Whoever ruled the state could determine the religion of his subjects, a dictum that denied the right of individuals or groups to depart from the established faith.
#Pilgrims in america full#
The Peace of Augsburg, which, in 1555, had closed for the moment the warfare resulting from the Reformation, not only recognized the right of Protestantism to exist but also handed over to each state full power to control the creed within its borders. Thus, it was largely from those who knew no wider world than the fields they cultivated and the gilds which governed that the early settlers of New England were recruited.Įqually important with the social changes were those which concerned men’s faith and religious organization. The gild, a closely compacted brotherhood, existing partly for religious and educational purposes and partly for the control of handicrafts and the exchange of goods, became the center of middle-class energy. Though the feudal tenantry, given over to agriculture and bound by the conventions of feudal law, were still perpetuating many of the old customs, the towns were working to emancipate themselves from feudal control. The Reformation, in which this movement had its origin, was more than a revolt from the organization and doctrines of the medieval church it voiced the yearning of the middle classes for a position commensurate with their growing prominence in the national life. Some of these continued in the service of kings and princes in Europe others conducted enterprises against the Spaniards in the West Indies and along the Spanish Main while still others, such as John Smith and Miles Standish, became pioneers in the work of English colonization.īut, more important than the promptings of land-hunger and the desire for wealth and adventure was the call made by a social and religious movement which was but a phase of the general restlessness and popular discontent.
England was full of resolute men, sea-dogs, and soldiers of fortune, captains on the land as well as the sea, who in times of peace were seeking employment and profit and who needed an outlet for their energies. Visions of wealth aroused the expectations from the El Dorados of the West or profit from commercial enterprises, which appealed to the capitalists and led to investments that promised speedy and ample returns.Ī desire to improve social conditions and to solve the problem of the poor and the vagrant, which had become acute since the dissolution of the monasteries, was arousing the authorities to deal with the poor and to dispose of the criminal in such a way as to yield a profitable service to the kingdom. Both landowning and landholding classes, gentry and tenant farmers alike, were clamoring, the one for an increase of their landed estates, the other for freedom from the feudal restraints which still legally bound them. The Kingdom had enjoyed 60 years of domestic peace and prosperity, and Englishmen were eager to share in the advantages which the New World offered to those who would venture there.
It was the age in which the foundations of the British Empire were being laid in the Western Continent. The Pilgrims and Puritans, whose migration to the New World marks the beginning of permanent settlement in New England, were children of the same age as the enterprising and adventurous pioneers of England in Virginia, Bermuda, and the Caribbean.
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