which
they were called
S ome early martyrs 0 f th e I ndependents deserve h onourabl e
mention Th acker and Coppin were execu ted a t Bury S t -Edmunds
in I 5 8 3 the year Whi tgift became Archbish op for distributin g
Br o wne s writings and refusing t o conform t o the Church of England
Th e C ourts of High
as refor med by Elizabe th and Whi tgi ft
C ommission smelling ou t heresy were busy wherever Puritans
were to be found John Greenw ood a priest and Henry B arrow e
a barrister were executed on a similar ch arge in 1 5 9 3 the year
in which the A ct was p as sed to make Puritanism a politi cal offen ce
Th e number o f t he Independents may be judged from a statement
o f Sir Walter Raleigh that year in Parliament that there were
Browni sts in England whom we wanted rooted out of t h e
commonwealth l Raleigh w as as m uch the slave of Elizab eth
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Whi tgi ft Th ose m ar tyrs died bravely holding tha t th e Q uee n

was chi ef ruler civilly bu t no farther and th at in regard to th e
C hurch o f England or any c h urch the S overeign is no m o re than
I n 1 5 9 6 twen ty fo ur I ndepe nden ts di ed in
a mere member &
p ri son A fter tha t t he Independents res olved to emigra te to
Holland and t his brings us to the second part o f o ur narra tive
as

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P IL GRI MAG E TO H O LLAND A ND &AMES I

T E H u mber es tu ary h as always been closely co nne ct ed wi th
Holland the southern pa t o f Lincolnshi re is c alled H olland B u t
a par t from t his Holland was j ust t hen a haven o f re f uge for p erse
S pain and o th er c oun t i es
ou te d Prot es tan t s from France
And
s o th e Independents became p i lgrims & They wer e not bo und
f or any priestly s hrine like t he hordes of pilgrims who h ad been
traversing Europe for centuries t o worship the relics of dead men
a nd pay tribute of g o ld and lands to t h e Bishops and pries t s w ho
k ept such s hrines as that of Thomas a Be cke tt at Canterbury
N 0 ; their pilgrimage was undertaken t o ge t away fr o m t ho s
things in order t o nd a quie t place where they mi ght worship
G od in purity and pursue their peaceful av oc a t ions unh arassed
by t yran ts claiming a divine right of persecution
Th e st comm u ni ty settled at A ms terdam wit h Fran ci s
J ohnson as pastor and Henry Ainswo th as t eacher Th ese m n
w ere no t ignorant ch urls as it is t h e la tt er day fas hi on t o describ e
early Puri tans Johnson was a fellow of C hris t s C olleg
th
C amb i dge A insworth is described as a sch olar who had no t
h is be tt er for the Hebrew tongue in Leyden n or scarc e in Europe
A second Independent se ttlement was made a t Leyden under John
Robinson &of S crooby&and John S myt h wh o wi t h their colleagues
d from England in 6 8 and 6 9
Eli abeth had di ed in 6 3
a nd was s u cceeded by James I
Whi t gi ft had died in 60 4 and
wa
suc ceeded by Archbishop B ancroft B u t t h e persecu ti o n
s till wen t o n
B an cro ft w as worse than Whi t gi ft Lord Clarend on
.

