The Pilgrim's Religious
Beliefs
Through the years we have held many idea's
on what the Pilgrims
were like. Here is some insight on how and what
the Pilgrims
held as their religious beliefs and way of life.
John Robinson (1575-1625) was the pastor of the
Pilgrims after their
removal to Holland in 1607-8, and many of his
writings
survive--giving us a direct view of the Pilgrims
religious beliefs and
theology.
The Pilgrims' separatist movement can be directly
traced back to
John Calvin (1509-1564) and Calvinism, from which
also descends
Puritanism and Presbyterianism. The Pilgrims'
separatist movement
sprung up from primarily Nottinghamshire, where
Richard Clyfton
and John Robinson, both Cambridge alumni, began
their preaching.
Beginning in 1604 with the ascention of
King James I, the
persecution of Protestants increased. Members
of Clyfton and
Robinson's church had to meet secretly, and were
hunted continually
by the authorities--and when caught, thrown in
jail. By 1607, they
could no longer take the persecution, and made
their escape to
Amsterdam, Holland, and a year later moved to
Leyden where they
established their congregation.
In addition to John Robinson, William Bradford
and Edward
Winslow have added their own remarks to various
theological
debates of their day. Below is a basic
outline of some of these
religious beliefs supported and practiced by
the Leyden Pilgrims.
For those who are interested, the Pilgrims
used John Calvin's
Geneva translation of the Bible, nicknamed the
"Breeches Bible".
The Old English Puritan was such an one, that
honored God above
all, and under God gave every one his due.His
first care was to serve
God, and therein he did not what was good in
his own, but inGod's
sight, making the word of God the rule of his
worship. He highly
esteemed order in the House of God: but would
not under color
of that submit to superstitious rites, which
are superfluous, and perish
in their use. He was much in prayer; with
it he began and closed the
day. It is he was much exercised in his closet,
family and public
assembly.The the church he did not wholly reject
the liturgy,
but the corruption of it.
The Lord's Day he esteemed a divine ordinance,
and rest on it
necessary, so far as it conduced to holiness.
He was very
conscientious in observance of that day as the
mart day of the soul
. He was careful to remember it, to get house,and
heart in order for
it and when it came, he was studious to improve
it. He redeems
the morning from superfluous sleep, and watches
the whole day
over his thoughts and words, not only to restrain
them from wickedness,
but worldliness.
Predestination.
The Pilgrims believed that before the foundation
of the world, God
predestined to make the world, man, and all things.
He also
predestined, at that time, who would be saved,
and who would be
damned. Only those God elected would receive
God's grace, and
would have faith. There was nothing an
individual could do during
their life that would cause them to be saved
(or damned), since God
had already decided who was going to be saved
before the creation
of the world. However, God would not have chosen
blatant sinners
to be his elect; and therefore those who were
godly were likely to be
the ones God elected to be saved.
Sacraments and Popery.
To the Pilgrims, there were only two sacraments:
baptism and the
Lord's Supper. The other sacraments (Confession,
Penance,
Confirmation, Ordination, Marriage, Confession,
Last Rites) of the
Catholic and Anglican churches were inventions
of man and were
therefore not Holy.. The sacrament of baptism
he received in infancy
, which he looked back toin age to answer his
engagements, and claim
his privileges. The Lord's Supper he accounted
part of his soul's food:
to which he labored to keep an appetite. The
Pilgrims opposed the mass,
and considered marriage a civil affair (not a
religious sacrament).
The legitimacy of the pope, the saints,
and the church hierarchy was rejected,
as was the veneration of relics. Icons
and religious symbols such as crosses,
statues, stain-glass windows, fancy architecture,
and other worldly
manifestations of religion were rejected.
Church Organization
The church of the Pilgrims was organized around
five officers: pastor,
teacher, elder, deacon, and deaconess (sometimes
called the "church
widow"). However, none of the five offices
was considered essential
to the church. The Pastor was an ordained
minister whose
responsibility was to see to the religious life
of the congregation.
John Robinson was the pastor of the Pilgrims,
but was never able to
get to America before his death in 1625.
The Teacher was also an
ordained minister who was responsible for the
instruction of the
congregation. The Pilgrims apparently never
had anyone to fill that
position. The Elder was a lay-person responsible
for church
government, and he was also the church's eyes
and ears, assisting the
Pastor and Teacher in admonishing the congregation.
