The Congregationalists

CONGREGATIONALISM began in England in the middle of the 16th century, its first supporters calling themselves "Independents", in accordance with their theory that any Christians were free to make a covenant with Christ and with one another, and thus form a Church independent of any authority outside themselves, whether civil or ecclesiastical.

It was in America that the term "Congregationalist" was first adopted, to define the inward structure of the Church rather than a merely historical position independent of "Pope or Prelate, Presbytery, Parliament, or Prince." The English Independents borrowed the name Congregationalist from the New England colonists. Any type of organization in which the local Church is independent and self-sufficient would, of course, be congregational in policy, as opposed to Episcopal or Presbyterian Churches. In that sense, the Baptists, Disciples, and Unitarians are congregational.

But the term "Congregational" has been reserved for the particular Protestant denomination to be described in this booklet. And its history should be of unique interest to all Americans especially, but to others as well, involving as it does the whole story of the "Mayflower", and the arrival of the "Pilgrim Fathers" on American soil.