I remember studying about the Pilgrims in elementary school.  The girls would dress up with wide white paper collars.  The boys would also wear the wide paper collars, but they would add tall black hats with buttons on the front.  We would then put on a Thanksgiving program for our parents and sing Christian songs like, “We Gather Together To Ask the Lord’s Blessing.”  One year especially stands out in my mind, because one of the students wasn’t feeling well and vomited all over the small stage we were standing on.  It’s interesting what childhood memories make us a lasting impression on us.

Back to the pilgrims.  The official name for the Pilgrims was “Separatists.”  They viewed the Church of England as unscriptural and refused to abide by its rituals.  They sought to separate from the Church of England and form an entire new church.  The Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England and thus the name, Puritans.  Both the Pilgrims and the Puritans were Calvinists in doctrine.  Therefore, they believed in Luther’s “creator-redeemer distinction,” and his “liberty of conscience” theories.  They also adhered to Calvin’s “resistance theories” to rulers who infringed upon God given liberties.

Persecution was brutal for these groups in England.  The king had appointed Archbishop William Laud to reign in these rebellious groups.  The Puritans in particular suffered, for they published pamphlets defining what they considered the errors in the Church of England.  If caught, it was common for Archbishop Laud to order their ears to be cut off or one or both cheeks to be branded.  Some were even hanged.  These punishments were meted out to both men and women alike.

In response to the persecution, the Separatists, or Pilgrims, chose to flee to Leydan, Holland.  In Holland, they experienced the freedom to worship according to their firmly held beliefs and were allowed to practice their religion in the public square.  However, after a few years, they became concerned, because they saw their children picking up the habits and customs of the Dutch.  They did not want their children to grow up to be Dutch.  They wanted them to be English.  After returning to England to join another group they called the Strangers, the Pilgrims boarded a ship named the Mayflower and sailed to the New World.

After sixty-four days of difficult sailing on the Atlantic Ocean, they landed at a place in New England, which they named New Plymouth, after Plymouth, England.  Upon reaching land, one of their first realizations was that they were many miles from the authority of the King of England.  Recognizing their need for some form of government, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620.  They elected William Bradford as their governor.

The second paragraph of the Mayflower Compact states, “Having undertaken, for the glory of God and Advancement of the Christian faith and Honour of our King and Country…”  The Pilgrims pledged their submission to God and one another and to fair laws based upon Biblical principles.  It was the first time common people had participated in forming their own government.  It was based on the assumption that all men are created equal, and that government should be based on the “consent of the governed.”(1)  The Mayflower Compact would influence the formation of subsequent colonial compacts and the new government of the United States of America.

(1) Peter Marshall & David Manuel, THE LIGHT AND THE GLORY  For Children, Revell, p. 61, 1993.

Interesting Tidbits:  Most people are familiar with the first Thanksgiving of abundance the Pilgrims celebrated.  There were also difficult times.  During the winter of 1621-22, food was so scarce for the Pilgrims, they were limited to six kernels of corn per day for their ration of food.  In subsequent years, they would place six kernels of corn beside each person’s plate at Thanksgiving time to remind themselves of their difficult past, making their gratitude to God that much greater.