William Brewster was the Elder for the
Plymouth church
. The Deacon collected offerings, and attended
to the needs
of the poor and elderly. John Carver and
Samuel Fuller both were
deacons during their life. The Deaconess
attended the sick and poor,
and often played the role of mid-wife as well.
The Deaconess of the early
Plymouth church is not named, but may have been
Bridget Fuller.
The church building itself had no significance
to the Pilgrims, and
was usually called simply the "meetingplace"
or "meetinghouse". The
meetinghouse was kept drab, and had no religious
depictions or
icons. Starting about the summer of 1622,
the fort served as the
Pilgrims meetinghouse. The Pilgrim men
brought loaded guns to
church in case they were attacked during services.
Infant Baptism.
The Pilgrims believed baptism was the sacrament
which wiped away
Original Sin, and was a covenant with Christ
and his chosen people
(as circumcision had been to God and the Israelites),
and therefore
children should be baptized as soon as practical.
. This was in opposition
to the Anabaptists, who believed that baptism
was essentially an
initiation ceremony into the churchhood of believers,
and therefore could only be administered to believing
adults who
understood the meaning of the ceremony.
The Pilgrims believed that
"Baptism now, as circumcision of old, is the
seal of the covenant of
God". They further believed that at least
one parent must be of the
faith for the child to be baptized into the church.
Holy Days and Religious Holidays.
The Pilgrims faithfully observed the Sabbath,
and did not work on
Sunday. Even when the Pilgrims were exploring
Cape Cod, to the
Mayflower crew's dismay, they stopped everything
and stayed in
camp on Sunday to keep the Sabbaths. See:
Mourt's Relation
(1622), chapter 1. The Pilgrims did not
celebrate religious
holidays--Christmas and Easter being the prime
examples. These
holidays were invented by man to memorialize
Jesus, and are not
prescribed by the Bible and therefore cannot
be Holy. "It seems too
much for any mortal man to appoint, or make an
anniversary
memorial".
Marriage.
The Pilgrims considered marriage a civil affair,
not to be handled by
the church ministers but instead by civil magistrates.
Marriage was ordained by God for the benefit
of man's natural and
spiritual life. Not getting married (and
thus remaining a virgin)
was not considered a sign of piety. Marriages
were considered
important for two main reasons:
procreation of children,
to avoid the sin of adultery.
The important characteristics to find in
the proper spouse, according to
Robinson, are
(1) godliness,
(2) similarity--in age, beliefs, estate, disposition,
inclinations, and affections
In the marriage, "the wife is specially
required a reverend subjection in all
lawful things to her husband", and the husband
is "to give honour to the wife",
and the Lord requires "the love of the husband
to his wife must be like
Christ's to his church". He blessed his family
morning and evening by the
word and prayer and took care to perform those
ordinances in the best
season. He brought up his children in the nurture
and admonition of the
Lord and commanded his servants to keep the way
of the Lord.
Education of Children, and Discipline.
Christians should be best husbands, best
wives, best parents,
best children, best masters, best servants, best
magistrates, best
subjects, that the doctrine of God might be adorned,
not blasphemed.
The Pilgrims believed that in the child's early
years, the mother was
the most important educator. But as the
child grew, the father
became the more important figure--from the father
they are to learn
manners, wisdom, and authority. The Pilgrims
believed that children
needed to be disciplined "with the rod" when
necessary, as the Bible
proclaims in Proverbs 13:24 and 22:15.
Children were also
expected to learn from the husband's disciplining
of his wife--a wife
was to be disciplined just as the children were
disciplined when she
disobeyed her husband or sinned against God.
The Pilgrim's distinction between beating
a wife, and disciplining a
wife, is akin to the modern-day distinction between
beating a child
and spanking a child. The standard court-administered
punishment
for wife-beating was a public whipping, which
is certainly more severe
than the modern "punishment". None of the
Mayflower passengers were ever
accused of wife-beating. Education was
thought very important, but
in early years of the Plymouth Colony there was
not enough time or
qualified individuals to teach. All children,
boys and girls both, were
taught to read (because reading the Bible was
something everyone
needed to be able to do). Writing, however,
was not taught to girls,
and in fact many boys never learned to write
either. If the situation
required, writing was a skill that could be learned
fairly easily by
someone who already knew how to read.
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