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Saints and Strangers: Being the Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers and Their Families
Saints and Being the Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers and Their Families, with Their Friends and Foes, and an Account of the Posthumous ... and the Strange Pilgrimages of Plymouth Rock
565 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 15, 2025
I really enjoyed this book! I didn't even have a good grasp in my mind before I read this book that the Pilgrims and Puritans were different so this was a highly readable and entertaining way to learn about the Pilgrims and other early settlers of America. Basically, they were really inept and unlucky and this whole book consists of the Scottish author taking the piss out of these admirable-in-their-way goobers.
I picked this up from Hole in the Wall (used bookstore up the block) for $2.50 based on its strange cover and was not disappointed.
Some choice quotations:
First line of book: "A more inept group of immigrants never set foot on an American shore."
From first chapter: "Never did the Pilgrims quietly resign themselves to defeat, no matter what the odds against them. They launched themselves upon the most hazardous of ventures not once but many times and no obstacle or untoward circumstance could stay them or divert them from their course. Far from being humble and softspoken, they were quick in their own defense, fond of controversy , and sharp of tongue, engaging in many a high-pitched quarrel with friends and foes alike, even among themselves. Given to speaking their minds plainly, they expressed themselves in the language of Marlowe and Shakespeare, in the torrential and often rafter-shaking rhetoric of Elizabethan England, with no slightest regard for the proprieties and polite circumlocutions of a later day....The Pilgrims were Elizabethan, too, in their acceptance of the simpler joys of life. They practised no macerations of the flesh, no tortures of self-denial."
Chapter 18: "Allerton was carrying a commission formally made out 'under their hands & seals' to represent the Pilgrims in all their business dealings with the adventurers, a sensible plan designed to concentrate the management of business affairs in the hands of one man. But like all of the Pilgrims' sensible plans, it went awry and ended in disaster."
This book is filled with characters! For example:
Chapter 21: "For more than thirty years, until 1653, when age forced him to retire from active duty, Standish was commander-in-chief of the small but formidable Pilgrim army. It was ridiculously small...but in his hands it was always an adequate instrument for the purpose employed....Though easily provoked and not to be trusted in manners of high policy, for his judgment was often warped by his quick temper and the boundless suspicions and fears of the professional military mind, yet Standish proved himself an always capable and inspiring leader in the field...."
Chapter 22: "Signing himself 'Professor of the Mysteries & De Primo,' Gorton was a Familist, one of a sect rejecting formalism and exalting the untrammeled spirit of divine love. There is much that is modern and enlightened in his point of view. But Gorton was a 'most prodigious Minister of exhorbitant Novelties," it must be confessed, and the Pilgrims found him "blasphemous,...a proud and pestilent seducer...a subtle deceiver....'"
Chapter 22: "For years one of the most respected ministers in the colony, this [Reverend] Partridge 'had not only the innocency of a dove...but also the loftiness of an eagle in the great soar of his intellectual abilities,' wrote Cotton Mather in one of his excruciating puns, carefully underscoring every point so that it could not possibly escape the dullest reader, 'and so afraid was he of being anything that looked like a bird wandering from his nest that he remained with his poor people till he took wing to become a bird of Paradise, along with the winged seraphim of heaven.'"
Chapter 23: "One day, when exploring the Cape beyond Eastham, a party of Pilgrims pointed to a particular section and asked the Indians who owned it.
"'Nobody,' was the Indians' reply, meaning everybody.
"'In that case,' said the Pilgrims, 'it is ours.'
"But the English attitude toward the natives' rights was never more succinctly expressed than by a town meeting at Milford, Connecticut, in 1640: 'Voted, that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; voted, that the earth is given to the Saints; voted, that we are the Saints.'"
Ha!
I picked this up from Hole in the Wall (used bookstore up the block) for $2.50 based on its strange cover and was not disappointed.
Some choice quotations:
First line of book: "A more inept group of immigrants never set foot on an American shore."
