Our Pilgrim Ancestors
The Influence of Elder William Brewster and Deacon Samuel Fuller on Reformed Theology and Politics in America’s Founding
Dennis Rees
HIUS 530: American Christian Heritage
May 9, 2021
Introduction; Elder Brewster and Deacon Fuller are my 11th and 10th Great Grandfathers respectively.
There is a trail of events, writings, social interactions, immigrations, and political movements that tell a story of Christian influence in the founding of America. Early inhabitants of the colonies were the first actors along this trail. Because there were so few, some had outsized influence at points on this map. This research topic will recognize episodes by which Pilgrim Fathers, Elder William Brewster, and Deacon Samuel Fuller, influenced American religious and political philosophy and further, how that philosophy may link to the writers of the Constitution of the United States. We intend to briefly analyze the works and actions of these Pilgrim Fathers to determine if they offered a Christian Influence on the founding of America. We must leave out many interesting details about the Pilgrims and their accomplishments in deference to brevity but be assured, the references included give a complete picture of what happened with respect to this group over about a seventy plus year period starting in around 1580. The reasons for the Pilgrims migration to the shores of Cape Cod are certainly interesting and provided a primary drive for action but, it is to what happened after arrival that we confine todays’ investigation.
The Trail
Although others came to Plimoth over the next few years after 1620, they were largely relatives of the first Mayflower travelers, or congregation members who were left in Leyden after the first voyage. The next big wave of Puritans to come to America, came to populate the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1630 and about 1640. Deacon Fuller, being also the Physician of the Plimoth Colony was sent in 1630 to the Bay colony and was asked while there to attend an outbreak of sickness in some of the new towns. His attention was also requested in advising the starting of churches for the new congregations just beginning. Fuller was the perfect choice to give such advice being the veteran Deacon of the Plimoth Congregation. Williston Walker, in his The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalists (1893), pointed to a letter by Salem’s Charles Gott that makes it clear Salem’s congregation was informed when Deacon Fuller visited the settlement and discussed matters of church formation. Although others disagree on the degree of influence by the Plimoth church, most disregard the plain facts and the resultant similarity of the church governance and routine to that of Plimoth. It was Fuller’s advice, mostly taken, by those early new congregations in the Massachusetts Bay Churches that helped establish church governance and equip the new congregants to effectively start and administer their church organizations.[1] In addition, Governor John Winthrop and Rev. John Wilson of Boston visited the Church at Plimoth in 1632. While there, they participated in services wherein Elder Brewster invited them to prophesy on the topic at hand and they did.[2] In 1633 when the government of Massachusetts was faced with church/government questions, they wrote to Plimoth and asked advice from Elder Brewster once again to resolve the issue.[3] Having now been given the benefit of the Plimoth Congregational organization, dogma, practices, procedures, and beliefs, we see the outsized influence of Elder Brewster and Deacon Fuller in begining “The New England Way”.
Much has been written concerning the influence the Puritans of the 17th and 18th centuries had on the founding of America. Many historians and cultural investigators have argued reasons for an opinion of little influence, while others propound the extreme of all-encompassing influence. The fact remains that there existed a definite set of national imperatives that motivated and exhorted our Founders in the 1780’s to develop the concepts of founding documents for our nation. These concepts and precepts originated somewhere, not only in the minds of our founders but before that, throughout their lives, in the forming of these ideas through experience, education, scholarly works, and generally by society and culture. We propose that all these concepts influenced the founding of our country and many can be traced by deductive reasoning to a place and time and a group of people who were the ‘genetic’ forefathers of our present system. Not only from a biological perspective but also an intellectual and societal perspective. Each of these people had an existing place from which to start their thinking that was provided by tradition, education, family, Church, and society. This thinking may be traced from John Calvin through Theodore Beza, John Knox, Samuel Rutherford, (William Brewster and Samuel Fuller), John Winthrop, Thomas Hooker, Roger Sherman, and other influential founders.[4] This ‘chain of custody’ portrays a continuum of principles and experience that extend from even before the Colonial period and moving forward to the founding of the United States of America. The nexus of William Brewster and Samuel Fuller to the process seems clear through examination of undisputed facts.
The connection of Beza, Knox, and Rutherford to Continental Reformed Theology is well known to scholars of religious history. They of course, were adherents of John Calvin and were active doing God’s work trying to extend and perpetuate Calvinist thinking throughout Europe and England. They undoubtedly influenced the thinking of early English Puritan Separatists. They are included herein, to establish the direct link to Reformed Theology and to Reformed political theory[5]. The move to the New World created the time and space for Puritans’ to not only worship the way they thought best but also govern themselves the way they thought best.