e,

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10

wr ote o f him & I f B an croft ha d li ved h e would qui ckly have

extinguished all that re in England whi ch h ad been kin dl ed a t
Ge neva
Robinson and S myth were lucky to have got o wi th
th eir lives James I was a rm believer in hi s own right divin e
He c ould not understand how a king could mai ntain his position
except as head of a State Church and by enforcing religiou s
uni formi ty I n thi s he was encouraged by Bancr o f t and the h ord e
o f att erers wh o surrounded hi s throne It has lat terly becom e
th e fashi on with High Churchm en to decry and ridicule James I
bu t w hile he li ved he was an obj ect of te rror t o hi s subj e cts hi gh
and low lay and clerica l and he was the highes t of Hig h Churchmen
One thing must not be forgo tt en for James I and t hat i s
th at he gave the world the glorious Auth o rised Version of t h e
Bible whi ch built up the Anglo-S axon ra c e and still holds it together
b y bonds stronger than any whi c h can be forged by human laws
If you wan t to know how much he was feared y ou s hould re ad
th e dedi ca tion o f the A uthorised Version in whi ch the translato rs
des cribe hi m as their mos t dr ead S overeign
We are now don e
w i th the persecuting Ki ngs and Archbishops in the course of o u r
st ory and shall o nl y add
as a pr oo f of di vine j ustice th at th e
c ondu ct o f James I led t o the exec ution of hi s son C harles I als o
that Bancr o ft s next successor but one in the see of C anterbury
William Laud was be headed in 1 6 45 and t h at during six tee n
years aft er th a t date there was no Archbishop of Can terbury
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THE

S TAY IN H OLLA ND
B U T t o pe ak o f t h at i s t o anti cipa t e even ts f or we hav e now
only g ot to th e stage where th e band o f Independents kn ow n as
th e Pilgrim F a thers are breathing the free i o f t h e D u tc h
Republic a t th e histo i c ci ty o f Leyden under th e leaders hi p o f
J ohn R o bins o n and E lder Brewst r Robinson s chara ct er i s
worth dwelli ng up o n H adv oc a ted communion with the proved
p rsec uting Ch ur ch of
go dly in all ch ur ch es in cluding e v en th
.

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ngland He sa id that wha t he h ad separa te d from was t h e

nglish national provincial diocesan and paroc hial Church in the
w hole state and order thereof
but b e delighted still t o retain
His idea o f
f ellowship wi th her many thousands o f g odl y sons
above it there could be no human authority
a Church was that
he held that Church
;
p erson or court ecclesiastical or civil
t hat the clergy
o ff ice did not exalt a man above the brotherhood
were but Christians and good only as Christians
One of hi s wise s ayings was & A sain t is mos t happy and
but the man
b lessed t hough he never held an o fce in the church
w h o holds a c hurch of ce if h e be not a saint is a most wre t ched
All ac ts of the Church he s aid mus t b e
a nd accursed creature
d one no t merely by the clergy and of ce holders but by the brethren
H i s idea of a church was a true ecclesi a or general assembly
a s well
a nd the c h urch of w hic h he was pas to r at Leyden was the tru e
arent
church
o
f
a
ll
the
independent
churc
h
es
i
k
e
in
England
a
l
p
a nd A meri ca
Wh en the Pilgrims h ad lived i n Leyden for ten years they
began to thin k seriously 0 f emigrating t o N orth A merica They
s ent two of their number
Robert Cushman and J ohn Carv er as
delega t es to London in 1 6 1 7 to negotiate with the Virgi ni a Company
f or a grant of t erri tory and t o try and secure from King James I a
p romi se of security for the ri ghts of conscience Even in a savage
wilderness thr ee thousand miles from James s c ourt they deemed
The delegates after nearly a year s delay
t his se curity necessary
returned t o Leyden wi th the message that the King was willi ng
t o encourage them and an indirec t promise from the King t ha t h e
would connive at them and not molest them provided that th ey
Then in February 1 6 1 9 R obert Cus hman
c arried peaceably l
and Elder William B rewster were sen t to London t o secure a paten t
f r o m th e Co mpany
There were two Virgini a Companies t h e
N orth ern and S outh ern the N orthern being c o mp o sed of k nigh ts
g en tlemen merchan ts and adven t urers o f B ristol Exe t er and
Plym o u th
E
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THE