From first chapter: "Never did the Pilgrims quietly resign themselves to defeat, no matter what the odds against them. They launched themselves upon the most hazardous of ventures not once but many times and no obstacle or untoward circumstance could stay them or divert them from their course. Far from being humble and softspoken, they were quick in their own defense, fond of controversy , and sharp of tongue, engaging in many a high-pitched quarrel with friends and foes alike, even among themselves. Given to speaking their minds plainly, they expressed themselves in the language of Marlowe and Shakespeare, in the torrential and often rafter-shaking rhetoric of Elizabethan England, with no slightest regard for the proprieties and polite circumlocutions of a later day....The Pilgrims were Elizabethan, too, in their acceptance of the simpler joys of life. They practised no macerations of the flesh, no tortures of self-denial."
Chapter 18: "Allerton was carrying a commission formally made out 'under their hands & seals' to represent the Pilgrims in all their business dealings with the adventurers, a sensible plan designed to concentrate the management of business affairs in the hands of one man. But like all of the Pilgrims' sensible plans, it went awry and ended in disaster."
This book is filled with characters! For example:
Chapter 21: "For more than thirty years, until 1653, when age forced him to retire from active duty, Standish was commander-in-chief of the small but formidable Pilgrim army. It was ridiculously small...but in his hands it was always an adequate instrument for the purpose employed....Though easily provoked and not to be trusted in manners of high policy, for his judgment was often warped by his quick temper and the boundless suspicions and fears of the professional military mind, yet Standish proved himself an always capable and inspiring leader in the field...."
Chapter 22: "Signing himself 'Professor of the Mysteries & De Primo,' Gorton was a Familist, one of a sect rejecting formalism and exalting the untrammeled spirit of divine love. There is much that is modern and enlightened in his point of view. But Gorton was a 'most prodigious Minister of exhorbitant Novelties," it must be confessed, and the Pilgrims found him "blasphemous,...a proud and pestilent seducer...a subtle deceiver....'"
Chapter 22: "For years one of the most respected ministers in the colony, this [Reverend] Partridge 'had not only the innocency of a dove...but also the loftiness of an eagle in the great soar of his intellectual abilities,' wrote Cotton Mather in one of his excruciating puns, carefully underscoring every point so that it could not possibly escape the dullest reader, 'and so afraid was he of being anything that looked like a bird wandering from his nest that he remained with his poor people till he took wing to become a bird of Paradise, along with the winged seraphim of heaven.'"
Chapter 23: "One day, when exploring the Cape beyond Eastham, a party of Pilgrims pointed to a particular section and asked the Indians who owned it.
"'Nobody,' was the Indians' reply, meaning everybody.
"'In that case,' said the Pilgrims, 'it is ours.'
"But the English attitude toward the natives' rights was never more succinctly expressed than by a town meeting at Milford, Connecticut, in 1640: 'Voted, that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; voted, that the earth is given to the Saints; voted, that we are the Saints.'"
Ha!
May 8, 2019
This is another fine book that was part of the Time Reading Program, a short-lived book club in the 1960s. The editors chose their titles brilliantly, and their history, biography, and science selections have been a delight to read, books that I would otherwise never have even known about. Anyone wondering what to read next could do a lot worse than looking up the list of Time Reading Program titles on Wikipedia, checking the reviews at Goodreads, and then searching used book stores to see what is available.
When Martin Luther rebelled against the Catholic church, he did so for both doctrinal and ethical reasons. His doctrinal objections were that the hierarchical structure of the church was non-biblical, and served only to enhance the wealth and power of the higher level clergy. It is interesting to note that he offered to debate his positions many times, and was always refused with some variant of, “You’re just a lowly monk; who are you to question Our interpretation of scripture?” Luther’s ethical objections were that the Church had become corrupt at all levels, ready to support any money raising scheme regardless of scriptural legitimacy, a church whose priests, bishops, cardinals, and even – and especially – popes, ignored their vows, scorned the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and ruled like Oriental despots.
