zealots, soon
cooled, and he returned and obtained a living again in the Church of
England, which he possessed until his death; but his principles of
separation and independence survived. The first congregation was formed
about the year 1602, near the confines of York, Nottingham, and
Leicester, and chose for its pastor John Robinson. They gathered for
worship secretly, and were compelled to change their places of meeting
in order to elude the pursuit of spies and soldiers. After enduring many
cruel sufferings, Robinson, with the greater part of his congregation,
determined to escape persecution by becoming _pilgrims_ in a foreign
land. The doctrines of Arminius, and the advocacy and sufferings of his
followers in the cause of religious liberty, together with the spirit of
commerce, had rendered the Government of Holland the most tolerant in
Europe; and thither Robinson and his friends fled from their persecuting
pursuers in 1608, and finally settled at Leyden. Being Independents,
they did not form a connection with any of the Protestant Churches of
the country. Burke remarks that "In Holland, though a country of the
greatest religious freedom in the world, they did not find themselves
better satisfied than they had been in England. There they were
tolerated, indeed, but watched; their zeal began to have dangerous
languors for want of opposition; and being without power or consequence,
they grew tired of the indolent security of their sanctuary; they chose
to remove to a place where they should see no superior, and therefore
they sent an agent to England, who agreed with the Council of Plymouth
for a tract of land in America, within their jurisdiction, to settle in,
and obtained from the King (James) permission to do so."[2]

During their twelve years' _pilgrimage_ in Holland they were good
citizens; not an accusation was brought against any one of them in the
courts; they were honourable and industrious, and took to new trades for
subsistence. Brewster, a man of property, and a gentleman in England,
learned to be a printer at the age of forty-five. Bradford, who had been
a farmer in England, became a silk-dyer. Robinson became noted as a
preacher and controversialist against Arminianism.

Bradford, the historian of their colony and its Governor for eleven
years, gives the chief reasons for their dispute in Holland and of their
desire to remove to America.[3]

As to what particular place these Pilgrims should select f