TO AM ERI C A

P IL GRIM AG E

Pi l gri ms havi ng got their pa tent contr act ed with certain

merchant adventurers of London for transporta tion acr oss t h e
A tlantic as well as for money provisions implemen ts and live stock
The terms i mposed by th o se mercha nt adventurers are said to
have been very hard bu t we have not time to g o into particu lars
Two shi ps Were chartered the S peedwell o f six ty t ons a nd t h e
M ay ower o f 1 8 0 t ons
Th e Pi lgri ms wh o were
g oo d bye to thos e le ft behi nd in Holland amongst
Robinson wh o never got to A merica and sailed in the Speedwell
from D e lft h ave n on July 2 2 nd 1 6 2 0 The larger M ay ower was
to sail from Lo ndon with the necessary equipment for th e voyage
and coloni sation and meet the S pee dwell at S outh ampt on
Wh en the ships met at S outh ampton the Pilgri ms we re
c onveniently di vided be tween the two ships with their be longings
and both vesse ls sailed fr om thence on A ugust 5 th 1 6 2 0 Re yn ol ds
the captain o f the Speedwell s oo n complained tha t hi s shi p w as
leaking and both s hi ps put in to D art mouth from whi ch they se t
out again on Augus t z rst They had no inten tion of pu tting in to
Plymou th but when they were off the Land s End the Speedwell
again e w signals of dis tress and b oth shi ps pu t ab o u t and sailed
back to Plymouth Harbour where i t was found t ha t Reyn olds h ad
been guilty of decep tion and was endeavouring to pre ven t th e
v o yage It was then decided to dismiss the Speedwell and su ch of
he r passengers as c o uld n o t be a cco mm odated in the M ay ower
and about twenty of the P ilgri ms including R obert C u s hman
re tu rned t o London
THE
M A Y FL O WER
REA CHES L A ND
TH EN the M ay ower sailed al one o n her perilo u s v oyage a cr oss
the Atlantic on S eptember 6 th 1 6 2 0 and after ba ttling w i th th e
st o rmy winds and se as for over tw o month s at length fell i n wi t h
t he land called Cape C o d o n N o vem b e r 9 t h
Th e P ilg rims
Th e

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in t en ti o n had been t o se ttl e on the Hudson River in the fdre sent

S tat e o f N e w Y ork and an agreement h a d been signed with th e
ship s mas t er to t hat e ff ect
but Captain Jones of the M ay ower
is suspect ed of ha ving bee n bribed by the D u t ch who were then
thi nking of sending a colony to the Hudson themselves Thus
i t c ame abou t that the Pilgrims were forced to land on the less
des i rable shores of M assachusetts J ones threatened to sail away
with t h eir belongings if t hey di d not quickly decid e on a pla c e o f
se t tlemen t at C ape Cod
The Pilgrims who lande d numbered 1 0 1
men w o men and children and not a single life had been lost on t h e
v oyage The principal names are well knownJ ohn Carver
William Bradford Edward Winslow William Brewster Isaa c
Allerton Cap t ain M iles Standish J ohn H owland John Alden
Samuel Fuller t h ere being 4 2 men and 5 9 women and children
I t is worth st ating that on N ovember 3 rd whi le the M ay ower
w as still a t sea a new paten t was signed by King James in co r
porati ng the adven t urers between 40 and 4 8 degrees N orth Lati t ud e
th at is from about Philadelphi a t o N ewfoundland Thi s pate nt
w as th e founda ti on of all subsequent titles to land in t hat region
the council es t ablished
I n i t the title given to the adventurers is
for the planti ng ruling
at Plymo u t h in the county of D von
ordering and governing of N e w England in N orth A meri ca Th e
P i lgrims had therefore substanti al reason for naming the i r rst
s e ttlemen t in M assachusetts
N ew Plymouth in h on our of t h e
fam ou s town in w hich we are ass embled this evening
IN M ASS A CH U SE TT S
WE have now c ome to the third s t age of our narrative Th e
P ilgrim Fathers are landed in A merica with all their troubles be fore
them I I need n ot dwell upon the di fculties they had to enc ounter
in c olonising a thi ckly populated savage coun try There is a vas t
and en t ertaining and stimula ting literature on the subj ect
I have
j us t read s ome books th at are worth men tioni ng & M iss Spo ord s
M iss A us tin s B etty
Three H eroi nes of N ew E ngland R omance
1