When Henry VIII broke from Catholicism he replaced the pope as head of the church but kept everything else, including the non-biblical hierarchies and the corrupt and contemptible prelates. Actual Protestant doctrine would only enter his church slowly over many decades. The leaders of the Anglican church were every bit as venal and corrupt as their Catholic fore-bearers, and punished dissent just as vigorously. English subjects had no liberty to think or worship as they chose, and were jailed, hanged, and even burned at the stake for questioning Established Truth.
And yet, no matter how hard the church tried, it could not stamp out dissent, for the simple reason that Dissenters' arguments were based on the actual words of the Bible, so it was easy to show that much of the oppressive ecclesiastical structure was entirely without scriptural justification. For some the persecution became so vicious they fled England, primarily for Holland, where the Dutch allowed all beliefs so long as their practitioners were peaceable and law abiding.
After a number of failed attempts the sect which would one day – far in the future – be known as the Pilgrims made it to Holland, where they stayed for twelve years. Some of them then decided to sail to the New World, but the process of gathering provisions and chartering a vessel was expensive and time consuming. It also set a precedent for what would be a recurring theme in Pilgrim history, where they made terrible money-losing business decisions, and on top of that they were repeatedly cheated by people they trusted, including, some times, members of their own congregation.
They finally set out, far too late in the season, and after a brutal eight week crossing landed on Cape Cod on November 10th, 1620, and from there moved to the mainland where they founded Plymouth. Weakened by the crossing, short on food, and facing bitterly cold weather, disease broke out, claiming almost half of them in the first months. Although today they are often pictured in sturdy log cabins, what they actually built were dirt-floored hovels of mud and wattle; log cabins, a Scandinavian development, were not introduced to New England for another twenty years.
They would never have survived but for the fortuitous arrival of Squanto, an English-speaking native. He had been born in what would become Plymouth, part of a powerful local tribe called the Patuxet. An English merchant ship captain invited natives onboard to trade, then clapped them in irons and sailed off to sell them into slavery. Squanto was sold first in Spain, then taken to England where he learned the language. He eventually went back to New England to act as a guide and interpreter for an adventurer, and found that a few years before his return a virulent plague had swept through his people, and he was the last of the Patuxets. He had been unhappily attached to a neighboring tribe when the Pilgrims arrived, and eagerly joined them, acting as an interpreter and teaching them essential survival skills. Even so, the first few harvests were meager and the Pilgrims were never far from starvation.
More ships came over, but never with many new additions, and the Saints, the members of the church, were always outnumbered by the Strangers, people who came over with them to make a new life or to seek prosperity, but who were not part of their religious community. The Mayflower Compact is one of the foundational documents in American history, an early experiment in personal liberty and participatory democracy, but it also enshrined minority rule, since the more numerous Strangers were prohibited from participating in the colony’s government.
Ten years later the Puritans came over, settling in and around Boston. Pilgrim and Puritan are often mixed together in people’s minds, but they were separate sects. The Pilgrims were a lively bunch, liking fine food, strong drink, and colorful clothing, very different from the dour black-clad Puritan theocracy. It was the Puritans who burned people at the stake for witchcraft; the Pilgrims never did, and one time when a woman accused her neighbor of being a witch she was fined and flogged for making foolish accusations.
The Puritans were always a much larger community than the Pilgrims, who had to constantly struggle against encroachment by their northern neighbors. It was the Puritans who eventually managed to get a royal charter, whose area included Plymouth, and so after 73 years of independence they became a minor county of the Massachusetts colony.
By that time thousands of people had migrated to New England, establishing many new towns and, inevitably, encroaching on the native lands. When war finally broke out it was vicious but the end was never in doubt. The Indians were massacred, the survivors sold into slavery, mostly in the West Indies where they quickly sickened and died, and their lands given to the settlers, who fulsomely thanked god for His help smiting their foes.
