USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > The church of the Pilgrim Fathers > Part 6
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1 See Appendix A.
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growne olde, and forsaken of her children . . . like a widow left only to trust in God," as Bradford wearily wrote in his History of Plimouth Plantation.
This same parish was to see a church hardly built struck by lightning. It was to raise thousands of dollars to repair the fourth meetinghouse, and in the week that the work- men finished, see the entire structure burn to the ground.
It was at various times to be torn by strife and dis- sension. One of the most notable times was during the American Revolution. Chandler Robbins, minister of the Church, and many of the parish were patriots and revolutionists. The Warrens distinguished themselves and all Plymouth on behalf of the continental side; the Winslows were prominent Tories. Tories were absent from church services because they claimed they "were treated with contempt"; a church meeting did vote "almost unanimously" to bar Tories from Communion. At this time the venerable Plymouth Rock was dragged to Town Square and placed in front of the church.
Chandler Robbins went off to war as a chaplain in the Continental Army. He was the first of an honorable list of ministers to serve the nation as chaplains. Dr. Kendall served in the war of 1812; Rev. Edward H. Hall served as chaplain of the 44th Regular Infantry in the Civil War; Rev. Arthur B. Whitney served the 28th Field Hospital Company as a Y.M.C.A. chaplain during World War I. All these men were given leaves of absence to serve in the field. During World War II Rev. Floyd J. Taylor served as a State Guard chaplain, and the Rev. George N. Mar- shall as a United States Army chaplain attached to the Army Air Forces, being called to the Plymouth pulpit while still in service.
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There were theological grounds for strife in the church, although the Pilgrims were much more tolerant than most religious groups of their day. The liberalism of the Pil- grim Pastor, John Robinson, culminated in a broad toler- ance. The Pilgrims of Plymouth were remarkable for their lack of witch-hunting, for their failure to follow the other New England colonies in the persecution of the Quakers, for their willingness to allow a difference of theological opinion to exist among the members of the church and even between the church and its ministers.
In 1656 the Pilgrim Church at Plymouth was chastised by the Massachusetts Bay colony for its lack of "a pious orthodox ministry so that the flood of errour and principles of anarchy . . will not long be kept out where Sathan and his instruments prevail to the crying down of ministry and ministers. . . . "
In 1645 a petition was presented to the General Court to grant "full and free tolerance of religion to all men that will preserve the civil peace and submit unto the gov- ernment." There was to be "no limitation or exception against Turk, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicolaitan, Familist, or any other." Although a majority of the depu- ties were in favor of the measure, Winslow, opposing it, was successful in having it shelved on the plea that he wished further time to study it. Willison2 called this "a defeat of the liberals seeking toleration," which marked " a turning point in Pilgrim history. Always more toler- ant, humane, and discerning than the Puritans, the Saints now began to trail them closely." The wonder is that the tiny Pilgrim colony of hundreds was able so long to
2 George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (New York: Reynal & Hitch- cock) , p. 362.
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stand up against the Puritan sea of thousands. The First Church of the Pilgrims never wholly lost its more humane, tolerant and discerning insights, even though the colony came to be dominated, and in time absorbed, by the Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts Bay.
The Plymouth Church was served by Roger Williams from 1631 to 1634, when he resigned as "Teacher" to go to Salem, from whence he was subsequently banished by the Bay authorities. In Plymouth, Governor Bradford wrote, he was "well approoved, for ye benefite whereof I still blese God and am thankful to him, even for his sharpest admonitions & reproufs, so farr as they agreed with truth." Charles Chauncey served as "Teacher" in 1638, and although he "dipped" for baptism, the congrega- tion was willing to retain him, so long as he would agree to allow those who preferred sprinkling to turn to other ministers for that function. Thus, once again, the First Church emphasized its broader toleration in matters of faith than the Puritans of the Bay Colony.