&

14

A lden S tandi sh of S tand i sh and D avi d A lden s D aughter ; E d ward

Eggles ton s The B egi nners of a N ati on ; Pauline M a ie s Y e
all
hese are n vels wi a large substra m
Lyttle S alem M ai de
f fact T en here is George Bancroft s C oloni al A meri ca and

ck

th

tu

o
h t
the great Frenc h p hilos op her D e To cque ville from wh om I s hall
p resently give you some quotati ons ; b sides th e true c hroni cl es
of the P i lgrims th emselves such as Govern or Bradford s H i to y
Dr Y oung s C h oni l and Hu t c hinson s H i to y of M
hu tts
I do
Th ere are innumerable memoirs o f th e Pl ymout h Co lo ny
not pretend t o give an exhaus tive list for withou t exaggera ti on
i t may be said that thei r name is legion
S o me pe o ple thi n k t ha t the hi storians and n o ve lis ts have
magnied the importance o f the s mall handf ul o f men w o men
and children landed in the M yow ; but the tru th is th a t th e
world d o es not ye t realise with anyt hi ng like f ull appreciati o n
what humanit y owes t o th Pilgrim F ath ers Th ey were as a grain
of mustard which grew so qui ckly from being the smalles t o f plan t
that the birds of the ai found shelter in i t s branches It is estimat ed
that there were
Puri tan emi grant landed in N ort h A meri ca
d u i ng t h e twenty years imme di ately following t h e hist o ri c landing
at Plym out h R oc k in 1 6
S ome autho i ties p ut the gu re as
hi gh as
CHARA C TER OF THE PI L GRIM C O L O N Y
T E unique and extraor di nary fea t ure of this C olony whi ch
mak es i t di ff eren t fr o m any o t her colony is th at it was from t h e

c es,

assac

se

er

20

rst and always remained as it grew in wealth and numb e rs

esse n tially a col o ny of God feari ng God servi ng men and women
wi th ou t pries ts o r bishops or any of t he religious p araphernali a of
Europe I n 1 6 3 1 after eleven years of s truggle in their new se ttle
men t a Ge neral Co urt of M assachusetts was held a t whi ch i t w as
res olv e d th a t
no man shall be admitted t o the freed o m o f this
b o dy p oli tic but such as are membe rs of s o me o f t h e chu r ches
wi thi n th e li mi ts o f t h e sa me
,

&

15

of the grea t s t faul ts found with the Pilgrim Fa thers by

broadmi nded mercen a y and vicious pe ople and by th e wri ters
wh o cater for such people is tha t the Pi lgrim Fa thers were kill j oys
who obj ect d to all the pleasures o f life Well i t ll depends on
Y ou cann ot serv e G od and M ammon
w hat you c all pl asure
Y ou cannot be on both sides
An
Y ou must make your choice
American writer o f the present day a true son of the Pilgrim Fa th ers
1
put
s
the
case
in
these
words
How
often
we
desire
two
mu
t
ually
z
things evil pleasures and a clear conscience self
e xclu i ve
i indulgenc and g oo d hea lth la iness and success a selsh w orldly
life and a consciousness of ser vi ng G o d & M n everywhere a
trying t o possess themselves of two thi ngs that exclude each other
They have to take one or the oth er Th
and they always fail
cen tral lesson of li fe is that we mus t choose The Pilgrim Fathe s
made their choi ce Th ey preferred a clear conscience to e vil
ple a ures good health t o self
i ndulgence success to lazine s and
a c on scio u sness of se ving G o d to a selsh worl dl y life
RES U L T S FOR EN G L A ND
I AS K th ose cri tics of the Pu i tans whether N orth A meri c a
w o uld h ave bec o me the h u ge su c cess it has become if i ts master
minds were vici o us sport
instead of b ing g odly men & Th
histo y of humani ty d oes n ot show a single case o f a colony or
a na tion ad di cted t o self indulgence and vi ce whi ch had any lasting
N ot only did the Indep nden ts of N w England succe d
success
th emselves , bu t their success reac ted on the Old England whi ch
The I ndependents of England grew
t h ey had been driven from
s t ong and were s o emboldened by the success o f t h
so
M as achusetts Colony th at th ey rose agains t Archbishop Laud
th e successor o f B ancr o ft and Whitgiftnot only rose agains t
Th ey fought a Civil
b ut t i u mphantly b a t down the tyr n t
War here in E ngland for a great ca u e in which they carried all
We talk about the rev olution involved in th e
b e fore th em
It is
d ownfall o f th e K aise rs of Ge many A us t ia and Russia
O ne

