CHAPTER XI.

THE SEPARATISTS IN AMSTERDAM.

THE Separatists of Scrooby, having made their escape from their native country, had become literally "strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Holland was to them only "a strange country," not the land of promise. In Bradford's report of the impressions which that country made upon them when they saw it, there is a picturesque effect which shows how he felt as one of them. He was at that time

a youth of not more than twenty years a plain northcountry Englishman, whose knowledge of the world beyond the seas was only so much as he had been able to gain from vague report with the aid of a few books, and who had probably never seen any larger town than Boston, in Lincolnshire, and Hull, in Yorkshire. His own words, for himself and his fellow-exiles, are the best in which to tell the story:

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Being now come into the Low Countries, they saw many goodly and fortified cities, strongly walled, and guarded with troops of armed men. Also they heard a strange and uncouth language, and beheld the different manners and customs of the people, with their strange fashions and attires; all so far differing from that of their plain country villages, wherein they were bred and had so long lived, as it seemed they were come into a new world. But these were not the things they much looked on, or which long took up their thoughts; for they had other work in hand, and another kind of war to wage and maintain. For though they saw fair and beautiful cities flowing with abundance of all sorts of wealth and riches, it was not long before they saw the grim and grisly face of poverty coming upon them like an

armed man, with whom they must buckle and encounter, and from whom they could not fly. But they were armed with faith and patience against him; and though they were sometimes foiled, yet, by God's assistance, they prevailed and got the victory."

They were not entirely without friends in Amsterdam, the place of their first residence after their migration. Others of their countrymen, exiles like them, were there before them. Besides the recognized congregations of English subjects, which had been established in various cities, and which—purporting to be of the Church of England, though generally served by Puritan ministers1 were under the protection of a treaty, there was at Amsterdam (as formerly, under Robert Browne, there had been at Middleburg) an organized congregation of English Separatists. In that more ancient church, the exiles from Scrooby found some of their former friends. They also found in Amsterdam their old neighbor John Smyth, and many who had been members of the church under his guidance at Gainsborough, and who, with him, had escaped from England a year or two earlier than they. It was natural for them to sit down, at first, among their countrymen and friends in that great commercial city, till they could intelligently form their plans for a more permanent residence.

They soon discovered that, among the English Separatists at Amsterdam, there were elements of discord, tending to dissolution. Already there had been a painful agitation in the church under the pastoral care of Francis Johnson; and it had resulted in the excommunication of two conspicuous members. The story is worth telling, not only because it gives us a glimpse into the interior of a Separatist church in those days, but also because there is something of a moral in it. It began with a complaint against the pastor's wife.

1 Such was the position of Francis Johnson when he was "preacher to the Company of English of the Staple at Middleburg." Ante, p. 129.

When the Scrooby exiles knew her, she was, as they testify, a grave matron, modest in dress and demeanor, ready to all good works in her place, especially helpful to the poor, and an ornament to her husband's pastoral office. In her youth she had been a merchant's wife and widow; and she was still young when Johnson married her "a godly woman with " a good estate." But she was blamed by some “because she wore such apparel as she had been formerly used to," which certainly was not very extravagant. They found fault with “her wearing of some whalebone in the bodice and sleeves of her gown," also with her corked shoes, and “other such like things as citizens of her rank used to wear." The pastor and his wife, in deference to such scruples, were willing to reform the objectionable conformity to fashion, "so far as might be without spoiling of their garments;" but the fault-finders would accept no compromise. Pitiful it seems to us that the peace of a church should be disturbed by a conflict of opinions about the whalebone in a lady's bodice and the cork in the heels of her shoes. Pitiful it seemed to those who under the teaching of Clyfton and Robinson had added to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge; but "such," said they, "was the strictness of some in those times," who could tolerate no Christian brother unless he "came full up to their size.”

The chief complainants against the "outward adorning " of the pastor's wife were the pastor's father and brother. Probably some domestic feud was the cause of the church difficulty. The good sense of the majority is shown in the fact that the pastor was not dismissed, nor his wife put under censure; while the fidelity of the church appears in the fact that the two leading agitators, "after long patience toward them and much pains taken with them," were excluded from communion "for their unreasonable and endless opposition, and such things as did accompany the same. The scars

'Bradford's "Dialogue," in Young's "Chronicles of the Pilgrims," p. 446.

of that conflict must have remained till after the arrival of the exiles from Scrooby.

At the same time another trouble was impending. Smyth, a man of able gifts and a good preacher," was also a man of "inconstancy and unstable judgment." He had, of course, much influence among those who came with him out of England, having been under his pastoral care at Gainsborough; and he was beginning to entertain and broach opinions which were likely to raise a controversy. Robinson, and "some others of best discerning" in the church that came from Scrooby, "seeing how Mr. John Smyth and his company were already fallen into contention with the church that was there before them," and finding reason to believe "that no means they could use would do any good to cure the same," were naturally averse from the thought of a permanent residence in Amsterdam. "Flames of contention," kindled by other causes, seemed "likely to break out in that ancient church itself." Robinson, therefore, and Brewster, and others in their company, felt that they must make another removal, "though they knew it would be much to the prejudice of their outward estate." Their "outward estate" was not the main thing in their estimate of life; for they were "strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

Is there not in that unwillingness of theirs to remain among their fellow-exiles at Amsterdam a noteworthy indication of their character as a community? There was no persecution to drive them away. There was no prospect of their obtaining more lucrative employment or better support for their families elsewhere. We have evidence that there was no lack of friendliness between them and their brethren in exile. But they saw that, in Amsterdam, they were likely to be troubled with the whimsies of erratic and inconstant men; that ultra - Separatists, crotchety inventors of new opinions, and restless agitators of all sorts, would be continually attracted to that centre, and that in some other place they could have more peace in their communion with each

other, and better opportunities for mutual edification and the cultivation of Christian character.

"For these and other reasons," says Bradford, "they removed to Leyden, a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet situation, but made more famous by the university with. which it is adorned." Such were the attractions which they felt when selecting the place of their abode—the beautiful city—the pleasant situation—the famous university with its resort of learned men. Against attractions so potent, the consideration that Leyden, "wanting that traffic by sea which Amsterdam enjoyed, was not so beneficial for their outward means of living," had no preponderating force.

The history of the church under the care of Johnson and Ainsworth verified the forebodings which induced the Pilgrims to seek another place of refuge. In some respects that church seemed to prosper. Exiles from England, making a fair profession, and sufferers for conscience' sake, were continually gathered into its communion; so that for a time it had about three hundred members. It was served by a full staff of able officers-pastor, teacher, ruling elders, deacons, and deaconess. 1 Its worship, conducted by Johnson, was edifying and impressive, not with ritual ornament, but with

'The "Ancient Men," in Bradford's "Dialogue," say: 66 At Amsterdam, before their division and breach, they were about three hundred communicants; and they had for their pastor and teacher those two eminent men before named, and in our time four grave men for ruling elders, and three able and godly men for deacons, [also] one ancient widow for a deaconess, who did them service many years, though she was sixty years of age when she was chosen. She honored her place and was an ornament to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient place in the congregation with a little birchen rod in her hand, and kept little children in great awe from disturbing the congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and weak, and especially women, and, as there was need, called out maids and young women to watch and do them helps as their necessity did require; and, if they were poor, she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or acquaint the deacons; and she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an officer of Christ."-Young, p. 455, 456.