hostelry which royalty had twice coveted. Within its spacious halls were wont to gather a few earnest souls who were discontented with the empty formalism so common in religious profession at that time, and they were restive under the super-abundant authority of the state in church matters. They insisted on freedom of the individual conscience, from either civil or ecclesiastical domination, and were also convinced that genuine Christianity called for a Christlike life. This was nothing less than Puritanism, which as a term was originally coined by its foes in contempt, but later became a name of honor and glory. Though long in preparing, since Wycliffe gave to the English people the Holy Scriptures in their own familiar speech, this movement was only now coming to its full fruition; and the group of earnest worshipers in Scrooby, who had first organized at Gainsboro in 1602, composed the earliest Puritan church to stand and prosper, others following in a multitude as the cause gained momentum.

Brewster was made Elder at Scrooby, and the boy Bradford was one of the charter members. He accepted the instruction of kind friends who were glad to satisfy his eager thirst for spiritual knowledge. Conspicuous among these was Rev. Richard Clyfton of Babworth, who ministered to the new church for a short time until their permanent pastor was secured, the devout and learned John Robinson. But before the church was formed in Gainsboro and Scrooby, when Bradford was hardly twelve he walked every Sunday over the fields to Babworth, six or seven miles from Austerfield, joining Brewster at Scrooby on the way. The Elder was made Postmaster in the year his future Governor was born, and the two Williams were lifelong intimates. Religiously he was like a father to the boy.

With this unchecked expansion of his soul, young William's intellect was also awakened. Though at first forbidden advanced schooling, he became a self-taught man, a thoughtful student of history, philosophy and theology, proficient also in linguistics, as the classic Latin and Greek, and late in life, the original Hebrew of the Old Testament.

His joining with the Separatists from the Established State Church of England was an act which offended his relatives and early acquaintances, who tried in vain to make him abandon his stand; for he could not, consistently with his convictions, comply with their desires. It was observed that "neither could the wrath of his uncles, nor the scoff of his neighbors, now turned upon him as one of the Puritans, divert him from his pious inclinations". Thus he answered them, "To keep a good conscience and walk in such a way as God has prescribed in his word is a thing which I shall prefer above you all, and above life itself."

Government officers soon discovered this company of Dissenters, stopped their meetings, and proceeded to make arrests. In the autumn of 1607 when seventeen years of age, Bradford and his associates endeavored to go over to Holland, where religious liberty was allowed. He was one of the chief advocates of this measure. But the ship master that was to take them betrayed their plan to the authorities, who sent the Puritans into prison at Boston in Lincolnshire. Next spring the same attempt was made, unsuccessfully again; for their rulers neither granted them freedom at home nor emigration abroad. But before that year of 1608 passed, the victims of persecution escaped one after another, by various means, across the water to Amsterdam. Bradford's ship encountered a seven days' storm and was driven out of its course hundreds of miles, close to Norway, even the mariners giving up in despair. The Pilgrims remained calm, though unused to the sea; and our hero was heard to repeat in prayer, with his companions, "Yet, Lord, thou canst save."

On reaching Holland, an envious passenger accused him as having fled from England as a culprit, and he was taken before the magistrates, who, however, willingly released him when the truth was known.

Leyden was the Pilgrims' rendezvous. The place was congenial to the ardent spirit of this youth, and he became a student at the University there. He must have heard in England as a boy, how the martyr John Bradford, chaplain to Edward VI and one of the most acceptable preachers in the realm, because of his religious principles had been burned to death, in the reign of Bloody Mary. And the people of Leyden could recite for sympathetic ears, the tales of heroic and successful resistance against King Philip of Spain only thirty years before these Puritan refugees from intolerance arrived.

William now went about to earn a living. As an apprentice to a French Protestant, he learned the trade of dying silk, and doubtless, beside his Dutch, acquired here his thorough familiarity with the French language so widely used even in those days.

II

THE PILGRIM

The best inheritance they have left us is the New England conscience. The Puritan's habit of self-examination and prayer has left its impress on the habit of thought of the great nation that has risen where he showed the way.

Governor Guild of Massachusetts, at the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Calvin, in Geneva, Switzerland, July 9, 1909.

Religious faith must ever be the motive power of humanity, and whatever might become of despotism, with or without, it is absolutely essential to democracy.

Governor Hughes of New York, at the Champlain Tercentenary, Vermont, July 9, 1909.

Religion is the only thing upon which to rest our salvation in these times. It is religious principles to which our Commonwealth owes its greatness.

Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Lord's Day League, Boston, 1920.

ON reaching the age of twenty-one, our Bradford became the possessor of his native estate in England, which he sold, as then useless for him to hold. But well he knew, that the recantation of his faith would restore him to independence and presumably to the favor of the Austerfield community. What lay in the future for him he could not conceive. He took the sale money and ventured in some commercial enterprise, but did not prosper in it. His career was to be of more importance than the business of a merchant.

After turning twenty-two, he was admitted, on proof and security, a citizen of Leyden, as William Bradford, Englishman. In the end of the next year his marriage bans were published, and he was registered as a worker in fustian, a coarse cloth of cotton and flax. On December 20, 1613, he wedded Dorothy May, aged sixteen, formerly of Cambridge, and probably the granddaughter of John May, Bishop of Carlisle in 1577. Her autograph, "Dority May," appears in her marriage contract. Bradford, when in America later, had friendly correspondence with her father in Holland.

While in Leyden now, he had the joy of perceiving the rapid growth of the Puritan fellowship there, numbering finally almost three hundred. Purchasing considerable land, they settled in a community by themselves. Robinson, their spiritual head, was held in much esteem throughout the city, for his noble character and fine abilities. Bradford in written eulogy ascribes to him "y^e tender love & godly care of a true pastor."

Yet in spite of the hospitality of Holland, the condition was not normal nor the prospects ideal, for an English settlement among those of foreign speech. The rising generation would naturally affiliate with their neighbors, entering the Dutch army and society; and the