[Billthedrill]

To flesh this out a little, we have to recall exactly what transpired in Europe to seal their determination to flee to a savage, unsettled land from what was one of the most tolerant societies in the world at the time. It was the onset of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), an epochal conflict that ravaged central Europe and culminated in the liberation of the Netherlands from the Spanish after nearly a century of fighting. Our own War of Independence lasted for eight years; for the Dutch it was eighty.

In the meantime, warfare and Europe herself underwent a transformation - from a battle of religions it became a battle of dynasties, of nations in a sense. Catholic fought Protestant in what was to become Germany for the seat of Holy Roman Emperor in the beginning; in the end the Protestant Swedes and the Catholic French fought all of the others for their own ends. Certain areas in Germany experienced a depopulation of 50% or more. Villages, towns, all dead, burnt, gone.

If we are to understand the Pilgrims within the context of their own times, that's what we have to digest. It was on the crest of that wave that they entered the New World. Starvation, torture, mass and individual murder - that was truly the currency of the time. I don't know if that excuses the funny hats, though.

[colorado tanker]

Some more context. The Pilgrims fled before the English Revolution, which brought to power at least for a while more like minded people. When the Pilgrims went to America, James I was on the throne and he saw to it his bishops were firmly in control. He believed in the divine right of kings and would brook no dissent.

With no hope of tolerance in England and continental Europe exploding, why not take a chance on the New World?