The pangs of the great revival of Jonathan Edwards, and the fervency of the Whitfield revival were also felt by the Plymouth Church. Here also occurred a separation over the issue of "the Half-way Covenant," as the "Third Congregational Society" withdrew by petition in 1744, and by petition reunited in 1784. Under the "Half-way Cove- nant" unconverted parishioners who had led blameless lives could join the church in order that their children might be baptized. Otherwise children whose parents could not testify to a conversion experience could not be baptized, and hence, "saved." In defense of this right to join as half-way members, the Third Society was formed, returning only after the First Church minister agreed with
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their viewpoint, as former ministers prior to 1744 had done.
There were to be other separations and reunions. Six daughter churches had been formed prior to 1738 for geographical reasons, in Duxbury, Marshfield, etc. The sixth was in 1738 when the Second Church in Plymouth, located in the village of Manomet, withdrew. No doc- trinal matter was involved. In 1800 the Rev. James Ken- dall began his remarkable fifty-nine-year ministry. He was called by some an Arminian. Certainly he promised a more liberal, tolerant and remarkably modern ministry to the church. When he died in 1859 he had so endeared himself to the town that every church and place of busi- ness closed for the day.
Three men who attended his ordaining council stated that they represented fifteen men of the church who ob- jected to his ordination. The council, after hearing their complaint, voted to proceed to ordain Dr. Kendall because of his obvious qualifications.3 Dr. Kendall's congregational good standing, in spite of his supposed "Arminianism," would suggest that the clash was more a personality than a definite doctrinal conflict. The Parish had previously voted to call him by the overwhelming vote of 253 in favor to 15 against; and the Church voted to call him by the majority of 23 in favor to 15 against.4 On September 17, 1801, a petition was presented to the First Church signed by 53 members - 18 men and 35 women, asking to be dis- missed from the church to form their own church, a dis- missal which was unanimously voted. These three votes,
3 Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume XXIII, "Plymouth Church Records 1620-1859," Part II (Boston) , p. 542. 4 Ibid., p. 538.
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one of the parish and two of the church, were the only votes involving any discontent with Dr. Kendall, or the majority's decision. What was the total membership at the time? In 1797, Rev. Chandler Robbins had a list of 215 church members - 64 men and 151 women.5 Eleven members from this list had been removed by death or dis- missed previous to December, 1799.
It was customary at New England church meetings for only men to vote; women's suffrage had not yet reached the churches, let alone the government. This accounts for the smallness of the church vote above. Of 64 men mem- bers of the church, 48 had voted for or against Dr. Kendall, which is as good a percentage as usually turns out at a meeting.
These figures are interesting because it is sometimes claimed in church histories that these votes constitute one of the earliest conflicts in a colonial church over the Uni- tarian issue. It is likewise sometimes stated in church histories that the Plymouth vote was significant because both the church and parish voted the same way.
Full communion in a church was allowed only to those members who could testify to a conversion experience. Such conversions were strong emotional and spiritual com- pulsions, which many sober and God-fearing persons never had - to their own dismay. Half-way membership was open to those who were baptized and lived goodly lives, but who had not yet experienced a conversion. The parish membership was composed of all those who supported the church, for the parish was the business body politic that made possible the spiritual fellowship of a church. Thus the parish is much larger than those who subscribe to the
5 Ibid., p. 477.
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covenant of the church. Hence the parish vote on the call of Dr. Kendall was much greater than the church vote. In many communities, the parish was less ecclesiastical and less orthodox than those who had joined the church. Thus it often happened, as in Dedham, that the parish voted for a liberal ministry, while the church voted for an orthodox ministry. The Plymouth vote of 1800 is often interpreted as being a choice of a liberal over an orthodox ministry. The outcome of the vote went counter to the general trend of divided sentiments between church and parish, because here church and parish voted the same. In the Dedham case, before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, Chief Justice Parker gave the decision which is to be found in Baker v. Fales, 16 Mass., 487. Its substance is
that when the church and parish vote differently, the church title remains with the parish, even though only a minority of the church members remain with the majority of the parish; for a parish, being the custodian of a church, has no existence apart from the nurture and sup- port of it. It is obvious that no such minority retained title to the First Church in Plymouth, for it was a substan- tial majority that voted for the ministry of Dr. Kendall in both church and parish, and a small minority that with- drew.
