of that conflict must have remained till after the arrival of the exiles from Scrooby.

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At the same time another trouble was impending. Smyth,

a man of able gifts and a good preacher," was also a man of "inconstancy and unstable judgment." He had, of course, much influence among those who came with him out of England, having been under his pastoral care at Gainsborough; and he was beginning to entertain and broach opinions which were likely to raise a controversy. Robinson, and "some others of best discerning" in the church that came from Scrooby, "seeing how Mr. John Smyth and his company were already fallen into contention with the church that was there before them," and finding reason to believe "that no means they could use would do any good to cure the same," were naturally averse from the thought of a permanent residence in Amsterdam. "Flames of contention," kindled by other causes, seemed "likely to break out in that ancient church itself." Robinson, therefore, and Brewster, and others in their company, felt that they must make another removal, "though they knew it would be much to the prejudice of their outward estate." Their "outward estate" was not the main thing in their estimate of life; for they were "strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

Is there not in that unwillingness of theirs to remain among their fellow-exiles at Amsterdam a noteworthy indication of their character as a community? There was no persecution to drive them away. There was no prospect of their obtaining more lucrative employment or better support for their families elsewhere. We have evidence that there was no lack of friendliness between them and their brethren in exile. But they saw that, in Amsterdam, they were likely to be troubled with the whimsies of erratic and inconstant men; that ultra - Separatists, crotchety inventors of new opinions, and restless agitators of all sorts, would be continually attracted to that centre, and that in some other place they could have more peace in their communion with each

other, and better opportunities for mutual edification and the cultivation of Christian character.

"For these and other reasons," says Bradford, "they removed to Leyden, a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet situation, but made more famous by the university with which it is adorned." Such were the attractions which they felt when selecting the place of their abode-the beautiful city-the pleasant situation-the famous university with its resort of learned men. Against attractions so potent, the consideration that Leyden," wanting that traffic by sea which Amsterdam enjoyed, was not so beneficial for their outward means of living," had no preponderating force.

The history of the church under the care of Johnson and Ainsworth verified the forebodings which induced the Pilgrims to seek another place of refuge. In some respects that church seemed to prosper. Exiles from England, making a fair profession, and sufferers for conscience' sake, were continually gathered into its communion; so that for a time it had about three hundred members. It was served by a full staff of able officers-pastor, teacher, ruling elders, deacons, and deaconess.1 Its worship, conducted by Johnson, was edifying and impressive, not with ritual ornament, but with

' The “Ancient Men,” in Bradford's "Dialogue," say: "At Amsterdam, before their division and breach, they were about three hundred communicants; and they had for their pastor and teacher those two eminent men before named, and in our time four grave men for ruling elders, and three able and godly men for deacons, [also] one ancient widow for a deaconess, who did them service many years, though she was sixty years of age when she was chosen. She honored her place and was an ornament to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient place in the congregation with a little birchen rod in her hand, and kept little children in great awe from disturbing the congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and weak, and especially women, and, as there was need, called out maids and young women to watch and do them helps as their necessity did require; and, if they were poor, she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or acquaint the deacons; and she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an officer of Christ."-Young, p. 455, 456.

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spiritual beauty of simplicity. But it was the unhappiness of that church to be infested with too many of those eccentric and restless persons who, either by their superficial enthusiasm and impulsive instability, or by their conscientious narrowness, or perhaps by their stubborn impracticableness, are more troublesome than profitable to any church that has them among its members. Such men are indigenous every where; and in times of persecution many of them are found among the persecuted. Amsterdam was the most convenient and attractive refuge for all sorts of persons who could find no toleration at home for their religious opinions or their modes of worship; and consequently the church of English exiles there had more than it could well bear of those members who become apostates and enemies, as well as of those who, wherever they may be, and under whatever ecclesiastical forms, disturb the peace of the church, and make its edification almost or altogether impossible.