&

re

&

16

nearly as ep oc h-making ex cep t in regard to th e n u mbers

i nvolved as the revolution which pu t down Charles I and Arc h
bishop Laud and put Oliver Cromwell in their pla ce as the Lord
Protector o f the English C o mm onwealth Th ere is no s uch clear
p rin ci ple or high ideal involved in the rese ttlemen t of Eur ope
to day as was involved in the re se ttlemen t of England in the Ci vil
War Cromwell the I ndependen t was ruler of England S cotlan d
and I reland in abou t twen t y ve years a f ter the da te o f the landing
of the Pi lgrims on Pilgri m Rock in Cape C od B ay
Civil War is a dreadful scourge bu t it is no t by th e so called
pleasant thi ng s of life tha t God sends His bless i ngs M os t of t h e
freedom and prosperity we enj oy to day are to be tr aced t o t h e
victory over D i vine R ight in Kings and Bishops by Oliver Cromwell
and his Ironsides And the victory of Cromwell as I have s how n
was largely due to the God fearing earnest c olonists of
The spiri t of the Pilgrims sprea d over all th e
M assachuse t ts
N e w England S tates rst and a fterwards over all t he Uni ted
S tates of wha t is now the Great Republic of th e West exten di ng
from the A tlantic to the Pacic and cons titu ting the larges t and
riches t area of the world ever held by a single people
T HE WAR OF I ND EPE ND EN CE
WH E N the American Coloni es were d ri ven t o break t he
connection with England in 1 7 7 6 it is now generally ad mi tted
that they ha d j ustice on their side J ohn Ri chard Green t h e
popular hi storian o f the English people admi ts thi s and unh esi
tati ngly throws all the blame for the breach on t he t hen King o f
England George III Green wri tes as follow s & The King was
now supreme and George did not hesitate to form a M inistry
steadily oppose d to any recognition of public opinion The M inis try
was in fact a mere cloak for the direction of public affairs by George
hi mself George was in fact the M inistry th rough the years o f
i ts existence and the shame of the darkest hour of English h istory
li es wh olly a t his doo r
It w as n ot u ntil 1 8 7 4 nearly a hu ndred
not

&

&

17

ye ars a fter th e D eclara tion o f Ameri can I nde pe ndence that thi s
fa c t was known t o the general b ody o f the English pe ople
I f you read tha t marv ellous document t h e D e clarati on of
I ndepe ndence you will nd that it goes strai ght for George and for
George alone All the counts of the in di ctment begin with the
word He
and He is King George III And it wi nds up
wi th thi s sentence & A nd for the support of thi s D ec laration
wit h a rm reliance on the protection of D ivine Providence we
mu t ually pledge each other our lives our fortunes and our sac red
honour
The Pilgrim Fathers could never have imagined their
descendants would address such a communication to the royal
desc endant of their mos t dr ead S o vereign Lord King James I
And ye t it breathes th e very spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers ; and
the men who won the War of Independence were all G od feari ng
men who honoured the Pilgrims and regarded them as the founders
and real fathers of the U nited S tates
The C onstitution of the U nited S tat es whi ch starts with th e
assertions that all men are born equal and that there shall be n o
is j ust what th e
system o f religion w h ate v er established by law
Pilgrim Fathers would have written under the same circumstances
B ut I d o n o t go into these questi ons thi s evening I merely wi sh
t o point out that the separati on of U nited St ates from England
did nothi ng but g ood to England I t was during the following
cen tury the nineteenth that all Britai n s real greatnes s was built
u p Those who talk and write of the loss of the A merica n Colonies
as if it were a subj ect for lamenta tion do n o t k n o w wh at th ey are
talking or writing ab out Looking back at wha t England w as
i n 1 7 8 2 and co mparing her c ondition then with wh a t we see h er
to-day we are j ustied in saying th at th e Inde pe nden ce o f A meri ca
w as all gain and no loss to t he Englis h pe ople at ho me
THE P IL GRI M SP IRIT IN THE C I&I L WAR
F R O M th e D e cl aration of Indepe ndence to the o utbrea k of th e
A m e rican Ci vil War in 1 86 1 ther e was co nsi d erab l e sore n e ss and
,