The ministry of Dr. Kendall marked no break with the past. The church continued in good fellowship with the orthodox churches with which it was accustomed to asso- ciate. The records show that on October 12, 1804, two Episcopalians, Joanna Winslow and Mary Warren, sought permission to be allowed to partake of Communion with the First Church inasmuch as there was no Episcopal church in Plymouth, and their request was cordially
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granted. Thus for a number of years the Episcopalians in Plymouth partook of Communion, and probably other- wise worshiped with them, while remaining Episcopalians. It would seem that the bonds with orthodoxy had not been broken in 1800.
The name "Unitarian" does not enter the church rec- ords until 1828 when an invitation was received to par- ticipate in the installation of a Unitarian minister in New York City. In 1822 the First Universalist Society was organized in Plymouth. In 1823, on March 26, a reference is made to "a disaffected brother's introducing a subject of controversy - relative to the doctrine of the Trinity.
This is the first reference to the Trinity in the church records. In 1825, the First and Third Churches combined in the establishment of the Fourth Church in Plymouth at Eel River (Chiltonville) , and the First Church gave its old furniture to the new society. On Feb. 14, 1831, the "First Unitarian Society" was organized in Plymouth, completely separate from the First Church, and called as its minister Rev. James H. Bugbee, the Univer- salist minister, who served both churches.
On Jan. 1, 1838, the First Church voted unanimously to call Rev. George W. Briggs, then minister of the First Unitarian Society of Fall River, to be colleague minister with Dr. Kendall of the First Church. The parish did likewise. The separate First Unitarian Society in Plymouth had now ceased to exist; apparently 1838 marks the culmi- nation of the transition of the First Church to the Uni- tarian fellowship. This was also the last time that both church and parish voted on a minister. In the future the parish alone voted for the minister. The by-laws of the First Parish open now with the words "The First Parish in
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Plymouth is the Church of the Pilgrims." Thus, the church and parish are now unified.
On June 15, 1837, the First Church had voted unani- mously the following profession of belief for admission to the church, to be either affirmed publicly or privately to the minister:
Believing the scriptures of the Old and New Testament to contain the word of God, and to be the only and sufficient rule of faith and practice; it is my (or our) sincere desire and pur- pose of heart in professing this belief, in joining the Chh, and partaking of the Ordinances of the gospel by the aid of his grace to live by the faith of the Son of God, and thus to walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blame- less.
At no point was there a break with one fellowship and the taking on of new associations. There is no vote that can be considered definitive unless it is the vote calling Rev. George Briggs in 1838. The taking on of new associa- tions and the dropping of old had been a continuous process. No continuity had been broken, no new direc- tions swiftly struck out, but the First Church and Parish, like the "godly old maid" that she was, had gradually grown into her proper niche. (Since 1935, the First Uni- versalist Society has been worshiping with the First Church.)
During the early nineteenth century the church had prospered greatly. It had grown in size. It outgrew its meetinghouse rapidly during this period in spite of the deflections of members to other societies. In addition to the four societies referred to above which came into ex- istence during this period, a number of other denomina- tions and sects established churches in Plymouth. On
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April 10, 1831, the last service was held in the third meet- inghouse, and on December 14, 1831, the much larger and more spacious fourth meetinghouse was solemnly dedicated, and in the afternoon all pews were sold. The only reason given in the parish records for the new meet- inghouse was the need for a larger structure to house the greatly increased congregations. Apparently the schism of 1801 resulted in strengthening the parish rather than diminishing it.
The First Church and Parish records show many other interesting features. In 1678 it held a men's meeting, perhaps the forerunner of subsequent Men's Clubs and Laymen's Leagues. In 1885, the Women's Auxiliary was formed, which has continued intact under the name of the Women's Alliance, for some years now boasting a mem- bership of over one hundred women, while two newer women's groups serve additional numbers. In 1906 the church began publishing a pretentious sixteen-page maga- zine, "The Christian Messenger." This venture is probably continued in the present weekly "Parish Calendar." The church at the present time also publishes historical pam- phlets. The records note the beginnings of the church school in 1694, although the present church school traces its organization back only slightly over a half century.
