ROBINSON DISPUTES WITH EPISCOPIUS. 41 III. readings, and heard as well one as the other. By CHAP. which means he was so well grounded in the controversy, and saw the force of all their arguments, and knew the shifts of the adversary; and being himself very able, none was fitter to buckle with them than himself, as appeared by sundry disputes; so as he began to be terrible to the Arminians; which made Episcopius,' the Arminian professor, to put forth his best strength, and set out sundry theses, which by 1613. public dispute he would defend against all men. Now Polyander,' the other professor, and the chief preachers of the city, desired Mr. Robinson to dispute against him. But he was loth, being a stranger. Yet the other did importune him, and told him that such was the ability and nimbleness of wit of the adversary, that the truth would suffer if he did not help them; so as he condescended, and prepared himself against the time. And when the time came, the Lord did so help him to defend the truth and foil his adversary, as he put him to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. And the like he did two or three times upon such like occasions; the which, as it caused many to praise God that the truth had so famous a victory, so it procured him much honor and respect from those learned men and others which loved the truth.2 1 Simon Episcopius (Bisschop) and John Polyander were chosen professors of divinity in the university at Leyden in 1612. See Brandt, ii. 111; Limborch's Historia Vitæ Simonis Episcopii, p. 41; Calder's Memoirs of Episcopius, p. 128, and Bayle, Dict. Hist. et Crit. Winslow, in his Brief Narra tive, says, "our pastor, Mr. Robin- 42 CHAP. to THE DUTCH ESTEEM THE PILGRIMS. Yea, so far were they from being weary of him and III. his people, or desiring their absence, as that it was said 1608 by some, of no mean note, that were it not for giving 1620. offence to the State of England,' they would have preferred him otherwise, if he would, and allowed them some public favor. Yea, when there was speech of their removal into these parts, sundry of note and eminency of that nation would have had them come under them; and for that end made them large offers.2 Now although I might allege many particulars and examples of the like kind to show the untruth and unlikelihood of this slander, yet these shall suffice, them as any of their own divines." 160. 1 King James at this time exercised an unwarrantable influence in the Low Countries, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs. He drove Vorstius from his professorship at Leyden for his heresies, and labored to procure his banishment; and prevented Ames from being elected to the same office. He seems to have kept an ambassador at the Hague chiefly to inform him of the progress of the theological disputes in that country. See Winwood's Memorials, iii. 293-6, 304, 310, 357. Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters, pp. 352, 373, 388, 435; Brandt, ii. 85, 97. 2 Henry Hudson, in the employment of the Dutch East India Company, discovered the river called by his name, in 1609. On this ground the Dutch claimed the adjoining territory; a few huts were erected at New York and Albany in 1613 and 1615; but no colony was settled in the New Netherlands till 1623. The Dutch West India Company was incorporated in 1621 for this object; but individuals had for some years before been meditating colonization on the Hudson; and the offers to the Pilgrims probably came from them. See Bancroft's United States, ii. 265, 272, 273, 275, 277. THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND. 43 seeing it was believed of few, being only raised by the CHAP. malice of some who labored their disgrace.1 III. 1608 to 'The English separatists in Hol- l'Ollanda, e le altre Provincie Unite. 1620. land attracted the notice of Cardinal I Puritani Inglesi sono in AmBentivoglio, who was the papal sterdam quasi tutti per l'istesso nuncio in that country from 1607 to rispetto; e se ne trattengono alcuni 1616, though he misunderstood the medesimamente per occasione di cause of their leaving England, mercantia nella città di Midelburgo supposing it to be commerce, and in Zelanda. Per ogni parte dunque, not religion. He says, "I Puritani e da tutti gli angoli, si può dire, ancora vi son tolerati, che sono i delle Provincie Unite, s'odono i più puri e più rigidi Calvinisti, i latrati, e gli urli di tanti infetti loro quali non vogliono riconoscere au- settarii." Relazione di Fiandra, torità alcuna ne' magistrati politici parte ii. cap. ii. This hardly affords sopra il governo de' loro ministri ground for Bancroft's statement, heretici; e sono quasi tutti de' that "Robinson's congregation inPuritani d'Inghilterra, che per spired the nuncio of Rome with occasion di commercio frequentan respect." See his History, i. 302. CHAPTER IV. SHOWING THE REASONS AND CAUSES OF THEIR REMOVAL. CHAP. IV. 1609 to AFTER they had lived in this city about eleven or twelve years, (which is the more observable, being the whole time of that famous truce between that State 1620. and the Spaniards,) and sundry of them were taken away by death, and many others began to be well stricken in years, the grave mistress experience having taught them many things, these prudent governors, with sundry of the sagest members, began both deeply 1617. to apprehend their present dangers and wisely to fore see the future, and think of timely remedy. In the agitation of their thoughts and much discourse of particulars hereabout, they began to incline to this conclusion of removal to some other place; not out of any newfangledness, or other such like giddy humor, by which men are many times transported, to their great hurt and danger, but for sundry weighty and solid 1 After the war had been raging for more than thirty years between Spain and the United Provinces, by the mediation of Henry IV. of France and James I. of England, a truce of twelve years was concluded on the 9th of April, 1609. See Bentivoglio, Della Guerra di Fiandra, parte iii. lib. viii., Opere Storiche, iv. 564; Grotius, p. 542, 569; Brandt, ii. 54; Watson's Philip III. p. 275; Grattan's Netherlands, p. 226. This work of Bentivoglio should have been mentioned in the note on page 25. THE PILGRIMS PROPOSE TO LEAVE HOLLAND. reasons, the chief of which I will here recite and briefly touch. 45 CHAP. IV. i. 14. 1. And first, they found and saw by experience the 1617. hardness of the place and country to be such, as few in comparison would come to them, and fewer that would bide it out and continue with them. For many that came to them, and many more that desired to be with them, could not endure the great labor and hard fare, with other inconveniences, which they underwent and were contented with. But though they loved their persons, and approved their cause, and honored their sufferings, yet they left them as it were weeping, as Orpah did her mother-in-law Naomi, or as those Ruth Romans did Cato in Utica, who desired to be excused and borne with though they could not all be Catos.1 For many, though they desired to enjoy the ordinances of God in their purity, and the liberty of the Gospel with them, yet, alas, they admitted of bondage, with danger of conscience, rather than to endure these hardships; yea, some preferred and chose prisons in England rather than this liberty in Holland, with these afflictions. But it was thought that if a better and easier place of living could be had, it would draw many and take away these discouragements; yea, their pastor would often say that many of those that both writ and preached now against them, if they were in a place where they might have liberty, and live comfortably, they would then practise as they did. 1 Plutarch says, in his Life of Cato the Younger, that the three hundred Roman citizens who were with him in Utica, intending to send messengers to Cæsar to intercede in their behalf, "implored him to trust them and make use of |
