When King Henry VII dissolved the Catholic Church and made the Church of England rendering the Pope powerless in all English affairs (Williams, 4), some people, non-conformists, were not happy. They were persecuted for practicing their religion, so when they found a chance to leave, they did. .
This first group of people had been living in self-exile in Leyden, Holland. They were known by 3 different names, their leader William Bradford called them Pilgrims, those who held them in contempt called them Brownists, and to King James and his court they were known as Separatists (Williams, 48). They were forced to leave England, because their complete and unchanging belief that religion should be completely free from government. They became tired of Holland, because of their poor worship of the Sabbath, and were ready to find a new place to live, but only 35 were brave enough to go to the America, they were joined by 66 people from London.
Their desired destination is not known, but they ended up landing at Cape Cod. After some exploring surrounding land the Pilgrims chose Plymouth Rock as their permanent settlement (Williams, 52). Although the first year almost half of the population died, by 1632, 11 years after the beginning their population was up to 500. By the end in 1691 the population was no more than eight thousand scattered in several towns (Williams, 53).
Puritans made many settlements and had trade routes in between the cities. Inside of the cities life was organized and run very strictly. The church was the government and controlled everything under strict rule. They believed punishment for everything should be death or shame. If you had beliefs other than what the church wanted you to have you would be thrown in jail, or banished. The church felt fear of God was the way to worship, and also felt that fear was the best way to run a community.
Puritans, like all Protestants, believed in predestination; God, they declared, had determined in advance who was to be saved and who was to be damned (Morgan, 67).
