Contemporaneously with the later of these events, an apparently independent movement in the vicinity of Gainsborough and Scrooby, at first by William Brewster, the postmaster at Scrooby, Rev. Richard Clyf ton, rector at Bab worth, and later also by Rev. John Robinson and Rev. John Smyth, resulted in the organi zation, about 1606, of congregations at Scrooby and Gainsborough, which were compelled to seek refuge speedily in Holland. That of Scrooby settled, in 1609, at Leyden under the pastoral care of Robinson, and a portion of this congregation, led by William Brewster, Wil liam Bradford and Edward Winslow, crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower, and laid the foundations of Plymouth Colony in 1620, thus establishing the first of the Congregational colonies in America.
The settlers of Plymouth were Separatists, but during the years immediately succeeding their establishment in the New World, the course of politics in England under James I and Charles I was such as to lead many of the Puritans to despair of the attainment of the reforms they desired in Church and State in the home land. The consequence was a large Puritan emigration across the Atlantic decade and the establishment, in the course of a decade (1628-38), of the three Congregational colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and New Haven. These Puritan settlers were all led by the radical development of their own principles in a new environment, and the influence of Plymouth example, to establish churches on the Congregational model, at their settlement in New England.
These colonies differed slightly from one another in the degree in which they applied theocratic principles to the organization of the State. In Massachusetts from 1631 to 1664, and in New Haven from 1639 to 1665, when New Haven was absorbed in the Connecticut Colony, the franchise was confined to church members. In Connecticut and Plymouth colonies no such restriction existed. Doctrinal discussion aroused by Mrs. Anne Hutc.hinson and her ad herents at Boston occasioned the meeting of the first "Synod" or council representative of the Congregational churches of New England, in 1637. At the Cambridge Synod in 1648, these churches, by their pastors and delegates there assembled, 'adopted the "Cambridge Plat form" as a compact manual expressive of their views of the organization, officers and discipline of the churches. The first century of New England Congregationalism saw, however, lit tle theological debate, for the New England churches stood on the common doctrinal ground of Calvinistic Puritanism. The chief contro versy of this period Wa S that regarding church membership known as the °Half Way Cove nant" discussion. In the view of the founders of Congregationalism the reception of a parent to church membership by "owning the cove nant') involved the admission into church mem bership of his immature children. But adult
membership implied experimental Christian character. When the children of the first set tlers began to grow to maturity the question of their status forced itself, therefore, on the at tention of the churches. A ministerial con vention, representative of Massachusetts and Connecticut, held at Boston in 1657, and a "Synod" of the Massachusetts churches con vened in 1662, decided that such as were church members in childhood by reason of their parents' membership could, when they in'turn became parents, bring their children to baptism, and could confer upon such children the same degree of membership which they themselves possessed ; but unless consciously and personally of Christian experience could not vote on ecclesiastical questions or partalce of the Lord's Supper. Hence a distinction between members in °full communion)) and in "half way cove nant" was made, which continued till early in the 19th century, when it disappeared, largely owing to the opposition which Jonathan Edwards and his disciples had manifested to it f rom 1749 onward.
Congregationalism, like the Calvinistic churches in general, believed in the necessity of education, and therefore the New England colonies speedily after their foundation estab lished schools, and planted Harvard College in 1636. Yale College followed in 1701. This spirit has characterized Congregationalism throughout its history and has led Congrega tionalists to be pre-eminently founders of sc.hools and colleges as they have extended westward in the United States. The elaborate system• of church officers already described, and believed by the founders of Congrega tionalism to be scriptural, outlasted the first generation of the settlers of New England in only a few instances. While they existed °pastor,* "teacher" and "ruling elder" all re ceived salaries f rom the churches they served; but in most of the New England churches "teachers') and "ruling elders" soon disappeared, leaving only a pastor and a variable number of deacons. The more modern growth of organi zation and methods of Christian work has led to the establishment of other officers, such as a clerk, a treasurer, a Sunday-school superin tendent, and often one or more standing com mittees, and no feeling now exists that officers should be limited to those mentioned in the New Testament as possessed by the early Church. The pastor retnains, with rare ex ceptions, the only salaried officer. The support of public worship which was originally by voluntary gifts, and has always been so in Great Britain, became, bettveen 1638 and 1655, a matter of public taxation in all the Con gregational colonie.s. In Connecticut this rela tion to the State which made Congregational ism practically a State-supported Church lasted till 1818, and in Massachusetts till 1834; but since the latter date Congregationalism has no where enjoyed State aid.