Number of Separatists-Causes-Indebtedness to Holland-Refugees in England-Influence of Holland on England-Holland birthplace of Puritanism-Bacon's opinion of the Separatists-Popular resentment at treatment of them-Act of Parliament to suppress Separatism-Exiles in Holland poor, but under strong and scholarly leaders-Francis Johnson-John Smyth-Church at Scrooby-John Robinson-Emigrates to Holland-Leyden-Robinson's attitude to the English Church-- His farewell address to Pilgrims-Memorial tablet-Historic Independency-Helwys and first English Church of Baptists-First Independent Church in England-Henry JacobRobinson and Jacob semi-Separatists-Independents pioneers of liberty-Note on Robinson's farewell address.

CHAPTER X

HOLLAND AND THE EXILED INDEPENDENTS

WE have already adverted to the statement made by Sir Walter Raleigh in Parliament in 1580, that he was afraid that there were over twenty thousand Brownists in England. Considering that the entire population of England did not at that time exceed three millions of people, that is (according to Motley), about equal to the population of the Netherlands, this is a very considerable proportion, and it is little wonder that the statement has been generally supposed to be exaggerated. It is certainly grossly exaggerated if the statement is to be taken literally, for at the time it was made Browne was but beginning to be a conspicuous figure in public estimation, and could not have attracted to himself a very numerous following. Probably, however, Sir Walter used the word "Brownists" as descriptive of the Puritan Separatists generally, those who in substance had adopted the views of Browne, and were disaffected towards the Church and the existing ecclesiastical hierarchy. Taken in this extended sense, there seems no reason to suspect the truth of the statement.

But how had the Separatists grown to the number of twenty thousand? It would be a real, and, in our

judgment, an insuperable difficulty to account for their rapid increase in so short a space of time, if we had no alternative but to attribute it to ordinary causes, say to the influence of the Marian exiles, who had returned home at the accession of Elizabeth imbued with the theology of Geneva and with the spirit of freedom which that theology generated wherever it was received. The leaven of their teaching and influence could not have been so great and so widely diffused as to spread the principles of Separatism among so numerous a section of the nation. It must have been circumscribed by the paucity of their numbers; and when in course of time these passed away, there were but few to take their place and carry on their work. But even if their successors had been equally numerous, equally zealous, their efforts to commend the doctrine of religious liberty to the great mass of the people would have been defeated by the inertness, ignorance, and brutality in which they were sunk. Very few of the latter could read, and it was believed by the ruling powers that the best way to make them contented was to keep them ignorant. truth, when we consider the general condition of the people, the wonder is that Puritanism was not entirely crushed out while Elizabeth was on the throne. How, then, is the rapid growth of Puritanism to be explained? answer this question we must mentally transport ourselves. across the North Sea to the kingdom of the Netherlands or Holland.1

In

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1 In the middle of the seventeenth century, according to Motley, the population of Holland was as large as that of England, and much more wealthy.-United Netherlands, vol. iv. p. 557.

Puritanism in Holland. The influence which this little kingdom, less than half the size of Scotland, and not one-fourth that of England, has exerted upon the historical development of Europe, and especially of our own country, in the matter of civil and religious liberty, has seldom, if recognised, been appraised at its true value.

In the brief notes which Professor Skeat has introduced at the commencement of his Etymological Dictionary, he takes credit for having been the first to point out with sufficient distinctness how great has been the indebtedness of England to Holland. "I am convinced that the influence of Dutch upon English has been much underrated, and a closer attention to this question might throw some light even upon English history. History tells us that our relations with the Netherlands have often been rather close. We read of Flemish mercenary soldiers being employed by the Normans, and of Flemish settlements in Wales, where' (says old Fabyan, I know not with what truth) they remayned a long whyle, but after, they sprad all Englande ouer.' We may recall the alliance between Edward III. and the free towns of Flanders; and the importation by Edward of Flemish weavers." After Antwerp had been captured by the Duke of Parma, a third of the merchants and manufacturers of the ruined city are said to have found refuge on the banks of the Thames. A final stoppage of the trade with Flanders would have broken half the merchants in London.1 Flemish weavers had come over with the Conqueror, then settled down in Norfolk, and suc1 Green's Short History, p. 381.

ceeded to so great an extent in developing the industry at which they wrought, that Norwich became the second city in the kingdom. These Dutch refugees came to this country, not only for purposes of trade, but because they were driven out of their own country by stress of religious persecution. During the period the Netherlands were overrun and laid waste by the butcheries of Alva, it is computed that between fifty and one hundred thousand refugees found an asylum in England. 1560 there were ten thousand, and in 1562 the number had reached thirty thousand.1

In

It was among the Flemish weavers that the preaching and doctrines of Wyclif caught hold and spread most rapidly, and during the persecution of the Lollards it is said more persons suffered death at the stake in Norfolk than in all the other counties of England put together. The martyrs who suffered under Mary were most numerous in those counties where Lollardism exerted its greatest influence, and in those counties it was

1 Green puts the number of refugees from the Netherlands at over 50,000. In the early part of the seventeenth century the population of London was not more than 130,000, and of these 10,000, were foreigners, mostly Walloons. In Norwich alone, as early as 1571, there were 3925 Dutch and Walloons, and in 1587 this number had risen to 4679, making a majority of the population.

2 Professor Thorold Rogers' Story of Holland, p. 51; The English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, by W. H. Beckett. Religious Tract Society. See the two maps. It is idle, in the face of such facts, to say, as Mr. Froude does, that the Lollard movement was an untimely birth, and that it completely died out. This much is certain, that it spread at first among the Walloon settlers; and precisely in those parts-Norfolk and Suffolk and London-where these settlers were most numerous, there the Protestant reforming Puritan spirit was most active and vigorous.