for a broad and tolerant habit of mind too seldom found among the Puritans of that day.  Friendly and unfriendly writers alike bear witness to his spirit of Christian charity and the comparatively slight value which he attached to orthodoxy in points of doctrine; and we can hardly be wrong in supposing that the comparatively tolerant behaviour of the Plymouth colonists, whereby they were contrasted with the settlers of Massachusetts, was in some measure due to the abiding influence of the teachings of this admirable man.  Another important member of the Scrooby congregation was William Bradford, of the neighbouring village of Austerfield, then a lad of seventeen years, but already remarkable for maturity of intelligence and weight of character.  Afterward governor of Plymouth for nearly thirty years, he became the historian of his colony; and to his picturesque chronicle, written in pure and vigorous English, we are indebted for most that we know of the migration that started from Scrooby and ended in Plymouth. [Sidenote:  The congregation of Separatists at Scrooby]

It was in 1606—­two years after King James’s truculent threat—­that this independent church of Scrooby was organized.  Another year had not elapsed before its members had suffered so much at the hands of officers of the law, that they began to think of following the example of former heretics and escaping to Holland.  After an unsuccessful attempt in the autumn of 1607, they at length succeeded a few months later in accomplishing their flight to Amsterdam, where they hoped to find a home.  But here they found the English exiles who had preceded them so fiercely involved in doctrinal controversies, that they decided to go further in search of peace and quiet.  This decision, which we may ascribe to Robinson’s wise counsels, served to keep the society of Pilgrims from getting divided and scattered.  They reached Leyden in 1609, just as the Spanish government had sullenly abandoned the hopeless task of conquering the Dutch, and had granted to Holland the Twelve Years Truce.  During eleven of these twelve years the Pilgrims remained in Leyden, supporting themselves by various occupations, while their numbers increased from 300 to more than 1000.  Brewster opened a publishing house, devoted mainly to the issue of theological books.  Robinson accepted a professorship in the university, and engaged in the defence of Calvinism against the attacks of Episcopius, the successor of Arminius.  The youthful Bradford devoted himself to the study of languages,—­Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and finally Hebrew; wishing, as he said, to “see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in all their native beauty.”  During their sojourn in Leyden the Pilgrims were introduced to a strange and novel spectacle,—­the systematic legal toleration of all persons, whether Catholic or Protestant, who called themselves followers of Christ.  Not that there was not plenty of intolerance in spirit, but the policy inaugurated by the idolized