John Winthrop’s address on the Arabella, “A Model of Christian Charity”, according to Daniel T. Rodgers, “has been celebrated not only for its elements of drama… but as the origin story of the nation that the United States was to become”.[6] This ‘lay sermon’ was hailed by later historians a timeless ‘foundational speech’. Throughout the twentieth century, many political leaders have used the text to demonstrate the founding principles of the United States in their earliest form. Memorably, Ronald Reagan quoted Winthrop in his “City on a Hill” line connoting the unique position of the United States in the eyes of the world. In this, Winthrop was standing on the shoulders of Brewster and Fuller who came before.
Thomas Hooker was another Puritan Pastor that was involved in setting up not only the church in Hartford, CT. but also the initial Hartford government. Sermons he preached, especially one on May 31, 1638 were a blueprint for the eventual creation of the “Fundamental Orders” of the first town in Connecticut.[7] Due to his position as the town Pastor, Hooker was in a unique position to also dictate the concepts of civil government[8], much the same as Brewster and Fuller were in Plymouth in 1620. In both, most, if not all people belonged to the congregation.
The Planting
Two of the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, Elder William Brewster and Deacon Samuel Fuller, were elected by their congregation to oversee the church as well as preach the Word of God. Both men served faithfully for many years after the founding of the Plantation. Though they anticipated that Pastor Robinson would soon join the congregation in Plimoth, it was not to be. Robinson died in 1625 in Leyden[9]. To establish a connection from the beliefs and practices of these men to the beliefs and practices of the founders and further to influence the founding documents of the United States, it is appropriate to discuss that base set of beliefs and practices as well as some of the people that perpetuated them through time.
The Basics
Liberty is an idea that came to the attention of the general population in the Protestant Reformation. Prior to this, most people were not literate and books, including the Bible, were in languages inaccessible to them. Their knowledge of religion, theology, and government was what they were told by the religious or temporal authorities. It is generally recognized that Liberty is one if the founding principles of our Constitution. It is in the text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, in many other foundational documents, and later, in our pledge of allegiance. John Stuart Mill[10] discusses Liberty in terms of “civil or social Liberty: the nature and limits of power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.” Mill asserts that liberty is a concept far from being new but in the then more civilized context, must be thought of as a struggle between liberty and authority[11]. Liberty in Colonial times meant the struggle between a subject and the government. The ruler ultimately may have been a conqueror or inheritor, but rarely a choice. The evolution of liberty led us to the point that after the Revolution in America, having fought for it and won it, individuals expected to exercise it! They viewed Liberty as a natural right and people understood that it should only be relinquished to others for a limited specific purpose and for a limited time. It is thusly enshrined in our Constitution.
Liberty is the by-product of many of the beliefs and traits brought to our shores by the first European Colonists. Religious freedom, right to govern themselves, right to property, to the produce of their work, as well as the right to say and write what they believe sprang from their thirst for Freedom. Exploring these will lead to an understanding of all the benefits of Liberty to the Colonists and how it manifested itself over the years from the first Colonization to the Founding of the United States. Many individuals came to be in possession of these ideals and through works and beliefs passed them on to succeeding generations in an ever-expanding understanding of their value. We have seen a common thread running through the Religious and Governmental leaders embracing these ideals and refining them through each generation. Brewster and Fuller came to understand and appreciate these ideals as they gained the benefit of liberty by landing in the New World where they were removed thousands of miles from the grasp and control of oppressive authorities. The extension of Liberty to religion whets their appetite for more and more freedoms.
The Capability
We know from many sources about the basic love of fellow man possessed by Elder Brewster. He is described by Bradford as having taken extraordinary care of the sick and afflicted upon arrival in Plimoth, “spared no pains, night or day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, … in a word did all the homey and necessary offices for them… and all willingly and cheerfully… shewing herein their true love for their friends and brethren.”[12]. Bremer, in One Small Candle, echoes some of the thoughts of Bradford and adds others from his extensive research. He believes because of Brewster’s earlier experience in politics and his “extensive readings of political tracts”[13] he was the most likely one to have drawn up the Mayflower Compact. Even given his special humanist acts of kindness, he also accomplished many tangible implementations of government and social norms for the community that can be seen carried forward in time throughout New England. The participatory democracy that was reflected in congregational church covenants played a greater role in the shaping of Massachusetts churches than has previously been accepted.[14] Brewster’s unique blend of Piety and Polity were the perfect proscription for the success of the Plimoth Colony in 1620. One could easily speculate about the failure of the venture without Brewster.
