Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647

Bradford praises England as the first country to have broken away from the Catholic Church, which he believes had strayed from the teachings and values of early Christianity. Bradford says that since this break, the devil has consistently tried to undermine true Christianity's progress. This is initially evident through outright persecution of true believers, like the execution of Protestants under Queen Mary I, and later by "internal dissension" (2).Bradford explain show the Protestants who fled to Continental Europe to escape imprisonment or execution under the Catholic ruler Mary I ended up disagreeing amongst themselves on issues like the acceptability of using religious texts other than the Bible, such as the “English Book of Common Prayer.”

When these exiles returned to England, they brought this dispute with them, with those favoring a more ceremonial and hierarchical approach to worship rising through the ranks of the Anglican Church. As a result, Bradford argues that Protestantism in England has been corrupted. What's more, Bradford says that the Anglican Church began to persecute Protestants who favored a more stripped-down version of Christianity, accusing them of disloyalty to the monarchy, setting watches on their homes, and sometimes even jailing them. Much of this persecution took place in Northern England where Reformed Protestantism—and more specifically, Puritanism—was strongest.