WHY did the soon-to-be-Pilgrims leave Leiden for the uncertainties of a New World?
"The leaders of the group were worried, above all by the poverty in which most of the congregation lived. Many were getting on in years, and even worse, were compelled by age and situation to put their children to work..... their situation aroused an uneasy fear that within a few years they would either scatter by reason of necessity of 'sinking under their burden, or both.'"
They wished to find a place where they might live more comfortably and still enjoy freedom of religion. They also wished to retain their identity as an English group, having no desire to be absorbed by the Dutch. They were especially fearful of the "seduction of their children by 'ye great manifold temptations of ye place.'"
So they left Leiden.............. the story continues.
(Quoting from Saints and Strangers, by George F. Willison, 1945.)
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