HOLLAND AND THE EXILED INDEPENDENTS 215

.thout a keen pang of regret. He says : " Had not the
Lith been in my heart as a burnmg fire shut up in
y bones, I had never broken those bonds of flesh and
ood wherein I was so straitly tied, but had suffered the
;ht of God to have been put out in mine own unthank-
1 heart by other men's darkness." He resigned his
llow'ship, and repaired to Gainsborough, in Liacolnshire,
lere he joined a band of Christian men and women
ro had bound themselves by covenant with God " to
ilk in all His ways made known or to be made known
ito them, according to their best endeavours, whatever
should cost them." This little company of Separatists
.mbered among them such men as John Smyth,
chard Clifton, William Brewster, William Bradford,
■ancis Jessop, and George Morton, all of them men /
aped in no com mon mould, and some of them destined

leave upon a new world the impress of their strong
aracter and personality. It was soon found convenient
repair to the old manor-house at Scrooby, occupied l3y
Uliam Brewster, a kind of factor to the Archbishop /

York, where he had under his charge the mails of '^
3 Government, and kept a relay_ of post horses. The
apel attached to the manor-house formed a most suit-
le meeting-place, and Dr. Dexter thinks it probable
it here the little company of those who afterwards y
■med the Mayflower Church were in the habit of wor-
ipping. We have it on the testimony of Bradford,
hey ordinarily met at his (Brewster's) house on the
rd's day, . . . and with great love he entertained
3m when they came, making provision for them to his
iat charge," and " continued to do so while they could



216 PURITANISM

stay in England." Eobiuson was associated with Clifton
in the pastorship of the Church.
