Religious Matters

From the beginning the Pilgrims had cause for uneasiness concerning religious matters. They greatly desired to have their pastor, Mr. Robinson, come over from Leyden, but the greed of their speculating partners in England prevented his transportation to America. He was regarded as the head of the English Non-conformists or Puritans, though away in Holland. To please the Crown and the Church of England, for purposes of gain, these partners persistently opposed his emigration to America in any English vessel, and he never saw his beloved church that was planted in the wilderness. Meanwhile efforts were made, through the deception of false pretences, to bring the Pilgrims under the control of the Church of England, but failed. A hypocrite named Lyford was sent there to preach, and he and a confederate (John Oldham) conspired to overthrow both the political and religious system at Plymouth. Their wickedness was discovered, and on being arraigned before Governor Bradford, Lyford "burst into tears and confessed that he was afraid that he was a reprobate." His confederate was banished, but Lyford was pardoned on making loud professions of penitence. They were insincere; and being caught in seditious tricks again, he was deposed from the ministry and banished from Plymouth.

The Pilgrims regarded Mr. Robinson as their pastor until his death in 1625. Religious services at Plymouth had been conducted, from the beginning, by Elder Brewster, in the form of prayer and exhortation, and were kept up until a regular pastor was provided. Some of their exercises were conducted in a democratic manner. On Sunday afternoons, a question would be propounded by the elder, to which all had a right to speak. In the exercise of private judgment these religious meetings sometimes became the arena of intemperate debates; and after a pastor was called, it was difficult to retain one there, because of the restiveness of the people under even moderate discipline.

The independent colony of Weston failed, but another was attempted at Cape Ann, where Gloucester now stands, by the Rev. John White, rector of Trinity Church, Dorchester, England, and several influential persons whom he persuaded to join him. They expected to found there a flourishing fishing colony, but the enterprise failed and was abandoned. White was not disheartened. He infused his own spirit into other powerful citizens, whose names afterward appeared conspicuous in the annals of New England. They formed a Company in 1628, and purchased a tract of land extending from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles south of the Charles River, and westward to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean.

In the summer of that year, the Company sent John Endicott, one of their number (including his wife and children), with emigrants, to settle on the domain. Endicott was commissioned governor or general manager of the colony; and then he began his long and eventful career in New England. He was then forty years of age; possessed of an imperious and unyielding will; was a most rigid Puritan in thought and manner; benevolent though austere, and was intolerant of all dissenting opinions.

Endicott conducted the little colony to Naumkeag, where some of White's men from Cape Ann were seated. After settling some disputes about the right of occupation and control, he named the place Salem, the Hebrew word for "peaceful." There he soon displayed his stern opposition to all "vain amusements," by causing a May-pole to be cut down, which the Dorchester people had set up. He lectured them on the folly of amusements, and warned them to "look there should be better walking."

Several persons of wealth and influence in Boston, Lincolnshire, and elsewhere, joined the company early in 1629, and in March a royal charter was granted creating them a corporation under the name of "The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England." The administration of public affairs was intrusted to a governor, deputy, and eighteen assistants or magistrates, who were to be elected annually by the stockholders of the Company. A general assembly of the freemen of the colony was to be held at least four times a year to legislate for the colony. The king claimed no jurisdiction, for he regarded the whole affair as a trading operation, and not as the founding of an empire. He could not comprehend the moral and religious movements going on around him, and was lavish of privileges which he could not easily recall. The charter conferred upon the colonists of Massachusetts Bay all the rights of English subjects without exacting many corresponding duties; and it was afterward used as a text for many powerful discourses against the usurpations of royalty.