The Mayflower Compact was made among the 41 heads of household representing important aspects of Puritan political thought. Its’ legitimacy resulted from the consent of the signers yet required the rulers to rule justly, limited by the document.[15] Throughout the development of New England over the next century, many hundreds of covenants were created for ecclesiastical and civil purposes to clearly delineate the norms of the society regarding God and man. Although not unique, The Mayflower Compact was the earliest and its probable author as set out above, therefore, is due some of the credit for establishing the standard that governed the society that followed. Because of this document and others like it, New England was subsequently ruled by consent of the governed wherein most men could participate in town meetings and freemen could be elected representatives of the General Court of the Town.[16] Men were expected to follow the rules of good citizenship including being Godly, self-reliant, kindly to others, charitable, hard-working, and contribute to the general welfare of the community. These were the minimum commitments required of all for good standing in the community for both civil and religious purposes. New Englanders believed that without the Godly requirement, men would generally slip into that state of sinfulness and arbitrary power exercised by the fallen citizenry.[17]
An extension of the Mayflower compact came to being in 1641 in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties which codified in the region many of the concepts that later found themselves enshrined as the first amendments to the Constitution of the United States. This one of the first, if not the first, laws that had been mass printed in the Western world making them generally available to the common man to read and use as reference for his conduct.[18] This is also a continuation of the thread connecting the Puritan’s Mayflower Compact, taken to the next level in expanding and defining Liberty and its’ range and limits. At various times since the Reformation, Calvinists had been victim of tyranny and arbitrary power. As a result, they had an acute sense of liberty lost and what constituted a fair and Godly society. Many like Brewster and Fuller dedicated their lives and fortunes to living in the sight of a Godly, orderly, fair, and free society within their reality of 17th century freedom. This recognition was not as acute and complete as exists today but, was none-the-less at the apex of freedom of the time. The pervasive religiosity of the 17th and 18th centuries relied on Puritanical rhetorical claims that were seen as rallying cries for specific political, social, and individual change.[19]
Concepts practiced and exhibited by Brewster and Fuller, like covenant community, personal responsibility, lay governance of the church, social ethics, Love of family and fellow man, fairness, discipline, good works for God and the community, all became the “culture and politics” of the Nation in the first decades of the Plimoth Plantation. These were ethical and practical aspects of Liberty for the Pilgrims. They coincide with the Puritan beliefs and practices taught and exhibited by Elder Brewster and Deacon Fuller to the New England community through the decade of the 1630’s and beyond. Each person of influence, like Winthrop and Hooker, took what they were given and changed or expanded or enhanced according to their thoughts and training and passed this along in teachings and writings to the current and next generation. This process can be seen in action throughout the formative years of New England society. Much of what we believe today is indebted to the ‘New England Way’ through Calvinism, Puritanism, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, down to today’s Protestant Fundamentalism all being indebted in no minor way to a solid political and religious foundation laid down by Brewster and Fuller with some of the first pious Christians of enduring faith and lovers of liberty to land on the American shores.
Cause and Effect
We can begin to see how the deep seeded concepts of Calvinism, Liberty, self-governance, self-reliance, charity, goodness, Piety, hard work, frugality, and all the other punctilious qualities that were exhibited by the early Colonists were institutionalized and implanted into the DNA of those that followed. There is almost a one-to-one correspondence between these general imperatives of the Pilgrims and the eventual concepts of the Constitution. We can see this is evident by a comparison of the articles of the Constitution and corresponding practices of Elder Brewster and Deacon Fuller. Article 1 is about the legislature. It corresponds to the Puritans electing General Court members for a year at a time. Article II is about Executive Power and corresponds to the election of a Governor for the Colony. Article III is about Judicial Power and corresponds to both the Town Meetings, the General Court of the town, and the Duties of Elder in the church. Article IV is about How the States work together and interact with the federal government and corresponds to how the Towns in the Colonies worked together and cooperated as well as how the Churches were independent but at the same time worked for the common good of the whole. Article V is about a process to amend the constitution just as the towns and churches amended their covenants from time to time. Article VI is about a seamless transition from the old government to the new government and that the new government recognizes all the obligations created by the old government. This corresponds to the compact that requires everyone to pledge to follow the rules made by the majority and be true to previous societal norms. Article VII is about the authority behind the constitution due to the process of ratification, again corresponding, in Plimoth, to having all residents sign the covenant or compact as a mutual pledge from one to everyone and back.[20]
It seems obvious that many of the laws, much of the culture, liberties taken, and society gradually built, starting with Plimoth, continued unbroken (modified, yes, but unbroken) in New England and other parts of the country through the next 150 years. This build-up of society ended up influencing parts of the constitution in one form or another. Most of the topics were of course refined and enlarged to fit a national scale rather than a local one. Much of the language was made more verbose and befitting the solemnity of the occasion. But all in all, the concepts and motivations and the goals and objectives between Elder Brewster, Deacon Fuller, and the Delegates and Ratifiers of the Constitution of the United States are very similar.
