The Story of the Pilgrims

Morton Dexter

Congregational Sunday-school and publishing society, 1894 - Congregationalism - 363 pages

In the fourteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme in England. The first break from the Church occurred in the early 1500s when King Henry VII wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine. The King's break with the Roman Catholic Church created the Anglican Church (Church of England) which, though not entirely Protestant, nonetheless allowed a revival of Protestantism. Many of these Protestants were called Puritans "because of their wish to purify and reform the State Church." Religious persecution continued through the 1600s, however, for any group that varied too far from the teachings of the Church of England. The Pilgrims evolved from the Puritans.

The author endeavors "to make plain something of the exalted character of the men and women whom preeminently the world has agreed to call the Pilgrims...." who "maintained steadily their lofty intellectual, moral, and religious standards and soon exerted an enlightening influence upon the world out of all proportion to the smallness of their colony." This informative and readable history includes biographical sketches of Robert Browne, William Brewster, William Bradford, and John Robinson, as well as many notes on lesser known but nonetheless important early Pilgrims. The Pilgrim towns of Scrooby and Austerfield in England are described in detail, as is the now-famous Plymouth Colony of 1620 in Massachusetts. The author describes the colony in detail, devoting chapters to its early life, commercial history, and first year of existence.

This book was originally printed as a series of weekly articles in 1893 for members of the Scrooby Clubs, a nationwide collection of individuals associated with the Congregational Church.

(1894, 1990), 2022, 51/2x81/2, paper, index, 386 pp.

Contents

• I: 11
• II: 24
• III: 36
• IV: 50
• V: 61
• VI: 72
• VII: 83
• VIII: 97
• IX: 107
• X: 118
• XI: 130
• XII: 141
• XIII: 151
• XIV: 163
• XV: 175
• XVI: 189
• XVII: 200
• XVIII: 212
• XX: 222
• XXI: 234
• XXII: 245
• XXIII: 257
• XXIV: 270
• XXV: 281
• XXVI: 301
• XXVII: 315
• XXVIII: 326

Popular passages

Page 190 - Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembred by that which wente before), they had now no freinds to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure.

Page 187 - Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia...

Page 187 - ... covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

Page 210 - ... spared no pains, night nor day, but with abundance of toyle and hazard of their owne health, fetched them woode, made them fires, drest them meat, made their beads, washed...

Page 187 - Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid...

Page 156 - Lastly (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the...

Page 209 - But that which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time...

Page 297 - Plymouth spoke to the question ; after him the elder; then some two or three more of the congregation. Then the elder desired the Governor of Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of their duty of contribution; whereupon the Governor and all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the box, and then returned.

Page 153 - For many that came to them, and many more that desired to be with them; could not endure that great labor and hard fare, with other inconveniences which they underwent and were contented with.

Page 115 - ... ende they knew not what to doe with them ; for to imprison so many women & innocent children for no other cause (many of them) but that they must goe with their husbands, semed to be unreasonable...

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Story of the Pilgrims
• Author: Morton Dexter
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Congregational Sunday-school and publishing society, 1894
• Original from: the University of Virginia
• Digitized: Aug 29, 2007
• ISBN: 1556133561, 9781556133565
• Length: 363 pages