The New England Way in Holland

Abstract

TUDENTS of English history are well aware that the Puritans experienced a set-back in the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign and that they were profoundly disappointed with the early treatment accorded to them by James I. The king ignored their petitions and cast in his lot with the prelates of the church of England. When the severe Whitgift died, James elevated Bancroft to the see of Canterbury, and Puritan ministers were indeed harried out of the land. Many of these men found refuge in Holland, where toleration existed to a degree sufficient for them to remain, and, in many cases, to erect churches of their own. Some of these exiles, who represented the exultant exuberance of the early Elizabethan settlement, were extreme and schismatical men; others merely abhorred the pagan origins of many ceremonies and institutions in the church of England. Of the latter, especially, several found employment in Holland either as chaplains to English regiments stationed in the Low Countries, or with the English merchant-adventurers. In many Dutch towns the merchant-adventurers established churches with the permission and financial support of the states of Holland.l Among the expelled