'

'

&

&

18

be tween th e oi ci al clas s in this count ry and t he G o vern

men t of the U nited S tates But there was no hos tility betwee n
the peoples who were and are one pe ople spe a king the same
Th e
langu age reading the same B ible worshipping t h e same G o d
virtu ous pe ople at home were always upheld and en c ouraged by
the growth and expansion of their ki ndred in the Uni ted S ta te s
And when the A merican Ci vil War came it was fought for as
clear an issue as hi gh an ideal as the Englis h C ivil War of t h e
The descendants of the Pilgrim Fath ers
seventeenth centu ry
th e men of the N orthern S ta tes resolved to die on t he b att le eld
and for what & Oh my friends the answer is glorious and makes
one proud of thi s miserable human na tu re They de cided t o ght in
order that no black man woman or chi ld should ever again be a
slave within the borders of the U nited S tates The pures t whi t e
men in the world the proudes t of their p ure whi te bl oo d the one
ra ce of white coloni sts who never intermarried wi th th e c oloured
folk went into ba ttle to free those black pe ople and died in
thousands to set them free so tha t th e words of their Cons ti tu ti o n
might be proved true that all men are b orn equal
Th eir leader as you know w as A braham Lincoln ; and if
ther e was ever a man more like the Pilgri m Fathers more tr ue to
the type of the Engli sh Indepe nden ts I h ave yet to discover him
For sheer godliness Abra ham Lincoln deserve s to b e called a sain t
for bravery he may well be called a hero ; for simplici t y and
h on our he h as no s uperi or in human hi story ; for statesmans hip
he was like one of those an cient Romans who le ft the s haf ts of th e
plough to take up t h e di c tatorshi p and save the Republic As
Philips Brookes said of hi m
It is the grea t boon of such chara cters
as Abraham Lincoln s that they reunite what Go d h as j oined
to gether and man h as put asunder In hi m w as vindi cated t h e
greatness of real g oodness and the g o odness of real greatness
Th e twain were one esh Th ere are men as g oo d as he bu t they
d o bad t hings There are men as in te lligent as he bu t they d o
ill-fee lin g

19

fooli sh things I n hi m g ood ness

ma de their be st result of wisdom
th e

memory of Abraham L incoln

intelligence c ombined an d
May G od make us worthy o f

nd

&
.

THE P UR ITAN

WOM EN

triumph of the N orth over the South in the United S ta te s

was t h e victory of right over wrong The colossal results of tha t
vi ctory in the growth of the great R epublic are an enco uragemen t
t o every man and woman who loves the right and is prepared t o
bear loss rather than d o what is against their conscience We
ha ve ample proof that the Pilgri m F athers were seed sown by
G od H imself on a fruitful soil and the world is now garnering
the crop a hundred yea a thousand fold in that un questioned
greatness and unbounded power of the United Sta es of Ameri ca
which sprang from such humble G od fearing beginnings As the
best possible answer to those who pick holes in the Puritan
character let me read for you some extracts from the F rench
phi losopher De T ocqueville one of the greatest and clearest
thi nkers of the ni neteenth century I feel that no public address
o n any publi c question at present should omi t to state how women
are affected by it Women have &ust been enfranchi sed in thi s
c ountry ; they have not yet got the vote in America ; but let us
see what D e T ocqueville thought of the condition of women in
Puritan America Thi s is hi s verdict
In the United States the do ctrines of Protestantism are
c o mbined with great political freedom and a most democrati c
st ate of society ;
and nowhere are young women surrendered so
early or s o completely to their own guidance E ven ami dst t h e
independence of early youth an American woman is always
mistr ess of herself she indulges in all permitted pleasures wi thou t
yi elding herself up to any of them ; and her reason never allows
t he reins of self guidan c e to dr op Although the Americans are
a very religious people they do not rely on religion alone to defen d
t h e virt ue of woman
they seek to arm her reason also
TH E

