An Answer to John Robinson of Leyden, Now First Published from a Manuscript of A.D. 1609 (Harvard Theological Studies Series Volume IX [9])

xiii, 94 pp. Printed wrappers. The first appearance in print of an early 17th century manuscript written in response to the religious teachings of John Robinson, part of whose congregation became the group we now know as the Pilgrims. Text from Bodleian MS. Jones 30 at Oxford. Robinson, John (1575/6? - 1625), Church of England clergyman and separatist theologian, was born at Sturton, Nottinghamshire... When Robinson moved from Cambridge into the wider world, his nonconformist ideas were soon revealed... Before the end of 1604 he was ejected for non-subscription to the church canons... In essence Robinson's congregation was a 'pilgrim' church. When their enemies disparagingly labelled them Brownists, Robinson refused to accept the term. Their core membership had migrated from place to place, and the members knew that they were pilgrims and strangers in the world. In 1620, when a segment of the congregation journeyed to America, the terms Pilgrims and Pilgrim Fathers became their nicknames. William Bradford's history of Plymouth plantation repeated this Robinsonian theme of pilgrimage: that 'they knew they were pilgrims' (Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, 47). (Sprunger, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)