USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > The church of the Pilgrim Fathers > Part 7
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The Pilgrims and their ministers, Richard Clyfton and John Robinson, had formed their non-conformist societies at Gainsborough and Scrooby. The Scrooby Church be- came immortalized because it moved to freer air in Hol- land and America. Both churches became Unitarian,6 the Gainsborough Church as soon as the Acts of Toleration permitted it, and the Plymouth Church in the nineteenth century. Thus the worshipers who held continuous fel-
6 Walter H. Burgess, The Pastor of the Pilgrims: A Biography of John Robinson (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1920) , pp. 353, 357-360.
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lowship with both Pilgrim churches belong to the historical tradition of those churches that seek the fulfillment of a faith of the free mind. It would seem evident that the original seed of Unitarianism was in the Pilgrim attitude and faith, and was a growth from within, rather than a doctrinal change. The Pilgrim heritage is many-sided, however, and cannot be confined in any one vessel; many are the heirs of their dauntless witness.
Religious greatness in the final analysis is measured by earnest seeking and generosity of spirit. These attributes are abundantly present in the Pilgrim standard; great was their church and their fellowship. Great hence is the historic mission of their continuing spirit enshrined in the First Church in Plymouth. May it never forget the stirring challenge of the past as it faces the future.
VI The National Memorial Pilgrim Church
BY ARTHUR B. WHITNEY AND GEORGE N. MARSHALL
THE PILGRIMS WHEN THEY CAME to America worshiped in the fort on top of the hill. For many of them, this was the only American church building they knew. In 1648 they built their first church building, a square house of unpretentious lines. It obviously and significantly was a house of God, not a temple. The second meetinghouse was, likewise, a house of God, and not a temple. The third meetinghouse, built in 1744, was an attempted copy of a Boston church building. A graceful structure, it was the first real church, architecturally speaking. These churches all marked the plainness and simplicity of the people who built them. By the nineteenth century the New Englander was beginning to yearn for more elaborate church struc- tures and he looked toward Europe, and particularly England for his models. They attempted in 1831 to build a church building which would bring beauty to the com- munity and people. Their first attempt resulted in the
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"Gothic" wooden frame building which served the needs of the parish until the disastrous fire of 1892. The new church to be built after the fire, the present and fifth meet- inghouse, marks not only an effort to recapture the sig- nificance of the past, but to plan for the future. It is this latter effort to which we now direct our attention.
An editorial by Edwin D. Mead, the editor, appeared in The New England Magazine for February, 1893, thus:
The burning of the old First Church at Plymouth imposes a duty upon a much larger circle than that of the congregation which has worshipped within its walls. It imposes a duty upon every loyal son of New England and upon every American who honors the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers. There is no other church in which all New Englanders and all Americans feel a sense of possession, of which all in a manner are mem- bers, to the extent which is true of the First Church in Plymouth. We forget all creeds, and all changes of creeds; we care little what preacher is in the pulpit or what title is on the hymn book, what title was there yesterday or what will be there tomorrow. We remember only that this was the church of the Mayflower congregation and of Elder Brew- ster, the church of Bradford and Carver and Winslow, the church of the pioneers sent into the New England wilderness by John Robinson, with the charge never to "come to a period in religion," but ever to keep their minds open for "more light and truth." It was the first purely democratic church in modern times, which means that it was the first purely demo- cratic church in history. It was the church of the men who signed the compact on the Mayflower, that great first word in the history of American liberty and independence. The signers would have found it hard, many of them, to tell whether they had signed it in their capacity as members of the church or as members of the "civil body politic." They would have found it hard to the end of their days to tell whether they were doing this and that in their capacity as
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members of the Church of Christ or as citizens of Plymouth; for they looked upon the end and aim of citizenship and of churchmanship as the same-to bring that New England corner of the world and of eternity where they found them- selves under the true forms of eternity and into conformity with the law of God. This end they remembered alike in the town-meeting and in the prayer-meeting. The Sunday sermon had the most direct bearing upon the conduct of life, and the political gathering felt no surprise at hearing the religious word. Under one roof these men prayed and voted, with no thought that the roof did not shelter the one act as fittingly as the other.
It is this in the history of the Fathers which makes their church our common heritage. The congregation of the First Church of Plymouth, looking at itself parochially, is as inde- pendent as any other congregation; and it is also much better able than most congregations to take care of itself. It certainly does not need any help from the outside American or New England world to build a new church. Indeed, we believe that it has already raised an amount of money sufficient to enable it to build a much better church than that which was burned. But this congregation has no right to look upon itself simply parochially, nor do we think that it has any disposition to do it. It is the trustee of the great Pilgrim tradition; and its high office is to act with the public to keep sacred memories fresh and give them power. The public reciprocally has its duty; and to it comes now a signal opportunity. It is to co- operate with the Plymouth congregation to raise in the new church a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers of the noblest and most beautiful character, a church which shall be the finest ornament of the historic old town and an inspiration and delight to every pilgrim to its sacred shrines.
The building ... at Plymouth, we say, should enlist the interest of every New Englander and every patriotic American. The people of Plymouth, we well know, will do their own part generously and with reverent devotion. But Plymouth does not belong to Plymouth only; it belongs to all of us -
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and men and women everywhere will welcome the oppor- tunity to add their brick to the temple.
Following the burning of the fourth meetinghouse of the First Parish on November 22, 1892, the Hon. Arthur Lord, then president of the Pilgrim Society, and later president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, wrote:
The new church to be built in Plymouth upon the old site may well serve not merely the needs of a religious denomina- tion, as a place of worship, but it should also stand as an enduring memorial of what the religious life of its founders has done for this nation, of the freedom which inspired the Pilgrims, of the breadth of thought and toleration of expres- sion which characterized them, and of that right of individual judgment which marks the liberal in every age. It should emphasize and commemorate the importance and significance of that splendid spirit of religious liberty which their lives and labors expressed whose confession of faith was a sublime confidence in the word of God "known and to be known."
The opportunity now offered ought not to pass unimproved, to secure in the new church on the slope of Burial Hill, "the hill of graves behind it, the watery way before," a memorial more interesting, more appropriate and more suggestive than any other of that Pilgrim company whose members have left an unfading example to all time in the simplicity and nobility of their lives, and who have marvellously shaped and fashioned the policy of great states and a greater country by the freedom and loftiness of their thought.
That these statements are typical of the popular feeling at the time may be borne out by the brochure issued by the parish the following year:
From every side, in magazine and paper, in public and private, has come the request that the new church in Plymouth should not be built for the Plymouth parish alone. ...
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One half of the amount needed to build such a church has already been secured by the Plymouth Parish.
The money was forthcoming from many quarters. The National Assembly of Unitarian Churches, meeting in Saratoga, N. Y., voted to appoint a committee to raise $25,000.00 toward the memorial. The various New Eng- land societies appointed committees to raise funds, or to take responsibility for particular memorials. The May- flower descendants, in national and state organizations, undertook to give substantial aid, and appropriate memo- rials bear witness to their efforts.
The question faced by the parish was first deciding upon the type of meetinghouse to be built, a question compli- cated by the peculiarities of the lot. The historic site of the First Church stood at the head of Town Square, domi- nating it, and looking directly out to sea down Leyden street, the First street of the Pilgrim saga. Behind it was Burial Hill, on which the Fort had stood, and the lot was actually carved out of the hill. The church building would be in the unusual position of being on a lower elevation than the onlooker from every direction except the front. The problem was unique in the need to build a church as effective from the side and rear view as from the front. The colonial style was discarded by nearly all architects as unsuitable from the rear elevations. The Norman and Renaissance styles were considered to be those that fitted the position the church would occupy.
Once the practical consideration was decided, then arose the desire to be sure of the fitness of the type of architecture chosen. Several interesting letters are still in the parish archives showing the extensive effort to determine the most appropriate architecture. The New England colonial
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architecture of course is patterned after the work of Sir Christopher Wren who flourished at the turn of the eight- eenth century. His influence therefore was later and foreign to the Pilgrim settlement. None of the churches built by the parish was ever influenced by his style. The Norman architecture was the architecture most familiar to the Pilgrims in England.
We find Edward C. Cabot, president of the Boston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, writing the parish:
I am of the opinion that the style you have adopted, the Italian Renaissance, is decidedly better adapted to a simple modern church than either what is called Old Colonial . . . or the Gothic. Your plan of treatment of the lot considering its peculiarities and the provisions for the Memorial Hall (i.e. Kendall Hall) is admirable.
Professor F. W. Chandler of the Department of Archi- tecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote to the chairman of the Parish Committee:
I have examined with much care the design made . . . for the proposed church in Plymouth. In considering the require- ments of this very difficult problem, I am more and more impressed with the very skillful way in which all its questions have been met and answered. ... I believe too that the Italian Renaissance is the style to be used. The style ... lends itself far better to congregational worship than the Gothic plan. Again, the whole spirit of the age is more in sympathy with the Renaissance. . .. then was the opening up of universal knowledge and intercourse, and [an] architecture created by a civilization more like our own . .. can be more readily adapted to our needs than [an architecture inspired by] the Middle Ages. The Colonial Style ought not to be con- sidered, for after all it is more associated with wooden archi-
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tecture, and at its best owes its life to the classical forms. I should prefer to go to the fountain head for incentive.
The Italian Renaissance plan was one that the Plymouth Church people preferred also. It was a revival of the Classical Romanesque, of which Norman architecture was an excellent example. It marked at once the ruggedness of the English yeoman, and the graciousness of his spirit. Built in the Renaissance form, the church is a continuing symbol of man's rediscovery of man, of the advancing knowledge that made possible the Reformation of which the Pilgrim Fathers were a later development. It made possible the incorporation of features of the English Nor- man churches where the Pilgrims worshiped. It made possible a church which in an instant's perception sym- bolizes the strength, ruggedness, staunchness and honesty of the Pilgrims. It would not clash with Burial Hill, nor be a discordant note in the landscape.
For the period in which it was built, few finer specimens of American architecture can be found. The church was built by the firm of Messrs. Hartwell, Richardson and Driver of Boston. The cornerstone was laid in 1896. Serv- ices were first held in the unfinished church in 1897. The finished church was dedicated on Forefathers' Day, Decem- ber 21, 1899, as "The Memorial Church of the First Parish." Besides the minister of the First Church, Rev. Charles P. Lombard, seven others participated in the serv- ice. The prayer of dedication was given by the venerable Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., chaplain of the U. S. Senate, who had been chairman of the Unitarian commit- tee to raise funds for the building.
The church is built of seam-faced granite, with Ohio
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sandstone trimmings. The entrance is modeled after the Norman doorway of St. Helen's, the quaint parish church at Austerfield, England, where Bradford was baptized in 1590. The tablet at the right of the entrance bears this inscription:
The Church of Scrooby, Leyden and the Mayflower,
Gathered on this hillside in 1620,
Has ever since preserved unbroken records, And maintained a continuous ministry,
Its first covenant being still the basis of its fellowship.
In reverent memory of its Pilgrim Founders This fifth meetinghouse was erected A. D. MDCCCXCVII.
In the vestibule are four tablets which give the Covenant of 1676, the names of the ministers, the elders and the churches which were formed from this.
COVENANT OF THE FIRST CHURCH
In the name of our lord Jesus Christ & in obedience to His holy will and divine ordinances:
We being by the most wise & good Providence of God brought together in this place - & desirous to unite ourselves into one congregation or church under the Lord Jesus Christ, our Head - that it may be in such sort as becometh all those whom he hath redeemed & sanctified to himself. ... We do hereby solemnly & religiously (as in his most holy presence) avouch the Lord Jehovah the only true God to be our God & doe promise & binde ourselves to walke in all our wayes, ac- cording to the Rule of the gospel - & in all sincere conformity to His holy ordinances - & in mutual love to, and watchful-
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ness over one another - depending wholy & only upon the Lord our God to enable us by his grace hereunto.
From This Church
Scrooby 1606
Plymouth 1620
Were Formed The
First Church in Duxbury 1632
First Church in Marshfield 1632
First Church in Eastham 1646
First Church in Plympton 1698
First Church in Kingston 1717 Second Church in Plymouth 1738
Third Church in Plymouth 1801
Now Church of the Pilgrimage
ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH
William Brewster 1620-1644 Thomas Cushman 1649-1691 Thomas Faunce 1699-1746
MINISTERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH
At Scrooby England 1606-1608, Richard Clyfton and John Robinson.
At Amsterdam 1608-1609, Richard Clyfton and John Robin- son.
At Leyden 1609-1620, John Robinson. At Plymouth, Ralph Smith 1629.
Associate to Ralph Smith, Roger Williams 1631. John Rayner 1636.
Associate to John Rayner, Charles Chauncey 1638. John Cot- ton 1667, Ephraim Little 1699, Nathaniel Leonard 1724. Chandler Robbins 1760, James Kendall 1800.
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THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL PILGRIM CHURCH
Associate to James Kendall, George W. Briggs 1838, Henry L.
Myrick 1853, George S. Ball 1855, Edward Hall 1858. Edward H. Hall 1859, Frederick N. Knapp 1869.
Edmund Q. S. Osgood 1878, Charles P. Lombard 1888, John
Cuckson 1901, Melvin Brandow 1910, Arthur B. Whitney 1911.
Alfred R. Hussey, 1921, Floyd J. Taylor 1939. George N. Marshall 1946.
The stained glass windows in the upper vestibules repre- sent scenes from Pilgrim history and are the gift of Mrs. Caleb Brewster Hackley, made from medieval English glass, highlighting such significant events as the Landing of the Pilgrims, The Treaty with Massasoit, the First Trial by Jury in America, that at Plymouth in 1624 of Lyford and Oldham, and the Destruction of the Pilgrim Press in Leyden, representing the struggle for a free press.
The stone set into the floor of the church, just under the gallery, was given by Senator George F. Hoar in 1896. An extract from the letter accompanying his donation suf- ficiently explains its character:
The stone sill or threshold of the church at Delft-Haven, where Robinson prayed with his flock just before they em- barked and which was undoubtedly pressed by his feet and theirs, and was I suppose the last object now remaining which their feet touched before they went on board, has lately been broken and taken out, and I have secured a considerable part of it. A block about 12 inches by 9 and 3 inches thick, bearing an inscription.
The three C's I suppose mean 1500. That number is often expressed in like inscriptions found in Dutch churches. The church is said to have been built in 1516.
Two tablets are placed on the wall of the gallery com- memorating the two ministers whose pastorates combined
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covered a hundred years, the Reverend Chandler Robbins and the Reverend James Kendall.
The stained glass figures at the back of the pulpit were presented by the New England Society of Brooklyn, N. Y., "to emphasize the fact that the civil and religious liberty we now enjoy originated in large measure with the brave men and women who founded the Plymouth Colony."
The artist, Mr. Edward Peck Sperry of New York, has portrayed symbolically in the windows these two kinds of liberty under the manly forms of a Pilgrim soldier and a Pilgrim minister.
Civil liberty is represented by the soldier, who is a soldier only in order to protect the liberty he personifies, for his sword is sheathed, never to be drawn except to defend the right - a liberty based upon the compact of the Mayflower, found in the open book resting upon his knee.
Religious liberty is represented by the minister, who holds in one hand the scroll of the moral law, while his arm rests upon that foundation of truth, the Holy Scrip- tures, and his right hand is raised in exhortation and bene- diction as he announces the fundamental principles of religious liberty.
Between these figures is the stained glass window repre- senting the "Signing of the Compact" in the cabin of the Mayflower. This was the gift of the New York Society of Mayflower Descendants and was designed by Sperry and made by Tiffany.
The east window over the gallery, presented by the late Edward G. Walker of Plymouth, represents John Robin- son delivering his farewell address to the departing Pil- grims at Delft-Haven.
The pulpit was given by the descendants of John How-
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land and the large chairs by Mrs. Sarah Brewster Reed. The organ was given by the Plymouth Universalist Society, and its majestic chords symbolize the happy reunion of the two groups. It was purchased by the Eddy Estate Fund and private contributions.
The font was given by the New Jersey Society of May- flower Descendants. The divided chancel was made pos- sible by the Bray Fund and is a memorial to John Robin- son. The brass Bible stand is a memorial to the Reverend John Cuckson.
The communion table is the gift of Mr. George P. Hay- ward, a descendant of White and Winslow. The ancient silver used in the communion services is kept at Pilgrim Hall and there also are deposited the church records, dating back from the beginning. The modern sterling silver communion cups, patterned after the original Paul Revere goblet in the ancient set, were given by Dr. L. B. Reed in memory of his mother. The ancient silver is still used for special occasions, and is on display at Pilgrim Hall.
The broad and liberal Pilgrim spirit is shown by the words of Robinson inscribed on the wall to the left of the pulpit: "The Lord hath more Truth and Light yet to break forth from His Holy Word."
The church vestry is called Kendall Hall in honor of the long and fruitful ministry of the Reverend James Kendall, the first Unitarian minister of the church. As a fitting 50th anniversary observation, Kendall Hall will now bear memorials to three people prominently con- nected with activities there during the past half century: Arthur Lord, Clarence D. Bradford, and Miss Elizabeth Thurber. These memorials have made possible the com- plete renovation and aesthetic development of the hall
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for the educational, social, and civic activities of a modern church.
The ten bells in the chimes were subscribed in 1920 and placed for the Pilgrim tercentenary during the ministry of the Reverend Arthur B. Whitney. The funds were raised by national subscription, and one bell was paid for by the people of Plymouth, England. With the bells, cast in Troy, N. Y., by the Meneely family, hangs the old Paul Revere Bell of the town.
Three thousand people annually have signed the guest book in recent summers. Like modern Pilgrims, devout visitors and tourists include the old First Church in their itinerary, as they visit the ancient environs of Pilgrim be- ginnings. The modern memorial church structure is a fitting and significant memorial of the faith of the Pilgrims.
The women of the church who serve as hostesses on sum- mer afternoons are greatly impressed by the reverent and devout interest shown by vacationers from far and wide. In one summer recently, visitors from forty-six states and seven foreign countries signed the guest book. A Catholic priest said, "Here all Americans can meet with a common faith," and many a person has said, "This is the national cathedral of American faith." The exclamation, "This is just right; there is not one thing out of place!" has been heard. An army officer said, "This is more inspiring than the great Cathedrals of Europe and North Africa!" People have said, "This is the first time I have ever felt I stood on Holy Ground." Thus does this "old mother of American churches" still serve as an integrating and ennobling influ- ence in modern America.
In recent years, the various agencies that handle the American international radio broadcasts have featured on
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each Thanksgiving the service from the First Church, often rebroadcasting them in as many as seventeen languages. The Community Service held in recent years on Thanks- giving afternoon, preceded by a procession of townspeople in Pilgrim costume, a procession in which the various churches co-operate, has thrown a national spotlight on Plymouth and the First Church each year. A visiting preacher recently said: "This service is the American passion play," and visitors from far and wide, looking at the Pilgrims with musket and quaint garb in the front of the church, and reflecting upon that first Thanksgiving held here so long ago, agreed.
Thus does this National Memorial Church of the Pil- grims serve not only the needs of the First Parish in Plymouth, but through the vision and foresight of its builders and through the constancy and continuing faith of the old organization, enshrine the values and faith that have made our nation great.
VII Why a Unitarian Church ?
BY ALFRED RODMAN HUSSEY
THIS FIRST CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH is a Unitarian church. Of those who call this church their church home, the majority are doubtless Unitarian or Universalist. In name, at least, they belong to the fellowship of free be- lievers. During the summer season we have many visitors from far and wide who come to this ancient parish and Pilgrim church because of the common ties and roots which it preserves. Many of them are surprised to learn that this is a Unitarian church. Many would ask us ques- tions of "Why a Unitarian Church?" and they are entitled to an answer. Our members need to consider the question, because any one of them may be asked to answer it.
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