The Pilgrims gradually faded into the larger population. Many descendants of the original settlers were British sympathizers during the Revolution and had to flee to Canada. To be descended from one of the original Mayflower settlers is today a badge of the highest blue blood snobbery, but their ancestors were anything but aristocratic. They were poor farmers and tradesmen, mostly illiterate, and brought with them the vices of their class. Theft, drunkenness, and public disorder were endemic among the Saints, and even one of their own preachers had his house burglarized five times in less than two years.
They would have been almost forgotten today but for a patriotic revival which helped focus on the democratic principles that they embraced. They were first called Pilgrims in 1795, but the name did not catch on until the 1800s, more than two hundred years after their arrival. It was the Pilgrims who taught the Puritans and other colonists the value of free elections and of leaders who were always subject to recall by their constituents. They were frequently narrow minded and intolerant; having fled England to believe according to their own conscience they then denied everyone else in their territory the right to do likewise. Nevertheless, though they lived hard lives in difficult times, they showed courage and resolve and deserve to be remembered today for their spirited defense of liberty and self-determination.
When Martin Luther rebelled against the Catholic church, he did so for both doctrinal and ethical reasons. His doctrinal objections were that the hierarchical structure of the church was non-biblical, and served only to enhance the wealth and power of the higher level clergy. It is interesting to note that he offered to debate his positions many times, and was always refused with some variant of, “You’re just a lowly monk; who are you to question Our interpretation of scripture?” Luther’s ethical objections were that the Church had become corrupt at all levels, ready to support any money raising scheme regardless of scriptural legitimacy, a church whose priests, bishops, cardinals, and even – and especially – popes, ignored their vows, scorned the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and ruled like Oriental despots.
When Henry VIII broke from Catholicism he replaced the pope as head of the church but kept everything else, including the non-biblical hierarchies and the corrupt and contemptible prelates. Actual Protestant doctrine would only enter his church slowly over many decades. The leaders of the Anglican church were every bit as venal and corrupt as their Catholic fore-bearers, and punished dissent just as vigorously. English subjects had no liberty to think or worship as they chose, and were jailed, hanged, and even burned at the stake for questioning Established Truth.
And yet, no matter how hard the church tried, it could not stamp out dissent, for the simple reason that Dissenters' arguments were based on the actual words of the Bible, so it was easy to show that much of the oppressive ecclesiastical structure was entirely without scriptural justification. For some the persecution became so vicious they fled England, primarily for Holland, where the Dutch allowed all beliefs so long as their practitioners were peaceable and law abiding.
After a number of failed attempts the sect which would one day – far in the future – be known as the Pilgrims made it to Holland, where they stayed for twelve years. Some of them then decided to sail to the New World, but the process of gathering provisions and chartering a vessel was expensive and time consuming. It also set a precedent for what would be a recurring theme in Pilgrim history, where they made terrible money-losing business decisions, and on top of that they were repeatedly cheated by people they trusted, including, some times, members of their own congregation.
They finally set out, far too late in the season, and after a brutal eight week crossing landed on Cape Cod on November 10th, 1620, and from there moved to the mainland where they founded Plymouth. Weakened by the crossing, short on food, and facing bitterly cold weather, disease broke out, claiming almost half of them in the first months. Although today they are often pictured in sturdy log cabins, what they actually built were dirt-floored hovels of mud and wattle; log cabins, a Scandinavian development, were not introduced to New England for another twenty years.
They would never have survived but for the fortuitous arrival of Squanto, an English-speaking native. He had been born in what would become Plymouth, part of a powerful local tribe called the Patuxet. An English merchant ship captain invited natives onboard to trade, then clapped them in irons and sailed off to sell them into slavery. Squanto was sold first in Spain, then taken to England where he learned the language. He eventually went back to New England to act as a guide and interpreter for an adventurer, and found that a few years before his return a virulent plague had swept through his people, and he was the last of the Patuxets. He had been unhappily attached to a neighboring tribe when the Pilgrims arrived, and eagerly joined them, acting as an interpreter and teaching them essential survival skills. Even so, the first few harvests were meager and the Pilgrims were never far from starvation.