The Wrap-up
Ultimately, over a period of 150 years or more this accumulated “social Ethics” and “institutional knowledge” (New England Way) became our culture and the culture of our Founders. The genesis of this culture and the seeds of its tree can be traced back to the first Puritans who successfully breached our shores to build a community for the Glory of God. Those 100 who sacrificed everything to be true to their beliefs in God, and how to best pay homage to his teachings, are the feed stock of all that comes after. Like any community, others from other backgrounds and theologies were introduced into the family and had influence on the collective, but the core was still there. These others who were introduced into the family over time from Europe, England, and other places came primarily because of their knowledge of the success and freedoms enjoyed by their predecessors.
Did the leaders of the Plimoth Plantation provide the foundation for much that happened religiously and politically in New England starting in 1620? YES. Did they influence the theology and political thinking and social interactions of future generations of New England Christians? YES. Did this eventually impact the social and humanistic awareness of many American Founders who incorporated this knowledge into the Constitution? The evidence indicates, YES. Is the Constitution of the United States reflective of the theology, politics, and societal norms of the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower in December of 1620? In many ways, YES.
We see examples of people who believe in this Puritan, Liberty loving core in real time today. I count myself one such example.
Bibliography
Bradford, William. Of Plimoth Plantation. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts and New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 2020.
Bremer, Francis J. One Small Candle; The Plymouth Puritans and The Beginning of English New England. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Bunker, Nick. Making Haste From Babylon; The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World. New York: Random House Inc., 2010.
Dreisbach, Daniel L. Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Dreisbach, Daniel L., Mark David Hall, Jeffry H. Morrison, and Mark A. Noll. The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009. muse.jhu.edu/book/6003.
Hall, David D. The Puritans: A Transatlantic History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. muse.jhu.edu/book/68118.
Hall, Mark D. “Did America Have a Christian Foundation?” The Heritage Foundation Report (June 7, 2011).
Hall, Mark D. “Reformed Political Theory in the American Founding.” In Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2013. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199929849.003.0002.
Hamner, Gail M. American Pragmatism: A Religious Genealogy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Hart, D. G. Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Hickey William. Constitution of the United States of America, with an Alphabetical Analysis; the Declaration of Independence; the Prominent Political Acts of George Washington; Electoral Votes for All the Presidents and Vice-Presidents; the High Authorities and Civil Officers of Government, from March 4, 1789, to March 3, 1847; Chronological Narrative of the Several States; and Other Interesting Matter; with a Descriptive Account of the State Papers, Public Documents, and Other Sources of Political and Statistical Information at the Seat of Government. Philadelphia: T.K. & P.G. Collins.
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. Warszawa: Ktoczyta.pl., 2019. Accessed May 3, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Miller, Perry. Errand Into the Wilderness. New York: Harper and Rowe, 1956.
Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in United States and Canada. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019.
Rodgers, Daniel T. As a City on a Hill: The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. Accessed May 5, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Shuffelton, Frank. “Connecticut.” In Thomas Hooker, 1586-1647, 197-234. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977. Accessed May 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x0tx4.9
Steele, Ashbel. Chief of the Pilgrims: The Life and Time of William Brewster. London: Read & Co. History, 2020. First Published 1857.
Winship, Michael P. “The Lure of theAtlantic.” In Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America, 71-82. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2018. Accessed March 26, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbnm3ss.14.
[1] Francis J. Bremer, One Small Candle (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 145-6.
[2] William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 2020), 13.
[3] Bremer, One small Candle, 132-3.
[4] Mark David Hall, Roger Sherman, and the Creation of the American Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 14.
[5] Hall, Roger Sherman, 16.
[6] Daniel T. Rodgers, As a City on a Hill: The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018), 2.
[7] Frank Shuffelton, “Connecticut.” In Thomas Hooker, 1586-1647 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), 234.
[8] Perry Miller, “Hooker and Connecticut Democracy” In Errand Into the Wilderness (New York: Harper and Rowe, 1956), 16-47.
[9] Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation, 9.
[10] John Stuart Mill, On Liberty. (Warszawa: Ktoczyta.pl, 2019), Accessed May 3, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.
[11] Mill, On Liberty, 16-17.
[12] Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation, 191.
[13] Bremer, One Small Candle, 97.
[14] Bremer, One Small Candle, 9.
[15] Hall, Roger Sherman, 19.
[16] Ibid., 17.
[17] Ibid., 18.
[18] Hall, Roger Sherman, 19.
[19] Gail M. Hamner, American Pragmatism: A Religious Genealogy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 3.
[20] William Hickey, Constitution of the United States of America, with an Alphabetical Analysis; the Declaration of Independence; the Prominent Political Acts of George Washington; Electoral Votes for All the Presidents and Vice-Presidents; the High Authorities and Civil Officers of Government, from March 4, 1789, to March 3, 1847; Chronological Narrative of the Several States; and Other Interesting Matter; with a Descriptive Account of the State Papers, Public Documents, and Other Sources of Political and Statistical Information at the Seat of Government (Philadelphia, T.K. & P.G. Collins).
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