One wonders whether the office of "Teacher" does not mark a church school antecedent and certainly an adult education venture, going back to the founding days. It was an office graced by such renowned names as Roger Williams, John Rayner (afterward minister) , and Charles Chauncey (who was to be the second president of Harvard College) . It is Plymouth legend that Tabitha Plasket was the first American woman school teacher. Plymouth had
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schools very early, and we find Governor Bradford in his interesting history writing that the schools were taking the place of the families in the rearing of the young. Edu- cational historians are agreed that the early schools were parish schools taught by the colonial ministers.
The function of the Teacher in the Pilgrim Church was well described by Governor Winthrop of Massachu- setts Bay who visited Plymouth during the tenure of Roger Williams as Teacher. In this description, the teacher, according to custom, proposes a question on which the pastor speaks briefly; then the teacher explains it. The governor, the elder of the church, and two or three of the congregation then speak on the question. When this is finished, he added, the deacon puts the congregation in mind of its duty of contribution, and after the collec- tion is taken (they "put it in the bag") , the meeting dis- bands. An interesting service, showing the very modern "forum" meeting to be as old as the New England settle- ment.
The church service itself was conducted by the Elder of the church, the governor and deacons sitting in the front, with the pastor and teacher. The five officers of the church being the pastor, teacher, elder, deacon, and widow. The "church widow" is presumed to be the keeper of the communion ware, and in charge of the preparations for the "Lord's Supper." The precentor led the music by setting the pitch and reading each line before the congre- gation sang it. The hymns were from the Ainsworth Psalm-Book. Later the Bay Psalm - Book was used. The hymns were mainly the Psalms, set to the Geneva tunes. The tithing rod was in use in Plymouth at an early date. Sermon and prayer were often one or two hours in length.
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Much has been made of Governor Bradford's chastise- ment of the "strangers" in the colony who took Christmas as a holiday while the Pilgrims worked. Upon finding them playing games out of doors, the Governor took away their balls because if it was against their consciences to work on that day, it was against his for some to play while others worked. It was not until modern days that the Pilgrim Church observed Christmas and Easter. Older parishioners still recall that in early youth Christmas was a day looked upon with dismay because they ate warmed- over food inasmuch as that day was generally a holiday for the hired help. Thus remembrances of meager Christ- mases are well remembered, and the changing tradition welcomed.
The Pilgrim Church of Scrooby, Leyden, the May- flower and Plymouth marks two distinctive ventures of continuing interest and importance. A national magazine in its Thanksgiving issue of 1947, stated in its editorial that the Pilgrims were obviously aware of their place in history, and perhaps better grasped the significance of historical forces at work in their generation than others. It points to the lucid understanding of history in Brad- ford's chronicle as evidence of this fact. The movement of which the Pilgrims were a seemingly insignificant part, and yet were to dominate in historical retrospect, was both a social movement and a religious movement. Let us look briefly at both aspects.
The Reverend George A. Gordon, probably the out- standing Congregational minister in Boston during the past century, wrote:
The Massachusetts Puritan ... wanted everybody to think and worship as he did. So we do not get our principle of
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toleration from the Puritans, we do not get our witness for moral freedom from that source. But the Pilgrims are a dif- ferent set of men. I do not call them superior. I say they had a different function in history. They started with a different idea - the idea of individualism. They went to Holland in defense of it, and they finally came here for its further de- velopment. With them and their advent upon these shores we have the birth of a new epoch, the opening of a new era. It is the Pilgrim, the Plymouth Pilgrim, who stands upon these shores in the midst of poverty and hardships of every kind as the majestic witness for the rights of the individual over against the might of the institution - the moral freedom of the individual man as against an overweening and overwhelm- ing principle of unity and uniformity. ... we say that his distinctive, original and immortal contribution to modern life, civic and religious, is as to the right of the individual man.
Theirs was the faith in the rights of the individual man. In religion, it was expressed as the rights of "every man to be his own priest." In ecclesiastical matters, it was ex- pressed as the principle of independency, that a church is formed by those seekers who join together in covenant and gather together in the Lord's name - bound by no other authority. In the socio-political world, these prin- ciples resulted in democracy. They underlay the philos- ophy of the Pilgrim Separatists. It is this that makes Pil- grim Plymouth so perfect a symbol of the American re- public, and their church, a national church.