More ships came over, but never with many new additions, and the Saints, the members of the church, were always outnumbered by the Strangers, people who came over with them to make a new life or to seek prosperity, but who were not part of their religious community. The Mayflower Compact is one of the foundational documents in American history, an early experiment in personal liberty and participatory democracy, but it also enshrined minority rule, since the more numerous Strangers were prohibited from participating in the colony’s government.
Ten years later the Puritans came over, settling in and around Boston. Pilgrim and Puritan are often mixed together in people’s minds, but they were separate sects. The Pilgrims were a lively bunch, liking fine food, strong drink, and colorful clothing, very different from the dour black-clad Puritan theocracy. It was the Puritans who burned people at the stake for witchcraft; the Pilgrims never did, and one time when a woman accused her neighbor of being a witch she was fined and flogged for making foolish accusations.
The Puritans were always a much larger community than the Pilgrims, who had to constantly struggle against encroachment by their northern neighbors. It was the Puritans who eventually managed to get a royal charter, whose area included Plymouth, and so after 73 years of independence they became a minor county of the Massachusetts colony.
By that time thousands of people had migrated to New England, establishing many new towns and, inevitably, encroaching on the native lands. When war finally broke out it was vicious but the end was never in doubt. The Indians were massacred, the survivors sold into slavery, mostly in the West Indies where they quickly sickened and died, and their lands given to the settlers, who fulsomely thanked god for His help smiting their foes.
The Pilgrims gradually faded into the larger population. Many descendants of the original settlers were British sympathizers during the Revolution and had to flee to Canada. To be descended from one of the original Mayflower settlers is today a badge of the highest blue blood snobbery, but their ancestors were anything but aristocratic. They were poor farmers and tradesmen, mostly illiterate, and brought with them the vices of their class. Theft, drunkenness, and public disorder were endemic among the Saints, and even one of their own preachers had his house burglarized five times in less than two years.
They would have been almost forgotten today but for a patriotic revival which helped focus on the democratic principles that they embraced. They were first called Pilgrims in 1795, but the name did not catch on until the 1800s, more than two hundred years after their arrival. It was the Pilgrims who taught the Puritans and other colonists the value of free elections and of leaders who were always subject to recall by their constituents. They were frequently narrow minded and intolerant; having fled England to believe according to their own conscience they then denied everyone else in their territory the right to do likewise. Nevertheless, though they lived hard lives in difficult times, they showed courage and resolve and deserve to be remembered today for their spirited defense of liberty and self-determination.
June 29, 2018
This is revisionist history of New England's Plymouth colony, but it must be reasonably accurate, for it is stuffed with quotations from "ye olde documents." I thought it all interesting enough to finish the book, although it became a contest to decide whether the story was more tediously depressing or the writing more depressingly tedious.
It does offer, perhaps inadvertently, a peripheral history of England's difficulty with dragging itself away from the habit of dictatorial governance, whether the source be monarchy, aristocracy, ecclesiastical, or just small independent gatherings of either sectarian or secular origin. The human urge to make rules for others to live by seems especially strong in this telling. It is noticeable that the little colony did not grow much over its first two centuries, perhaps at least partly because of its habit of fighting with its neighbors (other English who settled along the New England coast, the native inhabitants, the Dutch to the west, and newcomers to their own settlement) and with each other. They are portrayed here as still grouchy and divided at the outbreak of the American Revolution, such that many of their descendant population joined the Tories and either returned to England or moved to Canada or elsewhere.
