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The Influence of Plymouth Colony Separatism on Salem: An Interpretation of John Cotton's Letter of 1930 to Samuel Skelton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Slayden Yarbrough
Slayden Yarbrough
Affiliation:
associate professor of religion in the School of Christian Service, Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma.
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Extract

Congregational polity first appeared in New England in 1620 with the arrival of a small company of Separatists from Scrooby, England. In 1607 or 1608, after many difficulties arising from the policies of King James I, the Scrooby congregation migrated to Amsterdam in Holland. In 1609 they transferred to Leyden, where John Robinson ministered as their pastor. After a decade in Leyden, the congregation negotiated a charter or patent with the Virginia Company to go to Virginia; it was approved in September 1619. Volunteers for the voyage to the New World were sought from the Leyden congregation. Robinson planned to accompany them if a majority agreed to go. However, since only a minority chose to make the journey, he disappointedly conformed to his prior agreement and remained in Holland, where he died six years later in 1625. Traveling on the Mayflower, which sailed off course, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony arrived on 6 December 1620 in Cape Cod harbor. At this time they were under the pastoral leadership and ecclesiological influence of Robinson, and they remained so until his death.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , September 1982 , pp. 290 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1982

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References

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