The Pilgrims gathered together in covenant as Bradford relates, "whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. And that it cost them something this ensewing historie will declare." That something was not alone the homes they left behind, the flight from their native land, the dangers of the sea, the trial in foreign lands, but the testing of their faith against great adversities. They fled
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England because they must. A twentieth-century fiction has been spread that the Pilgrims did not flee because they had to but because they wished to. Why then did the police twice interfere with their passage? That in- tolerance was strong against the Separatists is borne out by history. In 1592 "two ministers and four other Sepa- ratists were hanged, because of non-conformity." Perse- cutions, imprisonment in medieval dungeons, confiscation of property are testified to in the records of their day. They well knew that their faith would cost them some- thing.
The Pilgrim faith forecast a number of freedoms which all Americans have come to cherish, and some freedoms not yet fully realized. This is part of the importance of their witness. They gained freedom and exemplified it at a time when for most people freedom was the idle dream of scholars. The printing press of Choir Alley in Leyden where the Pilgrims printed books to smuggle into England to propagate and justify their faith was destroyed by Dutch soldiers coerced by a British treaty. Here was proof that freedom of the press was not secure anywhere in Europe. The Pilgrims must go even farther to escape the arm of the British king.
The trial of Oldham and Lyford in Plymouth in 1624 marks the first trial by jury in the Western hemisphere. Although they had plotted against the government founded upon the Mayflower Compact, Governor Bradford did not arbitrarily proceed against them, but summoned all free- men of the colony to hear the case and pass judgment. Such an act in a small and insignificant colony, struggling to establish itself, is ample proof that the rights of the individual were respected. It was further proof that the
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Pilgrims were willing to trust to the democratic method of procedure - willing to risk the stability of their enter- prise before the bar of public opinion. Their faith in freedom was practiced.
More than social freedoms were involved. Religious freedom also was tested by them and granted to others. The Pilgrim willingness to allow both people and pastor to follow the dictates of conscience is found nowhere else at this time. The great injunction from their first Pastor, John Robinson, was not to be like the Reformation churches of Luther and Calvin, which had "come to a period in religion," but rather to add only a comma, and go on to the future. The great insight of John Robinson, "The Lord hath more light and truth yet to break forth from out his Holy Word," established the principle of progressive and continuing revelation at a time when everywhere one found truth prescribed by the past. The Pilgrims never closed the door.
They were, of course, limited by the knowledge of their day. They naturally knew nothing of the methods and conclusions of twentieth-century scholastic research; there- fore their phraseology sometimes seems quite inadequate to modern readers, in spite of the free minds it typified. Yet how could they have been other than they were? It was their kind of free spirit that was to make possible the development of modern research. They opened the door to religious inquiry when all others held it shut.
Significantly, they anticipated the modern point of de- parture for those who were to be apostles of the free mind in religion. As Bradford wrote: "They came as near the primitive pattern of the first churches, as any other churches of these latter times hath done, according to
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their rank and quality." Their aim was that "ye churches of God reverte to their anciente puritie, and recover the primitive order, libertie, & bewtie." They sought to be- come "as ye first Christians," and throughout the sermons of Robinson we find the Gospels themselves to be the yardstick of Christianity. The later accretions of Chris- tianity the Pilgrims dispensed with. True Christianity they firmly believed to have been lost since the time of Christ, and their aim was to recreate it. Hence their un- willingness to accept the creeds, devices and organizational patterns of later times. The true faith and teachings were to be found in the Gospels. The Pilgrims sought to return to the original purity of primitive Christianity as found in the teachings of Jesus. They were not willing to settle for a religion about Jesus; they wanted to be Christians in the same sense that he was. They did not claim to know all the answers to religious questions; they were seekers after truth who studied the Gospels and tried to pattern their church upon what they had read and understood, therein confident that more light and truth would yet come to clarify the simple gospel of Jesus. This is still the struggle of Christianity.
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