Leiden
University city in Holland. Arminius taught theology here, and the English Separatists who founded Plymouth lived here for about twelve years.
William Bradford calls Leiden “a fair & bewtifull citie”, made famous by its university, though without the sea trade of Amsterdam; his congregation settled there under John Robinson and stayed, he says, for nearly twelve years before part of it left for America (Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ch. 3, 7 (pp. 23–24, 72)). Jacobus Arminius speaks of the doctrine of predestination taught “in the University of Leyden” and of a disputation he held before his own class there (Arminius, Declaration of Sentiments, On Predestination, 5). See the Pilgrims Land at Plymouth and the Synod of Dort.
What happened here
- 1620, firm dateThe Pilgrims Land at Plymouth
Part of an English Separatist congregation that had lived in exile at Leiden sails to New England in 1620, forms itself into a civil body by a written covenant, and founds Plymouth. Half die in the first winter; a peace is made with the sachem Massasoit.