&

20

m uch f or the girls N ow h e ar what he sa ys of t h e m arri ed

women
In Ameri c a the independen c e of women is irrevo cably
l ost in the bonds of matrimony ; if an unmarried woman i s less
co nstrai ned there t h an e lsew h e re a wife is sub&ecte d to s tricter
ob ligations The daughter makes her father s house an abode of
freedom and pleasure the wife lives in the home of her husband
as if it were a cloister The Americans are at the same time a
puritanical people and a commercial nation their religious op i nions
as well as their trading habits conse quently lead them to re quire
much abn egation on the part of woman and a constant sacri ce
of her pleasures to her duties which is seldom demanded of her in
Europe T hus in the United States the inex orable opi nion of the
public carefully circumscribe s woman withi n the narrow circle of
domestic interests and duties and forbids her to step beyond it
Precocious marriages are rare Thus American women do no t
marry until their understandings are e x ercised and ripened where as
in other countries most women generally only begin to e xercis e
and to ripe n their understandings after marriage
N ow what does De Tocquevi lle say of the general relationshi p
between the sex es & H e says & Although the travellers who
have visited N orth America di e r on a great number of points
they all agree in remarking that morals are far more s t rict there
than elsewhere The Americans have applied to the sex es the
great principle of poli tical economy whi ch governs the manufactures
of our age by carefully dividing the duties of man from those o f
woman in order that the great work of society may be the bette r
carri ed on In no coun t ry has such constant care been taken
as in America to trace two clearly distinct lines of action for the
two sexes and to make them keep pace one with the other b ut
i n two pathways whi ch are always di fferent
So

&

&

THE P R E S E NTDAY

P O WER

OF PUR ITANIS M

the great writer thus wi nds up & I do no t hesitate t o

a vow that although the women of the United Sta tes are con ne d
AN

21

within t h e nar ow circle of domes tic life I h ave n owhere seen

women occupying a loftier position ; and if I were a ked to what
t h singular prosperity and growing s trength of that people ough t
mainly to be attributed I should replyto the superiority o f
t heir women
L t tha t be ui i nt vin di cation of Puritanism
and u i nt answer to those innumerable writers who sneer a t
the P uritan women whi le they praise N ell G wynn and the other
c ourtesans of Charles II B ut i t may be said that all this is a
thi ng of the p t and that the Puritan spi i t no longer prevai ls
N o my f i nd let us thank G od that such
I n the Uni ted States
i not the fact
The vicious writers in the Press and in a large
class of books would tell you so for with them the wish is father to
the thought The spi i t of the Pilgrim F athers still lives an d
r

c e

c e

as

r e

s,

les America and the proof of it was seen in t h at gr e at e st

pilgrimage ever seen on this earth when over thr ee mi llions of
free Ame ri can citi ens crossed the Atlantic to ght for the salvation
o f E urope in the Gre at War Th ey threw in their weight &us t
at the vital moment when our Prime Minister sent his tragi c
appeal to Preside nt Wilson for instant help after the big push
back of our armies in March 19 18 And now we see the apparently
almighty G erm an hopelessly beaten
O r again in answer to those sporting &
ournalists and book
writ ers who make a hero of Charles II and a saint of N ell Gwynn
d o you think that if the Puri tan spirit were dead in Ameri c a th e
whole R epublic would have solemnly decided by a vote of all t h e
S tat es to amend the Constitution so that alcoholic drink might no
lo nger be manufactured or sold w ithin the Union & They saw
t hat thrift and ha rd work would be necessary t o pull together
a ft er the war and they took the old Puritan road of self -denial
as the be st way t o tr avel in the serious times which are now ahead
I say it without fear of contra di ction tha t in the whole hi story of
the human race you will not nd su ch an act on the part of a great
nati on or even a sm all na tion as t ha t sole mn amendmen t of th e
ru