Those troubles began very early. While Johnson, the pastor, was still in prison at London, some of the exiled members of his flock fell into we know not what extravagant opinions of the Dutch Anabaptists, and were excommunicated by the others. Not much later, "many others—some older, some younger, even too many, though not the half-fell into a schism from the rest; and so many of them as continued therein were cast out; divers of them repenting and returning before excommunication, and divers of them after."2 Then, after Johnson himself had passed from prison into exile, there arose the great conflict concerning the whalebone in Mrs. Johnson's too fashionable bodice and the corks of her high-heeled shoes. An unhappy notoriety was given to that conflict by the indomitable George Johnson, who, after he

1 “A very grave man he was, and an able teacher, and was the most solemn in all his administrations that we have seen any, and especially in dispensing the seals of the covenant, both baptism and the Lord's Supper." Bradford's "Dialogue," in Young, p. 445.

2 Johnson, in Hanbury, i., 110, 111.

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had been cast out of the church "for lying, slandering, false accusation, and contention," found means to print his version of the story in a volume, which, of course, found currency among the enemies of Separation, whether Puritans or Prelatists.1

In other instances the church was vexed with defamatory pamphlets by apostate members. One such pamphlet, of which a copy is still extant, seems to have been considered, like George Johnson's, unworthy of a reply; but, in another case, a public and authentic contradiction was thought necessary, not only for the reputation of the church, but rather for the defense of the principle of Separation. All these conflicts and assaults had preceded the arrival of the Pilgrims at Amsterdam.

John Smyth was almost the last man whom a judicious. adviser would have selected to neutralize the elements of discord in such a church. Evidently, there was a sort of magnetism in his enthusiastic nature. He was not only a good preacher, but had also other "able gifts." In his moral character he seems to have been unblamable. The fearlessness with which he sought for truth, and the fidelity with which he obeyed his convictions, could not but command respect. But with all his "able gifts" and estimable qualities, he had not the gift of good common-sense; his mind's eye was mi

1 "Discourse of certain Troubles and Excommunications in the Banished English Church at Amsterdam, etc. 1603." Hanbury, i., 99.

2 "Brownism turned the Inside outward: Being a Parallel between the Profession and Practice of the Brownists' Religion. By Christopher Lawne, lately returned from that wicked Separation. London, 1603." Hanbury, i., 100.

"A Discovery of Brownism: Or a brief Declaration of some of the Errors and Abominations daily practiced and increased among the English Company of the Separation remaining for the present at Amsterdam, in Holland. By Thomas White. London, 1605." Hanbury, i., 107.

"An Inquiry and Answer of Thomas White in his 'Discovery of Brownism.' By Francis Johnson, Pastor of the Exiled English Church at Amsterdam, in Holland. 1606." Hanbury, ibid.

croscopic, incapable of seeing things in their perspective and proportions. Such a man could not but bring with him, into such a community as that of the English exiles at Amsterdam, new questions to be debated and new contentions.

At this day, it weighs not much in proof of Smyth's instability, or against the soundness of his judgment, when we are told that he adopted those theological opinions which Arminius had maintained in opposition to Gomarus, and which were favored in England by divines like Laud and Bancroft. Nor can we certainly conclude against him when we are told that he became scrupulous about baptism, and denied that it could be properly administered to the children of Christian parents. But when we find what the beginning was of his quarrel with the Amsterdam church, we see what ailed him. "He, with his followers," says Ainsworth in behalf of the church, "breaking off communion with us, charged us with sin for using our English Bibles in the worship of God." His position was that the official ministers of a church -the pastor and teacher-" should bring the originals, the Hebrew and Greek, and out of them translate by voice." Withdrawing from the church, for this reason, with his adherents, he afterward discovered that what he called "the tri-formed presbytery" (consisting of pastor, teacher, and ruling elders) was "a false ministry," and he denounced it accordingly. Then he learned that, "in contributing to the church treasury, there ought to be a separation from them that are without," inasmuch as the contribution is a religious communion. Another of his crotchets was that the singing of improvised compositions (the tune and the hymn coming "by gift of the Spirit") is "a part of God's proper worship in the New Testament;" and on that ground, also, he quarreled with his former brethren, "who contented themselves with joint harmonious singing of the Psalms of Holy Scripture." Evidently the man was, in Ainsworth's phrase, and more literally than Ainsworth thought, "benumbed in mind." Yet such were the materials of the Amsterdam church, and