I concede that it was necessary to recite the day-by-day particulars in order to expose the truth of the hardships and unlikely survival of the immigrants who came to be known as The Pilgrims. But relief for the reader comes in the final chapter, when the author becomes himself and explains how the original Plymouth records were lost for a long time and only rediscovered near the end of the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, however, myths created by both descendants of the settlers and by literary authors—not least of whom was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a contributor from both groups—had camouflaged and sugar-coated their story. For several decades of the early twentieth century scholars transcribed the old manuscripts of court documents, letters, and especially the multi-year journal of original Mayflower immigrant William Bradford. Mr. Willison's 1945 book would seem to be the culmination of that worthy effort. At the very end the author tries to redeem the Pilgrims from their bumbling errors and intolerances by recognizing their courage to cross the ocean and make the best of the remainder of their lives in the frightening new environment of natural wilderness. I would add that their true record affords many lessons worth pondering.
It does offer, perhaps inadvertently, a peripheral history of England's difficulty with dragging itself away from the habit of dictatorial governance, whether the source be monarchy, aristocracy, ecclesiastical, or just small independent gatherings of either sectarian or secular origin. The human urge to make rules for others to live by seems especially strong in this telling. It is noticeable that the little colony did not grow much over its first two centuries, perhaps at least partly because of its habit of fighting with its neighbors (other English who settled along the New England coast, the native inhabitants, the Dutch to the west, and newcomers to their own settlement) and with each other. They are portrayed here as still grouchy and divided at the outbreak of the American Revolution, such that many of their descendant population joined the Tories and either returned to England or moved to Canada or elsewhere.
I concede that it was necessary to recite the day-by-day particulars in order to expose the truth of the hardships and unlikely survival of the immigrants who came to be known as The Pilgrims. But relief for the reader comes in the final chapter, when the author becomes himself and explains how the original Plymouth records were lost for a long time and only rediscovered near the end of the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, however, myths created by both descendants of the settlers and by literary authors—not least of whom was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a contributor from both groups—had camouflaged and sugar-coated their story. For several decades of the early twentieth century scholars transcribed the old manuscripts of court documents, letters, and especially the multi-year journal of original Mayflower immigrant William Bradford. Mr. Willison's 1945 book would seem to be the culmination of that worthy effort. At the very end the author tries to redeem the Pilgrims from their bumbling errors and intolerances by recognizing their courage to cross the ocean and make the best of the remainder of their lives in the frightening new environment of natural wilderness. I would add that their true record affords many lessons worth pondering.
January 3, 2018
Well written and researched. I've learned more from reading this book than any other book about the Pilgrims. I have a special interest in them as I can trace my family lineage back to: John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, William Mullins (Molines), his wife, Alice, Edward Dotey (Doty), George Soule, Phillip Delano (de la Noye), his wife, Esther Dewbury and Mrs. Mary (Pontus) Glass. Keep this book as a good research source.
August 1, 2015
A must-read for a history buff
May 21, 2020
This book was on my parents bookshelves. "Annandale Public Library, Annandale, Minnesota" is stamped on the title page. My Mother was on the Annandale Library Board in the 50's so I assume it was discarded and she brought it home. After my Father died in 2001, I inherited it, just as my interest in genealogy was developing.
It's a fascinating account of our ancestors ( in my case, two - one a Saint and one a Stranger) who arrived on "Plymouth Rock". I use the book as a reference and to keep my historical vision fresh. Thanks to all who reviewed it here.
It's a fascinating account of our ancestors ( in my case, two - one a Saint and one a Stranger) who arrived on "Plymouth Rock". I use the book as a reference and to keep my historical vision fresh. Thanks to all who reviewed it here.
January 17, 2021
Very interesting book that can sometimes support your view of the pilgrims and sometimes break your views into pieces. This is not a light reading book . . . It was sometimes a grind. But, for those of us that weirdly enjoy history, it’s worth the time.
November 29, 2024
The book seems to be thoroughly researched, and I learned a lot that I did not know about the Pilgrims, but I DNF'd about halfway through at page 253. Got tired of reading about grown men arguing with one another.
