Pilgrims

Salty · Nov 27, 2013

Did the Pilgrims come to the New World for religious freedom?

ktn4eg · Nov 27, 2013

I would say "yes," but that may not have been the only reason they came.

Also, one needs to keep in mind that the Pilgrims that arrived in 1620 are not the same as the Puritans who arrived some ten years later.

Jerome · Nov 27, 2013

Looks like they were repulsed by by worldliness and religious oppression:

Why the Pilgrims left Leyden

children revolted, drawn by the bad example of Dutch children into loose behavior
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In 1619 Prince Maurits had the head of the civil government, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, arrested; and a special count condemned the aged man to death. In a brief coup, Maurits marched with his army from city to city, disbanding the militias and removing all Remonstrants from civic office, replacing officials and soldiers with sycophants loyal to the new regime. The new sheriff in Leiden zealously pursued Catholics, Remonstrants, and Lutherans, extorting large sums of money in exchange for release of their leaders from summary imprisonment. In June, 1619, a law was proclaimed forbidding all dissident religious services, declaring all contracts closed in them (marriages) to be invalid, and prohibiting all their independent collections for support of ministers or poor care.
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Decree followed decree, intending to catch all dissenters and to suppress political opposition. The mood of the mob had become ugly towards minorities, and in April, 1619, Pilgrim James Chilton was stoned by a group of youths as he was on his way home from church, leaving him senseless in the street. True enough, he had been mistaken for a Remonstrant, but it was sufficient that he was not of the Dutch Reformed to arouse the suspicion of his attackers.
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Disgusting.

http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/chilton_james.pdf

A deposition surviving in Leiden records not only documents James Chilton’s presence there, but sheds some light on why so many of the English left in 1620. The Leiden government in 1619 was attempting to suppress the Remonstrants, a controversial religious group. Legislation aimed at prohibiting their activities, however, could also have been used to stop the English Separatists from meeting as a congregation. James Chilton and his daughter, Angel, were victims of this controversy on the night of April 28, 1619. While walking home, they were attacked by a group of twenty boys who identified them as Remonstrants. James Chilton was hit in the head by a stone and knocked to the ground. While the attack was not directed at the English, the growing religious unrest probably contributed to their desire to leave.
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