from persecution; but
the conditions of life were unfamiliar there, and the dissensions more
bitter even than in England. Therefore they moved on to Leyden, where
they were joined by other English congregations, and where they
remained, "knit together as a body in the most strict and sacred bond
and covenant of the Lord." Yet even there the world compassed them about
and was not to be resisted. Of the grinding toil which made them old
before their time they could not complain; but their children,
associating with foreigners and disposed to marry with them, were losing
their language and departing from their early instruction; while the
renewal of the war with Spain threatened the liberty they enjoyed in
their new home. To preserve the true faith intact, it was necessary to
withdraw still more completely from the world; and they turned to
America where they would be as isolated in fact as they were in idea.
And so they "left that goodly and pleasant citie, which had been their
resting place near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, and
looked not much upon these things, but lift up their eyes to the
heavens, their dearest countrie, and quieted their spirits."

Of many attempts to withdraw from the corruptions of a complex world of
fact in order to dwell in spiritual peace according to the simple law of
God or nature, few are more interesting than that which issued in the
little colony of Plymouth. But in point of numbers, and in respect to
the storm and stress of conflicting ideals which produce great events,
Plymouth was soon eclipsed by Massachusetts Bay. The repressive measures
of Elizabeth and James I bore less heavily on the Nonconformist than on
the Separatist; but during the early years of Charles the activities of
the former became the special object of royal displeasure. And from the
point of view of the king the Nonconformist who wished to remain in the
Church was, indeed, more dangerous than the Separatist who wished to get
out of it. The great majority of the Puritans were still of the former
type. Men like Cotton and Winthrop, less spiritual and more practical,
less unworldly and more resistant, than men like Robinson and Bradford,
were not prepared to renounce the land of their birth without a
struggle. They wished rather to get control of the Government in order
that their own ideas might prevail, and were more disposed to purify a
corrupt society by act of Parliament than by passive renunciation an