January 10, 2018
A little slow, but fascinating. I hadn’t realized that the original group of pilgrims was so small.
August 14, 2023
True account of the pilgrims
December 17, 2023
boring but i guess it was informative
there were a lot of words
there were a lot of words
April 26, 2013
The copy of the book I read is from my local library, printed "1945" rebound in "1967." This book is still in print and there's no doubt why as the author has done his homework and takes us on an important journey. One who read ahead of me made notes along the way. Clearly a slant towards finding fault with the Saints religious tenets and how well they lived up to them. I can't say for sure if this person finished the reading or was struck as I was on pg. 222. The conversation between the Chief and Winslow gave me great pause. They spoke of trust, friendship and love. Although the complete conversation has been lost we are left to imagine what a moment that must have been! Ok, you've got my attention Mr. Willison ! There were no more notes then on from the previous reader. I would imagine no one truly believes that the voyage was about religious freedom but instead personal wealth. It was the slant I was expecting along with my many preconceived ideas about who and what these people were all about. In conclusion I would say it was about both.
These men and women were brave. They stood for the things they preached in a time where doing so could mean the gallows. This is not to say they were fearless. It might just be their fear was the driving factor here and perhaps the driving force to many of their problems. It's difficult to make decisions when one is engulfed in fear. Hind sight is 20/20 vision, living in the moment is not but there is something to ponder here. If not for the fear of their environment how would things have played out? Those they trusted and loved betrayed them and most of the time they could not see this. Through all their faults I still am left with a great respect for when it counted they seemed to pull through with honor. Yes, they were harsh, they had rules but their intent was based in love and they no doubt possessed an overwhelming sense of confidence, perseverance and focus.
I would just pose one question. If religion is based in fear. The God fearing, punishment and reward then where do we find love? How does one find God in fear, and more important how does God find us? Do we argue the statement "There is no fear in love?"
While reading this saga pay attention to the authors notes!
Pg. 472 #5 : The Pilgrims believed that if a child were born on a Wednesday, it had been conceived on a Wednesday - which led to great embarrassment at times, for many a child was unhappily born on a Sabbath. Some ministers were disposed to question the propriety of baptizing children born on that day. One pastor loved to thunder on the subject - until his wife presented him with twins one Sabbath, just after the morning service, when it was the pastor's custom to retire for what the congregation had always presumed was rest and meditation.
These men and women were brave. They stood for the things they preached in a time where doing so could mean the gallows. This is not to say they were fearless. It might just be their fear was the driving factor here and perhaps the driving force to many of their problems. It's difficult to make decisions when one is engulfed in fear. Hind sight is 20/20 vision, living in the moment is not but there is something to ponder here. If not for the fear of their environment how would things have played out? Those they trusted and loved betrayed them and most of the time they could not see this. Through all their faults I still am left with a great respect for when it counted they seemed to pull through with honor. Yes, they were harsh, they had rules but their intent was based in love and they no doubt possessed an overwhelming sense of confidence, perseverance and focus.
I would just pose one question. If religion is based in fear. The God fearing, punishment and reward then where do we find love? How does one find God in fear, and more important how does God find us? Do we argue the statement "There is no fear in love?"
While reading this saga pay attention to the authors notes!
Pg. 472 #5 : The Pilgrims believed that if a child were born on a Wednesday, it had been conceived on a Wednesday - which led to great embarrassment at times, for many a child was unhappily born on a Sabbath. Some ministers were disposed to question the propriety of baptizing children born on that day. One pastor loved to thunder on the subject - until his wife presented him with twins one Sabbath, just after the morning service, when it was the pastor's custom to retire for what the congregation had always presumed was rest and meditation.
September 14, 2017
I have enjoyed the information I've learned about the Reformation era and the background on the way religion was created to control people and the facts that show how the Church made people fear for their lives and then transformed that fear into a fear of hell and damnation.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews