This study of the life and times of John Robinson is based on original research. “Besides the identification of the early home and the parentage of John Robinson, these pages throw a little fresh light upon the Southworths and Carvers and others connected with the Pilgrim Father movement. Gervase Neville is identified, and the anonymous opponent of Robinson in one of his earliest controversies is named. The history of the obscure church in the western part of England is unfolded, and an attempt made to settle the vexed question of the identity of John Smith.” (Foreword) A partial list of the contents is: The birthplace and parentage of John Robinson; Religion in England in the days of Elizabeth and James; Separation from the Church of England—Robinson and Bernard—Gervase Neville—William Brewster; Religious refugees at Amsterdam; The Pilgrims at Leyden; Robinson’s plea for lay preaching; The sailing—Robinson’s letter of advice—Robert Cushman’s letter—the “Mayflower’s” voyage; The influence of Robinson on the thought and life of his age. There are illustrations, appendices, a chronological table of the writings of John Robinson and an index.
“The volume shows wide study of the whole literature of contemporary separatism and of its opponents, and may be heartily commended not only as a biography of the Pilgrim pastor, but as a most readable and informing account of the separatist movement of his day not only for the specialist but for the general reader.”
+ Am Hist R 26:338 Ja ’21 400w + Outlook 126:238 O 6 ’20 120w
“Here is brave stuff, no doubt; unhappily nothing organic or even articulate has been made of it. With a little artistic sympathy, with even a touch or two of the quality which marks a man of letters, he might have made the portrait memorable.”
+ − Review 3:380 O 27 ’20 460w
“Taken as a whole, the volume is a good example of what can be accomplished, well-directed historical scholarship applied to a definite object.”
+ R of Rs 62:447 O ’20 100w
“We could wish that the biography was less interrupted by digressions on side-issues, but Mr Burgess’s enthusiasm for his subject is wholly commendable.”
+ − Spec 124:872 Je 26 ’20 220w