4
PURITAN N E W E N G LA N D
"Pilgrims"aTCpeoplewhomakeajourneyfo r
rdi~iollsreaso ns .Burfo rArnericau sth ewordhas a
specialmeaning.T o th emit meansa smallRWUPof
Eng lishm enand women w hosailed ;l(TOS ,>the
Atlant icOceanin rhcp:ar 1620 .Theg rou p's
mem bersca me(0be calledthe Pilgrims becausethey
went[0AmericatofindreligIOUSfreedom.
SonwtimcsAmericanscallthemth e Pi lgrimFath ers.
T h isis b..-causct hcv secthemasth e m o st i mportant
ofthefoundersofthefutureU nitedSu rC'So f
America.
T he Europe thatthePilgrim slett behin d them was
tombyreligiousquarrels. Form or ethana th ou sand
yearsRo m an CatholicC h ristian ityhad beenth e
religi ono fmosrofits people.Bythe sixteenth
century ,how eve r.so me Euro pe ansh;1(1 begullto
doubtth e teaching sofrhcCatholicChurc h.T h...y
werealsog ro wingangry at [hewealthandworldly
p rideofits leaders.
E:lTlyin th e ccnru rva Germanm onknam edM ar ti n
Lut herquarreledwiththeselead ers.l ie claimed that
ind ivid ua l humanbeingsdid norn eedth e Popeo r the
p ries tsofth eCatholicChu rchtoenableth emto
speaktoGo d. Afewyearslatera Fren chlawyer
»amcdjohnCalvinputforwardsim ilarideas.Calvin
claimed thateachindi vidu alWJ.Sdirectl yand
personallyresp o n sibletoGod. Bccau sc rhcv
protest edagain st thercachingsan dcusto ms of rhe
Cath o licChurch.religio us refo rm erslikeLut her and
C alvinwer e called" Protest Jllts.·· T hei r ideasspr ead
quicklyth ro u gh nor thernEurope.
PewpeoplebelievedIIIreligioustolerationat t his
rime .In mo s t count ries peo plewere expectedtoha vc
th esamereli gionJStheirruler.T hiswasth e casein
England. In th e I530stheEngli shk ing .Hcn rv VIII,
form ed a nationalchurchwithh imsel f asits head.In
thelateryearsofthesixteenthcen tu r ym an yEngli sh
peoplebelievedth atthisChurch o f Eng lan dwasstill
toomuchlike theCatholicC hurch.Theydi slik ed the
powl"r;of itsbishops. T h eydislik edits elaborate
n'remoniesan dth e richd ecorarionsofitsch urches.
l"11l'Yalso qucsrioucdm an y o f irs teaching s.Such
peoplew antedth e Church o f En glan d tob eco m e
1(,more plain an dsimple,or"pure. " Because of rhis
th eyw er ecalledPurit an s.The i deas of j o hn Calvin
appealedparticularly st ronglyto t hem.
WhelljamesIbecameKin gofEllglandin 1603 he
warnedthePu ritans th athe:woul d driveth em fro m
the landif theydid not accepth is ideaso n religion.
Ilis bishopsbegan finingthePuritansandputting
th emIIIprison .T o escape this per secutio n.a small
groupofthemlettEn gl andandwcnrtoHollan d.
H o llan dwas th e o n lycoun tryinEuro pewhose
govern me ntallowed religiousfreedo m atrhistime.T hepeople ofllo llandwelcomedthelittlegroupof
exile...Butt hePuritan sneverfelt at homethere.
Afte rm uchtho u ghtandmuchprayertheydecidedto
move again.Som eofthe:m-theP ilg r ims -decidedto
gotoAmerica.
First t heyreturn ed b ridiy[0Engla nd.Here they
persuadedtheVirginiaCom panytoallowrhcmto
settlein [henorthernpanofitsAmerican lands .On
September16. 1620 .thePilg rim slcfrhcEn glishTheMayflower Co mpact
When [he Pilgrims arrived otT th e coast of
Americath eyfaced man yd an ger sanddifficult ies.
They d idnotwant toputthemsel ve sIIIfurther
d anger by quarreling with oneanother. Befo re
lan din gatPl ym o uth , therefore.th eywroteo ura ll
agr eem ent. In this document[hey agr eedto wo rk
together fo r thegoodo f all.The ag reement was
signedby all fo r ty- one m enonboardthe May-
.f 111 1l't'r.ItbecameknownastheMayflo we rCom-
pact. In theCompactth e Pl ymo ut h settlersagreed
to SCt u p agovernment-J"civil bo d ypohtic't-oo
m ake"justand cqua l Ia...vs" for their newsettl e-
m ent. Allof[hem .Pilg rimsandSt ran ger salike.
promisedth atth eywou ldobey th eselaws .In th e
d ifficult years w hic h fo llo we d. the M ayflower
Compactserved th e colonis tswell.It is rcmcm -
bored today asone o f the:first uuportanrdocu-
rncu ts inth e historyo f democraticgove rn m ent 111
America.