The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 5 by Azel Ames
page 22 of 39 (56%)
page 22 of 39 (56%)
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heirlooms. One of Governor Bradford's books (Pastor John Robinson's
"Justification of Separation"), published in 1610, and containing the Governor's autograph, bears almost 'prima facie' evidence of having come with him in the MAY-FLOWER, but of course might, like the above-named relics, have come in some later ship. In this connection it is of interest to note what freight the MAY-FLOWER carried for the intellectual needs of the Pilgrims. Of Bibles, as the "book of books," we may be sure--even without the evidence of the inventories of the early dead--there was no lack, and there is reason to believe that they existed in several tongues, viz. in English, Dutch, and possibly French (the Walloon contribution from the Huguenots), while there is little doubt that, alike as publishers and as "students of the Word," Brewster, Bradford, and Winslow, at least, were possessed of, and more or less familiar with, both the Latin and Greek Testaments. It is altogether probable, however, that Governor Bradford's well attested study of "the oracles of God in the original" Hebrew, and his possession of the essential Hebrew Bible, grammar, and lexicon, were of a later day. Some few copies of the earliest hymnals ("psalme-bookes")--then very limited in number--there is evidence that the Holland voyagers had with them in the singing of their parting hymns at Leyden and Delfshaven, as mentioned by Winslow and in the earlier inventories: These metrical versions of the Psalms constituted at the time, practically, the only hymnology permitted in the worship of the "Separatists," though the grand hymn of Luther, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," doubtless familiar to them, must have commended itself as especially comforting and apposite. Of the doctrinal tracts of their beloved Pastor, John Robinson, there is every probability, as well as some proof, that there was good supply, as well as those of Ainsworth and Clyfton and of the works of William Ames, |
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