land, he informs
us, that "a long time" before he left the church, he had read several of
the treatises of the Brownists and Barrowists, and was convinced by them
that the constitution and working of the church were unscriptural. He
also mentions, as he says, to his "own shame," that the reverence he had
for many of the pious clergy, was the only reason why he did not sooner
follow out his own conviction of duty. Every one who knows how difficult
a thing it is even now, when dissent presents so different an aspect
from what it had in the days of Elizabeth and James, for a clergyman to
relinquish his position in connection with an establishment in which he
has been brought up, will readily appreciate the difficulties under
which Robinson labored. It is true the Independents, both baptist and
paedobaptist, are still in a minority; but how different the minority of
this day from that of the early part of the seventeenth century! To _be_
in a minority then was to _feel_ it--at every turn--and in one's nearest
and most cherished interests. It involved more than the loss of
_caste_--reputation--respectability. It was to become an outcast and an
outlaw, and to put one's self at the mercy of the bishop and his agents,
in a day when even the "tender mercies" of bishops were cruelty itself.
Robinson had the courage to join the minority of that day. He left
Norwich, where he had officiated for a short period, resigned his
fellowship at Cambridge, as we have already stated, and became an avowed
separatist.

After stating that Robinson proceeded to Lincolnshire, where he found a
considerable number of separatists, with Smyth and Clifton at their
head, who had constituted themselves into a church, by solemn covenant
with the Lord, "to walk in all his ways made known, or to be made known
unto them, according to their best endeavors, WHATEVER IT SHOULD COST
THEM,"--the Memoir proceeds:

"The location of this first [?] separatist church has long been
an object of investigation and doubt. The difficulty appears to
be solved by Joseph Hunter, Esq., in his valuable "Collections"
concerning the first colonists of New England. The following is
a summary of Mr. Hunter's proofs, identifying Scrooby, Notts,
as the village, and Mr. Brewster's house as the manor, in
which, when practicable, they worshipped. Governor Bradford,
who was originally one of the church, and whose birthplace and
residence we