John Robinson

John Robinson (born c. 1575, Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire, Eng.—died March 1, 1625, Leiden, Neth.) was an English Puritan minister called the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers for his guidance of their religious life before their journey to North America aboard the “Mayflower” in 1620.

In 1602 Robinson became a curate at St. Andrew’s Church, Norwich. His refusal to conform to the Anglican anti-Puritan decrees of 1604 led to his suspension from preaching, and in 1606 or 1607 he joined the Separatist congregation at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. Also called Nonconformists, these early Congregationalists wished to separate from the Church of England so they could follow what they believed to be purer and more simplified forms of church government and worship.

With the Scrooby congregation Robinson traveled to Amsterdam in 1608, but in 1609 he went with 100 of his followers to Leiden to escape the dissension prevalent among the various other Nonconformist groups. As pastor at Leiden, he inspired the growth of his congregation to 300 members. One of them, William Bradford, who later became governor of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, likened Robinson’s congregation to the early Christian churches because of its “true piety, humble zeal and fervent love towards God and his Ways.”

Robinson entered Leiden University in 1615 to study theology, but by 1617 he and his followers were seeking a more secure and permanent location. In July 1620, while he remained with the majority who were not yet ready to travel, part of his congregation sailed for England aboard the Speedwell. Before their departure from Leiden, Robinson declared to them in a celebrated sermon, “For I am very confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy Word.” The following September, 35 of them left Plymouth on the Mayflower for New England. Robinson died before he could leave Holland, and the remnant of his congregation was absorbed by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1658. His influence persisted, however, not only in Plymouth Colony but also in his writings, among which are his adamant A Justification of Separation from the Church of England (1610), Of Religious Communion, Private and Public (1614), and his more tolerant On the Lawfulness of Hearing Ministers in the Church of England (1634).