p. 167 | Pilgrims and Puritans

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 23, 1876

Pilgrims and Puritans.

It is somewhat remarkable that at this late day it should be necessary to remind any educated person, especially one who assumes to refer in a public address to topics connected with New England history, that the names “Pilgrim” and “Puritan” are not interchangeable, and that the Pilgrims were not persecutors. Especially is it strange when the perverter of history is a bishop, and the address in which the wrong is done, a sermon. We are not much surprised when a congressional jester points a sneer at Massachusetts, with the assertion that the Pilgrims burnt witches on Boston common. But a bishop cannot be suspected of sneering nor of a willingness to distort facts for a purpose. He ought, one would suppose, to avoid with unusual care the risk of misstatement incurred by any one who ventures to speak or write on a subject of which he is ignorant. Yet Bishop Stevens, of Pennsylvania, in his discourse at the consecration, some time ago, of the Protestant Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, a discourse addressed to the descendants of both Pilgrims and Puritans, fell into the grave mistake of confounding the settlers of Plymouth, known in our history as the Pilgrims, with those of the Massachusetts Bay colony, who were ecclesiastically of that branch of the Church of England known in the Old World and in the New by the name of Puritans, and accusing the former of intolerance and persecution.

Mr. John A. Goodwin, of Lowell, could not allow these errors to go uncorrected, and therefore in a letter to the bishop he gives him a lesson in New England history to the following purport. The Pilgrims were originally of the sect of Separatists, or Brownists, and they, or the most of them, lived in Yorkshire, England, near Scrooby. They refused all connection with the Church of England and were bitterly persecuted. Under the lead of John Robinson, Brewster, and Bradford, they escaped to Holland, and lived for some time there. Becoming dissatisfied with the bigotry of their fellow Separatists, they left them, and formed the first church of the denomination of Independents. Fearing the evil influences of Holland for their children, they embarked for America, and before landing at Plymouth they drew up and mutually subscribed a form of democratic government.

For seventy years they maintained a separate government and were recognized as a distinct colony. They were remarkably tolerant of differences of religious opinion, and, as all histories agree, they did not persecute any one for conscience’ sake. The Puritans were the founders of the Massachusetts Bay colony. They belonged to the Church of England, but after their arrival at Salem, determined to form a church organization of their own. They did persecute Quakers and Baptists, and their government, both in matters ecclesiastical and civil, was much more severe and intolerant than that of the Plymouth colony. Probably Bishop Stevens will not repeat his mistake, but other people will continue to make it, for the distinction between Pilgrims and Puritans is one which it seems impossible for persons otherwise decently well informed to understand or remember.—Massachusetts Spy.