'

'

22

&

Co ns titution by all the Sta tes last year for the suppression o f
Tha t is Puritani sm alive and in full vigour in
a lcoholic d rink
this twentieth century May the lesson not be lost on us at home
a nd may we here b enet as the result of the great sta nd f or
temperance whi ch is now being made i n the land of the Pilgrim
F athers & As the progress of our kindred in America reacted
upon O ld England for the bene t of the Motherland after t h e
founding of the Plymouth Colony i n the seventeenth century
a nd after the declaration of American Independence in t he
eighteenth century and again after the American Civil War in
the nineteenth century so assuredly will the great position now
taken up by the United Stat es react for our bene t in every good
s ense moral and material
.

A M ER I C AN P U R ITANIS M

E SS ENTIALLY EN GLIS H

one great thought we should always keep uppermost in

our minds about America is that the people of the United States
who domi nate the whole Western hemisphere of the globe are
not only people of B ritish stock but especially of E nglish stock
They have shown the typically E nglish facultie s of making a home
even in the most unpromising places abroad and of absorbing
a nd amalgamating people of all other nationalities who came to
li ve with them &ust as E ngland h as always kept her door open
t o foreigners of every land who came here and became English in
less tha n a generation ; so America has done like wise B ut
whatever race or clime an im mi grant into the Uni ted States be longed
t o the immigrant had and has to learn the E nglish language
thereby making it certain that E nglish wi ll be the world language
of the future
There may be a few racial backwaters in the
Sta tes where other tongues are spoken or newspapers printed
in foreign languages but these are mere temporary phenomen a
b o und t o &oin the stream of pr o gre ss a nd employ E nglish f o r their
own c omfort and advantage
TH E

23

M O &EME NT
AN D now I must draw thi s litt le sketch of the beginni ngs and
wonderful pr ogr ess of the spiri t represe nte d by the men called
the Pilgri m F athers to a close It was essentially a spiritu al
movement born of the R eformation The Independents o f Scrooby
were patient in spirit The even t proves that the patient in spirit
are better than the proud G od is a S piri t and the Pilgrims
worshi pped H i m in spirit and in truth Where the spiri t of the L ord
The b od y wi thout the spirit is dead May
i s there is li bert y
th e body of this B ritish land of ours be re in f used Wi th the g odly
an d fearless and self denyin g spiri t of the noble pionee rs wh ose
A great chastenin g
hi sto ry we h ave be en considerin g to night
gives us a great O pportunit y May G od guide us to use tha t
opportuni ty not for sel sh materialism but for enlarging th e
May we be lled wi th th e
Spiri t ual i ndependence of our race
true spiri t of G od and ha ve an enthusiasm for H i s servi ce and t h e
se rvi ce of mankind as lofty as the Pilgrim F athers & R en e w a
0 L ord and save us from th e
right spiri t within us as a peop le
f a ls e guides who would r a ise up wi thi n us fee lings of petty envy
and &ealousy
May we in the words of the Compact signed by the Pilgrim s
at N ew Plymouth on N ovembe r r rt h 1 6 2 0 undertake whatever
w e do as a nation for the gl o ry of God t h e advan ce ment o f t h e
fai th and t h e honour o f our K in g and Coun try 1
PUR ITANIS M A S P IR ITU AL

24

d
H
u
n
t
s
H
a
n
es
o
m
a
&
B y DR

of

AL E & AN D E R M AC KE N N

wi t h

AL

ill us trati o ns in c olour

12/

P ri ce

E L vnr a
and bl
k n

a nd

rs,

ac a d whi te

HCI

M A,
.

Tales f or Y oung Protestant s

P ri ce

ne t

P R O TE S TAN T
3

St

TR
'

UT H

P ul s Ch ur

SO C I E TY
h yar
E C 4